Back on the water

I have been out on the water the past couple weekends on the Yakima, now that the water has finally dropped back down to reasonable fishing levels after the massive floods. My go-to spots are noticeably different now; the high water has carved some deeper banks and moved some runs slightly. Where it was once inches deep is now 3-4 foot holding water in one spot. It's fun though. I now get to re-explore these waters to find where the fish are at. On 1/17, the water was still high, but fishable, and I was able to get into a handful of whitefish on a stone/dropper setup under an indicator. It was cold, around the upper 20's to low 30's in temperature, but at least some fish were moving. I was just happy to get out for the first time in a while. Today, I hit the same run and the water dropped considerably from last weekend, starting to make the new runs and holding spots more obvious. The temps were again in the upper 20's to low 30's. I continued to fish my stone/dropper rig and it didn't disappoint. Fishing was great, landing a few mid-range whitefish, a monster 20" whitefish, a 14" rainbow, and, the prize of the day, a solid 19" male bow. It doesn't appear that the floods affected the fishery at all, and has arguably made it better with a renewal of habitat in many areas. If we don't get any more warm streaks, I expect the water to keep dropping to typical winter levels and the fishing to keep getting better. The first 2 pics are the 19" buck I caught today. The third is a nice cutthroat that I grabbed a while back before the floods hit: 'Till next time, -Josh

Zihuatenejo/Ixtapa

Headed way south for a little Thanksgiving getaway with some friends. I fished on Sunday off a small panga with Capt. Cheva who is part of Capt. Adolfo's crew (the same guy that was on ESPN's segment on fly fishing for saltwater species in that region of Mexico). Needless, to say Cheva was most excellent putting me into 30+ bonito, spanish mackeral, mackeral, needle fish and even a pajaro! It was amazing to see the huge schools of bonito crashing the surface chasing sardina. All the bonito were in tthe 3-6 kilo range, here is the first bonito on the 8W. I will say that fighting these guys on an 8W was tough!! Especially, when I started getting into some of the bigger ones I was very undergunned. On Wednesday, I headed out with Dave Pardo and luck would have it that Cheva had a cancellation and we got to go out with him again. On day two, I rigged up my reel on a 10W and it was better but it was still a work-out on the 6 kilo bonito. That day we pulled in close to 60 bonito, spanish macks and regular macks. The highlight of the day was the yellowtail jacks that we got into... what a spectacle of them chasing an 8" plug on the surface followed by a fight that would have surely busted our fly rods in half had we used them. What a trip... next up Lake Cahuilla... the Riverside County fish and game department recently stocked the lake with 3-4 lb rainbows. -G