5-12 SS Skwala 1

 Contrary to popular belief and what has been written in books, magazines as well as portrayed by area guides for years, the Skwala Stonefly makes an emergence on rivers in the Northwest in early spring. 

 Many fly fishermen and guides had thought for years that this was a Golden Stone species.  Just recently have they come around to correctly identify this early spring Stonefly. This size 8-10 Stonefly sets the motion for great spring time dry fly fishing. What I just said is the kind of rhetoric that flies around (no pun intended) in the head of Josh Mills who is always thinking of flyfishing.“The season never ends for the crazy committed like I am but this is the kickoff of dry fly season. This fills a nice gap before runoff and gets you a little bit excited for those big bushy dry flies that you can throw later in the summer to cutthroats and brown’s and rainbows. So as we come into springtime and the temperatures start getting above 50° and the waters start to warm around the Northwest there is a very special stonefly which is one of our first big drive fly hatches. There is always going to be midges throughout the winter and early spring but these are the big pieces of protein that start moving around in the stream beds in rivers like the Yakima,  the Bitterroot over in Montana, also the Thompson River  over in Montana, these are really the first dry flies that fish are looking up and ready to smack a big foamy  dry fly.