The sunshine and warm temperatures this past week have been nothing short of glorious. While spring in the Northwest can be notoriously fickle, these periodic teasers of fabulous weather are just what the doctor ordered and provide us with that little extra momentum to get through another week of rain squalls or those days when the wind has a few too many teeth to facilitate fly casting. Each spring it's a joy to watch the outdoors come alive once again. It's in the air, from the sweet sticky scent of the cottonwood buds to the strangely pleasing stench of flowering skunk cabbage wafting over the wetlands. Choral frogs resound from the reeds, the two-note song of a varied thrush echoes through the cedar forest and the critters we anglers especially love, the fish, are shaking off their winter slumber and, much to our benefit, beginning to snack more regularly.
We are in the prime of stillwater season and that promises to get us through the next month or so until we see more local rivers opening up. Beaches are picking up as well, and though we're not seeing a whole lot of outmigrating fry activity in the North Sound lately, bulls and a few cutthroat seem to at least be going through the motions of looking for them. We've been splitting our time between saltwater and lakes over the last few weeks, with the occasional jaunt across the border to swing the Vedder in search of steelhead. While Western Washington may not be considered a trout mecca in the same sense as Montana and the Rockies or a haven for warmwater species like the Heartland states, we do have an impressive variety of fisheries on a level that's hard to find elsewhere. Where else can you fish a beaver pond for coastal cutthroat one day, start the next morning searching for anadromous cutthroat on a quiet beach while gazing at Mount Baker and close out the afternoon catching bluegill and bass in the lily pads on a lake just another 30 minutes away? We absolutely love the diversity of the area we're fortunate to live in. Don't forget we're in a new license year, so make sure you've got a current fishing license before heading out.
The countdown has begun for Speyapalooza 2026. We'll have lots of vendors on site this year with the latest in two handed gear at Howard Miller Steelhead Park on Saturday, May 2nd. Please note that the shop will be closed all day during the event, but we hope you'll come join us for the festivities. As in previous years, we've got a limited edition Speyapalooza T-shirt available for pre-order through North Sound Trout Unlimited. You can order yours here and they'll be available for pick up at Speyapalooza or at the shop. Just select your size and quantity in the donation drop down box and you're good to go. North Sound Trout Unlimited will also have a fundraising raffle featuring a ton of great prizes from guided trips to spey rods and lines and much, much more. We hope to see you there!
We're adding new stuff weekly to the shop and our stillwater fly bins are brimming with the right patterns to get after it. If you haven't been by in a while, stop by and check things out. We'll also be clearing out some old fly patterns later this month at great prices in order to make room for new ones showing up. We'll have them up on the website and available in the shop too once we finish sorting through everything. I'm off to take a group to Baja to chase roosterfish for the next week and Brandon will be holding down the fort. If the magnificent "pez gallo" is somewhere on your bucket list, we've got the place and do a trip or two to Mexico every year in hot pursuit. Brandon is hosting a Baja trip this coming October and we have the details on our hosted travel page if you're interested in learning more. We hope you're getting out to enjoy some sun when we're lucky enough to get it and finding a few nice fish at the same time. Here's what's going on locally in the way of fishing opportunity.
Lakes
Many of our year round lakes have really come on lately with warmer spring weather. Chironomids are hatching regularly and steal the show on most lakes, but leeches, daphnia, bloodworms and even immature dragons and damsels have been on the menu at times too. Pass has been running hot and cold in typical fashion. While some days are certainly more productive than others, the trout are of exceptional quality and, we think, worth the effort. The rainbows in Pass right now are about as big and healthy as we've seen. Prom Midges, Dark Grey Red Holo/Silver Ribbed Chironomids, Chromies, Hanging with my Chromies, Rowley's Grey Boys and Chan's Black Holographic Chironomids have been fishing well on the good days. Lone has fished well too, with a little more consistency than Pass. We've not fished Squalicum yet this year, but right now it should be coming into its element. With the fine weather, afternoon and early evening rises are not uncommon. If you want to fish on top, CDC Hatching Midges, Chironomid Adults, Chironomid Cripples, and small Parachute Adams work well. If the trout refuse the dries, try a pattern in the film like a Winker Midge or Rowley's Rainbow Emerger.
The general lowland lake opener is the last Saturday in April and is right around the corner. You can check the WDFW trout plant report to get a sense of what's going where. A few year round lakes recently got plants as well, like Grandy and Vogler. Stocked trout aren't typically super acclimated to eating bugs and respond well to attractor patterns like Carey Specials, Pop's Buggers, Simi Seal Leeches and a variety of Woolly Bugger patterns. Focus your presentations near the surface with floating or intermediate lines as they're used to being fed on top and that's where they'll continue to dwell until they figure out they're not confined to a shallow pond any longer or tire of watching their kin get picked off by ospreys.
Bass and panfish are getting more active as well. While May and June are generally our favorite months to pursue them, the last few weeks have found them eating in the shallows. Stick to shoreline structure like grass and woody debris. The pads are just starting to fill in on a number of lakes. Unweighted Woolly Buggers, Hale Bopps, Damsel Nymph patterns and Bluegill Bullies are working well. A Balanced Leech, Hot Worm or larger Ice Cream Cone under an indicator tossed into the openings in vegetation also works really well, particularly in tight, snag-ridden areas. If you want to try out a new style of indicator that is ultra sensitive and helpful in detecting the lightest of bites, we have the new Mixed Bung Packs from Fulling Mill in stock.
Rivers
The lower Skagit is in good shape after the high water events of March and fishing is beginning to pick up. Fry patterns like Rolled Muddlers and Little McFry and a selection of larger streamers like Brig's Rippin' Rooster, Dali Llamas and Dungeons for the bigger bull trout are in order. It's never a bad idea to have a few dries on hand as well, like the Parachute Adams, Purple Haze or March Brown as warm afternoons sometimes give way to steady mayfly hatches and will get the cutthroat looking up.
Most steelhead rivers in Washington are now closed. We've been venturing up to the Vedder in search of spring steelhead as portions remain open through the end of April. In May, the river below the Vedder Crossing Bridge in Chilliwack goes to fly fishing only and will continue to provide opportunity. Given we didn't have a Skagit/Sauk steelhead catch and release season this year, we still have a great stock of effective steelhead flies if you need to pick up a few before beginning your next quest.
It's a drive from here, but the Yakima is fishing well and at wadable flows. Bring a smattering of skwala stonefly imitations, blue winged olives and March browns. Of course, if you'd rather throw streamers, that's very productive too this time of year.
Beaches
Our saltwater beaches are beginning to show some signs of life. There haven't been many cutthroat around yet but the sea run bulls have been making a sound appearance in Skagit Bay over the last several weeks. We're not expecting a tremendous fry out-migration following the big December 2025 flood, but it's still worthwhile to carry a few fry flies like the Eyed Fry and Chumbody's Baby with you just in case. Larger patterns like the Chartreuse Stinger Clouser, Psychedelic Herring Shock & Awe, Deceivers and Rio's Just Keep Swimming have been proving their worth lately.
We had a great turn out for the North Sound Trout Unlimited meeting at the Padilla Bay Reserve at the end of March and James Losee gave an awesome presentation on the fine work the Coastal Cutthroat Coalition has been doing over the years around the Sound. He also spoke about the current Samish Bay cutthroat study that is underway. If you missed the presentation, it is now uploaded to the North Sound TU YouTube Channel and available to watch. We've been exploring several beaches around Samish over the last couple of weeks but have yet to find any cutthroat. If you fish the Samish Bay area and have some intel on where the fish like to hang out consistently, please let us know. The CCC is hoping to capture and radio tag 30 cutthroat in the next few months as part of the study. We're also working on reporting app for this project which we should have available to share eventually.