Freestone – A river with no man made impediments. In other words, no dams on it.

As we arch our way towards summer, we are still holding our breath for our favorite freestone streams to come into shape. Well, we can exhale a bit as there are a few in a state of readiness if you will.

The Naches among others is definitely approachable for you to step in and safely get around…for the moment. Keep an eye on flows as warm weather will definitely melt some snow and raise flows again but otherwise.

As water warms and clears the trout will become more active in these rivers as they have to become opportunistic. Reason for this is their world is in a constant state of change through most of the year through rising and falling river flows.

During high water seasons, these watersheds can be dramatically altered scouring much of the insect life from the river bottom. You can see by the graph above of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie that it looks a bit like a roller coaster right now and will for some time still. Flows will rise considerably during the day and drop again at night when temps cool. This up and down will repeat in consistent weather conditions while there is still snow to melt, which there is.

On streams like this you may see the full spectrum of hatches throughout a day beginning with BWO’s in the early AM, leading to PMD’s by late morning and early afternoon ending with caddis and stoneflies.

Even so these hatches can be quite sparse even in the summer forcing trout to make quick decisions on what they will take or not take. Some anglers may call these trout “dumb” but really they are simply acting in their own best interest by trying to eat everything that looks like food because their options are limited.

We like to throw slightly larger dry flies this time of year such as Rubber Leg Stimulators, Chubby Chernobyl’s, Golden Stoneflies and even grasshopper patterns will create an agreeable silhouette for these trout. Early in the AM, maybe use the buoyancy of these bugs to drop a Lightning Bug, Copper John, Bloody Mary or caddis pupa off until you see enough action on top to remove it.

Want more insight on what other freestone streams in our area are ready for you, give us a call or stop in, we would be happy to show you where to go.