We drifted the Pavati from Bob's Bridge to White Bridge. (By the way, there is no bridge at white bridge.) The weather cooperated for the most part, overcast with part rain.

We opted to work our holes thoroughly, rather than racing to get first water and missing fish, which paid out big time.

At our first stop, we saw a couple of rollers, and threw some roe their way and hooked up and lost a nice fish, and then after a few more casts we connected with our first nice buck at around 9 pounds. Into the fish box he went, and although there were a few fish still in the hole, they were uncooperative. Some bank anglers had made the long hike into the hole, so we left those fish for them and moved on.

After side drifting down through some holes, and pulling some plugs, we happened upon another roller in a hole that we were going to pass through and decided to anchor up and cast at it. This one put up a great fight, and nearly took us downstream, but we brought it to the bank and ended up being the big fish for the day coming in at 33 inches and around 12 pounds.

The rest of the day was uneventful until near the end of the drift we hooked a super feisty hen underneath the fallen alder, and pulled us nearly 200 yards downstream. We snapped photos and measurements, and were debating whether to row back up and hit the hole again, when a pontoon of fly fishermen hooked another fish right behind us.

We drifted down to the takeout and called it a day, and a good one at that. The boats had mixed success, a few had found fish, but it took our extra effort to get a good haul. All in all, a good day to drift.

I am now booking trips on the Wynoochee, both bank and drifts, there are still plenty of fish left to bring in. I will be working the Chehalis system and then moving out to the OP to target those fabled wild fish later in the month of March. Give me a call or an email if you'd like to get out, we're booking up fast!

Nate Treat Fishing
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"Specializing in Fishing Instruction and Shore Guiding on Washington's Rivers."
NateTreatFishing.com

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