The once lively fly fishing forum has been pretty dead recently. Hopefully that means we are all out there fishing instead of posting, which is a good thing in my book. In the meantime I figured I'd try and inject some livelihood back into the forum with results from my trip to Seattle this past week. My wife grew up in the Seattle area and we decided to take a break from the Texas heat to visit her family in Auburn, about 15 miles (or 45 minutes in traffic) south of Seattle.

My previous trips to the area were in the winter or fall, so clear skies and sunshine were a welcome sight. Saw Mount Rainier in her full glory throughout the trip.



My brother and law and I ended up taking a trip over the Snoqualmie pass to Cle Ellum to fish the Teanaway River. We opted for a small stream trip over the typical float. Although it's the most consistent way to catch fish in both quantity and quality, bobber fishing off a drift boat doesn't really do it for me any more. I'd much rather sight fish a hundred tiny native trout than haul a 24 inch rainbow under a strike indicator.





The Teanaway is a sandstone bottom stream and it's stunningly beautiful. The water was gin clear and we saw tons of October caddis on the rocks as well as plentiful stonefly molts, crawfish, and sculpin. We were initially worried because the early morning temperatures began in the upper fifties, but the sun soon broke through and we ended up with the opposite problem when the water heated up quickly as temperatures climbed into the 80s.





We fished dries through all the drop offs, riffles, and rapids we could find but had little to show for it. Eventually my brother in law hooked up with a stunning native west slope cutthroat trout that hit a dry after a downed tree. The natives are just beautiful and while people love targeting giant rainbows and browns, watching these smaller fish destroy dry flies was amazing. The fish were few and far between as the water temperatures started heating up, but I managed to connect with a small rainbow in some very fast water which made for an amazing fight.





A couple of days later, I managed to find a few spare hours to myself, so I headed down to Flaming Geyser State Park about 30 minutes from Seattle to fish the Green River. The Green is more of a traditional trout stream with large stone bottom and is a hotspot for salmon and steelhead migration. Much like the Teanaway, the scenery around the Green was spectacular. However, during the summer months it holds a significant population of native fish. I had stopped by Emerald Water Anglers for advice earlier in the week and they sent me off with some small stimulators to rig in a dry dropper with a nymph. I waded into some nice riffles in the river made a few casts and immediately found action. I�m by no means the best trout angler, but the fish were more than willing to accommodate my mediocre presentations. The setup worked well and I caught too many small native cutthroats to count. One was even eager enough to hit the stimulator.







We wound down the day by heading to Canon in Seattle proper. Canon was billed as one of the best bars in the world and my experience there surpassed my expectations. The service was excellent, drinks were wonderful, and they have curated an amazing collection of whiskeys. All in all, it was a great break from the warmwater fishing and even warmer temperatures that have been dominating the summer in Texas.

That sounds like it was a wonderful trip. I share your preference for catching natives over stockers, although I have to admit that it doesn't hurt my feelings to land big fish!

Awesome post! Thanks for sharing.

As Geirach says, "a twelve inch trout caught on a dry fly is two inches longer than a twelve inch trout caught any other way. There is just something special about those little natives. Nice pics. Love the shot on the nymph.

Oh yea! Love the pictures! Looks like a wonderful trip!