Kenyon's Spokane River Update

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Like many of us around here, I view the annual Spokane River opener as a local Holiday. Post-work fishing sessions become the norm, and my time on the water increases exponentially having the river right out the back door.

Flows are lower than usual for this time of year, which makes it much easier to get out on the river. In past seasons, flows have been running so high that the river was hardly even fishable on the opener. With the current levels sitting just under 5000 CFS, floating and wade fishing are both worthy options.

Jesse and I spent some time on foot down in Riverside State Park over the weekend and were able to find plenty of willing fish on dry-dropper combos and euro rigs. We saw a good amount of Salmonflies crawling around in the bushes, which will keep fish interested in large dry fly patterns for the next few weeks. We don’t typically see many of the big bugs on the Spokane, so it was really cool running across some of these floating cheeseburgers.

I floated both the upper and lower river Monday and Tuesday. We had good luck on dry-dropper rigs, with quite a few fish coming to the surface for the large dry fly. Chubby Chernobyls and Water Walkers were the best producers; purple, red and royal were the best colors. Caddis nymphs with a tungsten bead, tan or peacock in size 12-14 worked great for a dropper nymph. Double nymph and euro rigs produced as well. Heavy stonefly nymphs like a tungsten bead Pats Rubber Legs or Twenty Incher, along with a caddis nymph produced all day long. Streamer fishing also was worthy, with some really nice rainbows and a few brown trout coming out of the willows to crush a fly on the strip. Sparkle Minnows and Sculpzillas were our best patterns.

Hopefully everyone had a chance to get on the river this past weekend, it sure was fishy. This will be one of the best options around all summer long, since the river stays colder than many of the other streams in the region. Swing by the shop and let us know how its been for you! We love hearing fish stories and seeing photos of your success.