Flash poll of the week II

Great posts all! I have to say that the yakima is certainly a special river for trout fishing the access and scenery are great- It is the only place in the entire world that I have fished more than once and caught fish every time! They do not come easy though, I usually average a fish an hour, rarely more and sometimes a lot less. The river certainly can be challenging and the trout IMO are incredibly smart, they need to be struck quickly or they are gone. The one thing that you'll always know when you're fishing it is that there ARE trout there. If you're not catching 'em then you're doing something wrong.
I am not a match the hatch kind of guy but I have found that changing flies and methods (dry, wet, nymph, large, small) eventually brings results. Streamers in rivers are not my game, so that never works for me. And puny dries just drive me crazy. There is no way I can relax while fishing a size 20 BWO that I can't see 15'-20' away.

but I digress... so I will post a report from my last trip there 1 month ago...

Went for an overnight- camped at Red's. Had a little luck the first night just upstream from the launch. #8 Bucktail caddis and a #10 Royal Coachman Wet both brought fish to hand. My buddy took a bite out of a pepperidge farm cookie that night after dark, felt a little wrong in his mouth, when he grabbed his flashlight he saw a huge stonefly crawling away...mmmmmm- good! Got down into the 20's that night, but I managed to get up at dawn while my buddy slept. First a fat 14"er then finally my first bonafide yakima hog- a 18"-19" fish that ran 4-5 x's and took a while to get in. Caught him on a black and orange foam bodied stonefly dry from Orvis that I've had in my box for two years. I seriously thought it was a steelhead until I got him to hand, just a nice fat yakima native, beautiful in the morning light lingering in my grasp before tailing away to be caught another day. No camera, no-one to it. After this I made a few casts, but there seemed little purpose. I walked back to camp with the smile on my face the only proof of my exploits. Coffee and eggs never tasted so good!

That is why I'll be back

BH

I have to agree with the "Great Posts" comment! It's really does the heart good to see so many of you who are so passionate about the Yakima. It would be even better to see all of you at the meeting Tuesday, November 12th, 6:00 p.m. at the Ellensburg Inn when the new FFF club is being formed. I realize that the westside guys may not be able to make it but use this link to Worley-Bugger

http://www.worleybuggerflyco.com/FFF_Club_Sign_Up.htm

and let Steve know that you're interested in joining. You don't have to make it to every meeting (or any for that matter) but know your membership dues will be put to a good cause, conserving/preserving the Yakima River (specifically above Roza Dam).

Good luck!

Greg

"In our family, there is no clear
line between religion and fly
fishing" Norman Maclean

gdm43,

Hatchery -vs- brood stock. A very interesting question. The state says the fish are wild because they come from Yakima River brood stock. I say they are hatchery, because they are manipulated by the hatchery. Back in the late 70's and early 80's, the river closed to trout fishing on Oct 31st. I have and still do most of my fishing on the Yak above Ellensberg. Back then, it was rare to see many salmon in the upper river. All of a sudden, a new hatchery goes on line and huge amounts (21,000 several years ago) of chinook show up. What changed, the hatchery of course.

I wrote the state regarding these fish. They wrote back assuring me they were wild fish. If they are wild, why do you need a hatchery? It is all semantics. Wild brood stock that they turn into hatchery fish. They place the fish in ponds rather then concrete raceways. This is to mimic a natural setting. Those little ponds next to the freeway near Easton had 250,000 smolts in them several years ago. They closed them to fishing to protect the "wild" smolts until they were released. So the wild smolts walked from the hatchery, across I-90 and got into the ponds. Just kidding to make my point, but those sure don't sound like real wild fish, do they?

One last thing. I stopped by the hatchery soon after it opened with my father in law after a day of fishing the Yak. We were walking around when a fella asked us what we were doing. I told him I wanted to tour the hatchery. He identified himself as a member of the Yakama nation, told us the hatchery was not open to the public and asked us to leave. We left, but thought it curious as to why it wasn't open to the public. Heck, we all probably helped pay for it, so whats to hide.
Has anyone else experienced this or actually visited the hatchery?

Just my 2 cents worth on the salmon in the Yak. If you have other thoughts about the salmon, please share them with the board.
Brian

Broodstock raised in a hatchery are still hatchery fish. My hope would be that the Yakima Tribe has plans to stop stocking the river with hatchery fish at a point in time when the run was self sustaining through wild reproduction. They were at least smart enough to use Yakima stocks in the program. Time will tell.

Steve Worley suspects in the next few years the tribe will start on a sockeye program. This will be tough as there is no genetic strain left in the Yak unless they could use Keechelus Kokanee. As it stands the kookanee in the resevoir spawn into gold creek (as do a lot of protected bull trout). Restoring these runs will take a very long time.

I see the river turning into more of an Alaska style stream with bigger fish that really key in on eggs and flesh in the fall months.

If the new resevoir goes in it will be inetresting to see how more natural flows improve the fishery.

Good points all, but I stand by my previous post. The Yakama Tribe's hatchery/broodstock program aside, there are still remnant runs of entirely wild salmon and steelhead that battle their way to the upper reaches of the Yakima, against all kinds of odds, to spawn without any help (lol) from us. I am of the opinion that anglers in particular should not stand in the way of these amazing survivors, especially at this historical juncture. That said, we can still continue to have a first-class rainbow trout fishery while offering anglers a shot at a salmon below Roza dam. I agree that salmon fishing with hardware (treble hooks, etc.) should not be allowed above the dam--but stopping the fish's progress at the dam is ludicrous, it's a death sentence. Besides, as I mentioned previously, there's no evidence that I've seen that concludes a rebounding salmon population in the Yakima would ruin the trout fishery in strictly biological terms--and there are plenty of recent studies you can find about this very issue.

Here's the highlights of an article on NorthWestTrout.com (go there to read the wwhole article).

This could happen real easy on the Yakima with all the truck traffic using the canyon road instead of the freeway.



The Clark Fork River will be monitored for diesel and gasoline after a tanker spilled on October 29th near St. Regis. No major fish kills have been discovered but officials with the U.S. Forest Service and the Montana departments of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and Environmental Quality will continue to monitor the situation.


Greg
"In our family, there is no clear
line between religion and fly
fishing" Norman Maclean