Saturday, February 27, 2010

February 27, 2010 Walla Walla River

Winter in the valley is giving way to spring. After tying a few flies in the morning I decided it was no day to sit around inside. The sun was out and steelhead have been moving up the Walla Walla River into the city limits of Milton Freewater. Although I have taken my kids fishing below the bridge near my house, I have never gone any farther than that to see if there is any good fishing to be had within the city limits. In the summer the river gets drawn down from irrigation and you have to go up towards the South Fork to find decent water. Today seemed like a good day to do some exploring close to home.

I drove a mile and a half to the edge of town and parked by the Nursery Bridge. I walked upstream from the diversion damn and fish ladder below the bridge. There is a nice piece of water just upstream. Although it looked good I did not find any steelhead waiting for me there. I fished the mile and a half back to my house without managing to catch any steelhead. I did catch several rainbows and spotted one steelhead just below the bridge near my house.

The fish was sitting in shallow water as I waded upstream. Upon me thrashing up towards him, he drifted sideways into the deeper current. I made several drifts through the area he moved into but was unable to entice him to come to the fly. It is getting close to spawning time. The fish I saw was not sitting on a redd, but I did see several redds on a different section of water.

There were a lot of bugs out as well. Stoneflies seemed to dominate although I did see a few caddis and a few mayflies. There was also the usual tiny midges out and about. The stoneflies varied widely in size. I had several small ones, perhaps 3/8” long, land on me. I also saw several large one inch plus stoneflies crawling around on the cement below the bridge near my home. Just a week ago there was nothing but midges hatching.

All in all this section of water is not great. There were a few decent looking bits of pocket water, but they were difficult to fish at best. Most had branches on the water over them, or a lot of limbs under water that you would get snagged on. Other spots the brush was heavy on both sides of the river so I walked up the middle and by the time I could get in a position to cast I am sure I already scared off anything that was there to begin with. This section of river also seems a bit limited by the dykes. Much of it is shallow riffle without much structure. It was great to get out of the house and see a new stretch of water even if it wasn’t a great one.