I do know that on the Methow they had this problem and actually had to close the river entirely because they found "whitefish" fishermen targeting steelhead which is a big no-no. If you are tossing a #14 fly and using a 4-5 weight and 4x tippet chances are you'll loose any steelhead you accidentally hook anyway.
The Yakima fishes pretty well in the winter and has none of the issues the Wenatchee would have. I think I've caught trout, as well as whitefish, in every month of the year there. Tim -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sean Grier Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 10:41 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Wenatchee (was Raging River) Sorry to jump in on this thread so late, but I understand in reading the regs that the Wenatch is open in the winter time for whiteys. Now the cool thing is that the regs have been revised to control folks who "say" they're fishing for whites (but are actually targeting bigger quarry) by allowing only whitefish sized flies - size 12 and below. That being said, I'm always looking for fun cold-water river fishing (since I'm originally from NM, and half my fly-fishing time was in coooold water). My ethical concern is about fishing in an area that is truly fragile. So my question is actually 2 questions: First: what's the consensus on fishing the Wenatch for whiteys given that it's closed for EVERYTHING else and the potential of accidentally mixing it up with Steelhead and Chinook smolts. Second, if I'm not needlessly endangering our fragile resources on the Wenatch, has anyone fished it successfully for whiteys and could you share some of your favorite whitey haunts on that river? Thanks in advance! Sean -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 9:56 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Wenatchee (was Raging River) Preston and Matt, Thanks for your response. I'll exercise patience and wait for the Feds to reopen the Wenatchee and tributaries. If and when that happens, I hope there will be stringent regulations put in place for all species, ( i.e. single barbless hooks, catch and release, maybe even a fly fishing only section etc.) Look at what those regulations have done for the mid and upper Yakima. Bob Martin > Bob, > I don't think I can give any kind of cogent answer to your question, > the logic of NOAA Fisheries (NMFS) decisions are sometimes pretty > opaque. Since the trout and the steelhead fisheries on the Methow > have apparently had no detrimental effect, I would hope that the > Wenatchee and/or some of its tributaries can be re-opened at some time > in the near future and I understand that WDFW has been talking with NOAA about it for some time now. > I used to enjoy fishing the Wenatchee, the late summer and fall > was a great time to be there and the fishing was, at times, > outstanding. In the last few years we fished it, we caught fair > numbers of fifteen- to seventeen-inch, fin-clipped rainbows which, > since there were no fin-clipped hatchery trout being stocked, were > apparently residualized hatchery steelhead. Bob Arnold (can't > remember which of his books it was in) writes about catching > residualized chinook salmon there as well. > >
