I've floated that stretch many times as it's only a few minutes from my home. Easy drift with a lot of good holes along the way. The springers are coming up the river but sometimes they are hard to catch, you have to put in time. Several are caught below Horn Rapids dam for the most part and a lot of gear guys will fish that area, the indian's are there now dip netting. I think with the opening of the Ringold area for salmon and the gear guys already catching them below Ice Harbor Dam off the bank has taken a lot of folks off the Yakima. I was lucky enough to hit a small 4 pound springer yesterday fishing with a sink tip and my switch rod. I'm not a good caster with the switch rod as I'm still learning and thought I'd snagged the bottom until it pulled back. The Prosser Diversion Dam area is Closed to Salmon. (see below). Below Roza Dam will pick up in a few weeks as they make it up that far but their usually in pretty bad shape by then, people still fish them and keep em there though. The lower Yakima right now is stacked with Smallmouth, warmer weather and salmon returns seems to keep some of the larger bass in the river longer this time of the year, it's warmed up enough that they are spawning. I have caught a lot of smallmouth in the last few weeks and yes the best way is to float it as access is rather poor on the lower Yakima especially from Horn Rapids dam down stream. Snively Road launch is good put in and there is a stretch of frog water that you will want to row through unless you want to spend all day floating. Bring an electric motor if you don't want to row through the slack water areas. It's an easy float I've used the pontoon several time but prefer the drift boat for the most part. Good luck and have fun.
Two sections of Yakima River to open
for spring chinook fishing on May 1
Action: Open two sections of the Yakima River to fishing for hatchery spring chinook salmon.
Species affected: Hatchery chinook salmon
Locations & Dates:
Area 1: from the Interstate 182 bridge in Richland (river mile 4.5) to 400 feet downstream of Horn Rapids (Wanawish) Dam (river mile 18.0); May 1 - May 31 .
Area 2: from the Interstate 82 bridge at Union Gap (river mile 107.1) to the BNRR bridge approximately 500 feet downstream of Roza Dam (river mile 127.8); May 1 - June 30 .
Reason for action: Yakama Nation (YN) and WDFW fishery managers are forecasting a harvestable return of adult hatchery spring chinook to the Yakima River in 2010.
http://wdfw.wa.gov
