Someone forgot about Mother's Day

Somebody forgot Mother's Day, but at least it wasn't me. The guilty party would happen to be the Mother's Day caddis hatch on the Yakima River, but you know what they say better late than never. Each year for the past eight years I have made the trip to the Yakima River in early May in hopes of catching the hatch just right. The past two years in a row I got the hatch timed right, but run-off kicked in just a bit too early and the river blew out. This year with a lower than usual snow pack in the Cascades, I got lucky and the river levels were low when I planned to hit the river. The lower river levels didn't mean that the caddis were going to show though.

I made my first trip to the river just before after Mother's Day, but a weather front had shut down the hatch and made fishing a battle with the elements. Bad weather and a lack of caddis coming off wasn't going to stop me though, so I set up a couple of nymphs and hit the water.

Wind, rain, thunder and lighting... Perfect time to fish!

I found a piece of water where a side channel met up with the main river forming a great seam and decided that it was as good of a place as any to find a trout. Half way down the seamline my indicator went down and I was tied into a monster. Now I have caught my share of nice trout on the Yakima, including a few over 20" they had nothing on this fish. Once it was hook this fish went straight into my backing with me chasing after it. I recovered my fly line once before it decided that it wasn't having anything do with that and took off again. It was on this run that I could feel my leader bouncing along the rocks and before long my 5x tippet and Lighting Bug dropper gave way, only to leave me scratching my head and wondering what just happened. I can only assume that this was either a monster trout or nice Steelhead, but I will never know. The encounter with this  monster of the deep was enough to keep me on the water for another couple hours, but all that I had to show for it was a couple more hook ups and a 15" trout lost at the net.

Fast forward a week and I was back on the river again for an overnight trip and this time the Caddis decided to show up too. In fact it was the thickest Caddis hatch that I have ever seen on the river with the air looking like a highway of bugs all flying upstream. Not only were the Caddis present, but the weather was beautiful with sunny skies and a gentle 80 degree breeze; the type of fishing I have been dreaming about all winter!

Beautiful weather on the river - note all of the specs in the picture are Caddisflies

Flipping rocks is great by spider's webs are better during the hatch... 16 Grannom Caddis

With the amazing weather I decided to wet wade and rigged up my 4wt with a size 16 Hot Butt Caddis and Lighting Bug dropper. I started by searching the seam that had held the monster last week and while I didn't find it I did find a one of its friends...

Not the monster, but a 19"er isn't bad either

As the hatch progressed and evening started coming on I moved to a stretch of river with a nice deep cut bank and some over hanging brush for cover. For this task I armed myself with my new 6' 1wt Scott Fibertouch rod and before long I was able to sneak up on a very active riser. With the low hanging vegetation along the banks the little 6' rod was the perfect tool and within a few casts I got a cast right into the fish's feeding lane and it rose to my dry. With a 1wt you definitely have to finesse things a little more once you get a fish on, but after a quick battle I was still able to bring the 17" trout to the net.

Caddis time...

A beautiful Yakima Redband

After releasing this fish I decided I had done well enough for one day and head back to camp to relax and reflect on a great day on the river.