Discover Walla Walla

It's that time of year! Days are growing noticeably shorter, the angle of daylight has shifted from that of the high summer sun, evenings are cooler, there's the scent of dew on freshly mown grass, and... I've got a knot in my stomach!

I grew up playing football. It was my passion and it paid for undergraduate and graduate degrees. By the time I was a graduate assistant coaching college ball my senses were conditioned to such a degree that the smell of dew on newly mown grass in late August and early September threw my stomach into turmoil. My body dreaded what was to come...two-a-days, blood sweat and tears, and counting the days before it was all over and we could start hitting someone other than our buddies.

I went to school in Gunnison, Colorado, elevation 7,708 feet above sea level. School started almost 5 weeks after we reported to training camp my senior season. Two-a-days lasted a couple of weeks allowing for three weeks of time to fill after practices... time for fishing. And boy did we fish! It was incredible. Evening temperatures were just right. Rivers and streams cooled as the oncoming winter began its annual embrace of the high country. Bugs were hatching. Fish were fresh, thick, and aggressive having lost their lethargy from the" dog days of summer". Aspen and cottonwood leaves began their annual turning providing backdrops and settings that burned their beauty into my memory. That fall a transition began to take place helping me survive the passing of my youth and days spent on the gridiron. The shift from summer to fall began to signify that it is time to hit the water and throw flies in earnest.

 

The Walla Walla Valley is no exception to this annual transition. Beginning around the first of September things begin to happen in the rivers and streams. The drainages here are fed by cool mountain springs. However, the distances they travel to join the Columbia are such that the summer heat warms the water taking a toll on the fish. As waters heat up, coldwater fish slow down and become lethargic. I am told the larger fish actually migrate up into the high country of the watersheds to dodge the heat. September rolls around and it begins to cool, there is more water in the rivers and streams as needs of irrigators lessen, large fish move downstream, fish begin to thicken, October Caddis (O.C.'s) morph and mate, and the fishing turns on.

I have many fond autumn memories from Colorado and other places. Those I am building in the watershed of the Walla Walla Valley outweigh many of them. Take for example the October Caddis hatch. A couple of years ago, near the end of October, I was out with my fishing buddy Pat. We were hoping to hit the O.C. hatch up Mill Creek. It was a beautiful fall evening, the air was crisp, the sun was setting, and the trees were well into their fall color and shedding of leaves. The evening started out rough for me -a broken rod tip puts a damper on the "fun meter." I was left to wading while watching Pat. Fishing the October Caddis hatch is somewhat like listening to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, it starts out good, crescendos, and climaxes with the big guns going off. With the O.C.'s the climax is a window of 35-40 minutes when caddis and big fish are "going off." That evening Pat hit the window spot-on and landed five fish from 15"-20". All were proportioned like footballs. Pat lost a sixth and final fish larger than the others.

Another example occurred last fall. I was out with my daughter Katie and her boyfriend Dave. They were in town visiting before they started work in the fall and they wanted to throw some line before leaving. We spent an early evening on the "Town Section" of the Touchet River. We all caught nice fish. Near the end of our day we were taking turns drifting a Beadhead Prince Nymph through a nice deep hole. The rule is one strike and it's the next persons turn. Something went wrong with Dave's gear and he allowed me to step in front of him on his turn. As my luck and Dave's misfortune would have it I had a take. The outcome was a beautiful 24" Steelhead. Katie lives in Montana where fly fishing is a big deal. Kate's comment was, "Wow Dad, I've never seen you or any one catch such a BIG fish!"

These are just two of many stories I could tell of the fall fishing in the area. It's the time of year when fishing comes to life and there are some nice fish to land. While size and quantity become factors they aren't the main point. Always, the stories of fall are wrapped in the beauty and splendor of the autumn season in the Walla Walla Watershed. There are few things finer!

By the time this posts there's a good chance we will be well into September. The fields of autumn will have been cut more than once, they will have been lined numerous times, and the turf will start showing wear. Guys will have thrown on the pads and played a game or two. The scent of dew on the grass will still be fresh and for a brief moment, there will be that knot. The fields of play are for the young. The O.C.'s are moving, the fish are on, and it's time to throw some flies!