Yakima River Fly Fishing Report – 7/26/10

The flows on the Yakima River have stablized at norm for summer and the fishing has been good. We were down in the lower canyon yesterday below Umptanum. The fish were coming up to the big dry, even in the 104 degree heat. The big dry as tight as you can get it to the bank, with a 2.5 – 3′ nymph dropper was the ticket before the caddis started hatching. Hoppers are starting to appear as well as the summer stone flies, so hopper or stone fly patters have been working well. The hoppers are yellow and between a #8 and a #10. Once the caddis start popping, find a pod of fish and slow the boat down as much as possible. Try to cast to the fish that are just sipping, most of the splashy rises are smaller fish. We had one 18″ fish to the big dry and a 16″ and a 19″ fish up to the caddis just before dark. Flies: #8-10 Chernoble Ant variations (yellow, purple, tan), #14-16 CDC Prince, #14-16 Red Copper John, #14-16 FB Pheasant Tail, #16 Lightning bug, #14-16 CDC Caddis (tan, peacock), #14-16 X Caddis (tan, olive)