Canyon Creek, Southwest Washington

Came down to Battle Ground, WA for a family reunion and learned that the road that followed Canyon Creek out of Chelatchie had been fixed since it washed out when I last visited the river in 2009. I fished this river several times my last two years of high school and up until the wash out here and there. This is a fun river fed by snow melt and run off that offers great opportunity for both native and planted fish. I'm not too sure where they plant the river but know around the campground that can be found 11 miles east of Chelatchie they do plant some there.

This particular day I was on my way back to Federal Way, and thought that it would be fun to stop by the river, see what kind of shape it was in, and get some quick fishing in. When you get to Chelatchie you take Healy Rd heading east and it will turn into a forest road. This road is paved and has a mile stretch that is unpaved before you get to the campground which is also unpaved.

I drove straight to the campground and fished a hole that I know to be very productive. You are allowed to use bait but when going for trout, especially on a creek, fly fishing is always the way to go. In the short time I was there I landed six trout between 11" and 14", both nymphing and dry casting. Typical trout flies work very well on this river; parachute adams, elk hair caddis, mosquitos, stone flies, hairs ear, pheasant tail, prince nymph, lighting bugs, etc.

The native fish on this river average between 6" and 10" but you can find plenty that will get much bigger, you just have to look and wade to big holes. The river access is sparse making it somewhat difficult to find places to fish, but where you can pull over safely and see a good way to the water are generally opportunistic places to fish. The creek is only planted in early June and the catch opportunity for these fish greatly diminishes as the summer progresses.

Summary:
Location: Canyon Creek, located 30 miles east of I-5 from Woodland near Chelatchie, WA
Time: 12pm to 1:30pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 16 psycho prince,14 sparkle elk hair caddis,12 parachute adams
Fish: 6
Species: Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 14"
Smallest Fish: 11"
Rating: 8/10

 River in middle of Campground

Average Rainbow for the Day