About the Author

Joe Rotter

Joe is the "blogger in chief" here at Red's in addition to being our guide service manager and partner here at Red's. He is a father of 3 spunky children his wife Kelly can only be found fishing when the temperature gets above 85 degrees and the fish are gobbling up dry flies.

In addition to being a fly fishing junkie, Joe is a hard core bowhunter, is a volunteer Hunter's Eductation Instructor, and loves riding horses with his kiddos. Joe still guides a small part of the time but spends most of his time working on web marketing, travel, and helping customers find the right tools and information for the job.

Big Water, Wind, and Rewards

June 11, 2014

The Yakima River Flows ARE ON THE DROP!

This is more of a quick update, the fishing was challenging but rewarding yesterday in the Lower Canyon. Between the high flows and big wind we had to get creative to catch fish. Short lines with LOTS of weight to anchor the indicator down was a big help.

I also found that anchoring, when safe... or unsafe at times, was very effective. The fish are living in pretty heavy water and sometimes you have to throw a handful of drifts through a zone to work them out of there. We caught some very nice fish by crashing the boat into the brush, and then fishing out to the rock piles. It was pretty fun getting creative with our boat angles. One angler in the boat also helped as I had a single with me.

In the Farmlands the day before, we found that fishing the eddies below the log jams was great! The fish were sitting suspended and you didn't even have to have your nymphs on the bottom. Mid water column was just fine. We climbed around on a few jams and took the boat into some precarious spots and had a great time. It may have also been an attempt to hide from the wind!

The wind finally subsided... today

With the wind laying down we hauled the boat upriver and floated from East Cle Elum to Thorp and hit the Yellow Sally and Golden Stonefly Hatch and PMD Hatch, and Big Yellow Mayfly Hatch, and some Caddis. The dry fly fishing was pretty darn good which is better than I can say for the Lower Canyon and the Farmlands the past couple of days.

Yellow Sally Dry Fly

Tungsten Hare's Ear... Freakin' amazing under a dry fly! - You can use any nymph you want as a dropper.... as long as its Tungsten. It makes a huge difference in your catch, at least on the Yakima and Naches Rivers - big fast currents.

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That was a fun day Joe, thank you for a great fishing experience. I caught some of the biggest Rainbows in my life. Looking forward to the next float trip on the Yakima.