Most trout fishermen love the dry fly, and the cutthroat is king in our western world when it comes to dry fly fishing. Add to that, dry flies that are small enough to cast well and large enough to see and we have potential for FULL planet alignment.

For two weeks now these little buggers have been hopping around whenever I step outside my door, they started as little size 18 critters barely large enough to go 10 inches at a hop, now there size 8-10 and some larger making waves as I walk through the fields and along the banks. Just yesterday I had the first real hopper crushing on trout, a solid plop on the bank and a full on no hesitation smash from a 15 inch rainbow then another take that was slow as molassis, obviously a cutthroat, in twenty minutes of bank fishing I rose ten solid trout one around 18-19 inches that I recued my hopper just in time from his crushing blow (yea I yanked it away). Just wade fishing by the house in the evening.

All the central Washington rivers are now in great shape for hopper fishing and should remain so through September. Tomorrow we head off for the Natches then the Methow later in the week in search of the biggest of  Washington’s trout on Hoppers, we will be happy with the normal sized but fishing hard for the Jumbo’s that live there.

We have another full moon coming, with that we will see if the Yakima River will have a full on Summer Stone hatch or not, up to now its been rather spotty through out the system from Cle Elum to Roza.

The drakes are still around but winding down fast, don’t expect to see many at all soon.

We are now booking trout trips on the Yakima, Natches and Methow. Some of the biggest trout I have ever caught came from the Methow, they have cutthroat as big as there steelhead and we manage a few that size every season.

Steelhead on the Klickitat is heating up and I have open dates for that in September and late August.

Methow steelhead season is booking up fast I have some dates available in October and November. Requires a WDFW opening.

See you on the river, Jeff@brazdasflyfishing.com