Hi Tom,

I learned to fly fish on the Spokane River, which runs right through
Spokane, on the far east side of the state. It's not normally thought
of as much of a fishing river, partially because it's polluted with
mercury (or something) from old mines upriver - which ironically is one
of it's advantages: other than a few spots where everyone bunches up,
there's hardly anyone there. That said, the only hatches I ever
encountered (in my one year there) were the Caddis evening hatches. I
wouldn't even mention it, except to say -- in the five years of
consistent fishing since then, I still think the top 5 or so strongest,
fastest trout I have ever caught were during my first year on that
river. I don't know what it was. They're all rainbows, to start. And
I did catch some sizable ones. They also don't get lazy sipping
mayflies -- if they want to eat a bug, they've got to go chasing the
zippy emerging caddis. And the river can be pretty big and strong, so
when hooked they can run far and use the current to their advantage.
But still - I sometimes wonder if maybe it was the mercury that did it.
Toughened 'em up.

Or maybe it's just my fond memory of my original home water... anyway,
I certainly had fun there...

Tim

Tom Nakashima wrote:
I have the Memorial Day Weekend off (May 26-29) and my friend and I would
like to fly-fish one of the rivers in the state of Washington. I've heard
there are rivers that aren't too crowded with good size bows...any
recommendations?
-tom