Rich Whitehill
Sunday & Monday Night Big Pines Campground.
I have reserved both unit 2 and 3 next to the boat launch. There are a several sites still available around those two.
I can share one of the sites for sure, just let me know.
UPDATED 4/9/26
Reservations are NOW AVAILABLE
https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/250985. I90 to Yakima Canyon Road. Two miles past Reds.
Bob Mix
My Wife broke her hip yesterday. I’m going to be taking care thing for awhile and shouln’t leave her alone. Bad fall, bad luck.
Paul ST Pierre
The results of the OFFC 2023 auction are now viewable on the “Holiday Auctions” page of the website. You can view the winners and the high bids of both the Online Auction and the Live Auction by selecting the appropriate tab.
Note: If you haven’t paid yet, be aware that some members are having problems paying with a credit card. We are working on this issue. If you have a PayPal account, I suggest you use it as this is working fine.
Terry
The Yakima River is optimal right now as the flows are just below 1400 CFS. I drifted it this week and had fair luck till the barometric pressure dropped and the wind kicked up to over 30 mph. I only recall one other time when the wind forced me off the river early. When the weather report for Ellensburg say windy, best to stay away.
That said the lower Yakima River canyon is a special place with stunning scenery and abundant wild life. The river was clear and crowds manageable with 5 boats and 2 bank anglers on the six mile drift from Red’s Fly Shop to the Big Pines campground.
I generally fish the river at least once or twice a week from now till the middle of October. Weekends are generally too busy in September however I would consider a weekend trip in October. If your interested in joining me I only have a couple requirements. You must be vaccinated, meet me at the boat ramp so we have a second vehicle to shuttle, and be willing to take take turns on the oars. If you have never rowed a drift boat on a river that’s OK as the lower Yakima Canyon is not difficult and I have drifted it hundreds of times and helped numerous people get comfortable on the oars.
If anyone is interested in joining me the let me know.
Paul St Pierre
Huh? Strange picture for our fly fishing club. This is a WARNING to all members especially if you fish Chain Lake in Monroe. My truck had it’s catalytic converter cut out and stolen while I was fishing in Chain Lake Saturday morning!
I arrived around 9:30 AM on Saturday and there were 4 cars already parked (for those of you who have never fished it, the parking area is adjacent to a residence that is on the lake. It only holds about 6-7 cars). I unloaded my Kayak parked my F250 and started fishing. There were a couple of guys in float tubes already on the lake but they left soon after I arrived. A little later Bill Courshon joined me. I left around noon. I walked up the ramp to the parking area and everything looked normal. Only two vehicles mine and Bill’s. Once I turned the key in the ignition I was greeted by the sound of a roaring engine. From the pictures you can see they were very neat and didn’t create any collateral damage. I was able to drive it home but not with attracting a lot of attention. I reported it to the Snohomish Sheriff’s office. They were very nice but didn’t have anything promising to say. My insurance has a $500 deductible for comprehensive and they set up an appointment for me Monday. Now, I need to see what can be done to better secure the converter to discourage theft. I don’t want to have to deal with this again.
rrolsen@msn.com
Chain continues to fish well with chironomids. Fished March 9 and 16. On 9th some fish deep, then mid depth, then deep again as the hatch changed. When they were rising, the 5 to 8′ level worked. On the 16th, fish were deep, in 18′ of water with ‘mids 1-3 feet off bottom. Mids were larger, so #12 worked, “bombers”. A few on blood worms on the bottom as well. Have fun!
snowcat100@aol.com
Floated the Yakima with Dick Lange and a friend on April 17th from below the diversion dam to the KOA. Put on the river at 10:30 am and took off at 5:00 pm. Temperature for the day was 55 degrees with partly sunny skies and minimal wind. Water temperature was cold! Only saw two bugs hatch all day. I seined a riffle and say skwala nymphs, couple of mayfly nymphs, green caddis worms. Caught a total of 5 fish during the day. 3 fish on dropper nymphs and 2 on skwala dries. Fun day but the Skwala hatch is not hot up high on the river yet. May be a little better down lower in the canyon.
darryl@dfnetresearch.com
I wish I had more of an exciting trip report. Long and short, one fish to the net, but likely about ten or so follows, grabs, and fish-ons, including one that would have been my best fish ever if it had not broken off.
A better fisherman would have done better.
I got there about 11:00 AM Friday 3/5/2021. No issues with weather or the pass – bare and dry. There were maybe two dozen vehicles across the three parking lots, including possibly 6-7 campers. I didn’t feel crowded. I fished downstream of the last bridge – I had never explored that area. Thanks, Bill.
The weather was great – no jacket required – what I like to call “nothing” weather, where the weather feels like nothing. I did wish for a bit of wind to provide a slight chop. Pretty grey, but not threatening. And a bit of sun now and then.
What did I use? Everything. I always start with the classic tiny scuds but quickly lose patience and almost always with streamers. In terms of streamers, anything black that wiggled. The fish below was caught on a damselfly nymph in black. My “fish of a lifetime” was lost on a 4” bunny leach.
I did hook a great fish on a B&W Dolly Llama. Thanks, Joe. That one was interesting – two trout buddies were swimming side by side in the current. No amount of Dolly Llama enticement was of any interest – they just looked annoyed at best. But then a third trout rocked up from behind and immediately grabbed it—just another Rocky Ford mystery.
Oh, and here’s my new favorite fly – the Miyawaki Popper. I fished that for a couple of hours. No solid hookups, but extremely entertaining. Lots of splashy grabs and a couple of giant V-wakes right at the fly that made it worth it. I’ve decided that if I’m not going to catch fish, I would like to not catch them on a Miyawaki Popper. It combines my two favorite techniques, streamer, and dry fly fishing.
I plan on tying up a bunch of RF variants.
Here are some photos. Why is it that fish always look bigger in person? The one to the net was a decent, bright, healthy RB.
On April 13, 2019, at 1:00 PM, you are invited to attend the Dedication of OFFC’s Memorial Bench honoring past members.
We will honor the memories of 20 past OFFC members who helped make OFFC what it is today and are fondly remembered. The Memorial Bench is intended to be a living legacy where we can continue to honor generations of OFFC members and inspire each other by their examples.
For complete details including directions to Rocky Ford, and suggested overnight accommodations in the Rocky Ford area see the March issue of Windknots which contains all the pertinent information.
[su_button url=”https://offc.org/offc-members-only-2/windknots/” target=”self” style=”3d” background=”#2D89EF” color=”#FFFFFF” size=”5″ wide=”no” center=”yes” radius=”auto” icon=”” icon_color=”#FFFFFF” text_shadow=”none” desc=”” onclick=”” rel=”” title=”” id=”” class=””]2019 March Windknots[/su_button]
Why visit La Paz for fly fishing? The one word answer is: variety. Collectively, our group landed 8 species – dorado (mahi mahi), bonito (skipjack tuna), black skipjack, rooster fish, needle fish, trumpet fish, lady fish/bonefish, parrago, and even accidentally fooled a frigate bird and pelican. We also spotted snook, sailfish, marlin, wahoo, turtles, manta ray and porpoise.
Larry Elhart, George Hu, Howard Levens, Ray Kanemori, and Richard Pierson (guest) took a trip Oct 10-15th to La Paz, Mexico. Ray Kanemori discovered “Pirates of La Paz” at the fly fishing show last year and signed up for an incredible deal of 5 days, 4 nights, 3 days fishing for $900/ppdo including boats, rods, and 2 meals per day. Airfare can be as little as $550. Richard is the head Fly fishing guide who helped tremendously in this unfamiliar water, is $200/day.
We were targeting dorado (mahi mahi) and roosterfish, and we found plenty of both. We had 2 fishermen to a 21’ boat with a captain. They first look for sea birds, then troll bait & flies, and look for Dorado leaping out of the water. The usual scenario was to hook a dorado on the baitfish or trolled flies, then bring that fish close to the boat and other dorado follow and soon there’s a few circling around the boat. You have to cast flies to them which is challenging because these dorado are extremely quick, always turning, you’re casting in all directions, and they don’t stay around long. We successfully hooked up with the dorado casting in this frenzy, but it wasn’t easy, and was exhausting with a 12 weight. More dorado were caught by trolling, and catching and keeping the limit of 2 per person wasn’t hard. We probably caught and released dozens as a group. The largest one of our group was probably 15 pounds, but we saw a monster 30 pounder landed by another group. Pirates of La Paz will vacuum pack and freeze your fish for you for free.
While trolling flies, we frequently hooked up with Bonito, which is very similar to Skipjack Tuna. These fish are generally football-sized, but they are solid muscle and were some of the best fighters even compared to much bigger dorado. Hooking two at once was common. George landed one monster that was probably 10 pounds. Our most interesting stories involved what happened while trying to land bonito. Ray brought one up that was foul hooked and shredded – most likely by a wahoo, and Howard witnessed one of these toothed torpedos chasing his. George brought one to the surface and saw the huge thin dorsal of a sailfish trying to make a meal of it, while Howard saw his captain bring one up followed by a billfish that presented itself like a periscope rising up out of the waters.
One of the most unusual fish was the Roosterfish, with a rooster-like dorsal fin. They inhabit waters close to shore and we fished for them by boat. Catching Roosterfish was a similar process to the dorado with baitfish attracting them to the boat and then casting to them. They are very fast and put up a good fight. We also caught numerous shore-dwelling species during this process including a lot of needlefish, trumpetfish, and what the local captain called a “bonefish”. It’s similar to the bonefish in color and ability to run, but unfortunately after comparing photos we realized this was actually a “ladyfish” but known by both names. Some in the group also got to go ashore among mangroves and cast for fish. They spotted snook among the mangroves but they were too elusive to hook.
The area is also popular with Marlin fishermen trolling big feathered flies on big gear. A 360 pound Marlin was caught by one of the Pirates captains while we were there. Our fly fishing guide, Richard, has also caught them on a fly after attracting them close to the boat with hookless attractors.
To get to La Paz you fly into the Cabo San Lucas at the tip of the Baja peninsula. La Paz is a 2 hr van ride but a world away because there are no resorts there, just locals. The fanciest seafood meal with drinks and tips was less than $25 per person. We felt very safe walking the streets at night and it has less crime than US cities of comparable size. It’s long been popular with gear fishermen seeking a cheaper and better fishing alternative to Cabo. It’s not yet a major fly-fishing destination, but if you want to try warm water big game fishing on a budget, La Paz is something to consider.
