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Upper Columbia River

Sean Visintainer - 04/24/12

Sean with a nice Columbia River Rainbow caught on his Winston Fly Rod.

Rainbows

"Upper Jurassic" is what Jack Mitchell of The Evening Hatch Guide Service refers to as the Upper Columbia River near North Port, Washington... and I can see why! This is truly the land of giant rainbow trout and big water!

I recently got the opportunity to check out Jack's Black Bear Lodge on the Upper Columbia recently with a few clients from Wenatchee to see what it was all about. This wasn't my first trip to the land of huge rainbow trout but it was my first trip staying at Jack's newly built lodge. I have to say the accommodations are top notch and his staff was as equally fantastic. Fishing in March/April can be challenging as anywhere in the West pre-runoff but if you hit it right it can be epic. While our timing with mother nature wasn't perfect we still managed to land some nice fish. Nice fish on the Upper Columbia are not your typical "nice" trout... these fish can be upwards of 30"!! This is probably the closest thing to Alaska syle (think Kenai, Nanek, Kvichak) rainbows you can have in the lower 48.

Upper Columbia River view from the back of the boat.

Summer time on the Upper Columbia can bring on some monster hatches of drakes and caddis. 20-30" kick-ass rainbows on dries? Sounds good to me... sign me up!

Jack has a few open days left in June if anyone is interested... call me and we'll see if we can get you on the Upper Columbia in search of Jurassic sized rainbows!