Four Corners Fly Club

I'll be doing my Bronze On The Fly program for the Four Corners Fly Club in Bellingham on April 26, 2012. I understand the club members are mostly trout and salmon fishers so it should be an interesting evening.

Winter Fishing

My brother Michael T. Williams and I braved the Oregon nasty weather to get a few river miles under of 2012 belts. We found a few gorgeous native coastal cutthroats willing to play. Can't wait for warmer weather.

Northwest Fly Tyers and Fly Fishing Expo

Once again it was a great show and I'll be there again next year March 8-9.

Spring Chinook Forecast

Here's an except from ODFW news release. One of these years, I'll create the time necessary to figure out how to catch a springer on a fly.

For the Columbia River, managers are predicting a strong return of 314,200 springchinook, which would make it the fourth largest return since 1938. The forecast also includes a record return of summer chinook (91,200 fish) and continued strong returns of summer steelhead and fall chinook. The only cloud in the 2012 forecast is coho salmon, where low jack counts last year suggest a weak return this year.

Rocky Ford Creek

Say what you want about Rocky Ford Creek fishing experience--how it's technical, or too crowded or full of tame fish or whatever. Every so often I need to get my big trout fix and when I had a meeting in Ephrata, the Ford beckoned.

Spent Saturday night sleeping in Big Red. Sunday morning broke a bit cool, so cool that I had to warm my butane stove using Big Red's heater before the fuel would ignite so I could heat water for french press coffee. Breakfast done, it was time to fish. Started with D'Dub's Lazy Leech in black followed by a Black Gold. For the first couple of hours the biggest challenge was not the ice in the guides, it was frozen reel and the line freezing to the rod. A weak sun finally raised the temperature to cure those issues.


The fishing was interesting--the catching was on fire. After so many fish I lost count, I started giving slack when a small fish hit. The fish were aggressive, willing to take either the leech or chironomid pattern. Made no difference whether it was dead-drifted or quickly stripped. At least three times, I hooked a fish on the chironomid and had a bigger fish take the leech.

How good was the fishing? I closed out the day with eight fish in eleven casts. Called it a day after breaking off both flies.

Snohomish River Pinks

Ian Brodie took me to his secret honey hole on the Snohomish River yesterday evening. The spot is so secret that there were only about 200 people lining the banks, plus several boats. Some folks brought tents to camp for the night, campfires dotted the shoreline as we walked out at dusk. Maybe it wasn't so secret after all.

It did have fish some of which were perfectly willing to play. We each hit three. My first was starting to hump up, the last was nice and bright. Muscled up to a 7/8 weight rod. The bigger fish this year have been tough to control on my 6 weight. Since I'm releasing all my fish, makes sense to end the fight sooner so they can go make more pinks for 2013.

Always experimenting with patterns, ranging from a Flashabou Pink Comet to Fuchsia Bugger tied with trilobal yarn instead of chicken hackle. Favorite fly so far--fuchsia rabbit tail, couple strands of silver flashabou, dubbed fuchsia sparkle yarn body. I'll add some weight at the head for fishing during brisk tide changes or fast stream flows.

Pinks In the Duwamish

Today was the Herding of the Pinks event on the Duwamish. The hot area was just downstream of the 1st Avenue S. bridge. I fished an intermediate line and the fish preferred a larger fly than in the past. Most everyone thinks the fish are bigger this run than last–I concur. Several fish gave my Scott 6 weight almost more than it could handle. The first fish took me 30 yards into my backing and one fish I never landed and was glad the hook pulled out. Next time I carry a bigger stick.

Most of the fish took on a fairly slow retrieve–much slower than what the hoochie and bombers using.

Here are some launch sites: just upstream from 1st Ave S. bridge, T107, and Duwamish Waterway Park. Explore and you’ll find other as well. Make sure to read the regs before heading out.