Happiness is Hopperness

What is better than fishing on a beautiful summer day?  Tossing hoppers all day long!  Yesterday Don & I floated the Yakima River with Shan from Red's Flyshop.  It was a two-stage float fishing the lower canyon to Roza from 2-6pm then repositioning upstream and floating down to Red's 7-10pm.

Started the day well with Don & me both landing rainbows in the first hole, bringing fish to the fly and catching throughout the floats, and both of us getting rainbows in the last hole of the day when being able to see the flies in the dark was kind of "iffy".  We did have one double on the day and as usual Shan was an exceptional guide.  You may remember Dad & I fished steelhead with him on the Klickitat last fall (8 steelies in one day) and he was our guide host in Mexico in March at Ascension Bay.  I rarely fish a day with him that he doesn't teach me some new technique or better refine some of what I'm already trying to do.  I really appreciate that in a guide.  Today I learned how to gently tease a fly off a branch or other snag on the shoreline.

Happy Hopper-Eater

As we were first driving into the canyon to meet at Red's, I turned to Don and simply said, "Six."  He asked me with a puzzled look, "Six what?"  I replied, "My goal is to only break off six flies today."  Then I explained that tossing hoppers to the shore inevitably puts a few in the trees with somewhat predictable consequences.  We were pounding hoppers to the edges all day long.  And yes, I put some in the trees, and I think I may have (barely) managed to meet my goal.  (Shan could probably tell me for sure.)  Don was also acting like one of my brothers and just kept fishing while I was getting a new fly tied on and he caught fish while I was out of the water.  (See photo below:  Rob--no fly; Don--nice fish)

Don "I'm not stopping fishing just because you broke off your fly" Shurtz with a nice Yakima River rainbow

Fishing was steady all day long.  The plan was to fish hopper and then switch to stones.  Near the end of part one of our float we stopped for a dinner break--nice grilled meat, pasta salad, fruit--I love roughing it with the Red's folks!  When we repositioned Don switched to a stone but I stayed with hoppers.  I continued to get fish to the hopper and Don did the stone.  I figured I'd stay with the hopper until it was ignored, but it never was.

I still like hoppers

When I broke a fly off after dark and could no longer see it I asked Shan to tie on a stone for better visibility.  When I say "better visibility" I mean a stone with a white parachute on top that would make Don King proud, and I could barely make it out in the fading light, finishing the day with a really nice rainbow.  Thanks goodness for bright moonlight.  In short, another excellent day on the Yakima with the guys from Red's Flyshop.