Cold day on the Klickitat

Made my first trip to the Klickitat.  Not far from the mouth of the Deschutes on the Washington side, this river is a beauty.

Got there at sunup on a cold morning.  Air temp was around 30 degrees.  After getting in the water, I thought to myself, "boy, this water feels cold".  A thermometer told me it was 40 degrees.  Wow.  Wasn't expecting that at all!

For three hours I battled frozen fingers and frozen guides.  My toes were numb as I was wearing my Fall socks, not my winter ones.  I failed to follow the Boy Scout creedo, "Always be prepared" (I could be completely wrong about that, it has been a few years).

I'm going to make this a quick report as I have somewhere to go in about 10 minutes.  The gist of it is, the river is beautiful, but more setup as nymphing/indicator water.  Can you believe I actually put on a bobber?  Blasphemy!  I gave it the old College try for about 1/2 hour.  Then went back to swinging.

Didn't matter what I did, I didn't catch a thing on this day.  I tried everything from small flies on a floating line and a 10foot section of T14 with a weighted intruder, to of course nymphing.  Found a sweet run or two, but for the most part, it wasn't an ideal river for what I like to do.  Or at least I didn't find an ideal run to swing on.  If I had done more walking on the other side of the river, I may of found something.  But today, was for scooting from point to point in my car.

If I can put my bike in the car, I may take a trail that goes along the river for several miles.  I can probably find some secluded spots that are far away from any roads.  This is definitely on my list for next time.  While the area I probed in my car was not ideal, it has potential.

Although this was a very cold, zero fish day, I had fun.  I'll be back with a bicycle sometime in the future.


p.s. The White Salmon river dam was blown on the same day I was on the Klickitat.  While I didn't hear it, a Washington Fish and Game guy was very excited and told me all the details.  In a few years, that river should be a great run for salmon and steelhead.