Yakima 11/6

Today we floated out on the Yakima River. We floated the lower canyon area from ringer down to around Red’s. I’ve done some wading around Cle Elum on the upper Yakima/Cle Elum twice this fall and got skunked both times one with a lot of missed hook sets though so completely fisherman’s error. There was only one other boat on the river today along with one guy wading, some rain, and some bad wind at times. All in all though it was a really successful fishing day nymphing and streamer fishing. 15-20 to hand for the two of us beginners with my personal best rainbow so far. Caught a cutbow and a white fish as well. Streamer fishing was the most successful for me and the most fun in my opinion since 95% of my fly fishing has been from the beach since starting. Nymphing is just not as fun…but I hear euro nymphing might be more my speed so I’ll look into that in the future. I’m working on expanding my fishing skills so it was good to get out and try nymphing and to work on my hook set. I’m too accustomed to strip setting so it was a challenge to be honest.

 

[flybill]

Will be there Friday with a few others from the board! Thanks for the report!

Conditions look great! If you want to fish again we'll be banking it, meeting at 10am at Reds!

Cheers!

 

[SteelHeadDave]

Nice report and pics. Thanks for sharing!

 

[GeekOfAllTrades]

Solid report, beautiful fish, and sounds like it was a good time! I also love how your first pic captures that "moody" vibe that not just the canyon but a lot of our WA watersheds get when the winter months arrive. Socked in with low clouds, nice and quiet, only a few other folks out there. It might be cold out but that vibe gives me the warm and fuzzies.

 

[Brute]

"I’m working on expanding my fishing skills so it was good to get out and try nymphing and to work on my hook set. I’m too accustomed to strip setting so it was a challenge to be honest."

It's usually the other way around...in the beginning I had missed strikes streamer fishing because of lifting the rod on hooksets...

 

[flybill]

"I’m working on expanding my fishing skills so it was good to get out and try nymphing and to work on my hook set. I’m too accustomed to strip setting so it was a challenge to be honest."

It's usually the other way around...in the beginning I had missed strikes streamer fishing because of lifting the rod on hooksets...

@jeradjames I assume nymphing was the most effective way for you guys, however I would probably run a dry and a dropper. Have a streamer rod rigged and ready to go.. and a nymph setup that I would fish the most..

Now I want to float on Friday, might have to rent a boat from Reds! Banking it is fun always, floating is the way to go imho! I'll have a single person raft by the end of the year most likely, or early next year!

 

[Matt B]

@jeradjames I assume nymphing was the most effective way for you guys, however I would probably run a dry and a dropper. Have a streamer rod rigged and ready to go.. and a nymph setup that I would fish the most..

Now I want to float on Friday, might have to rent a boat from Reds! Banking it is fun always, floating is the way to go imho! I'll have a single person raft by the end of the year most likely, or early next year!

What do they want for that rental these days? I almost don't want to know.
You can borrow my OSG Commander if you want. Pickup in West Seattle. Hopefully return it back here, too.

 

[flybill]

What do they want for that rental these days? I almost don't want to know.
You can borrow my OSG Commander if you want. Pickup in West Seattle. Hopefully return it back here, too.

About $100/$125I think.. they'll bring it up river and the shuttle fee is included. I've been offered it for free a few times, but that was when I was working for Orvis..

I appreciate the offer, but not sure how big the OSG Commander is and don't have a hitch.. I'll Google and find out.

Plus I don't really want to float alone, since I'm meeting up with some people..

 

[flybill]

That's a very nice boat! I'm looking at some similar from Ryan up at Avid!

It's more.rounded where this is a kayak that would track and maneuver well!

I've floated the Blackfoot in MT in something similar!

Now I'm tempted.. but would love to meet up on a local lake and try it out sometime!

 

[jeradjames]

"I’m working on expanding my fishing skills so it was good to get out and try nymphing and to work on my hook set. I’m too accustomed to strip setting so it was a challenge to be honest."

It's usually the other way around...in the beginning I had missed strikes streamer fishing because of lifting the rod on hooksets...

@jeradjames I assume nymphing was the most effective way for you guys, however I would probably run a dry and a dropper. Have a streamer rod rigged and ready to go.. and a nymph setup that I would fish the most..

Now I want to float on Friday, might have to rent a boat from Reds! Banking it is fun always, floating is the way to go imho! I'll have a single person raft by the end of the year most likely, or early next year!

Yeah it's a bit backwards but I guess that's what happens when you live so close to the sound!
Nymphing provided the biggest fish but I'm not sure if it was really more productive in comparison to streamer fishing. We fished for about 5 hours or so and only streamer fished for one hour. My friend had no experience streamer fishing and had no action so we went back to nymphing. Yeah I definitely need to get my own little drift boat to cover more ground and hit spots that I can't get to while wading. Looking at the Watermaster Bruin or NRS Slipstream 96.

 

[flybill]

What do they want for that rental these days? I almost don't want to know.
You can borrow my OSG Commander if you want. Pickup in West Seattle. Hopefully return it back here, too.

275! Not! I'll borrow your boat next week! Conditions and flow were perfect! Nymphing is the way to go, but I did a dry and a dropper on one of my boo rods and threw a few streamers.. nothing but at least I didn't nymph! Haha!