I met Rob at Red's Fly Shop in the Yakima canyon for a seminar to prepare for our trip to Ascension Bay in March. Since we have been down there a couple times before, the information is mostly review, but it gives us a chance to pick up a few new flies and other odds and ends we need for the trip. It was also a chance to wet a fly in search of the year's first trout.
Last year, the river was almost frozen solid with feet thick shelf ice right to the moving water. This year has been more mild, and the 45-degree, sunny day was perfect for a quick stop on the way home.
In winter, the fish like slower and deeper water, so I found a pull-out where I could see a bar of broken basalt that extended out into the main current, leaving a wide stretch of deeper, slow water downstream. I started with a stone fly paired with red San Juan worm and drifted the flies below an indicator through the deeper water below the bar, from the first stream of water running over the bar out to the edge of the main current. Nothing. So I switched to a cone-head, olive bunny leech and swung it from the main current into the slower water, then retrieved with a slow strip. My second cast, this beautiful rainbow grabbed the fly on the retrieve through the slow water. I tried to find another without success, so called it a day and made it home before dark, surprising everyone in my family. Just so they don't get used to it...
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| A great way to start the year -17-inch Yakima rainbow |
