This past week has been what we were waiting for! High temps in the 50s since Wednesday, even a 40 something day on Saturday! This coupled with around an inch of rain has pushed in the fish! Friday brought high winds to murky up the shore. Definitely a small craft advisory! Saturday the Catt was under 300 CFS with steady river temps right around 50. Started at daybreak on the reservation below cabbage patch. With all the gravel mining they are doing at the patch, I wanted to see what the river lower down would look like in otherwise prime conditions. Well it wasnt great to say the least. What should have been near to or slightly more than 20 inches of vis was cut down to under 10. Not un-fishable but very tough. Spent a couple hours swinging down there and lost a solid fish into the wood despite the less than favorable visability. 

By mid morning, I decided to hop above cabbage patch. Ended up a little higher up than I would have liked because this weekend was definitely a steelhead season weekend and there were cars and fisherman at each spot. Watched some center-pinners pull out a few fish near the patch. Checked out one of my favorite mid-river stretches and there was no-body, and the water looked great! Good news is run looked even better than I remember, but the bad news is that since the water looked so good up there, the gravel mining will keep the lower 5 miles or so at 10" or less. Didn't expect to find a fish this high up with the late summer and early fall we've had, and wasn't surprised by any.

Decided to pack it over and check out some of the smaller creeks. Each were clear and each had fish. Saw one hole on a smaller creek with a few fish lined up in the tailout. Grabbed my switch with a dry line and a long leader. Tied on a bomber and watched a fish chase it till it ran out of water. Chased it three casts in a row, but couldnt commit. Still it's always fun when you find a player.

All the creeks have fish in them. Here are a few pics.

A money run. The near side is deep and boulder studded, while the far side has a slow water bucket that people walk through and forget to fish.

Where dreams are made. All those rocks on the other side will hold fish.