Powerhour Fishing Report From Brian Williams (Red's Pro Guide Staff) // Yakima River

We had a beautiful afternoon and the river completely to ourselves!  We left the shop around 3pm fishing caddis dry flies exclusively.  Small fish were rising right at the boat ramp and the fish size increased as the afternoon wore on.  This is my favorite hatch of the year, and if you have never fished the Mother’s Day Caddis hatch, you really should come do it.  It’s more like hunting than fishing, and you see many of your fish before you hook them.  Moving slowly down stream we work as a team to spot feeding fish, set up the boat, and deliver a clean first drift right on them, then repeat!  As the sun began to set and the light changed, we started seeing bigger fish moving into the feeding lanes.  We had a gentle downstream breeze that made presentation a piece of cake and we were able to spot, target, and hook several quality trout.  We packed a dinner and barbecue but went home hungry,  the fishing was too fun to waste time eating!

Location:  We floated from Red's Fly Shop down to Big Pines

Anglers:  Brian and Brooke

Time:  3pm - Dark

Catch Resuls:  Throughout our short afternoon float I would say we were able to rise 7-8 nice fish on dries.

Flies: 

Estimated Hunger Level: I would say the estimated fish hunger was around a 6 out of 10.

Featured Tackle: Brooke and I were both throwing 9ft 5wt rods that seemed to handle the task at hand quite well. I personally was throwing the Sage X which performed smooth and allowed for accurate cast when accurate cast were needed.

A couple takeaways from last night. When you are casting to a rising trout, there is nothing better than a clean first drift.  Don’t let your excitement make you hasty!  Look at your water, test your range on opposite side of boat, then lay a clean cast just far enough upstream to drift right into their window.  Second, when these fish are gorging themselves, it is not uncommon for them to get hooked a little deeper in the mouth.  Always have a hook removal tool close at hand.  It’s a very cheap item every catch and release angler should carry.  We had two fish last night like this and having a tool handy got them released very easily without any excess handling!