Yakima River

The Yakima River is located in central Washington, and is Washington State's premier "blue ribbon" trout river. The Yakima River flows in generally southeasterly direction from its headwaters near Snoqualmie Pass to its confluence with the Columbia River at the Tri Cities. The Yakima River once held large runs of Salmon and Steelhead, along with native cutthroat, redband and bull trout. Today the fish in the Yakima are of a different nature. The runs of Salmon and Steelhead are all but extinct, even though efforts are now being taken to restore the salmon and steelhead populations, and the native cutthroat, redband and bull trout have mostly replaced by hatchery Rainbow trout. The Rainbow trout are what have made the river famous though, as they thrive of abundant aquatic insects that inhabit the river. Most of the fish average about 12-14 inches, and can push upwards of 20 inches.

Below: Me with a big rainbow from caught in the Yakima during the spriong of 2007 on a salmon fry pattern.

June, July and August bring the high flows of summer, and the river becomes nearly impossible to wade, but floating anglers do very well, as most of the biggest fish are forced to the banks this time of the year. During fall through spring the flows are cut down and anglers can find some good hatches and willing trout in easily wadeable water.

Useful Patterns for the Yakima include:

Royal PMX (Spring)
Nelson Caddis
Elk Hair Caddis
Hopper Patterns
Pale Morning Duns
Baetis Patterns
Lightning Bugs

This map was taken from the Yakima River Journal by Frank Amato Publications. I highly suggest this book, as it is very helpful when fishing the river. Click on the map for a larger picture.

If the fish are not bitting, take a hike on the Umtanum Creek Trail

Above: A couple of fish caught during the Spring of 2006

Spring thunder storms can be troublesome at times.