Twilight Highlight--Independence Day Edition

What better way to celebrate Independence Day than to go fishing? Brad Scherck, my son-in-law, and I decided to float the Yakima River with Red's Flyshop and spent the evening of July 3 and morning of July 4 with Shan, one of their excellent experienced guides. Brad was able to get away early from his internship so we drove to Ellensburg and were on the river by 4:30pm.  Plan was to fish Umptanum to Roza this evening. I love fishing in the twilight because it seems like as the light diminishes the trout hesitance to strike does as well.  We hoped that would be the case for us.

Nymphing under an indicator was how we began.  Productive and steady is how I'd describe the fishing.  We were close to double hook-ups a few times, but usually one or the other of us missed the fish that would have completed the double.  Some time after sundown, we changed to large dries and began to enjoy some fish on the river surface, landing some larger rainbows along with the small ones we'd be catching earlier in the float.  We finally stopped close to 10:00pm.  Brad finished with considerably more fish to the fly and fish to the net than did I, but our trip was only half-over.

We headed to Ellensburg for a nap, then got up and were in the car driving back to Red's at 4:30am for more low-light fishing.  A quick visit to the drive-thru at McDonalds fueled us up for the morning.  I had the sausage biscuit for fishing fuel while Brad had the sausage biscuit with bacon and egg.  He was anticipating he'd be catching more that I would and he'd need more fish-fighting fuel if it were the same as last night. Shan was ready to go when we arrived and off we went--fishing today from Bighorn to Big Pines--and hopefully finding Big Fish in the process.

One of many fine rainbows interested in our flies

We quickly had some fish up to the dries and as the morning progressed, sizes increased!  Few things match the joy of tossing big dries to willing fish and today was a joyous Independence Day. We managed a few photos today and Brad discovered that wriggling fish are sometimes a little camera-shy.

Is that a fish or a football tucked under your arm?

We had three doubles this morning and found large fish willing to come up to the fly.  Sometimes they just looked, sometimes they nudged it with their nose (frustrating!), sometimes they took it and we missed, and on those satisfying strikes when we successfully set the hook, they battled hard and required us to avoid mistakes to get them to the net.

The fish pictured below was incredible as it attacked the fly. Shan had me cast near the shore for a drift under an overhanging tree.  I kept the drift going as long as I could and needed to pull up to avoid hanging up in the branches that were submerged in the water.  Just as I started to lift, we saw a large fish quickly emerge from the depths to strike at the fly and miss.  I carefully and gently guided the fly along the surface to just pass by the ends of the submerged branches hoping to avoid hanging up in the brush and and also hoping that the fish would try again. Just as it passed the branch tips, the same fish came around the front of the branches and missed again.  Shan shouted (or maybe my hearing was enhanced by the adrenaline from the strike near misses), "Leave it there!  Leave it there!!"

Largest of the day--measured at 22"

I left the fly on the water to drift and the river current took it back toward the shore behind the submerged branches and the drift continued.  We watched as the same fish came up downstream from the branches toward the fly once again and this time successfully sucked it in.  And the fight was on!  Toward the shore, under the boat to the middle river, back under the boat, around up front and into Brad's line, back under the boat.  Eventually getting him close enough to get the net under him and the fly immediately popped out.  Just in time!

Measured this incredible fish at 22"--the largest rainbow I have landed in the Yakima in my years of fishing it.  Quick photo and then he was released, disappearing immediately with a quick strong movement of his tail to propel him back to his feeding lane under the tree branches.

Used my "Healing Waters" Temple Fork 5 wt today
A great rod for dries.

We continued to fish dries all the way to our take out at Big Pines in the canyon, finishing about 10am.  By the time our morning twilight float was over we'd landed fifteen rainbows over 15", including two that measured 19" along with my 22" beast.  Our final rainbow was landed as we pulled into the boat ramp--another solid 16" fish.

As we drove home, we commented to each other, "We'll be home less than 24 hours since leaving and we've been fishing two days!"  Now that is a Twilight Highlight!

Retired to the fly "wall of fame" after 15 fish over 15".