Washington's Yakima River Canyon

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BehrendFisher
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2011/09/09 23:58:42 (permalink)

Washington's Yakima River Canyon

Months back I posted a topic on setting up a new rod and reel combo for my trip out west. Well the time had finally come for my trip last week and I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

I flew out to seattle last week and upon arriving drove 2 hours to the east over the mountains into the desert. The daytime temperatures were in the upper 80s to low 90s but at night the temperatures dipped well into the low 40s and there was even frost one morning. Our first day of fishing we were on our own, we used maps to pick likely areas to wade for cutthroats and rainbows. The second day we had our guided float scheduled on the Yakima River but because of the current state of the river, we ended up wading with the guide instead. The river was in the middle of what is called the "flip flop" where outflows on upriver dams are slowed down on some branches and increased further downstream on other branches of the watershed. Upon our arrival the water was in the process of lowering from around 4000 cfs to 2000 leaving the fish moving from the edges of the bank to deeper holding patterns. The guide gave us the choice of floating or going to another spot to wade that he said was his favorite spot to fish. The fishing ended up being better than we could have hoped for and we were able to return to the same spot the next day on our own and do equally well.


The sun took forever to make it down into the depths of the canyon.


The bighorn sheep would come down from the mountains around noon each day to get a drink from the river while we fished.





The only cutthroat of the trip.


Not my biggest fish of the week, but one of the few that stuck around long enough for a picture. The evening caddis hatch produced this one and many more on dries.


We had the stream to ourselves for the majority of the trip.


#1

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    Loomis
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    RE: Washington's Yakima River Canyon 2011/09/10 05:07:00 (permalink)
    Real Nice man!

    #2
    D-nymph
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    RE: Washington's Yakima River Canyon 2011/09/12 10:16:22 (permalink)
    Cool. Those southern and eastern Washington canyons are a pretty interesting environment, aren't they?

    Glad you had fun.
    #3
    BehrendFisher
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    RE: Washington's Yakima River Canyon 2011/09/12 18:06:59 (permalink)
    Yeah they certainly didn't look like your typical east coast trout fishing environment. I also made sure to take route 2 through Steven's Pass back to Seattle as someone suggested awhile back, it was well worth the detour.
    #4
    flyway
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    RE: Washington's Yakima River Canyon 2011/09/12 21:16:01 (permalink)
    Looks like a cuttbow to me. Nice pictures.
    #5
    BehrendFisher
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    RE: Washington's Yakima River Canyon 2011/09/12 21:53:40 (permalink)

    ORIGINAL: flyway

    Looks like a cuttbow to me. Nice pictures.


    You may be right about that. I honestly have never seen one or the other up until catching that and the day before the guide had told us we probably wouldn't catch any cutthroats in that part of the river. Didn't fight at all compared to the rainbows.
    #6
    KJH807
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    RE: Washington's Yakima River Canyon 2011/09/12 22:27:28 (permalink)
    glad you took the recommendation on the rt 2
    drove it once at night in a storm alone... not too fun

    looks like you had a good trip



    #7
    steely34
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    RE: Washington's Yakima River Canyon 2011/09/13 04:23:10 (permalink)
    Fantastic pics. Looks like you were in a pretty remarkable place. Thanks much for sharing. 

    "They say you forget your troubles on a trout stream, but that's not quite it..... you begin to see where your troubles fit into the grand scheme of things, and suddenly they're just not such a big deal anymore."

    John Gierach

    #8
    mohawksyd
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    RE: Washington's Yakima River Canyon 2011/09/13 07:52:53 (permalink)
    +1. Very cool stuff...

    "For the supreme test of a fisherman is not how many fish he has caught...but what he has caught when he has caught no fish." - John H. Bradley

    #9
    doubletaper
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    RE: Washington's Yakima River Canyon 2011/09/13 09:12:08 (permalink)
     great!

    http://streamsidetales.bl...015/05/helles-yea.html
    it's not luck
    if success is consistent 





    #10
    deetz4352
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    RE: Washington's Yakima River Canyon 2011/09/15 21:59:19 (permalink)
    Great pics , glad you had a wonderful trip. Looks pristine. 

    The Deetz
    Fishermen are born honest,but they get over it
    #11
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