Yakima report, with pics. 7/21/16

Meeting up with friends in Leavenworth this weekend, so took off Wednesday night, to fish the Yakima Thursday before everyone comes to town Friday!

Left seattle at 7:30 pm, in Leavenworth by 9:30, almost zero traffic!

thank you baby Jesus!

Got the DB ready to go, rods, sunscreen, food, ice, drinks, etc... I did make a thermos of coffee but it was a little too strong, so shelved that.

My food consisted of smoked salmon, hard boiled eggs, a smoothie, lots of water, and some chips. I mentioned in another report that sandwiches have bread and I don't like bread, so I'm glad I made the choices I did today.

Set up the shuttle on my way. Paid the shuttle fee, the parking fee.

Today's float would be Ringer to Umtanum.

Put in a little late, about 10:40.

Flows are around 4,050.

Weather was around low to mid 90's.

Wind was due to pick up around 5 or 6 from single digits to ~20mph.

Started fishing right away as there are a couple of spots I like close to Ringer.

I was using the 9' 5 wt. with the OPST 200 grain and another 9'5 wt. with a bobber set-up.

Half an hour in and I still hadn't moved, I was just going through one run, slowly.

An hour later I was still there hitting the other side. No fish to hand.

Moved down a run or two and got to another split. By now I'm feeling a little doomed when all of a sudden Bam!
Fish on.
I start to bring the fish in and it's a good one. I had had a few bites and a small fish or two to hand before this, but not like this one, this is a solid fish.
As I'm bringing it in I get a glimpse of its size and I'm getting excited. This could be 20+"'s
I've got him squarely hooked in the mouth on an articulated Skulpzilla.
As I'm bringing him in I realize I have loop to loop connections that are hanging up on the tip-top and preventing me from bring it in further. As I reach for the line, there is brief slackness and the fish is gone.

Damn.

One good thing about that line, MOW tip and fly is that it really gets out there and down, so it may be a day of fewer fish, but larger fish (I can only hope).

Same run, 5 minutes later and still on the swing, I hook into a pig. This is as big as the last one, but this one isn't getting away!
I bring it to hand and can barely get my hand around it!
This fish is solid!
I do a quick release and move down with the boat.
At some point I had tried to do a cast but had cast my fly over my rod and it broke the tip of the rod. I couldn't believe it. I had 3 9'5wt's on board so I wasn't worried, and it was a cheap rod, but still.

The fishing was decent today, I might have caught 6 fish today.

I'd say overall slow for me, but I really was practicing my single handed Spey casting with that OPST line. I'm trying for a more perry poke or snap-T start and just getting it back out there cleanly.
So, besides the breaking of the tip incident, I'd grade
Myself with like a solid "B" on being consistent with getting it back out there with a with a tight (ish) loop.
Much improved from the chuck-duck cast I was doing on my last trip.
Back to fishing...
I fished my go-2 hole with the stump and missed my strike. Fish the run again and missed it again. I had to walk away because my boat was ready to bust anchor and leave me standing there.

That happened a lot today.
Missing strikes, almost losing my boat... Not in that order.

Summer flows.

Pictures. Some will be happy I didn't get the hero shot, but I did get some picture regardless if they are without a fish.



Quasi-selfie/downriver shot.
Columnar joining
Momma and her ducklings kicking butt to get across the river.

I wore lots of sunscreen today. I hit the hands, face, arms, lips, legs...

One last thing.
Lots of bikini hatch today/people drinking on the river, no one acting like a fool or getting hurt. So that's good.

I hope you enjoyed reading my report!


Tight Lines,
Buck.

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