The dense grove of cedars provides a welcome canopy of shade on this sticky hot June afternoon and somewhere in the relative distance echo the faint corkscrewed notes of a Swainson's thrush. The forest mat is a lush green, stenciled with colorful wood violet, buttercup and trillium flowers that give way to towering pink rows of foxgloves as I pass through the interspersed clearings. In the woods, I pause every few feet to pluck a fat ruby-ripe salmonberry and enjoy its juicy bitterness. I take joy in the soft white petals of flowering thimbleberry that portend the sweeter berries I'll snack on when I walk to the river next month. Every now and then I'll hear the loud crackling of something moving in the understory not too far away. I am relieved to discover it's Roosevelt Elk searching out a quiet spot for a mid-day siesta and not a black bear or cougar. When I finally reach the river, the water is a little high, refreshingly cold and has the slightly turquoise tinge of snowmelt where the shallows meet the deep. I pluck the large white streamer from the hook keep on my rod, take a step into the water and revel for a moment in the promise of summer before I start fishing.
It is so nice to have our rivers back open and with a fraction of our average annual snowpack, many are running at wadable flows and command our attention while they are in their prime. Late August may deliver a different reality of low, warm water in many places, but for the moment, everything seems darn near perfect in the Western Cascades. When work or family obligations conspire to keep you closer to home, the magnitude of bass and panfish lakes around Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish and Island Counties provide a welcome chance to wet a line in the evenings when the long daylight hours tend to linger past your bedtime. There are so many opportunities to fish right now that it's overwhelming in the best way possible.
Thanks for all of the quick responses to our June spey night on the Nooksack. We are full for that session but will have another opportunity on Wednesday, July 16th. RSVP with "July Spey Night sign up" if you'd like to join us next month for some free spey casting instruction or if you'd simply like to try out some of our gear. Speaking of gear, we've been adding a lot of new products to our inventory lately from new NRS personal watercraft to PFD's, Bajio sunglasses, more sun wear, Nam fly rods, St. Croix fly rods and much more, so be sure to come check it out if you haven't seen us in a while or simply click each product for links to learn more about them. Happy upcoming Father's Day to all you dad's out there young and old. We've got some Simms Rogue Fleece Hoodies and Coldweather Shirts and Hoodies on the 25% sale rack that would make an awesome gift for that special dude in your life. These are some of our all-time favorite clothing pieces to wear when there's a chill in the air.
We can't wait to see you in the shop or on the water!
Rivers
Most Washington moving water opened at the end of May, while a few stragglers like the Skagit opened June 1st. Larger rivers like the Skagit and Methow are in very fishable shape, as are many of the mid-elevation creeks with snowmelt waning. Higher elevation destinations like Canyon Creek should become a little more fishable as we get closer to July. Here's the skinny on what to expect on your next visit to an area river.
The Skagit has been in pretty good shape since the opener, with decent visibility throughout its length. Above the Sauk it tends to run very clear, with a bit more color below. There is a spring chinook fishery going on in the upper river through July 15th and sockeye retention opens up from the Memorial Highway Bridge in Mount Vernon to the Dalles Bridge in Concrete from June 16th through July 15th. Neither of these species are particularly easy to pursue on the fly, but if you're so inclined, bigger black/blue, black/chartreuse, blue/chartreuse or pink intruder type flies for the chinook and smaller krill-like patterns such as the Sockeye Killer for the sockeye are good options to target these salmon.
Summer bull trout fishing on the Skagit is one of our favorite pastimes and is so much fun on a 4 weight trout spey set up. We typically fish either lighter tips like the MOW light 5/5 or up to 10' of T-8. Our favorite summer bull trout flies are Dali Llamas, Sir Sticks A Lot, Sculpzillas and CH Kiwi Muddlers. Cover a lot of water as these fish can tend to move around. You'll find several in some runs and none in others. We've been running into the occasional nice rainbow trout along the way in our search for big bulls.
The Methow River is in great shape and well worth a multi-day trip to find some larger cutthroat, rainbows and cuttbows. You'll want boxes stocked with streamers, dries and a variety of nymphs. Some of our favorite streamers are GB Kiwi Muddlers, Sculpzillas, Sculpinators, CH Kiwi Muddlers and Wounded Sculpins. For dries, Chubbies, Larimer's Yellow Sally, Stimulators, Purple Haze, Parachute Adams, Parachute Slick Water Caddis and Elk Hair Caddis are generally productive on the Methow. For nymphs, Pat's Rubber Legs, Jiggy Pat's, Lightning Bugs, Hot Ribbed Hare's Ears, Duracells, Blowtorches and Fire Starters are top patterns to fish.
Mountain creeks are a lot of fun to explore and we have a surplus of them that feed the Nooksack tributaries and Skagit River. Small stream fly selection can be as basic as you'd like to keep it and patterns like Yellow Humpies, PMX's, Royal Wulffs, Stimulators and Elk Hair Caddis are about all you need for dries right now. If you'd like to fish a nymph as a dropper, small Prince Nymphs, Hare's Ears, Flashback Pheasant Tails and Bloody Mary's are great choices. You also can't go wrong with a variety of Soft Hackles either.
Lakes
Lots of folks have been fishing the BC interior and eastern Washington lakes of late for big trout. Depending on where you go, expect continued success on chironomids, leeches, callibaetis and damsels. June is one of those months when you can get a strong damsel emergence, gusty wind and find trout marauding adult damsels around the shoreline reeds so be prepared with at least a few adult damsel patterns. If the lake you're visiting has a traveling sedge emergence, we typically start seeing those in the evenings this time of year too. Some of our lowland lakes around town are beginning to get a little warm to fish for trout. Concentrate around the mornings and evenings for the best success and, should you find the water to be in the mid-60's or hotter, mix it up and consider chasing some spiny rays instead.
We are continuing to find great bass action on top water poppers like the Neon, Tigger, Luna, Froggy and Kermit series. If you're fishing a lighter rod like a 5 or 6 weight, Rio's PTO Popper is nice and lightweight to cast and produces a fine pop with lots of air bubbles to attract bass. For panfish, it's definitely time to break out the Bream Poppers and if you tie your own, the Bluegill Gurgler is pretty tough to beat in the evening on local warm water lakes. Lake Whatcom and Samish still have a lot of smallmouth around the shallows and dock structures and the Luna or Tigger Poppers have been successful in the evenings. During the day, Chartreuse Clousers, Yellow or White Zonkers or Orange Jawbreakers have been working better. We should begin seeing the bigger Hexagenia mayflies hatching on Whatcom around the end of the month, so if you're out during the fading light of dusk, be sure to have a few Hex Nymph and Hex Emerger patterns with you. If you've never tried the bass game, you're missing out on a really great time and it's a fantastic way to expand your local fishing options during the hotter months when trout seek refuge in the depths.
Beaches
There are still some sea run bulls hanging around the northeastern beaches of Whidbey and more and more cutthroat leaving the Skagit River to hang out in the bay for a few months. The remaining salmon fry in the Sound are now pretty decent sized so patterns like the Just Keep Swimming in Fry color are appropriate as are smaller herring imitations like the Imitator or Olive/White Clousers. We should begin seeing pink salmon showing up along the western shores of Whidbey towards the end of July. If you're tying pink flies for saltwater, look no further than the Humpy Charlie or Just Another Humpy Fly for patterns to start filling your boxes.