While last Saturday’s high water was unexpected the water quickly dropped and we’ve been fishing hard since Monday, and fishing has been great. There’s a little bit of color in the water but that hasn’t slowed anything down. Fish have been hanging out on inside corners and in eddy’s, and are very willing to eat a big nymph or streamer.

We’ve had a little bit of dry fly action the last few days and that will improve when March Browns finally decide to show up, but we’ve primarily been throwing nymphs and streamers, and even nymphing streamers. A good tip for working inside corners in these conditions is to make sure you get a cast in before you even step in the water. With this higher water, fish will hang incredibly close to shore on those inside bends and sometimes are sitting in knee deep water, so make sure you check that shallow water before stepping in it.

You can keep an eye on water levels HERE, we recommend giving it a look over before making the drive over and realizing that the river shot up. We typically keep an eye on the Horlick chart which is labeled YRWW on the map, click on the red dot to view its graph.

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Flies

Dry Flies

Although we still haven’t seen March browns consistently popping, this last week offered a few days of good dry fly fishing. There are still a few skwala’s around as well as a few small mayflies, so if you see fish on the surface, a big splash means they probably ate a skwala, and a small slurp would mean a small bug. You can always throw a double dry if you aren’t sure what they ate!

1.) Water Walker Skwala – Size 8

2.) Catch’s Skwala – Size 8-10

3.) Fat Freddy Skwala – Size 10

4.) March Brown – Size 12-16

5.) Parachute Adams – Size 10-16

6.) D&D March Brown Cripple – Size 12-16

Nymphs

Stonefly nymphs and worms have remained effective, especially if you’re fishing below the Teanaway where the river is a nice glacial green. We’ve moved towards fishing more TJ Hookers, and bigger darker colored pat’s stones as the skwala’s are slowing down.

1.) Tungsten Beaded Pat’s Stone – Coffee/Black, Black, Olive/Brown – Size 6-10

2.) Double Beaded Stone – Black, Peacock – Size 4-10

3.) TJ Hooker – Coffee/Black, Black – Size 6-12

4.) Pearl Core Worm – Red, Pink

5.) San Juan Worm – Reds and Pinks

6.) Squirmy Worm – Reds and Pinks

As for smaller nymphs, pheasant tails have remained the best bug. There is a lot of small bug action beneath the surface as the March Browns get ready to hatch, and a pheasant tail is a great way to imitate just about any little bug that’s active right now.

1.) CDC Jigged Pheasant Tail – Size 8-16

2.) Copper Duracell – Size 12-16

3.) Spring Quill – Size 14-16

4.) Tungsten CDC Pheasant Tail – Size 12-16

5.) Beadhead Flashback Pheasant Tail – Size 10-16

6.) Quasimodo – Size 12-16

Streamers

With the temperatures warming up a bit, the streamer action could pick up as well. Salmon smolts are starting their journey back to the ocean and the big trout will be on notice. Big white and flashy streamers can fish great this time of year. Fish them with trout spey, a sink tip, or even nymph them.

1.) Sparkle Minnow – Pearl/Gold, Olive, Sculpin – Size 4-8

2.) Dali Llama – White, Olive/White, Black/White – Size 6

3.) Zonker – White, Natural, Olive – Size 4-6

4.) Baby Whitefish – Size 4

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Although today is a bit colder than we want it to be, next week is looking amazing, and it could be the first few T-shirt weather days we’ve seen in a while. Just to be safe, don’t forget to keep an eye on the water levels. Sometimes the Teanaway and other tributaries will get high, but up through Cle Elum stays low and fishable. Fell free to give the shop a call for updates as well!