It has been a beautiful couple weeks and the spring fishing is showing up right on time. Sorry for the late post but I was.... fishing! After a week chasing spring steelhead in B.C., I can tell you, it is nice to get back to spring-like warmer temps and some sunshine.
There are loads of spring fly fishing opportunities in western Washington and the surrounding areas. Trout lakes, the Yakima, bass lakes, and OP steelhead are a few of the highlights.
A distant angler searches for the quality rainbows and brown trout on Lake Lenice, Washington during a typical early spring day.
Trout Lakes
April is the beginning of peak season on many of our local trout lakes. Most of these popular fly fishing lakes are open all year long or opened on March 1st so lakes like Lenice, Nunnally, Dry Falls, Dusty, Lone Lake, and many others should be on your radar for April.
Local to our westside anglers, Pass Lake has recently provided some good reports. A variety of methods have been working but this is certainly the time of year to watch for chironomid hatches. Chironomids, balanced leeches, and leeches on deep sinking lines are usually the ticket this time of year. For leeches, try brown, gray and dark olive. For chironomids, try every color until something works! If the birds are working the surface and there are chironomid shucks drifting on the surface, the trout are eating chironomids somewhere nearby.
Lone Lake on Whidbey Island usually fishes really well in early spring and should be a great bet right now. Small, black chironomids are commonly effective this time of year. Balanced leeches should be on your list of techniques to try as well. A blob on a sinking line will catch fish as well. Damsel nymphs will fire up by the end of the month. See our guide on how to fly fish Lone Lake.
The bulk of the other great fly fishing lakes in our region open on the 4th Saturday in April (4/25/26). Many lakes are stocked this time of year and offer good opportunities to keep some fish for the dinner table as well. Check out this list of trout plant reports for some ideas on where to go in your area.
Trout Lake Techniques to Try
Conditions for fishing chironomids is in prime shape when water temperatures near the 50-degree mark. Rig up a 4wt or 5wt rod with a floating line, use a RIO Indicator Leader, add an appropriate amount of 5X fluorocarbon tippet, peg on a Quick Release Chironomid Indicator, and tie your chironomid fly on. Set your indicator so that the fly suspends 2-3 feet off of the bottom. Change flies until you hit the one the fish want. Keep an eye out for hatching naturals to choose the size of your fly. Try suspending your fly further off the bottom if you aren't having luck with your chironomid choices. If you can see chironomids hatching on the surface, the fish are eating them.
Another technique which is growing in popularity is to use the same setup as described for the chironomid, but up the tippet size to 3X or 4X and tie on a balanced leech pattern. The balanced leech is designed to hang below an indicator and suspend with the fly positioned horizontally in the water column. A little chop on the surface of the water keeps the fly under motion while you watch the indicator for the strike. Vary the depth of the fly and the fly color to find what the fish want.
The other important technique for fishing trout lakes is using a full-sinking fly line. Generally, a type 3 to type 5 sink rate is a good all-purpose sink rate for your line. A 5wt or 6wt rod is best for sinking line fishing. Add a short, 3X fluorocarbon leader and add your fly. Leech patterns are a good bet in April and olive, black, white or brown will usually have you in the action. The trick to success with sinking lines is to keep the fly close to the bottom throughout the retrieve as long as possible. Whether you are casting or trolling, try to keep the fly fishing close to the bottom, especially on bright, sunny days. If you aren't pulling weeds back every once in a while, you aren't deep enough.
Steelhead
Steelheading is still rolling on the Olympic Peninsula. With the Skagit/Sauk not open this spring, the steelhead reports have been pretty quiet, but people are getting fish on the OP and there are still opportunities over there, and the crowds usually begin to dwindle as we get into April. Check the regs for which rivers are still open.
Trout Rivers
We’ve heard good reports from the Yakima lately and the river is in good shape after some high water periods. Skwala stoneflies, BWO's, March Browns and midge are all important in April. Streamers and the sneaky worm patterns can also be great this time of year. In April, look for Skwala dry flies to be high on the list for the beginning of the month. If that's not working, try a Skwala nymph or put a small BWO nymph below your Skwala dry as something to try. As the month moves on, the Blue Wing Olives and March Brown mayflies will likely become more important and can create opportunities to target rising trout.
Good old, reliable Rocky Ford usually doesn't have much change in water levels. We have heard good reports for the Ford lately and haven’t heard of any issues with water levels or pelicans, so that is good! Generally, Rocky Ford is a great spring location. Streamers in white or black are often a great choice. If those aren't working for you, nymphing small scuds, midge larva and tiny mayfly nymphs will usually get you into fish. Callibaetis and BWO hatches are also possible, as are damsels if it is a really warm month. At Rocky Ford, the use of weight on your leader is illegal so fish a second dropper fly with a small tungsten bead to get your flies down. The Ford is typically great in April. Remember that no wading is allowed on Rocky Ford and it is a good place to take along a landing net.
PFF staffer, Maveryke Hines, had a great day on Puget Sound recently, finding good quality cutthroat on a "gurgler" style fly on the surface.
Sea-Run Cutthroat - Saltwater
Sea-run cutthroat trout fly fishing in Puget Sound can be good all year long. The southern portion of the Sound is a better bet this time of year but the central and northern portions of the Sound will still produce both sea-runs and resident coho. In April, consider keeping an eye out in shallow water near creek mouths for fish looking for a meal of chum salmon smolt. These little smolt are more like salmon fry because chum fry typically migrate directly to marine areas soon after hatching. The usual techniques and baitfish patterns should have you in the game but maybe put a bit of emphasis on smaller patterns like the Chum Body's Baby for April.
Fishing an intermediate sinking line with a 5- to 6-weight rod will have you setup. The RIO Coastal Quickshooter fly line isn’t available from RIO anymore so our line recommendation is the RIO Premier Outbound Short – Intermediate or SA SONAR Titan Full Intermediate lines. Put a 3X fluorocarbon leader on your line, add a fly, and you're fishing. Look for beaches with oyster beds, cobblestone, or eel grass bottoms and cover water to locate the fish.
A spunky smallmouth from an eastern Washington lake hits a pose before being released back into the lake. Bass lakes will warm up in April with the smaller lakes warming first, and then the larger lakes. Look for bass heading towards shallow water for their spring spawn.
Bass
Look for warm weather periods in April to be an excellent time to hunt the largest pre-spawn bass of the year. The warmer days of April will probably be the best days to be out there and finding the fish will be the number one goal of the day. On the larger lakes like Sammamish, Whatcom, Goodwin, and Washington, look for smallmouth and largemouth around docks and isolated structure in the warmer areas of the lake... like shallow bays, canals, and flats. If they aren't there, look for them off points that lead into these shallow water areas or on a dropoff close to that shallower water. Smaller lakes will warm much faster and often only have largemouth. On these smaller lakes, look for shallow spawning areas that are close to deeper water and don't be afraid to fish super shallow. Weedless flies may be necessary to get your fly into the junk without constantly hanging up.
Have floating lines, medium sinking lines, and for smallmouth, also super-fast sinking lines. A fly like the EP Everglades Special is great on a floating line with a slow sinking PolyLeader while fishing shallow water for largemouth. The Jawbreaker is a good bet on a sinking line for deeper water in either Orange or Olive. Fish with slower retrieves but cover water fast to try and locate fish... and keep an open mind as to the depth where they may be located. I like 8-weight rods for most largemouth fishing around shallow water cover and 7-weights for smallmouth with smaller flies and deeper water situations.
Summary
Give us a call if we can help with further advice or equipment, flies, etc. Hope you get out and take advantage of Washington's year-round fly fishing season and remember to check back for the May report.
-- Michael
Pacific Fly Fishers
Ph: 425-742-2402
Email: Info@PacificFlyFishers.com