Washington

Washington's inland trout and steelhead fishing centers on the dry, sunny east slope of the Cascades, where the rivers run clear out of the high country and the weather cooperates far more often than it does on the rainforest side. The Yakima is the state's only blue-ribbon trout stream — a canyon river of wild redband rainbows and westslope cutthroat managed under catch-and-release rules, with flows engineered around the irrigation 'flip-flop' that reshuffles the river in early fall. The Wenatchee, draining the Cascades near Leavenworth, is a bigger, colder system better known for its returning summer steelhead, native bull trout, and cutthroat.

The season is snowmelt-driven: heavy Cascade runoff blows the rivers out through May and June, then the Yakima settles into a long, reliable dry-fly summer — March browns and caddis early, PMDs and the famous October caddis late, and a salmonfly and golden stone show in spring. The Wenatchee's trout fishing is more of a shoulder-season affair around the steelhead and salmon runs, which open and close on short notice — always check the WDFW emergency rules before you go.