Nehalem Bay, OR (Crabbing)

For my Brother's Bachelor party we decided to go to Nehalem Bay for some dungenous crabbing. There is a few marina's down there if you don't have a boat or gear that out can rent from which we did. Getting two boats and four traps for each boat we set out to spend the afternoon on the water. The bait they gave us was sea bass but another boat gave us extra shad they had which the crabbed seam to prefer much more. It was early in the season and the bigger crab weren't in but it was still a great day on the water.

Summary:
Location: Nehalem Bay, OR
Time: 1pm - 5pm
Rod: N/A
Tackle:Crab Rings
Crabs:7 keepers
Species: Dungenous
Biggest crab: 6-1/2"
Smallest crab: not legal
Rating: 6.5/10

Taneum Creek/Yakima River, WA

My buddy and I had camped at this place last year later in the summer and thought that we should try an earlier trip this year. We loved the area, lots of space, and complete isolation. Traveling again a long ways up the creek we set up our camp at our same spot. This year was a little extra fun because we brought our mountain bikes and shotguns. Anyways fishing the north fork we had some pretty good success catching some smaller trout mid-day of Saturday. After a small nap and little exploration we went down the the bridge that crosses the river below where the two fork meet. Walking this stretch of river down to the campground we caught several more fish and managed one fish that was about 10".
Sunday on the way out brought some pretty misserable traffic and thus we decided to pull over at the Bullfrog put in on the Yakima river. Found some big water with lots of fish but only caught one.

See this blog as well for additional detail: Taneum Creek

Summary:
Location: Taneum River, near Thorpe, WA off I-90 west of Ellensburg.
Time: All day
Rod: 5 wt floating line
Tackle: Elk hair caddis, purple and traditional parachute adams, misquitos, and multiple other little duns and caddis'
Fish: 10+
Species: Rainbow and Cutt Throat
Biggest Fish:10"
Smallest Fish: 4"
Rating: 7.5/10

Summary:
Location: Upper Yakima River west of Cle Elum
Time: 4-6pm
Rod: 5 wt floating line
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, stimulator stone
Fish:1
Species: White Fish
Biggest Fish: 13"
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 7/10

Yakima River, WA

Saturday Evening:
Thinking about how the weather wasn't going to be stellar if I returned to Montesano and the fact that I was halfway there I decided I would head over to the Yakima to fish a little and maybe try to take hwy 12 home and fish the Tieton and the Naches river. I got to Cle Elum and first stopped at the Hanson Ponds and tried to fish the river there where I have had luck before from the bank. No such luck this time. I got back in my truck and moved to my trusted spot at the mouth of Teanaway River. Here I had a few bites, had a little guy chase my nymph getting ready for a role cast, and finally hooked way looked like a nice 15-16" rainbow-cutthroat. When I went to net the fish I bumped it and the little frenzy popped the hook so I couldn't get a picture. Proceeded down to Big Pine where I camped for the night.
Sunday:
Having not seen my buddy Dustin at The Evening Hatch in a long time I thought it would good to drop in and see how he was doing. (I don't plug for many places often but this shop knows it's river and I would recommend getting a guided trip from them, well worth it, just read on) Talking with him for a while he called a buddy who was going out and said if I would man the sticks for a little I could float the river. I didn't hesitate. We put in the boat at Ringer and began our float. Maybe a half a river mile down I hooked into the first fish and landed a nice 15" rainbow. Matt the other guy in the boat hooked two more and I too one more. Tyler got off the sticks just past Big Horn and hooked a nice 17" rainbow and a few other fish. Dustin got on the water at Umptanum and I jumped in his boat. For the first time in forever we got to fish one hole we usually don't get to due to it's typical inaccessibility of obstructing swimmers and landed probably six fish alone there. Allison called it a night on fishing and I went from sitting in the back of the boat to the front. In the next twenty minutes I hooked 5 fish. If it didn't look sizable I tried to shake it of so that I could cast again. I probably officially landed 8 fish and could have landed more if they were not "small", but lost just as many. It was a killer day and a hell of way to end the Spring.

Summary:
Location: Yakima River, near Cle Elum and Ellensburg, WA.
Time: 6-8pm Sat. & 1:30pm-9:30pm Sun
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line
Tackle: 6 pat's stone brown and/or black with a 10 pat's stone brown and/or black dropper or silver bead-copper john (red killer) dropper, chartreuse and green streamer, & 8 tan body/black back Chernobyl
Fish: 20+
Species: Rainbow, Squaw, & White
Biggest Fish: 17"
Smallest Fish:10"
Rating: 10/10

 Wanted a go at the sticks

Lake Sammamish, WA (Perch)

Sitting at home at 4am I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted to go surf fishing, jetty fishing, shell fishing, or for steelhead. I decided I would get in my car and drive to Dalton's because he had mentioned going perch fishing on Lake Sammamish. I have never targeted perch before but Dalton has been out on this lake and caught some 20 perch in an afternoon and Paul was down for a perch fry. We went to our usual spot and caught a guppie size perch and a couple squaw. Moved a little, when Paul cast and before I think the bobber even settled hooked a nice rainbow. Moved again to the canal and caught some more squaw fish. Moved back about where we started and caught another small perch and a blue gill. Just wasn't our day for perch I guess. Also, Dalton always fished in the evening so maybe the mid-day sun had something to do with it.

Summary:
Location: Lake Sammamish
Time: 10am to 2pm
Rod: light weight spinners
Tackle: bobber and worm
Fish:10
Species: Rainbow, Squaw, Perch, & Blue Gill
Biggest Fish: 14"
Smallest Fish: 4"
Rating: 7/10

He had a fish on that got wrapped around the pile, had to get it off

Canyon Creek, WA

It's opening weekend for rivers in Washington so I called Jon up to see if he wanted to go try Canyon Creek out. He was excited to go and even brought a coworker along. As I said it was opening weekend and it turned out to be the second most crowded I have ever seen the river. I guess I'm to use to going after school when not many people are up there but the weather was nice too. It was jammed by any means but the three major holes next to the campground where taken by other fisherman. Not a big deal just wasn't expecting to bring any rout home for my mom anymore. Having good luck last year I took them up above the campground were we caught a couple fish, one that was almost 10" but nothing really to brag about. We decided to go to the washout where there was more river access and no people. Here we caught a bunch of fish, none with any real size but it was good practice for everyone on casting in the wind, across currents, under trees, and around rocks. Lots of fun and good company to enjoy the day.

Also see this blog for more...

Summary:
Location: Canyon Creek, located 30 miles east of I-5 from Woodland near Chelatchie, WA
Time: 12pm to 5:30pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line
Tackle: brown elk hair caddis and stimulator stonefly
Fish: 20+
Species: Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 10"
Smallest Fish: 4"
Rating: 7.5/10