The Yak in October

Doug and His Babies

It was October, the leaves were turning, the weather was getting colder, and had only made one other trip to the Yakima this year (with Justin in July)--been a busy year. Luckily, Doug, Mick and I decided to venture to the Yakima.

Yak Forecast

We left fairly early from the Tri-Cities, and made it to Red's (about 3/4's of the way up the canyon). Spent a bit of time, and got some pointers from one of the Red's guys. After this we went up to Umtanum. I crossed the bridge and headed up river. The river was really low--probably the lowest I've seen (I've never been here this time of year). I fished the bank away from the parking lot, and then made my way to the center of the river--I probably could

Umtanum Bridge

Umtanum Upriver

have waded across the river if I wanted---not possible most of the summer. I had zero action! I tried and tried. Used different types of flies, and nothing. I think we were here to early. I like to fish dries and hatches don't start until the afternoon time. I did see another guy upstream, and he was reelin' 'em in. Dang.

We moved on.

We went downstream to another spot Mick had tried earlier in the year. After carefully wading through some "deep" and slippery water, made my way to the opposite side of the river. My small-water tendencies took me to a shallow sidestream. Within a few minutes, I had some bites, and eventually landed a decent-sized Yakima rainbow.

Where Fish Were Landed

Fished a little more here, and didn't get too much action. Caught a few nice pictures. I then moved up to where Mick had been, and he said he had lots of fun upriver (but the shadows were eating up his spot. I hung out here for a while, and sure enough there were fish jumpin' left and right. Unfortunately, they were having none of what I had--story of my life. At this point, I was starting to get caught in the shadow, and almost immediately I began to get cold. I went downstream with Doug, and fished one last place (I caught another fish, but it was totally on accident when I wasn't looking--pathetic!). I was too cold to care though.


We left shortly afterward. The day was perfectly capped off by a stop at the Taco El Grande taco truck in Yakima (near the fairgrounds). It was YUMMY!