I had a great day on Wednesday, floating the Yakima River at the bottom end of the canyon. I was fishing with Johnny Boitano of the Troutwater Fly Shop in Ellensburg and Rollie Schmitten. While many think that it is way too early to be fishing on the Yakima, Boitano has shown me that fishing can be terrific this time of year. In spite of a mix of weather that included snow, rain and some hefty gusts of wind, we hooked over 20 rainbow on the float. We caught many of them on stone flies with drop small nymphs below them, but we also got a good number of fish on dry flies. The Yakima gets hatches of Skwala, which are large bugs that the trout really love starting right about now, and also see hatches of March Browns at this time, too. The water was a little high and slightly off color, but not enough to prevent good fishing. We pretty much had the river to ourselves, which is another reason to consider a trip on the Yakima. The guys at Troutwater really know the river and what’s happening on it and I would highly recommend a trip with them. The sooner the better.