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.

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.