Phew, well we are sorry for the weather today for those who were hoping to spend the day fly fishing.  Mother Nature decided to throw a Holiday party of her own sort.  Wind is howling out there right now so options are a tad limited.  Wind is supposed to subside by late afternoon but then rain is forecast for the next week so your choice of where to go is going to be a bit tenuous...be nimble friends.

Steelhead - At the moment, Skagit, Sauk and others are in pretty good shape to fish but that could change depending on how much precipitation we receive.  Stay tuned to the water gaugess and plan accordingly.  Water is in the low 40's and high 30's depending on which watershed you are in.  With the rain you are going to have to think about what tributaries are doing what to the river you want to fish.  Stretches above other smaller rivers will likely be OK but below notorious ones that blow out could be questionable.  The Olympic Peninsula rivers are all freestone, free flowing rivers so this water fluctuation is a part of daily life during heavy rain storms.  Sink tips of course unless you are nuts like McCoy but that is another story for another day.  T10-T14 should suffice, flies of blk/blue, blk/purple, orange, chartreuse, olive...you know, whatever color you have confidence in.  Just remember sometimes there is a fish there and sometimes there isn't, fly color isn't going to change that for you.

Puget Sound - Ooof, pull out the kite board and go have fun!  Tides are not great, rain is blowing out some smaller streams so some beaches may be a bit murky from that and watch out for driftwood rolling around in the water or just barely on the beach.  Smaller euphasiid patterns and smaller olive or dark colored baitfish patterns will be a good idea out there.  We are a couple months from seeing the salmon fry enter the Sound but that doesn't mean the SRC's aren't ready to eat.  This may or may not be common sense to some folks so we want to put it out there.  If you have chosen to grab a full sink intermediate line, you need a stripping basket of some sort to contain the line.  You just do.  Whether that is using a long handled net through the belt on your waders, a laundry basket with a cam strap or an engineered one from a company, you just need to have one or you will be very frustrated...come chat with us.

Yakima River - Yak will be in winter mode here for a couple months where the weather will greatly affect how it presents itself.  Sunny days and low wind should find some midge and BWO hatches in the slower water.  Colder, gray days are going to be a nymphing game most of it and streamers will be good on both types of days.  Water is going to fluctuate on rain and snow melt out of tributaries as well like Taneum, Wilson and Teanaway among others.

Hope everyone had a great Holiday Season, we all did and thoroughly enjoyed seeing so many of you and spending joyous times with you in the store and on the water. 

We say it all the time, "We are here to help you find success on the water, whatever that looks like."  We mean it so let us help when you are stumped or come across some situation that doesn't make sense.

We are closed today, see you all tomorrow or shortly after.  Now, go fish or plan it for soon!

EWA Staff
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