We know, it's cold.  

While so many wait for warmer, nicer weather and for namesake hatches there are fisheries that are if not prime, are pretty darn close.  

Let's get down with this report and for weekly video reports, please visit our YouTube page:

https://www.youtube.com/@emeraldwateranglers

Puget Sound - 27 years of fishing the Sound, 15 of them with a surface fly almost exclusively all year, I just don't understand how to get more people to appreciate how rad this fishery is.  If there was a time to try your hand at it and go discover what it can be, NOW is the time.  Chum fry have entered the Sound in many locations but probably most obvious will be in the South.  Hood Canal, Tacoma, Case Inlet, Olympia and other areas we have been seeing them for some time.  Our Sound Searcher, developed here with us was so on fire last week, they were so shredded we had to change them out every hour so.  If subsurface, small baitfish in olive, tan, brown or gray will work great if they are around an inch or so long with some parr markings.  We just got in some awesome new flies for this, come check them out.  We also have our Puget Sound Starter Box to help you make the easy step into the water.

Yakima River - So close you can almost touch it.  Mid February is when the hatch kick off usually begins with BWO's and Skwala stones which leads to March Brown's, PMD's and the mother of all the Mother's Day Caddis Hatch in May.  That is a bit off so between now and then, stonefly nymphs and and Blue Winged Olive nymphs are going to do well as will streamers.  Keep your eyes peeled for little sips in slower water where you see a build up of bubbles or foam.  That water is often moving a tad slower than the main current and is slightly warmer because of this.  You will want a size run of tippet from 2x to 5x to accommodate all the diversity in fly size you will employ over the next couple months.  

Steelhead - We have a small window of time left where the Snoqualmie River from the Plum Boat launch upriver to the Snoqualmie Falls.  So if close to Seattle and you have an hour or two to go swing, there are a couple runs to fish there at the current flow.  This will remain open until the end of Feb.  

Olympic Peninsula has been fishing well and all the rivers are in really good shape and we are expecting just enough rain to make this an ideal weekend and upcoming week to get out there.  Flows are down pretty low so a pulse of rain should bring both color and rise to the rivers and with a warming trend should make fish aggressive to a swung fly.  For us, T7-T10 if likely the heaviest we would toss, especially using a multi density head from Bridge, Airflo or Rio.  If you were Dave, you would skate but that is another story.

This side of the pond/Sound and heading south the Cowlitz is always a solid option and flows there are quite friendly right now, around 5500 which is as close to perfect as you can get in for swinging flies.  Keep in mind these hatchery fish stray beyond Blue Creek too so don't be afraid to fish the Barrier Dam run down to Blue Creek, there is some exceptional water up there and fish will be there especially now.

That is it, go fish, let us know how we can make it easier to get you out there, we've got you...happy fishing!

EWA Staff

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