Pacific Fly Fishers' Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Blog

Mid June Update

It’s late spring in Western Washington and June 1st signals the opener for our local rivers. Summer-run steelhead fishing has finally arrived. Although the calendar might say it’s the sixth month and New Years is January 1st, I tend to count my years starting mostly with the steelhead seasons. So June 1st to me is the start of a new year for fishing tallies.

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Bulkley River, B.C.

Every year I try to take some kind of big steelhead trip in the fall. Usually that means the rivers of the Skeena system in northern British Columbia. This year I went up there with buddies Christian and Nic and we had planned on fishing for a total of six days straight.

We headed out of town on Monday night with a plan to arrive in the town of Smithers around 11:00 a.m. and be fishing by noon or 1:00. In normal conditions, Smithers is about a 15 hour drive from Mill Creek. Unfortunately, on this trip it would take a lot longer to get up there.

 

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Finally the Local Rivers Are Open

After a 6 month hiatus for most of our local rivers they are all finally open to fishing again. That means no more traveling to the coast or the Columbia River trips to get my fishing fix in. After a brutal winter fishery with the wonderful weather we had this fall, winter and most of spring, this weekend finally showed signs of summer.

That means summer run steelhead are in full swing on a few of our local rivers. The Skykomish opened up on the first of the month and with it being at a fishable level for the majority of anglers in the state, they all showed up en mass. For as crowded the river was there should have been more fish caught. Which tells me that the low water levels we have had for the last month or so has yet to bring in the bulk of the run.

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A week on the Ronde

So fall is here and with every fall my mind turns to the Eastern Washington rivers and their summer run steelhead. I fish the Wenatchee, avoid the Methow and the crowds, hit the Snake or the Clearwater, but the one thing that I never miss is the Ronde. Some weeks are busy. Some weeks are slow with people.

Some weeks have been blessed with a bounty of fish and some have been the “should have been here last week” trips. All in all, no matter what week we have, its still a special trip. Fish or no fish, there is no place in middle to late October I would rather be.

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Off The Snide

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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Its always sunny in Wenatchee

Getting the chance to get another go at a Wenatchee Steelie paid off with this beauty

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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June 7th 2010, Marcel's Steelhead

Marcel drags one from the dark water in the second spot we stopped

Another good day on the upper Sky, we were able to miss a few fish and land one nice one for the fish box.

The river has been up a dirty for a little while now, but anybody who knows me, knows that I wont be deterred by those conditions. The flies of choice for these kinds of water conditions are big and burly. Light lines and big flies end up for some good early river fishing. Bennett’s Steelhead Exasperator is one of the favorite patterns for this type of water conditions.

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