I decided to take a break from the less then stellar coho beach fishing to chase some trout.
I hit the Yakima yesterday. Nice weather except for the gusty winds. The flip flop is over and the water is in great shape with fish looking up. I managed over a dozen fish to hand. Best producers were orange stimulators, foam poly wing october caddis, beatles and red copper john droppers. Lots of october caddis and summer stone schucks on the rocks. Nice day on the water other then taking a header down a hill and breaking my net. I only saw four other anglers. A few pics from yesterday.







I hit the Cowlitz today for searun cutts. I ended up bringing eight to hand and losing a few other. Only got two fish on a foam poly wing october caddis. The rest came on copper john or lighting bug dropper. I saw a few mayflies and smaller caddis hatching, but not many fish rising. Lots of other stuff crawling around.
When I left, there were only two rigs with trailer in the parking lot.
I sure wish we had September and October weather and fishing year round.
Sorry for the picture quality due to a dirty lens.

Nice. Looks like a fun, varied couple of days on the water.

Stonefish,

Looks like you were wade fishing both rivers, not floating? Were those two different cutthroats on the Yak? I hear of a few cutts caught there, but it seems like rainbows dominate the catch and fish population.

Nice to hear about SRCs on the Cowlitz. I fished for steelhead last Sunday and only got one SRC incidentally. I was expecting more. I guess I should target water and methods to find out if many are around. They should be near peak abundance now.

Sg

Salmo,
Yes, I was wade fishing both rivers. The Yak above Ellensburg has a nice population of cutts. I caught four cutts on Wednesday. Their population seems to be increasing over the past 25+ years I've fished it. There are certain stretches or holes that I fish that are pretty much guaranteed to yield a cutt or two. While I was stripping in a small cutt, I had what looked to be a good 17" or so cutt come up and try to grab it.

As far as the Cowlitz src's, I used to swing or strip for them more then I do now. Over the past few years, I've found that they really like nymphs. Using a large dry and dropper isn't everyones cup of tea, but it has produced some 15-20 fish days while floating it. I'd say a good 75% of the fish come on the nymph versus the dry. When they eat the dry that's good stuff in my opinion as well.
I did see some folks with some swing caught steelies and cutts while I was there.

Nice pictures there Brian.

What's with the snake? Eating a frog?

Sam,
The snake is eating a sculpin. It was swimming in the river and came ashore for a quick pic opportunity.

Very cool!

S_F is a one man fly fishing "where is waldo?" cartoon.
He will go to great lengths to avoid the twitching/pulsating mass of "gong show" pink killers.



c/22