When you book a guided fishing trip with Lower Columbia Fishing Company, you can expect to fish with the highest quality equipment available. From our comfortable and spacious 22’ Custom Jet Sled and 16’ ClackaCraft Drift Boat, we can always take you to where the fish are. We fish custom built Lamiglas Rods made by R&R Rod Company matched with Shimano or Abu-Garcia reels rated for the fish species that we’re targeting and only use the highest quality line, leader, swivels, hooks, bait and tackle to ensure that you have the best possible fishing experience. Lower Columbia Fishing Company provides all equipment, bait and tackle on our guided salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon fishing trips. If you have a favorite outfit that you like to fish with or are interested in a steelhead fly fishing trip, no worries, just give us a call and we’ll be more than happy to provide you with our recommendations.

On our guided desert lake fly fishing trips, we encourage our clients to bring their own gear; rods, reels, waders, float tube or pontoon boat. We will furnish all flies, leaders, tippets and accessories for your day of fishing. If you’re interested in tying your own flies for the trip, give us a call and we’ll send you a list of recommended patterns and tying instructions. If you don’t have the equipment or are giving fly fishing a try for the first time, no problem. Let us know at time of booking and we can arrange to furnish you with all the proper gear.

Desert Lake Tackle List:

Fly Rods:
Lower Columbia Fishing Company recommends using 5wt or 6wt fly rods in 8’ to 9’-6” length for our desert lake trout fishing trips.

Fly Reels:
Fly reels should be matched to the rod in weight and line capacity. Reels should have plenty of backing to handle the blistering runs of large rainbow trout.

Fly Lines:
At a minimum we suggest a full floating line matched to the weight of the rod. We also recommend that you bring another reel or spare spool with a type II sink tip line for those times when the trout are feeding sub-surface.

Flies:
A basic assortment of fly patterns can get you through most any fishing situation you’ll encounter on the desert lakes of Eastern Washington and should include:

• #16, #14, and #12 Chironomids in Black, Olive, Brown
• #18, #20 Brassies
• #16, #14, #12 Scuds, Olive, Yellow, Dark Green
• #14, #12 San Juan Worms
• #16, #14, #12 Hare’s Ear Nymphs, Tan, Gray
• #14, #12 Adams / Parachute Adams
• #14, #12 Damselfly Nymph
• #6 Hopper
• #4, #6, #8 Wooly Bugger or Leech, Black, Brown, Olive, Burgundy

Pontoon Boat or Float Tube:
Many of the best places to fish can be accessed by using either a float tube or pontoon boat. A float tube is much easier to pack into a number of the waters we fish. If you have a preference for fishing out of one or the other, let us know and we’ll be more than happy to accommodate you.

Accessories:

• Leaders should be rated 4X, 5X, or 6X in 9’ to 12’ length for floating line applications and 3X, 4X, or 5X in 4’ to 6’ length for sinking line applications.
• Tippet – 3X, 4X, 5X, 6X
• Hemostats
• Clippers
• Splitshot
• Fly Floatant
• Strike Indicators
• Landing Net
• Polarized Sun Glasses
• Waders
• Fly Fishing Vest, Chest Pack or Back Pack
• Hat
• Sunscreen
• Insect Repellent
• Camera

Clothing:
The weather in the Columbia Basin varies with the season and temperatures can range from the middle 30’s with wind in the spring to over 100 degrees without a breath of wind in the summer. To maximize your comfort over a full day of fishing, you’ll need to dress appropriately. We recommend high quality wool socks, fleece wader pants or thermal underwear, breathable undershirts with a wind-proof fleece top and a waterproof jacket for spring time conditions. In the summertime, we recommend light weight breathable waders and lightweight fishing shirts. Hats, sunscreen and sunglasses are also highly recommended.