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 is in INCREDIBLE Shape!

May 25, 2016

Want the most current up dates on our rivers and adventures? Follow us on Facebook! We can update from the river so this just make sense.

Our home water is in fantastic shape right now with clear water throughout the system. Its much lower and clearer than we would have anticipated for this time of year, in fact, if you asked me in February I would have told you we would be blown out right now and you would probably be reading a blog article trying to hard sell you a bass trip. Which are awesome by the way. We just signed a lease for a new private lake that is out of this world. Stay tuned for that.

The fishing yesterday was an 8 out of 10 and today was about a 7 but minus the dry fly fishing. Today it got windy with a high pressure front and that seemed to pin the fish to the bottom and off the surface despite a solid Mayfly hatch composed of PMD's and various Sulfur Duns.

LOTS of action at the net yesterday and today!

The forecast predicts big wind tomorrow (gusts to 37 mph in Ellensburg!) and breezy cooler conditions all through the weekend. The water however will be in INCREDIBLE shape with good wade fishing conditions as well.

Hot Flies and Tips

Skittish Smolt - Can be fished dead drifted on a floating line.... oh my. The Salmon Smolt are on the move and this will get you a few lunkers.

Yesterday we guided 34 fly shop owners from throughout the country that were here for sort of a "summit". More on that in a few blogs from now. It was a great time and Steve and I really enjoyed meeting so many of our competitors from throughout the US and even Canada. These guys and gals could cast! Oh man, it was a rough day for the trout yesterday in the Canyon. At one point after I had taken out and drove back upriver 4 out of 4 of our guide boats had fish on! It was great. These guys threw a lot of streamers and dry flies, but many of them were happy to throw a few nymphs as well. They all loved the Canyon and were fortunate to see it during an episode of great fishing.

You should ALWAYS have a few Dali Llamma Streamers on hand!

Dolly Llamma (pure white and white olive were best)

ONE Sculpin

Tube Sculpin (get this especially if you are going to swing with a sink tip)

Stalcup's Flash Fry (dead drift this on a floating line)

Lightning Bugs - GET GOLD #16!!!

The nymph fishing has been pretty darn good. My best nymph has been a Gold Lightning Bug or a Yellow Spot Tungsten Jighead. Man I sure lose a lot of the Tungsten bugs though. They snag on rocks a lot. Problem is however they catch a lot of fish! Either nymph is a good choice right now along with many others. These are my two top suggestions for this week however.

ONE DOZEN LIGHTNING BUG ASSORTMENT!

Our Price: $27.20

Sale Price!: $19.95
You save $7.25!

Dry Fly Suggestions

Yellow is the hot ticket right now. Between the PMD's, Sulfur Duns, and Yellow Sally Stoneflies that is a good place to start.

Sparkle Dun PMD

Parachute PMD

Red's Hello I am looking into a fly trip to Washington and am wondering about the best fishing times for trout/steelhead? (now,summer or fall) Could you share some information please. Thanks. Steven Steblay 5412 North Court Mountain Iron, Minnesota 55768 steblay51@icloud.com