Summer Solstice Celebration - I Caught Enough for All the Boys...

Friday, June 20

 

I had an afternoon free after helping with the Kennewick Stake Trek, and decided to stop at the Touchet "on the way home." It was only 3 hours of driving versus 40 minutes by the direct route, so it's not that far out of the way. It was a beautiful drive, through Wallula Gap along the Columbia River, across the Walla Walla valley, with all the hills striped in green, gold, and brown. Arriving at one of my favorite locations on the Touchet, I found the stream clear, cool, and at a perfect level.

 

I dropped into the stream, double caddis green psycho prince setup, and proceeded to catch thirty without moving or casting more than 30 feet. Size of fish was nice for the Touchet, ranging from 6" to 10" with more in the upper half of that range than the lower half. Was I glad I made the drive instead of heading straight home? Silly question...

 

Finally started moving up stream, but slowly, as there were fish everywhere. Larger fish were often hitting the indicator, so I switched back and forth a couple times from the double nymph to a dry dropper with a stimulator chew toy on top. Saw some action on the dry, especially in some pocket water, which was fun, but ended up back with the double nymph - just too effective at catching. Two hours and twenty minutes later, I climbed out of the stream with a total of 136 hooked and brought in (many more missed or LDR'd). 

 

With a big smile on my face, I made the short walk back to the car ready to head for home (this was all in just less than 1/4 mile of river), but the hole downstream from where I started fishing was calling to me. Since I hadn't quite used the full 2.5 hours I had allotted for fishing time to get me home at a reasonable hour, I answered the call and found 18 more, including #138 below. I figured since I couldn't join my dad and brothers for our solstice celebration this year, I would catch fish for me and them so they could join me in spirit. I hope you guys enjoyed it, but my guess is that I enjoyed it more...

#138 of 154