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.

Earning Our Money

June 4, 2014

The Yakima is in really rough shape this morning, but we wound up having a pretty good day yesterday... somehow, some way. It was a good day to have a guide on the oars and not be handling your own boat. Folks often joke with us, "you are earning your money with me today haha". We are always earning our money, but days like yesterday... we're earning our money and then some. The gusts were 30 mph plus, the river was rising hard at over 4,000 cfs, and the fish would take if you could get the fly set up juuuuuusssst right. This takes a lot of shear effort from the boatman to pull off. It is nearly impossible to anchor and fish at these flows so most of the fishing is done "on the go", between the big wind and water it is a tough row. Kudos to all the boats out there yesterday that gave it 110%, my hands are sore today from fighting the oars. We'll be on the river today, so if you have a trip scheduled for this week don't worry. We are fishing, scouting, and if necessary we'll be in touch with some ideas or a suggestion to postpone.

River flows. As a bit of "education" for those that don't look at the river flow charts much see below and the edits on the chart. BTW - fishing is good when the fish are hungry, not just when the river is stable or dropping so don't outsmart yourself trying to predict fishing based on flow charts. Here is a link to Yakima River Flows at Umtanum if you don't currently have a bookmark for it.

Blue Pen - Incredible fishing earlier in the week, dropping flows combined with spectacular weather. The water temps warmed up fast while the river stayed in great shape.

Red Pen - No bueno. Flows shot up 1,000 cfs during the day, water temperatures likely took a dive, and the fishing was rough.

Weekend Forecast - Flows are going to stay big, high, and level from here on out. The reservoirs that feed the Yakima River system are full and the Cle Elum River, the biggest water source, is running at 3,000 cfs and will continue to do so from now through most of the summer. It may drop a small amount, but likely will stay 2,500 cfs on up. We can expect flows near 5,000 cfs in the Yakima River Canyon through the weekend. The "NOAA Prediction Chart" suggests that we'll be in good shape sooner but I think we have our work cut out for us.

We'll be fishi

Scheduled this Saturday for a guided trip with you guys. First time ever. Please let me know if it is best to reschedule. Thanks, AB
You bet Austin, things are leveling out and we'll be in touch. The fishing was so good earlier in the week that we feel like if things level off it could be really great. These fish are coming off the spawn and very hungry right now trying to build mass.
Things are looking good for Saturday. The river has cleared up and dropping, FYI.