A Quick Fishing Fix

With limited time in the next month or two available for fishing, I decided to make a quick trip to my local stream on my Friday off for a quick fishing fix and early solstice celebration. On the stream by about 6 am. Found 48 in the first hole, 32 more in the rest of the 1/4-mile stretch of stream. On the smaller side compared to recent years, maybe 30 percent in the 9 to 10 inch ranges, the rest were smaller. Fished the double psycho under the indicator, size 12 top and 16 or 18 on bottom. Off the river before 10 am.

A nice 10-inch rainbow

The floods from last winter have scoured the riverbed and turned most of the stretch I normally fish into a broad, shallow channel with no holes or structure. The first hole is the only spot where a reasonably good run remains. That's what happens when you contain a stream to a small channel with dikes/levees to keep it from spreading out. But it will develop better structure in future years as it has in the past. And 70 fish to hand in a short morning is a pretty good day. Happy fishing!

First Outing of the Spring

Met a friend and his dad at a favorite springtime basin lake to see how many we could find. This lake is worth the short hike just for the scenery, the fact that you can enjoy the scenery while kicking around in a float tube and finding fish makes it all the better.

It was a calm, beautiful morning, and we had the lake to ourselves for the first couple hours, and just a couple shore anglers and a couple tubers after that. Starting from shore, I had three fish to hand in quick succession on Tom's chewy chironomid, then nothing more. It's hard to fish from shore, with brush having filled in the edge of the lake out to the depth where we used to catch the cruising fish in the spring. So I hopped in my tube and started kicking around the shoreline around to the point across from the launch. Trolling a green simi-leech on a somewhat sinking line, I had three more hits and one to hand. 

Beautiful rainbow from a beautiful lake

When I got by the point, the hits became more regular, but still kind of slow, so I switched back to the chironomids and put a size 16 psycho prince on the bottom. Fish started coming to hand more frequently, and I got dialed in on them at the 17-ft depth line (my $35 portable fish finder from China isn't much use for finding fish, but it is accurate at finding the depth). For the next hour I slowly kicked back and forth along the point at the 17-ft depth line and didn't go more than two minutes without a takedown, every one on the psycho. I brought a couple dozen to hand, all about 15 to 16-inches like the one above. My friend and his dad had remained along the cliffs on the other side finding some fish (including a 20-inch tiger trout), but came over to the point and found similar success with a size 16 micro-leech. The bite started slowing, and it was already past the time I told my wife I'd probably be home (a nearly 2-hr drive), so I left my friends to catch a few more. With the fishing done, I could look more closely at the tiny prairie stars, buttercups, and other wildflowers lining the trail as I made the steep climb back to the car. What a beautiful place to start this year's fishing adventures!

Hopper Birthday!

It's that time of year when Tom and I get together to find some trout to celebrate our one-day-apart birthdays at the beginning of August. Boy did we ever find the trout this year.

Twelve and a half hours fishing with no stops at our favorite Nunya Creek. The morning started a little slow with the hoppers and nymphs, as we often find it does. In one of the large pools there was a school of a dozen or more fish feeding on tiny emerging flies with no interest in bigger bites like the hopper. Fun to watch. A little later approaching 9 am, we came to a run Tom said never seems to produce fish any more. We promptly caught seven, Tom on the Moorish hopper, me on the October caddis jig head nymph. From then on, it was pretty consistent action all the way to quitting time 10 1/2 hours later.

Tom fished the hopper exclusively, I followed his hopper with my nymph when the water was big enough with a lot of success; otherwise, we took turns running our hoppers along the banks.

For the day we had in the range of 60 to hand, consistently fat, 13 to 19 inch rainbows and browns, with a few more than a dozen measured from 20 to 23 inches. Big, powerful fish in a small stream. Nothing like watching a 20-plus inch trout slowly approach your hopper, slurp it in, then explode out of the water as you set the hook. 

Or in Tom's case, disappear with your hopper as your tippet parts. It's hard to call it an off day when you get 30 fish including multiple 20-inch plus to hand, but for Tom, it was an off day or he would have had 40. He broke flies off in a half dozen fish pushing 20-plus inches, missed many more with nary a tug on the line (we temporarily renamed the 5 fish hole the 5 miss hole...). That's pretty normal for me, but for Tom, it looks like he's gotten a little rusty. Maybe he was missing the guides at Christmas Island who'd spot the bonefish and tell him when to set the hook...

We ended the day in the evening light finding big trout in the middle of long stretches of dead water, quite different from the normal hugging of the grassy bank to find fish. Long, upstream cast of the hopper, watch a big trout arch out of the water and drop on the fly, then fight it in while your brother tosses up to find the next one (we had a number of doubles). Throw in sighting of an otter, a porcupine in the tree right over our heads above the creek, and a female moose trotting up the hill away from the creek, and it was a pretty epic day. Definitely a hopper birthday!

Hunting for Bulls

No, I haven't changed sports and decided to hunt instead of fish. This was a trip to a stream where it is legal to fish for bull trout (catch and release). They are federally protected in much of their range and off-limits to target even for catch and release, so this is a unique fishery. Backpacking into a remote wilderness stream where it is possible to catch trout in the mid 20-inch range on giant, articulated streamers is pretty exciting. The fact that the area is inhabited by bears (lots of poop seen, no animals), rattlesnakes (none thankfully, but we did see a rubber boa), and even a wolf pack (didn't hear any, a combination of disappointment and relief) makes it even more exciting. My friend Kirk Morris has hiked in to fish a couple times before and was looking for a companion. I jumped at the chance.

It's a smallish river, cold and clear, tumbling fast in a narrow canyon. I'd marked 14 larger holes in about 3 miles of stream on my satellite map. We made it to twelve of them in our three days of fishing. After the hike in and setting up camp, we headed for a few of the closest holes for the evening. Kirk graciously let me be first up, swinging a big, black streamer into the softer water at the edge of the main current in a nice sized run. The first swing drew a strike, the second swing was hammered, with the fish and the fast water putting a good bend in my 8-wt. A nice 20-inch bull soon made its way into Kirk's very undersized net. Kirk stepped up and quickly found another. None of the others we could see in the tail of the hole were interested, so we moved on to the next hole, where we found a couple more bulls, and so the evening went. By the time dusk was approaching, I had four to the net, the biggest 22-inches, Kirk had five, including a monster 26-inch brute. Only a couple were less than 20 inches. What a start to the trip!

22 inch bull trout

Kirk's monster 26-inch bull just behind our camp

26-inch bull

My only reel with a sink tip was an 8-wt, which may seem like overkill, but I was glad I had it to better toss the heavily weighted flies and to handle large fish in the swift current. Fishing barbless on both hooks made release a breeze with minimal hurt. Beautiful fish.

The next day, we hiked downstream a couple miles on the barely visible remnants of a trail to check out a number of the holes we'd marked. Tough hiking to to the river, bushwacking along the river between holes, and climbing back out, but well worth it. The fish were more close mouthed than the night before, but we still had quite a few strikes and brought a couple each to the net, including Rick's largest at 23.5 inches. Kirk found quite a few decent sized rainbows with smaller flies after we'd tried enticing the bulls. 

Rick's 23.5-inch bull trout

A nice rainbow on this stream is bait for bulls (literally)

By the morning of the third day, we'd hit most of the holes we'd planned on, and with thunderstorms dousing us the previous two nights, clouds threatening in the morning, and cooler temperatures, we decided to fish the morning and hike out in the afternoon before camp got wet again. We could again see the big bulls laying in the holes, but could only entice a couple more each to our flies. One I found was on my 3-wt with a size 16 psycho prince when looking for rainbows (luckily a small one at 17 inches). Kirk had a similar sized bull the previous day on a different size 16 fly. 

All in all a great trip, beautiful fish, and a unique fishery. Kirk had 9 bulls to the net, I had 8. Throw in some rainbows and the beautiful scenery and its hard to beat. Thanks to Kirk for the invite!

2023 Solstice Celebration

In keeping with tradition, I made a trek to my local stream on or about the summer solstice to celebrate the longest day of the year. I left work early and arrived in the late afternoon at my normal starting place. Double psycho prince caddis green as always. The fish came quickly, perhaps not in as high numbers as some years, but back to normal compared to last year when I barely made it out of the single digits fishing with Melinda. Had 69 fish to hand in the quarter mile stretch I normally fish and finished up well be sunset. Size was very good, 70 to 80 percent in the 8 to 10-inch range. The larger ones always seem to come from the shallows at the sides of runs, where they aggressively grab the fly in water that barely covers them. All in all a great evening, first time fishing since last year.

I was also rewarded with a mink siting in the first run I was fishing. He (she) was on the left side of the river just above me when I started. Shortly thereafter I saw him running on the rocks on the other side of the river carrying a snake in its mouth before it disappeared into the boulders alongside the stream. A little while later he's running across the rocks again, this time with a good sized trout hanging from its mouth. Neither time could I get my camera out fast enough. As I moved upstream to the next little run, I saw the little guy also heading upstream and dipping into the water upstream of me. Shortly thereafter, he was headed back down the bank with another trout in its mouth. I dropped my rod and ran down the boulders lining the stream trying to get my phone camera out and get ahead of him. Got to where I could grab a few pics before it dropped into its den again. Bad lighting, poor quality, but you can see him carrying the fish. Pretty fun to watch. This is the same stretch where a beaver floating downstream bumped my daughter Sarah a few years ago. Watch out for the mammals!

Mink with trout

Streams 143 and 144

Rick is slowly approaching 150 streams in Washington where he has caught trout. It takes a little more intentionality to find new streams, but is an excuse to visit new areas. On a day trip to NE Washington to visit Rob's daughter at their family farm, I stopped at a couple little streams that Rob had recently scoped out. The first was a beautiful little stream where I found three nice little rainbows in our short stop. My daughter Melinda had chances at three or four, but was a little slow on the set. Still was fun for her to lay the fly out and see the strikes. The hooking will come with more practice.

A quick stop at a second stream on the way home (it was really "on the way" home for a change) nabbed me stream number 144. It was really small, but not as small as I've found trout in before. After missing a few, I finally got a little one to hand.

Time to get serious and make a few more intentional trips to reach 150...

Passing on the Skills

With Melinda home from college for a few weeks, we found the time to visit my favorite local stream. Fishing was slow for this stream, but we found a few fish and Melinda had a chance to greatly improve her skills at casting and getting a dead drift on a stream mostly free of brush and trees and grass that normally make the learning process more difficult.

I had visited the stream the end of June when water was still a little high and had markedly less success than normal (14 fish compared to the usual 70 to 100). That continued this trip, with about the same number to hand, all small. Still a fun morning fishing with my favorite youngest daughter!