The Trip Home...

My route home from Metaline Falls was planned to maximize the number of streams we could visit, turning a 4-hour drive into a 12-hour adventure.  Mel was a trooper, indulging her dad's mania while serving as official photographer.  After all was said and done, I put eight new streams under my belt, bringing my uncertified total to 97 streams.  Here is the rundown for the day:

Silver Creek was a quick stop to pick up a geocache and a brookie.

Silver Creek brook trout

Fished Deep Creek at the highway crossing, but with the long cast laying across water and a small grassy mudflat, missed the only strike I had.  Beautiful meandering meadow stream, but private land.  So we moved on to Meadow Creek, which was a mismash of fallen timber.  In the first hole a cutt was found, but fell off on the way to hand, so we continued up a few holes until we found this nice brookie.

Meadow Creek brook trout

On to Mill Creek tributaries, first pulling a small rainbow out of the hole below the culvert at the road crossing on the Middle Fork Mill Creek.

Middle Fork Mill Creek

Next on to the South Fork Mill Creek, small and brushy in the publicly accessible areas, missed a small one in the first hole so we continued until I was able to entice this nice brookie to the fly.

South Fork Mill Creek

After recharging at McD's in Colville, it was on to the North Fork Chewelah Creek where I was surprised by a nice little brown.  This was a pretty little stream, but full of timber toothpicks and difficult to fish.

North Fork Chewelah Creek - brown trout

Crossing over the ridge to the nearby South Fork Chewelah Creek found a very small stream by the time we got to National Forest Land, but we were able to find a fish at the bridge crossings of the South Fork Chewelah and two tributaries, Wilson Cr and Six Mile Cr.  Good thing there were fish at the crossing, because these streams were so small they were virtually inaccessible once they entered the forest and brush.

South Fork Chewelah Creek

Wilson Creek

Six Mile Creek

It was time to turn for home, but since there were still a few hours of daylight left and we were north of Spokane, there was really only one possible route home - by way of Little Nunya!  Approaching from the north, I was again amazed by the sudden appearance of a trout stream in the midst of rolling expanses of wheat fields stretching from horizon to horizon.  We arrived shortly before sunset, and quickly made our way to the bridge hole.  This was psycho prince country now!  Melinda quickly was catching fish and learned and practiced the downstream mend.  After we had both brought a few from the bridge hole to hand (eight inch fish seemed like monsters after the fish I'd been catching earlier in the day), I told Melinda we had to move up to the little run above before leaving.  Only one strike in the lower section, but we could see fish actively feeding on the surface in the upper section.  Carefully moving up, she and I stood side by side taking turns, catching probably 15 or 18 fish between the two of us, all 9 to 12 inches.  Then as it got dark, the fish went to sleep and we turned for home.  No pictures here but those etched in my mind, fishing side by side with my daughter in one of my favorite places to visit.