Yakima - Swinging Soft-Hackles & Falling In (almost!!)

Yesterday ended up a warm and quiet day but there were some signs of weatehr changes again. Well-planned and prepared, I was about to leave my house at 8:00am. But I noticed a slow leak on my GM so I had to run into a tire shop in my town. Yet, not a bad start.

Water level went down and weather had been nice so I was expecting more insect hatches and trout rises than last week. And I could cover waters effectively by fishing down-stream with streamers last week, so I was going to swing soft-hackles to fish among hatches.

Insect hatch was pretty much the same as last few visits but........ this time, I didn't see any single rises at all. This really confused me. Last week why did trout come out to the surface when water was higher and colder than yesterday? Well, yet I saw midges and skwalla would be anywhere so I went with soft-hackles.

This little guy has been effective anywhere for midge situation.

There were some little "knocks" (not taps or tugs) on my line. Probably the smallest trout ever caught on swings. In fact I have several streamer patterns bigger than this!!


Then, an accident, more like an incident, happenned right after this tiny one.
I had been wading on rock bottom, up to middle of my thighs or so. Compared to Madison River, this water flow is much easier to wade. And I have been with Simms boots. I didn't overlook at all but maybe enjoying too much and was careless. The rock I stepped on was slippery and I was leaning backward. I thought "I finally did!!" For that nano-second, I was already half-laughing myself. I squatted some into the water but got back the grip. Then I started to count when the chill would come through my shirts to my skin and think about mess in the wader.......
It didn't come. It seemed I was wet up to my navel level so a bottom third portion of my vest was wet. My camera is water-proof and dryfly floatants were kept in upper pockets. But several fly boxes got some sprashes, not totally wet. I could go on but I wasn't comfortable to keep my boxes and unused flies wet because we all know that would cause rusts on hooks. I decided to walk back to my truck. Fortunately the sun and windshield were making the cab hot and dry. I picked up several gadgets and flies quickly to my jacket (1/3 wet also but not cotton like the vest).

Back to fishing. I still didn't see any surface activities at all. And swinging soft-hackles is always simply euquipped. This is not exactly the one I used (I have lots of flies that I haven't taken pictures) but the same/similar pattern tied in red silk thread.



I caught a bit larger one!

I went to town of Ellensburg and dropped by Worley Bugger. Steve pointed me to another streatch I hadn't tried. It does look good! So I ended up more observing and making strategies for next visits rather than actively fishing.

Came home dry and happily sored, I suddenly felt how lucky I was and thought about "what if that happenned in Madison?"

But also, if I was fishing Madison, there must have been more fish where I spotted and fished......maybe.

I have two more Wednesday left. I have to look for 18-incher or bigger and also test my streamer patterns. Positive thiking! I'll find more!