Woohoo, here we go, February always seems as though spring has sprung so we are pumped for so many things right now, can barely type this report out.  Let's get down to it shall we?

Steelhead - Choices...not often we have choices for steelhead in our area so relish this situation and take advantage of it.  There are other watersheds in our region for consideration, want some insights, come on in and we are happy to share some ideas with you.

Skagit and Sauk are open 5 days a week from Saturday thru Wednesday, be sure you understand what this means...not open Thursday and Friday.  There have been some fish around and we really suspect many more will begin to show up now the water has dropped and dropped it has.  Both rivers are in great shape for the next 5 days so GET UP THERE! 

Olympic Peninsula is in great shape as well and definitely been some fish around here.  Fly wise, we understand as well as anyone the opinions out there regarding your choice and guess what?  We have our own opinions on this.  Won't get into it here but in general, keep a good mix of color in your box, purple, black, chartreuse, olive, orange and blue and don't feel as though you need to go huge.  We fish smaller intruders or single shank traditional flies...yes, traditionals work!

Cowlitz has been spitting out a ton of chrome here of late as well, same story as above, cover water well, T10-T14 on your tips depending on water speed and depth.  12-15lb test Maxima or similar product will be good, we have the new NAM tippet in here too if you want to try the newest material in the spey world.

Puget Sound - We can already feel the excitement of SRC's returning to their voracious mannerisms now that salmon fry are imminent in the very near future.  Some are still sipping euphausiids but most are back to aggressively striking buggers and our favorite...surface flies.  5wt or 6wt is fine, they are in simplicity pretty similar unless one is an exceptionally tip-flexing rod and the other is a more full-flexing rod.  At which point grab the tippy one and use that.  Stripping basket optional at the moment unless fishing an intermediate line and then it is mostly necessary unless in a boat.  We have a good Puget Sound representative fly package available here where we will put in the relevant flies for this time of year.  If you aren't familiar with fly fishing Puget Sound, PLEASE let us help you figure it out.  This next couple of months will easily ensure this quickly becomes your favorite fishery for so many reasons.  Proximity to where you live, open all year, crazy surface takes by wild trout, very few anglers...etc.

Yakima - While many will become overly excited about a Skwala hatch up and coming which will happen but even more exciting is when these trout begin to gently nibble winter Blue Winged Olive's...that is where it's at, just saying.  So, looking at the current flows, 4000cfs is not conducive to walk and wade fishing so maybe by-pass it this weekend and look at the Sound.

Don't let this weekend slip by without getting out there to fly fish, it is simply too nice of a weekend and so much water is in good shape. 

Questions?  Call, text, email, DM on IG or whatever and don't be bashful, asking those questions is how you move past little hurdles in your fly fishing and get better as an angler.  So ask away...

Have a great weekend, see you all soon,

EWA Staff
206-708-7250