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.

Yakima River Fishing Report

May 11, 2016

The Yakima River as predicted fished very well the past few days and it looks like its going to hold out and be very good through the weekend. The evening Caddis fishing is fantastic! Here is a video snippet off of my personal FB Page from Monday night, https://www.facebook.com/joe.rotter.9 I strongly encourage you to follow the Red's Fly Shop Facebook Page. Without a doubt its your best source for fishing info. I update it on the go from the water.

During the day we worked slowly with nymphs and mixed quite a bit of wade fishing into our day.

In the evening we picked off trout after trout on a 2 and 3 weight rods and singled out one fish at a time by slowly moving the boat downstream anchoring each time we found a vulnerable target. It was headhunting at its finest! Our best fly was an E/C Cutter Caddis in #16 both Olive and Tan seemed to work equally well.

For flies, I suggest going all in and getting the Ultimate Caddis Pack. Its $99.95, is a great value, and comes with a quality waterproof fly box. You'll be all set with plenty of options specific to this hatch.

My favorite is the Peacock X-Caddis #16. If I HAVE to catch a particular fish I can almost always get them on this fly.

Forecast and Tips for This Weekend:

The river looks great through the weekend and then it is predicted to rise quite fast.

Some Specific Tips for Gittin' the Trout:

Be patient, there will be good times and there will be times that opportunity simply isn't there.
Fish the evenings. 5 pm - 7 pm seems to be prime time for dry fly fishing.
Get a good supply of quality flies. You'll lose a few as some of these fish will be tucked up in the sticks. Especially as the hatch matures and the trout shift towards eating the adults that are coming out of the sticks to lay eggs.
Peacock X-Caddis #16, Elk Hair Caddis, Bloom's Parachute Caddis, E/C Caddis Cutter, Corn Fed Caddis are some of my favorite flies. Depending on the light and your mo-jo some of these will be easier to see than others. Switch flies so that you can see your fly better in the glare.
Nymph light early in the hatch. Suspended nymphs work quite well at the onset of this hatch. Monday afternoon the nymph fishing mid water column was silly. Just freaking automatic.
Single out particular fish, don't flock shoot. You wouldn't do that with ducks. Ok you would, but how has that worked out for you?

Great report Joe. Coming over for Thursday and Friday. Can't wait.
Is the water supposed to rise because of releases from the Cle Elum or just run off?
Ryan, We're honestly not sure what the proposed cause of this is. We're quite skeptical it will rise the way they have predicted.
Great video Joe! Really like the "Show & tell" regarding the specific caddis flies to use. I can then comparison what I already have and what I need to purchase. One suggestion, it would be additionally help to know the fly size range (Size 16, 18, etc.). Rick in Spokane
We're planning to come over to Ellensburg from Bellingham next Thursday. Is it possible to book a float for next Friday? There will likely be two of us. Sounds like a full day float should start late to include 5-7pm dry fly hatch or should a late half-day float be the target? Thanks for your help. Look forward to hearing if it might be possible to make something work. Appreciate your cooperation. Chip
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