Yakima River
The entire Yakima has been fishing incredibly well! We’re starting to see a lot more October Caddis as well as Blue Winged Olive’s still being very active. Even though fish are going crazy on the surface for the BWO’s in the afternoon, it’s mostly been smaller fish munching on dries.
Nymphing a small pheasant tail beneath the rising fish and in shallow riffles has been a great way to pick off some of the larger fish. If you would prefer to throw the dry, then a purple haze, parachute adams or BWO Comparadun in a size 16 is the way to go.
As far as October Caddis go, a rubber-leg stimulator in size 12-8 has been our best bug. We typically don’t fish this bug with a dead drift, but with bit of twitch to it. Feel free to put a dropper under it such as a small pheasant tail or Duracell jig.
Now is also one of the best times of the year to throw a streamer! Muddler Minnows, Sculpzilla’s and Woolly Bugger’s will all fish very well swung through riffles. It’s also a good idea to throw a soft hackle behind your big streamer so imitate some of the emerging BWO’s.
For nymphing, we’ve mostly been sticking to smaller bugs. Although the occasional fish are still eating the typical pat’s stone, the smaller pat’s in size 10 and 12 in orange/brown have been the biggest nymphs we’ve been throwing. Pheasant tails and lightning bugs in size 16-20 have been very effective, along with Duracell’s, Assassin’s and Dirty Hipster’s in the smaller sizes.
Klickitat
The Klick has been in awesome shape for the last few weeks but just recently has started to get a bit more water with recent rains. Although this should bring in a few more fish, that’s not saying much for how few fish have been making it back. Although we are still finding a few fish, we’re working pretty hard for them and covering a lot of water with beads and stones.
Seeing the massive decline in steelhead these past few seasons is really quite depressing. Truly the best thing we can do for these fish is to leave them alone, and let them make there journey without us interfering with them. We recommend spending more time on the Yakima, rather than making the drive to the Klickitat or Grande Rhonde.