Crazy to say but the past couple morning have felt as though we skipped right through August and straight into mid September. Foggy mornings, dew on the car, cool mornings, a bit of rain and maybe even seeing your breath depending on where you are. Crazy!
However, it is still mid August and fishing is representative to the time of year so keep the fleece in the closet for a bit longer and find a way to get on the water. Here is a bit of the local angling horizon...
Yakima - The Yak is in the late summer throws of summer stone, hoppers and caddis and the fish have been compliant! Water is clear as a bell so consider slightly longer leaders and potentially smaller tippet to smaller flies like caddis. Otherwise the takes on hoppers and stones will be aggressive enough it will be more about timing of drift, precision of cast and overall quality of presentation to bring fish up. Water remains high for much walk and wading but floats have been consistent for the past month so hire us or find a friend with a boat and let's help you enjoy summer on the east side.
Puget Sound - The Sound has been and remains consistent throughout for SRC's and a few of the migratory Silver/Coho salmon are finding their way into the Sound. Baitfish have gained some size so increase your fly size, fish early for the salmon and much of the rest of the day is pretty good for SRC's. If you have an intermediate line, you will need a stripping basket and were aren't just saying this to get you over here to West Seattle...Lincoln Park is fishing quite well, would be worth putting it into your plan for the day of fishing.
Mountain Creeks - CRAZY! One of our favorite reasons to fish these smaller waters around the area is the connection you feel to the entire experience. Standing in the water, tossing dry flies of your choosing to obvious holding water and watching these wild trout come from as far as 10 feet away to slam your fly. Every now and again, a specimen will surprise you with their size and have you scrambling over boulders to catch up with them. Sounds like a good time to us, happy to help you figure out where and when so stop in or give us a call.
Cedar River - Lots of traffic, water is low and warm but the evening caddis hatch is off the chart and the fish have been simply ravenous for them. With warm water temps, on all streams not just the Cedar, look at shallower, faster moving water where temps will be a degree or two cooler and have more oxygen. Good time to experiment on water you would normally just walk through or past. Caddis, stimulators would be first choice, maybe some streamers against the log jams. At any rate, we have less than 2 weeks left to enjoy so it is almost now or never!
Warmwater - Carp and bass, just not much more to say. They are all over and put very healthy bends in rods. Nope, they aren't trout but they significantly increase where to fish options within 2 hours of Seattle.
Tuna - Albacore are hot right now as long as the seas stay calm enough. Boats are seeing 20-40 fish a day with a mix of size. Fly anglers should expect to do a mix of teasing, jigging and live bait to get fish to the surface and then it is time to cast. 12wt rods, blue/silver flies with leader to 80lb at the end of a 500-700 grain sink tips.
Steelhead - Not a ton of great reports on steelhead at the moment. The Skykomish looks great and has a few fish in it so for the dedicated, get out there, you will mostly have the river to yourself. If it were us and we were going to spend a day in pursuit, it would be with a well tied single shank traditional type fly, on a long Scandi head and long leader. May even go to the surface because why not?!!
Always and forever, EWA staff is here to help you! Call, stop in, email, facetime or whatever, we want you to have fun and find success out there.
Have a great weekend - 206-708-7250
