It sounds like several of us will be Salmon fishing on the Yakima River real soon. Use this topic to post your Yakima River stories so we can keep on track with this river.

My strategy this year will be drift fishing with a pink worm / Salmon Roe setup. In the past, I have drifter only Salmon Roe from a float using a snell hook and the roe sack to keep the roe on the hook for a longer duration.

The salmon shown in the below picture was caught on the Yakima using a Blue Fox #5 Silver Spinner with the single Siwash hook.

I still think that is just an absolutely amazing looking fish. What an incredible thrill it must have been to land it. I to will be going down to fish the Yak here in a couple of weeks. I scheduled my vacation to start the first weekend of October and run right through to the second week of October so hopefully it will be going full tilt by that time. Hey one question for everyone going to fish the Yak was, do you have to buy a provisional license from the Indian reservation to fish it. I was told by someone that all fishermen must posess both a Washington fishing license and a Indian reservation permit. Could someone who knows let me know if you do and how much it is, that would be greatly appreciated.

If you are fishing the lower section of the river (Prosser Dam to mouth) you will not need a tribal permit. The permit is only needed to the section that is open above by granger. RAE that is a good time to schedule your vacation. Things should be pretty good by then. Let me know what weekends you were thinking of coming down.

RAE I think you picked the traditional peak of the season for your trip; you should have good luck. I think that the fishing will be good earlier this year as the river has been running high for this time of year. Normally, the Yak is hot and choked full of weeds right now, but at the moment, it looks good and fit to hold salmon. Good luck to all on this river.

E-mann

After reading my original post, it appears I might have taken credit for that fish. It was caught by a buddy of mine. I will, however, take credit for smoking the fish.

Rae,

Your timing should work well. Just an FYI. Most sections of the river outside of W. Richland will require fishing while standing in the river. Bank fishing is fairly difficult as shallow water runs up to the edge of the bank and makes retreiving your rig almost impossible. Make sure you bring waders (chest and not hip) and river boots.

I had to laugh when I was fishing with my brother a few years back. We saw a guy hauling a red kids wagon down to the river. We couldn't figure out what the heck that was about. A few hours later, we saw the same guy leaving the river with three salmon in his wagon. Go figure.

Where I go fishing on the Yak I walk about a half mile and then down a steep bank. I have defietly thought about getting one of those wagons with the inflated tires to haul gear and fish. Sometimes that walk is a major pain in the butt carriying gear and 50lbs of fish!! That is my limit weight of course. Although I would sure like to see a 40lb fish this year.

Went out yesterday morning with a buddy of mine. We ended up going 2 for 4 with each of us landing one. The other two were on for a couple minutes then shook us. We turned them loose as they were pretty dark. Both were in the mid teens. They must have been some of the summer run as I did see one other fish caught that was much much better looking. So I think that they are definetly on their way! One note of caution. Make sure you guys know your regs especially the non-bouyant lure rule. I watched the game warden bust a guy, and when he was checking our licenses I talked to him for a few minutes and he said that they have already written 90 tickets for various infractions! Study up and fish on!

Dev88T

Nice job on the fish. I've heard other reports of a few caught and I see that there's even a few trickling over the Prosser dam. I'm surprised to hear that they were dark already. I managed to get me wife "hooked" on fishing, which is mostly a good thing, except that since we have small kids, it means that I'm at home with them when she's out fishing. She plans to hit the Yak Thursday and Sunday. We'll see if the "feminine" touch is magic.

I have one last question before I head to the Yak in a couple of weeks. What pound test do I want to rig my pole with. I generally fish 10lb test when I am fishing for Steelhead, but I have heard there is a touch more spunk in the Salmon runs. Any information on this would be appreciated.

RAE

I fish with 20# mainline and 15# leader. Some folks use equally heavy leader because of the salmon teeth, but since I catch so few of them, I more concerned with losing my gear so in the event of a break-off the lighter leader allows me to keep my the rest of my gear above the leader.

Thanks E-mann! I had a feeling that 10# test was not the type of tackle I wanted to take with me. I will give both a shot and see what works best for me. Thanks for the tip!!

RAE

Notice how the above hook is missing the sharp tip?

I fished the Yakima River today with DoubleD. We had a great time and actually saw several salmon surface during our venture.

The above hook says it all for me. I floated roe on a snelled hook with some pink yarn. The hook was set and the fight was on. Actually, there wasn't much of a fight since the Salmon grabbed my hook and hugged the bottom of the River.

After about 15 - 20 minutes with the fish on, I decided to see if I could gain the upper hand. The only upper hand I gained was a broken hook. The dang hook snapped on me and I came up empty.

Go figure.

All in all, it was a fun day. We did not see any salmon banked, however, rumor had it that one was caught earlier on a spinner.

That's a tough one, Glock; but the best stories are of the one's that got away...

I managed to get one to the bank, check out the photo in the gallery.



After a big zero for 20+ hours on the Yak last year, I got a bit of redemption on my first trip this year.

Good luck,


***Edited by Glock to include picture for Emann

Nice catch E-mann Things have been really slow for me this year. Some guy was kind enough to give me the eggs out of a hen he caught so I got those brewed up and ready to go. Tried a different curing process this year to produce a little drier egg. Still new to the whole curing thing, but hopefully these will work!

Dev88T

I have been down to the Yakima below the Prosser Dam for about 25 hours or so over the past two weeks... I finally hooked one on Saturday, just below the freeway bridge, only to have my leader snap about one minute into the fight. That was a bit frustrating, but then I found that my Lamiglas pole I had bought two days prior was busted at the reel seat Needless to say, that was not the best day on the water. Anyway, unfortunately, I was the only one I saw with a hookup that day or Sunday. The fish were fairly active, jumping and stuff, but there was not much of a bite on. Hopefully things have warmed up some since the weekend. Good luck.