Yakima River (near Cle Elum)

After striking out on the Teanaway River, Dalton and I decided to try our luck on the Yakima. From Cle Elum up river there are a few holes where you can fish from the bank or even wade fish a little, although a drift boat or pontoon would still be preferred.

One of the popular places to try and a place I have had luck before is off the Hansen Pond rd. You can access this road by crossing the 90 in the middle of Cle Elum and driving pass an RV park. The road parallels the 90 and the Yakima and takes you to some juvenile ponds. You can park before the ponds or at the ponds, just keep your eyes open for some good river access. We pulled all the way to the end, had ourselves a BBQ and began to fish. Fishing one of the bigger eddies I managed to land a nice native rainbow. We didn't have long, so this was a nice treat.

I was using my floating line with a strike indicator, stone nymph, and dropper. Casting can be a little difficult if you don't want to scare the fish, be up to your chest in water, or get swept away by the raging summer current. Give it time and patients, talk to the local fly shop, and give it a go. Good things will happen.

Note:
The Yakima River is also a great river to float and although I could have fished all day, Dalton and I had made plans to join a group of friends for a little campground fun and a glorious 6hr float the next day. Some pictures included!

Summary:
Location: Yakima River, near Cle Elum, WA.
Time: 1pm - 2pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 pat's stone brown and black, 12 skwala stone, 14 tan elk hair caddis, 8 tan body/black back Chernobyl, 16 belly bead copper john, 16 batman prince nymph, 16 tan elk hair caddis; would try other pattern's of pat's stone and Chernobyl
Fish:1
Species: Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 11"
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 7.5/10

Bringing 'em In

Smile

 The Crew

The Cliff

Teanaway River, WA

Needed to get out of Federal Way or the Puget Sound for that matter and find some sunshine this weekend. My buddy Dalton and I headed over to the east side of the state and camped on the Teanaway River. I have fished this river a few times and caught a few fish. The flow on the river was doing pretty good and I always seem to have a good time fishing the mouth. We headed out and to our delight we didn't find any rain and met up with some friends.

We packed up our camp Saturday morning and worked our way down the river to the mouth we fished in two different places that looked real good, one I had fished before with success, but we had none. I did see a fish rise but we couldn't get them on any thing we were throwing. We had fished the mouth the night before with no luck and felt better about this day. Fishing more in the Yakima River Dalton was able to land one smaller fish at about 8".

Summary:
Location: Teanaway River, outside of Cle Elum, WA
Time: 10am - 1pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 18 rainbow warrior,14 elk hair caddis, 12 parachute adams, 8 golden rogue stone, 18 zebra midge, 16 copper john
Fish:1
Species: Cuttthroat Trout
Biggest Fish: 6"
Smallest Fish: 6"
Rating: 7/10

Dalton fishing up river from me

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

North Fork Coeur d'Alene River, ID

     So I went to buy a truck in Kellogg, Idaho at Dave Smith motors. It was time to retire the van, and I know the truck will help get into some more good fishing in the future. I wasn't going to waste the trip so figured I would make a weekend of it and try to go fish Northern Idaho. So my buddy Johnny and I headed out Friday after work. We pulled up Coeur d'Alene River Rd out of Kingston about 1am Saturday morning and headed up the road. Taking to the owner of Cast Away Fly Shop in Coeur d'Alene I was told to try an camp around Kit Price or Big Hank. This was were the North Fork Coeur d'Alene River (NFCd'A) was going to be in the best shape. The river was flowing pretty fast and the water was higher than usual but on it's way down. Compared to any of the other river in the area, the NFCd'A was suppose to be in the best shape of all of them. The upper portion of the river was still flowing pretty good and was about a foot high I learned after talking to a local but there was still pretty good clarity of about 5-7'. Kit Price and Devil's Elbow turned out to be closed due to re-piping the water system for the campground but there were plenty of places along the road for designated camping.
     When we woke up the following morning there appeared to be a pretty good hole right at camp but we wanted to see what was up river. As we started up the road, I decided to go get my truck instead. When all was said and done, we got back on the river about 3pm. This was ok because Joe from cast away told me the river probably wouldn't start turning until about 1pm. He also told me to try some sparkle duns, pmd's, ped's, parachute adams, and maybe a green drake or march brown if they came out. He mentioned that I probably should refrain from nymphing but could maybe give it a shot and that there was an off chance a stone-fly may work. I was advice to use a 4x or 5x tippet as well.
     The first place we fished was down river from Big Hank were there appeared to be a good hole. I of course tried nymphing because it is what I do and Johnny went with a sparkle elk hair caddis. I told Johnny to let the fly stay under a little after the drift. This was how he caught the first fish. The whole produced nothing more so I decided to go more up river. We thought we were at Big Hank but when we got to Big Hank we realized why we were told to fish there. I switched to a sparkle dun and we worked the east side of the river. There is some man made river structure; small rock piles extending a few feet in the river with logs coming out the bank between each one. These rocks caused an eddy to flow back over the logs with the river being higher. Johnny fished the currents edge and I hammered a drift over the logs. Eventually I managed my first fish and Johnny landed a second. Both were still pretty small, mine about 6" and Johnny's around 8". We decided to head back to were we planned to camp again and fish that hole.
     With the river level where it was at and the action we had so far I wasn't confident the hole would produce. Johnny and I agreed to be "Un-confidently Optimistic" about this last try of the day. This stretch of river had about 20 yards or waste deep water with a deep cut about 10yds wide on the opposite side. Johnny felt he had a fish bite within five minutes getting into the hole, maybe he did. I was fishing up river and straight out from me, working everything between our bank and the main cut. With how fast the river was moving I felt I had the best chance for a good presentation working all the way up to the cuts edge and even a couple feet. I had switched from my sparkle dun to a parchute adams towards the end of fishing Big Hank and put that back on to fish this hole. I landed a good cast about 10 feet short of the main cut and up came a fish to slurp the fly. By the strike I thought this fish to be a good fish, maybe 12" but nothing compared to what I landed. After a good fight we got the fish in and what emerged was about a 17" Cutthroat. This fish made the trip and made the river for me.

This would be a really good river to float or drift. You can get guided trips from Cast Away Fly Shop I think.

Summary:
Location: North Fork Coeur d'Alene River, near Kingston, ID, river flows to the 90, Kit Price is about 32 miles off the free way and Big Hank is about 40+ miles off I-90.
Time: 3pm - 8pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 18 olive prince,14 sparkle elk hair caddis, 14 tan elk hair caddis, 12 parachute adams; would try pmd's, ped's, green drakes, march browns, orange stones, and later in the year more nymphs.
Fish: 4
Species: Cuttthroat Trout
Biggest Fish: 17"
Smallest Fish: 6"
Rating: 8/10

 River between Devil's Elbow and Big Hank

 

Johnny's first fish out of above hole

 

River just below big hank

 

 

You can see the cut in the river in the back of this photo

 

Mr. Cutt 

Icicle Creek, WA

     I have never been to this river in my life and didn't know what to expect. I planned to take my dog to a rattlesnake aversion class on Sunday in Wenatchee and figured I would make a weekend of it so I set out to go camping. I asked on of my other fishing friends if he would recommend anywhere to try near Wenatchee besides the Methow (which really isn't that close to Wenatchee). I mentioned the Entiat to him and he just replied, "check out Icicle Creek" so I did.
    Thursday, I set out after work with an extra day on my weekend thinking I could get some extra fishing in Friday. What I remembered halfway there was that all the rivers would still be closed until Saturday. Icicle creek did have an emergency open for Summer Chinook, but I wasn't planning to fish for those nor did I have my endorsement. So, instead when I got there I did some exploring around all Friday and tired my dog and mother's out before I set out to try and fish one of the local lakes near Lake Wenatchee. I was prepared for this and didn't bring my boat but only my float tube, hence why I tired the dogs instead of heading straight for the lake. I arrived at Fish Lake around 4pm to be greeted by very grey skis, high winds, and rain. Asked the nice lady at The Cove what the story was and she said it would be a little rough. There were numerous pictures of 5lb + bows and browns on the counter all caught in May. It was tempting but I didn't do feeling for the puppies and instead asked about what else she new. She like the guy at the ranger station also recommended the half mile hike into Hidden Lake for Eastern Brook Trout. Seeing as the weather wasn't looking any nicer and I was without a puppy sitter I opted to go back to camp and spend more time with the dogs but vowed to come back and fish both these lakes.
   Saturday was a different story. I got up in the morning and took the dogs down to Bridge Creek Campground where I had seen a big pool and some good riffles. Fished this for maybe and hour before deciding the river was probably too blown out after all and clarity down right stunk this low. Went back to camp and waited for my Mom to arrive so I good go fish the upper parts of the river I scouted the day before. The only problem is we went to get a brat, since I had never taken the time to stop in Leavenworth except for the Safeway for gas, food, beer, and ice, and ended up spending all of the afternoon and evening on a wine walk. Probably to tipsy to be driving around when I got back I again opted to fixing dinner and sitting by the campfire talking with my Mom.
   Sunday, I thought about fishing again but Lexi was acting pretty sick from too much river water or too rich of iron faucet water that I hurried into town for cell service to check in with the vet. She ended up being ok and both of the pups did great in their rattlesnake aversion class, at least lets hope it stuck as good as it appeared to.
   TO THE POINT
     Fishing Icicle Creek opening day is probably not really worth it, at least this year with the later snow melts and river conditions that was true. The river is pocket fishing. There are a bunch of holes but they are spaced at times good distances apart as this river has huge rapids. Again that may be more because of how early in the year it was or how heavy the snow melt currently was. Icicle Creek George Loop has great river access on both sides but is fairly far up river meaning probably smaller fish. There are plenty of places to park and leap frog the river on the mid to lower section however as well. I hope to go back in late July or August when the river has mellowed out and the weather is a bit warmer. This place was beautiful and had lots to offer.

Summary:
Location: Icicle Creek, near Leavenworth, WA
Time: 10am - 11:30pm
Rod: 5wt w/ floating line & 5wt w/ sinking line
Tackle: Hoffman stone caddis w/ olive prince dropper, and parachute adams
Fish: 0
Species: Bows and Cutts
Biggest Fish: N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 3/10

This was up river where I didn't get to fish and you can see doesn't look to bent out of shape

Just some cool rapids

This is down just below Bridge Creek where I could tell will have better water when the river drops to steadier flows.