Washington state’s Upper Columbia River landed on the fly-fishing landscape a couple decades ago, and the first man on the spot was Jack Mitchell.
Mitchell is well established in the Evergreen State, having built his empire on the Yakima River and other locals, including the Klickitat River and the Olympic Peninsula. But he’s never been one to stand still. He’s always looking for more—more killer fishing, more emerging fisheries, and the places to offer great trips and accommodation. What he found on the upper Columbia was an overlooked trout fishery with some monster rainbow trout included in the mix. In addition, the massive Columbia, flowing out of Canada and into northeastern Washington—about two hours north of Spokane—offered stellar aquatic insect hatches, trout that fought as hard and leapt as high as any others, and nearly nobody was working the water. I.e., this was an untapped fishery just begging for infrastructure.
Mitchell provided that when he threw down on several acres near Northport and constructed a spectacular four-bedroom lodge just yards from the Columbia. Fact is, you could pitch a rock off the full wrap-around deck and easily hit the water. But why bother when there are fish to catch?