Klickitat

Made it out to the Klick a week ago. The river was clear and pressure was light. Weather was a chilly 40 degrees in the morning, warming up to the upper 80's in the afternoon. Not a cloud in the sky.

Got to my chosen spot before sunrise. Walked in a bit and started swinging. No action. Not even a peck. Continued to walk down river for probably more than a mile (was on the trail side of the river). Fished lots of good looking runs using a floating line on my compact scandi. I used un weighted flies and a couple of skaters. A bit further along in the morning I caught a few small trout. No action from any big fish.

Around noon, I decided to get in the car and drive. The plan was to go15 or so miles upstream. Unfortunately, I didn't write directions down and never found my destination. Good way to waste a couple of hours.

After getting back to where I started, I stopped at a run that looked good last time I was here. It was now in the upper 80's and rather hot. Kept my comp scandi on, but rigged up a 10ft section of T10. With a 3 inch bright orange/red rabbit strip fly sporting a large set of dumbell eyes, I started casting into a riffly run.

An hour in, I had a fish pull a few feet of line out. Unfortunately, I was daydreaming, digging around in my pocket, or something else I shouldn't have been doing. I missed the fish. Tried the same cast again and got hit a second time. Argh! I missed it this time too. Sent that same fly out again with nothing. Uh oh. Missed my chance. I backed up a few feet and switched to a small fly of the same color. Fished through. Nothing! Backed up again with a new fly. This went on for 5 flies and about 45 minutes.  I didn't feel bad for wasting so much time here.  No one was around, and after all, there probably weren't that many fish willing to hit a fly  when the sun was directly overhead.  Never got another bump. Bummer.

I moved to a new spot. This one was receiving shade from the canyon walls. The water was a little deeper than I like. So, I kept the sink tip, but changed up the fly to something smaller.  Three of four trout later, I decided to move on.

It was getting late, I tried a few spots down river, and then I found this section I had never been to before. It was great. Everything about it looked perfect. No fish, but I will certainly be back to try that run again.

The Klickitat is a great river. It has really grown on me. Hopefully, I'll get in a few more trips before the year ends.