Naches River, Trout TV, New Online Store, What a Week!

June 14, 2014

This has been a whirlwind week.  Before I get into the Naches, make sure to check out the fresh new upgrades to our online store.  It is educational, easy to navigate, and a fun shopping experience with lots of images, videos, and genuine intel.  It doesn't hurt that we ship every US order over $50 free either!  Plus if you live in Washington State we'll even pay your sales tax.  Take special note of all the custom pre-built single hand rod and reel packages that we offer.  



The Naches River

The Naches dropped into shape just in time for our good friends at Trout TV to jump in the raft with me and bounce down the Naches River.  The host of the show this time was Rich Birdsell, one of the best guys and anglers you can ever meet, and along for the ride was videographer in chief Shane Hutcheson.  Despite high flows we put together an amazing show with numerous great fish that will air next spring.  For those of you that aren't familiar with the Naches, make sure to learn more about our Naches River Guided Float Trips and join us.  The best dry fly fishing is yet to come and we are the premier outfitter for the Naches River.  By mid July the flows get too low to float, so plan a date for the next 5 weeks or so.

Catch and Release Management for the Naches in 2015?

As many of you know, Red's and I have spearheaded the movement to try and get the Naches River managed as a Catch and Release fishery.  You can keep fish here in most areas!  I submitted an official proposal to WDFW advocating this and many of you have signed our petition which was present at the Red's Rendezvous V in April.  

What Can You Do to Help?

We'll try to keep our petitions present at the fly shop counter, which might help but in September the WDFW will open up public comment on the official suggested rule changes (what I already submitted) and you can voice your support or disapproval of the idea.  This will be a huge help!  If the will of the people is to have another top quality fly fishing stream in Washington State we need to band together to get this done.  I believe the Naches will rival the Yakima in popularity 10 years from now after a decade of C & R because of its spring closure to protect spawning fish, and its ample wading access that offers DIY anglers a quality summertime wade fishing option. Working together we can make some change that will impact the future of fly fishing in Washington State.  

The Last 2 Days on the Naches

It was really great taking Rich who has 23 years of guiding and outfitting experience down a river that he had never heard of and it blew him away!  He owns and operates Northern Rockies Outfitters based in Kalispell, MT.  On the Naches trip, our quality of fish and fishing, was outstanding.  It is pretty sweet when you do a 2 day shoot and after Day 1 they already say "we have enough fish...".   Rich testified that we have quite a resource here on our hands and couldn't believe there was only 1 other boat on the water (another Red's guide)! 

The fishing was all over the place, we did dry droppers, straight big dry flies, we site casted to feeding fish small dry flies, and did a fair amount of streamer fishing as well.  The most successful tactic was using a Tungsten Beaded Prince Nymph dropper.  In the fast water Tungsten simply fishes better.   

I personally don't have much perspective to compare the Naches to other rivers.  My guide history has all been in the Yakima River Watershed.  Which is good, but I just don't have much to compare it to.  However, both Shane and Rich canvas the west making fly fishing shows and they said that this will be one of the best shows they have done so far this year.  We'll make sure to tee it up when it airs for you.  

Trout TV Show

If this show doesn't air on your local cable station, then be sure to catch the full episodes online in full HD quality.  You can use their sharing program and for a small fee, $7.99 a month you can get all the full length episodes or I believe you can download anything you want for $1.99.  Totally worth it, all these shows are filmed in the west so with a long weekend drive all fisheries are within reach.

Here is a clip from LAST YEAR on the Yakima, see the entire show by visiting this site.  https://trouttv.pivotshare.com/media/yakima-river/9136/feature



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