Tuesday, August 13, 2013

White Pass area, July/Aug 2013

A quick post summarizing a few quick casts while getting ready for and while at Girls Camp.  After hiking with Carlynn on July 20, stopped at a new part of the Tieton, about milepost 175.  Found some decent looking water, not a lot of fish or any size.  Elk hair caddis was the fly.  Lost the pic somehow.
 
After more hikes with Carlynn on July 27, stopped at Wildcat Creek and fished up from the Forest Service road crossing for the first time.  I think it gets more pressure here.  Also the stream is of a different nature, falling steeply through big rocks and pools.  Found a baker's dozen of little cuts in about 45 minutes.  Love the fish in this stream.  As always, elk hair or Goddard caddis is the fly of choice.  Then stopped for a bit on the Naches just before the town of Naches.  The wind was howling downstream, making any kind of fishing hard.  Found a few small ones on the psycho prince, nothing on a big stonefly nymph.  Dries were impossible due to the wind.
 
Wildcat Cutthroat

On the way to girls camp on August 7, I left early since I just had gear and stopped at another new stretch on the Tieton, between milepost 179 and 180.  Found some nice water and quite a few fish, maybe 18 or so, a couple of decent size.  Elk hair caddis or small stimulator chew toy were popular, a couple on the psycho prince.  Some of the best fishing I find on this river is along the steep rocky banks by the road.
Nice Tieton rainbow
Thursday afternoon during free time, I made a run up the SF Tieton for a couple hours of fishing where I had briefly visited with Mel a few weeks ago.  No fish in the hole at the bridge, found a lot of pretty water (fairly low gradient stream), but only found fish in a couple of the deeper holes.  This area was right by a popular horse camp, so I think it might get a lot of pressure.  Caught maybe 8 or 10, mostly in one hole.  They were healthy, fat cuts (look at the small head and large body), possibly because they get fished out leaving fewer fish with more food.  Anyway, in the one hole I had a large fish grab the nymph enough for a strong pull while I saw the flash in the clear water.  I'd estimate at least in the 15 inch range.  Oh, and I broke my rod while getting the fly out of a tree, about 4 eyes down, so I was fishing with a 6-ft stub.  Made a delicate presentation difficult, but still caught fish.  Some interest in elk hair caddis, but the most consistent and reliable interest was on purple psycho prince size 12.  All caught up on reports now!
Pretty SF Tieton cutt

Fat, healthy fish


1 comment:

DrRobFish said...

Nice fish!

I'm taking Michelle on the Yakima Wednesday with Red's to pound hoppers against the banks. It's been several years since I've done that and I don't think I've floated the Yakima with Michelle since before she was married. We'll see how it goes.