[Paul Huffman]

What's down in Swale Creek? Or Canyon Creek?

 

[Paul Huffman]

When swinging for steelhead, I often catch deep bodied, plump, and colorful native O. mykiss. But not often on the big Intruder type flies. I have some florescent white bucktail that they seem to like when tied into the wing of a traditional steelhead wet pattern. There is hardly anyone fishing for trout, which makes me think the trout fishing is under appreciated. The summer turbidity puts a kibosh of fishing dries during some hatches. Another problem is the season duration. I have walked along the banks in the Horseshoe Bend area in May, plucking big stones out of the brush and flinging them out into the river, and some nice fish came up. But the river doesn't open until June 1, so no one experiences the river during a stone fly hatch like the Deschutes. Also, you miss the early BWO hatches. The best hatch for trout is probably the fall caddis which can get thick some years in the Leidl area, but by then, you'd rather be fishing for salmon or steehead.

Another thing that puzzles me is that the official fish distribution databases show no cutthroat in the Klickitat. I thought for sure I caught a couple westslope cutthroat under the Summit Creek bridge around ten years ago.