Just got back from two weeks in the great state of Washington. First two pics are from a trip a buddy of mine and I took on the Yakima river. It was my first time floating the yak, and I quite possible had one of the best times of my life. Caught more fish then I was able to count, the biggest fish of the day was caught by my buddy towards the end of the day and is in the second pic.
The rest of the time I was fishing the Rocky Ford. It is just a little spring creek in central Washington. The rest of the pics are from the RF. Right when my wife and I got into town my in-laws keep telling me to be careful when I went out there because there have been an increase in the number of rattlers this year. The RF is kind of known from being a Rattler haven. Well the entire time I fished there I did not run across one rattler... well at least while I was out fishing. I did however run into one in my in-laws yard. I had just gotten home from fishing and was moving some water to a new part of the yard. After I finished moving the water I went back to change the water pressure when I see that all of 18 inches from where the water previously sat was sitting the rattler. I did not even see it!
The last pic of the fish with my rod was the last fish that I caught on Saturday. It is just about an average sized fish for the RF. Was caught on a beetle pattern of mine.
There are also some pics of the midge activity that was going on while I was out there. I was a little bit suprised because I would say that of all the fished I caught out at the RF 90% was top water action. This is suprising because over the past 3-4 years I was fished the RF I have almost exclusively used two patterns... one a scud pattern and another a damsel nymph... and together those patterns accounted for 2 fish the entire two weeks I fished! Maybe it's time I changed the way I tie those patterns and experiment next time.
Well that was the trip. It was hard to leave, and I am already looking forward to going home again.
