Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Trip to Spokane Airport

Well, the Courtright Family Reunion has come and gone. Mike C. flew into Spokane on Friday, so I volunteered to go pick him up. The flight got it at 3 PM, so I left at 4:20 am to make sure I would make it in time.

I made great time to Ritzville and after a #7 McDonald's breakfast (with OJ!), I looked at the time and realized I might be getting to Spokane earlier than the 3 PM arrival. Hmmmm. What to do with several hours extra??? Oh, how about a quick trip to Nunya!

Fortunately, I happened to have my rattlesnake chaps, wading boots, 5 wt TFO and an assortment of black buggars and hoppers. Man, was I glad they happened to be there!

After a quick drive (meaning 65 mph on dirt roads), I arrived at Nunya to find myself alone. The first 1/4 mile was unproductive. I fished both hoppers and nymphed buggars with no takes. At mile 0.25, however, the buggars turned on. I proceeded to catch lots of fish on buggars the rest of the way up. Did finally take a small 9" brown (didn't know they made them that small in Nunya!). At the final hole, I put on a hopper and proceeded to take 3 browns on the dry including a fat 22 incher. The lower 1/2 of Nunya produced all rainbows. The upper 1/2 all browns. Chance??? I don't know. Largest rainbow 23" in the corner hole. Most were 17-20".

Well, after 5 hours of a holding pattern at Nunya I figured it was time to pick up Mike. Got him from the airport and I just happened to have an extra set of waders and another fly rod. Sounds like a return trip to Nunya since it is "on the way home".

We fished from the upper bridge both up and down. Didn't find anything large at all. Mostly small rainbows, but Mike did end his Nunya skunking with a FAT 19" bow out of the last hole. I'd like to park cars lower and upper and make the full trek sometime.

Rick, this did merit a post due to the fish size being > 20".

Fish: 30+
Snakes: 0!
Lost flies: 3
Memories: Priceless!

1 comment:

Rick Merrill said...

Smart move having him fly into Spokane. And you never know how traffic is going to be through Ritzville, so the early start was a good idea.

After Jessica committed to flying out of Seattle, I found out she could have flown out from Spokane instead! Silly girl, she should have known to always fly out of Spokane between the first Saturday in June and October 31. If she had, last Friday I could have been at Nunya instead of picking up 5" cutts in the Cascades...