I had some business today in Yakima and we took the canyon road back to see if we could see any bighorn sheep as my client's wife is a real animal nut and had never seen a bighorn sheep outside of a zoo :)
As we came into the canyon, it was beautiful, around 5pm. There were a lot of hunters alongside the road next to their cars with their binoculars pointed up into the high cliffs in the west side of the river. There were also quite a few fishers in boats working the banks. As we approached Umtanum (sp) we spotted our first small batch of bighorn sheep, if that's what they are. As we drove further we spotted many more. Some were very close to the river on the side opposite the road. I wondered if the hunters are there looking for those sheep or if they are looking for deer? I also spotted quite a bit of mayfly spinners even up at the road. They were bigger than I imagined by reading the posts here. These looked more like a PED in a size 16 or so. BTW, I just returned from Vancouver Island where I took a friend who guides flyfishers on the chalk streams of England (R. Test and the R. Ichen) up to try and get him into a salmon and steelhead on the fly. We had some success on both counts. He fished with my friend Matt on our last day and hooked six steelhead, landing five. We already had our fill of chum salmon on the Nitinat River, but the coho eluded us somehow. If anyone is interested in flyfishing for steelhead on Vancouver Island, I can point you in the direction of some pretty capable guides that work out of Port Alberni and I highly recommend staying at the Riverside B&B run by Matt and his wife Marilyn Murphy. - Dave David Weitl Northwest Realty Advisors, Inc. 3380 NE Rova Road Poulsbo, WA 98370 (360) 779-3802 (360) 779-1467 fax [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tim Harris Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 6:23 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: first time on the Yakima The BWOs are getting a bit smaller than #16-18 right now. Last week I was using #20s and doing pretty well and switched to #22 later in the day. Today a #22 looked like a barge next to the naturals that were on the water later in the day though I did get a few fish up on early a #22 Comparadun. After some refusals in the mid afternoon I switched to a #20 CDC Emerger pattern that is 1/2 PT nymph and 1/2 dun and did well with it though it was a mother to see on the water. Lots of rising fish over there and today's BWO hatch was one of the thickest I've seen when the drizzle started up. Tim -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jim Speaker Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 4:23 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: first time on the Yakima Most of the good action that I've had during mayfly hatches of various sorts on the Yak is with emergers and cripples... I'd be sure to pack a few #16-18 BWO Emergers and maybe a couple cripples this time of year. -tight lines- Jim -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 3:33 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: first time on the Yakima I had an appoinment yesterday in Goldendale and thought I'd try fishing part of the way back up to the Seattle area and the Yakima is an obvious place to try. I have lived here for eight years and have never even driven down the canyon road and now i know what i have been missing. I don't need much in the way of mayfly imitations for most of the fishing i do and since two different spinner falls were happening i didn't really think i had a chance of hooking a fish. So i tied on a Muddler and actually had a nice fish on for a few seconds. After rounding the Umtanum bend i noticed a light playing on the far canyon wall and i was able to see that it was coming from a truck slowly moving north. I tried to catch up but the truck managed to keep ahead of me despite the high speeds i stupidly reached. on coming out of the canyon i called 911 to report suspected poaching and was put through to the State Patrol's wildlife division. an officer called me back and said he was in ellensburg while another officer was driving up the canyon. know that i know the canyon is as good as you all have said, i plan on returning as often as possible, with spinner imitations in my vest. brian
