2023 WA rivers opening day.... share your reports!

[Josh]

Tomorrow is the Saturday before Memorial day which is, as most of you probably know, the general opener for most of Washington's rivers and creeks.

It's not salmon season quite yet in most places. And this time of year the creeks tend to be running high. But I thought I'd toss up a thread in case anyone got out this weekend and wanted to share a photo or post about it. I know I'm going to hit a little local skinny water at least once for some wild cutties.

So post up your photos or little reports if you go anywhere tomorrow that isn't open today.

(and of course feel free to make a real trip report if you have a big adventure)

 

[Porter2]

I’d love to go to the Sky…that river holds some fond memories for me but not many memories in the last 10+ years…I might have to wait a few weeks. Too much going on. But love to practice my switch/spey casting again.

 

[Tom Butler]

Let's get this party started! Glad I freshened up the rig last night. On the hare's ear soft hackle I posted the other day.

First time I've had that base reel overrun and form backlash. One loop got outside the frame, but fortunately that was it's last big run. Had to undo the spool. I get it now.
Wife got her license yesterday so now I get to go dunk worms at the lake with her.

 

[IHFISH]

The early streamer bite (black slumpbuster and olive bugger) bite was solid this morning.

Landed, ldr'd and missed some in this class:


I don't fish this river often and have only caught fish like the one above when I do, so it was a surreal experience to connect with the fish below. All I can do is compare it to my own benchmarks by commenting that it seemed about the length and weight of the hatchery coho we happily bonk in July and August. It also fought harder than most of them. I of course got only a couple of crappy pictures and unfortunately some blood was drawn in the long fight. In the interest of authenticity, I will also say that the release could have been better. It easily got free of my grasp, but was not swimming away how I would have liked. Thankfully, I was able to gently get ahold of it after a few quick steps downstream and do a better job of reviving it.

 

[Josh]

Found this fellow in a little creek near me. The fish are small there, but it's a bit of moving water that has saved my sanity many times over the years. A sunny morning, a 3wt, and some dries (almost always simulators, as it was today)... hard to say anything is wrong with life.

Hooked a number of them, mostly just let them shake the fly after a little fight. I usually just land one or two for a photo or a moment looking at nature. Otherwise I don't see any point in stressing them out. I found and tricked them, that's enough of a win for me. The water is pretty low already, so I was mostly hitting a few pools I knew would hide some fish. Also explored a section that I mostly ignore because it seems less fishy, despite having some nice water. And what do you know, I was mostly right. Did find a couple in there though.

 

[Brian Miller]

I mentioned in another thread I don't do 3 day weekends (seldom any weekend) but I got out last week to a year-round stream on more of a scouting trip with several objectives; all of which were accomplished . I knew from past log entries about this stream the water would be higher-faster than I feel comfortable wading as well as fish holding near the bottom and hard to reach with a Tenkara rod so I wore pant waders specifically to limit myself. I hiked a ways and found a spot along a high steep bank with shallow access but realistically only had about 150 ft of water that I could wade between two mid-calf height riffles. I used a 17' fixed line Keiryu rod with a "Tenjo line" rig 4 ft shorter than the rod for nymphing rather than using that beast as a long Tenkara rod. Drifting a beadhead Hare's Ear pretty much vertically below the rod tip I landed two 9" & 7" CCs, LDR'd two, and missed one in about 1 hour of actual fishing.

AHPS predicts next week the CFS on that stream and another are trending to levels that a T-rod and wet fly are effective and expect to get out a couple of times during the week.

 

[JLT]

I wasn’t going to get out today, but at 11:00 this morning it was still cloudy and I was feeling guilty about wasting away the day when the flows looked so favorable. So, I grabbed the trout spey rod and and headed to a Seattle urban river.

I swung all kinds streamers with a soft hackle trailer at all depths to no avail. Despite the sun starting to shine I switched over to a 10' mono leader and a pair of soft hackles. If I wasn't going to catch anything I'd at least have fun casting a scandi lineand light leader. After a few ugly single speys and snake rolls things got fun. I ended the day with several dinks to hand. The big ones are in there, but I didn't find em today,

I tend to only take a quick shot of my first fish, so this lil guy is it.

 

[cnaka]

I posted this of WFF today, then randomly found this site. Look forward to looking through it. I lost my rod (hope someone finds it). Good day of fishing though.

I lost one of my rods, a 1st gen 11' ESN, about a 1/4 to 1/3 mile downstream from Belmondo Reach. It's very distinctive looking because there's no reel on the rod. I was using a Mavrik Microreel rather than a conventional reel. Unfortunately, without a normal reel, the rod didn't stay in my rod holster while I was fishing my main rod and it quietly slipped out and may be in Lake Washington now. The Microreel is plastic and everything probably just floated away. Also lost a beat up old net with a basket that I repaired with red sowing thread. It's cheapo so no heart break there. I'm pretty sure I know where that is sitting so I'll go right there next time I'm fishing that stretch. Well, if anyone runs across an old green 11' ESN with a odd looking Microreel on the Cedar, appreciate a post on WFF. At least the fishing was pretty good. Lots of trout to hand: many small but a few that you hope to encounter on the Cedar. But, the highlight was a super aggressive monster sucker that took two big swipes at a jigged articulated TJ Hooker. Couldn't believe it came back for on the next cast. Camera angle doesn't do it justice. Caught one last year too. Suckers don't get the respect they deserve. They tear you up.

 

[HauntedByWaters]

The Golden Bonefish of the PNW is an underrated species. Ranks better than a stick. They can elevate heart rate. Better than nothing. Sometimes fights are decent. Always wild.

 

[Zak]

I posted this of WFF today, then randomly found this site. Look forward to looking through it. I lost my rod (hope someone finds it). Good day of fishing though.

I lost one of my rods, a 1st gen 11' ESN, about a 1/4 to 1/3 mile downstream from Belmondo Reach. It's very distinctive looking because there's no reel on the rod. I was using a Mavrik Microreel rather than a conventional reel. Unfortunately, without a normal reel, the rod didn't stay in my rod holster while I was fishing my main rod and it quietly slipped out and may be in Lake Washington now. The Microreel is plastic and everything probably just floated away. Also lost a beat up old net with a basket that I repaired with red sowing thread. It's cheapo so no heart break there. I'm pretty sure I know where that is sitting so I'll go right there next time I'm fishing that stretch. Well, if anyone runs across an old green 11' ESN with a odd looking Microreel on the Cedar, appreciate a post on WFF. At least the fishing was pretty good. Lots of trout to hand: many small but a few that you hope to encounter on the Cedar. But, the highlight was a super aggressive monster sucker that took two big swipes at a jigged articulated TJ Hooker. Couldn't believe it came back for on the next cast. Camera angle doesn't do it justice. Caught one last year too. Suckers don't get the respect they deserve. They tear you up.

Stick around here!

 

[Josh]

Well, if anyone runs across an old green 11' ESN with a odd looking Microreel on the Cedar, appreciate a post on WFF.

I'd encourage you to hang around on this site as well. If not for the sparkling conversation and lack of invasive ads, then at least for the fact that most folks don't log into WFF anymore. So they are more likely to message you about the rod here if they happen to come across it.

 

[jaredoconnor]

There’s a spot that I always wanted to explore, but it is deep in bear/cougar/meth country and going alone seemed like a bad idea. My folks are visiting, so I took the opportunity to bring my dad along and use him as fodder.

I got 5 fish to the net and dad got 1. They were all in the 4-8” range, so I didn’t bother taking any photos. It was a fun day, but I probably won’t go back there. We plan to explore a less sketchy area, of the same river, next weekend.

 

[Salmo_g]

so I took the opportunity to bring my dad along and use him as fodder.

Way to show your appreciation of ole Dad!

 

[jaredoconnor]

Way to show your appreciation of ole Dad!

He’s just happy to be useful for something, for a change.

 

[BigJohnJohn]

I made it out to fish a bit while camping with the family north of Seattle. I just wet the line by the campsite so it wasn't a dedicated effort but I got a couple small ones to hand. It was nice to be out on the water.