Pacific Fly Fishers' Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Blog

After a recent, very unfruitful, and very long trip to B.C. that resulted in almost no fishing due to high water and catching the cold of all colds, I was anxious to take advantage of some of the E. Washington steelheading that we are blessed with each fall. On Saturday, Oct. 10th, I met up with Joe’s dad, Bill Ewing, on what has to be one of the most beautiful rivers in Washington — the Wenatchee.

We decided to float the river in our pontoon boats and did a nice float from Cashmere to Monitor. It was a cool morning but by the time we got some breakfast, shuttled the trucks, and organized our gear, we shoved off around 8:30 and had already shed our jackets. By mid-morning, the sun was shining bright and the temperatures were getting into the 60’s.

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So its Fathers day. Couldn’t hit the river with pops this morning which is too bad. But for the middle of June the river has been pretty non-forgiving as of late. June is the time of year on the Sky where usually a skunk doesn’t happen let alone three in a row. But today I finally got out of the foul odor of the skunk. It wasn’t a banner day on the river didn’t see anybody else with a fish. Hopefully this warm weather stretch will bump the river up to big and get those fish that have been hanging out deep in the lower river moving up and into the fly water.

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Not that I am a fan of that show, but according to the stats it is always sunny in Wenatchee. Well I have been spending quite a bit of time on this river since it has opened. Mason beat me to one of the posts and its been busy going back and forth. But although fishing hasn’t been red hot like it was last year around this time. But for the venturing few that have been out there, there is a few willing takers.

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Usually when we get weather like we have had.  Torrential deluges’, Flooded rivers and 2ft of vis in the river for weeks.  Every Saturday while in the shop talking fish, the topic always comes up about how bad of shape the rivers are in.  Last week I was in total agreeance with all that came in.  Yesterday after seeing the river on the way into work, and the silted steelhead green that it was flowing my mind began to wander all day about searching for the chrome that the pools and runs of the Skykomish holds.  Curious to see what changes mother nature has brought us with the second major flood of the year, looking for that magical run that holds more fish that one could possibly endure (she didn’t bring us that, but its always fun to hope), I set my sights on the upper sky come dawn this morning.  Fishing with my first fishing partner of my life, like many times I do in scouting the changes, we spent the day looking for the Skys’ bounty from sun up to sun down.

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Mason and I took the boat to the Cowlitz and headed up river from the town of Toledo. We fished water from Toledo all the way up to the Blue Creek area. It was fun to spend a day on a river I have never fished before but have heard so much about. There were lots of other jet boats but only one other group of fly anglers. We only watched one steelhead get hooked by other anglers pulling plugs but I bet the gear guys were finding some fish in the deeper water.

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I asked my good friend and high school buddy to join Joe and me for a trip on the Wenatchee for steelhead. Mike has fly fished for trout for probably close to 20 years, but like so many others he hasn’t quite taken the leap to chase steelies. Ok, I’ll give it away early… let’s just say he’s glad he did! I really wanted to put him on one of my Spey Rods, just to give him a taste of what a different casting style is like. We all know someone like Mike, he is one of those guys that has CRAZY, natural athletic talent (think a .9 handicap in golf, yes “point 9” not “9” - and pro caliber baseball background…) so I knew he’d pick up Spey Casting quickly. Yep, he did, by the second hole, with Joe’s help, he was getting every other cast about 60-70 feet out. It was more about his ability to easily manage the line and not hang up on the back cast than the length of the cast into the run.

The weather was beautiful, 55 degrees in the morning reaching to just over 80 midday, and not a cloud to be seen. Yep, it was beautiful for humans, or for time in Hawaii, but not so beautiful for steelhead fishing. The river temp was above 50, warm. Joe and I felt the bright sun would probably put a damper on the fishing, pushing them deep into the slots given the 8 feet of visibility. The river flow was solid, about 900 cfs and on a slight drop.

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