by Randal Sumner
07/01/2004
This was a great spring for my rhododendrons, cool, and wet. The
plants seemed to bloom for two months. Yakima is not the perfect
climate for Roddies; in fact this would be the anti- environment
for them. I like Roddies because they don’t require much care, some
shade, a little acid fertilizer and water, lots of water, conditions
not always found in the desert.
This year the conditions were perfect both for Roddies and for
spring fishing on the Yakima River. The Trout bums enjoyed at least
three weeks of the best Pale Morning Dun fishing I can remember.
Ephermerellia Inermis better known, as PMD’s are a medium size yellow
mayfly that seem to snap to the surface during a hatch, you have
to listen carefully but there snapping. The trout start snapping
too, but they have a little more subtle sound, anyway it can get
noisy, slurping and snapping.
The Roddies on the other hand seem pretty quiet at least when I’m
around. The other great thing about a PMD hatch is that is very
time consistent it starts about ten minutes later each day till
conditions change and there gone. Its civilized fishing and frankly
very easy, size 14 PMD parachutes cast to gorging happy trout.
On May 15th I was able to persuade a friend, Linn Kraft to take
the afternoon off and do some fishing. Linn is always ready to go
but sometimes he gets busy building someone’s dream house. Being
a contractor has its ups and downs. Before I left to meet him on
the river I had a few errands to run and the Roddies needed to be
watered. I put the gushing hose under the Roddies and left for the
river. Now I realize this was the point I began to flood the basement,
so incredibly stupid.
To say that Linn and I had great fishing would be wrong; it was
only The Best Four Hours Of Mayfly Fishing In 30 Years Of Chasing
Trout Anywhere. We fished about a half-mile of river from the boat;
the concentration and adrenalin left us spent by the time PMD hatch
stopped. The beauty of this was that I still didn’t realize I was
in the process flooding the basement. I was happy, happy man.
The question trout bums ask when I tell them this story is: would
I have gone home if I knew? Would you trade the greatest day of
PMD fishing ever for a dry basement? I guess I don’t see why it
had to be one or the other, the yin or the yang. When I did get
home I was unable to share this remarkable fishing experience with
my bride of thirty years. She was not much interested in philosophical
questions at that point. So Trout Bums, take heed: practice humility,
keep your mouth shut and please turn the water off when you go fishing.
