Yakima Dropping

I think everyone has a boat launching horror story, at least everyone who has launched a boat that is. A person forgets to put the plug in, the boat is broken somehow, the emergency brake breaks, and the list goes on. Well,yesterday, Guide Nathan and I fished the upper portion of the Cle Elum Canyon of the Yakima River.  The "State" or E. Cle Elum Boat launch is not bad as far as launches go.  It has some big, loose gravel, some tricky water at first but overall pretty benign.  Precisely the perfect spot to have a mishap, however my mishap was leaning towards more lucky than unlucky.  So it goes a bit like this:  My Nissan does not have a lot of weight in the rear bed and when I backed down the launch, set the e brake, got out and pushed the boat, I thought, looks good!  As I shoved the boat however, the clay ground and way loose gravel did not do any favors.  My truck started to slide, slide, slide back into the large, swirling eddy that makes for the tricky launch.  I could only try to push against thousands of pounds of metal and fiberglass with little effect.  My saving grace was a large, old, rotting log that sat right next to the launch.  My trailer caught the log and stopped my rig from doing who knows what.  So, lesson learned, either carry chock blocks or sacrifice a bit of the boat bottom and launch at a steeper angle.

Droppin'

Fishing?  Well, the entire blue ribbon section of the Yakima River is dropping on schedule to meet the irrigation "flip-flop".  Soon, the Tieton/Naches system will take over water duties.   The top flies were red or purple ice dubbed Chernobyl, Purple Haze, red humpies, or some x-caddis.  We also threw some streamers, but only attracted the attention of one fish.   We saw tons of insects however: Crane Fly adults and larva, Caddis, PMD's, Summer Stones, more Caddis and a lot of small juvenile fish jumping in the eddies.  Our float was distance was short and only about 5 hours so we covered as much water as possible, anchoring and exploring as much of the braided water as time allowed.   Every nook and cranny of that water can and will hold fish.  As the water drops, the fish will start to find new and "normal" places to hide and feed in, so be prepared to fish a normal stream once flip flop is complete.  Good luck and safe rowing.

Safe Wading Chart for the Yakima River