American Creek

Also pulled from Michelle's blog.

My second day in Alaska was awesome! We got into a float plane and flew to a national park. We had a satellite phone in a metal brief case. And our food was kept in bear barrels. I was excited!

My first fish of the day ended up being the biggest of the trip - 25.5"! I was very excited.

This is a fun daddy-daughter picture. Notice how my fish is bigger than his? This day I caught more rainbow trout than he did. It was pretty awesome.

Another beautiful rainbow.

I love this shot that Kate took. It shows off the beauty of the fish.

And this lovely specimen is called a Dolly Varden. It's named after a character in a Charles Dickens' book. It has pink polkadots on its side and it looks like it's wearing orange lipstik. It's pretty awesome. :)

Naknek River

Michelle wrote about our Alaska trip. The original blog post can be found here.

As a graduation present, my dad took me to Alaska to go fly fishing out of King Salmon. I wasn't entirely sure how much fun I would have, but I was pretty sure I would enjoy myself.

On the first day, I got up and ate the wonderful, cooked-to-order breakfast. Then I got dressed in a lot of layers to keep warm, and off we went into a boat. My dad and I looked much larger than we normally do. I felt like the kid in "A Christmas Story;" very puffy.

This is a TROUT. I didn't know that trout came so big! It was 25" long. The fish is silvery even though it is a rainbow. That's just the coloring of the rainbows in this river. I was so proud of my very large fish.

And this is the smallest catch of the day. I somehow managed to hook a very small fish. I only realized that I had him on when a much larger fish tried to eat this smallish one. I couldn't hook the larger one because this small fish was covering the hook! I believe the little fishy survived (well, he swam away after I released him).

A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Family Reunion...

August 20, 2009 Somewhere in Eastern Washington

I was supposed to fly back from Michigan to Spokane on Wednesday night for our family reunion in Couer d'Alene, but flight cancellations and rescheduling brought me back to Pasco the following morning. I was already going to miss the afternoon activities, so what else to do on the way to the family reunion when I knew I'd be passing within a few miles of a rather out-of-the-way stream....? Tom knows the right answer. I promised Carlynn no more than 30 minutes, and actually held to it. Brought about 8 to hand, including a nice little brookie.

Biggest of the day

An occasional surprise brook trout

North Fork Rattlesnake Creek

Saturday, August 15, 2009

With my horrible travel schedule this summer, I could see summer fishing opportunities quickly vanishing, so I canned my tomatoes, took care of my garden and honey-do list, and slipped away Saturday afternoon to commune with a couple small streams.

First stop was Little Rattlesnake Creek, where I stopped a short distance up the Little Rattlesnake Road (I normally go a mile or two further up). Nothing remarkable, some scattered small fish, rainbows rather than the cutts I normally catch further up. Small, dry caddis fly. I'd go further up next time. I think 8 or 10 fish in about 45 minutes.

Little Rattlesnake Rainbow

My real destination was about 7 miles further up the Forest Service Road, North Fork Rattlesnake Creek. Stopped here last summer and caught quite a few just up from where it enters Rattlesnake Creek. The road quicly climbs quite a ways above the creek, and I had looked down and wondered what the creek was like in that narrow canyon. I started at the turnout just past the bridge and fished up about 1/2 mile through a narrow, steep walled canyon. Steep climb out when you get to the talus field of broken basalt takes you right to the road where it switches back on its way to McDaniel Lake. Really pretty water, lots of pocket water, some nice holes.

But the catching was rather scattered, a lot of water that looked like it should have fish didn't bring any rises. Not nearly as many fish as my brief stop the previous year. Probably two dozen or so in a couple hours. Biggest was a 10-inch cutt, very pretty (see picture). What ended up working best was a dry caddis with a bit of red at the tail (I don't keep track of names of flies). All the fish I caught were pretty fat in the belly, so they may just be more selective because they are stuffed. When I fished Rattlesnake last year, I found I had little action until I hit on just the right fly, and then there were fish everywhere. Pretty hike, pretty fish, it was hard to stop fishing because you could always see one more run just upstream. When I'm in the area again, I'll stop and check it out even further upstream.

N Fork Rattlesnake 10" Cutt

N Fork Rattlesnake Rainbow

Chiwaukum Lake

August 6-8, 2009 I took the scouts to Chiwaukum Lake (12 mile hike in) and we day hiked to Larch Lake (2.5 miles further), total elevation gain for the trip was 4,200 feet. Found voracious cutthroat trout in Larch Lake, Larch Creek, Ewing Creek. One Larch Lake Cutthroat in photo, not the biggest, but a nice place to photo it where I landed it. Caught 50-60 fish here. Largest was 11 inches. Inlet stream to Chiwaukum Lake held lots of 9-10" brookies.

Following morning caught 10" cuttrhroat in Chiwaukum Lake on first cast. Smaller brook trout after that.

Brian and I were speedier hikers coming out so we stopped and fished at the creek crossing of the North Fork of Chiwaukum Creek (cutts and brookies and hornet stings, oh my!) as well as Glacier Creek (cutts), South Fork of Chiwaukum Creek(rainbows), and main stem of Chiwaukum Creek (cutts, bows, and brookies). We caught 46 on our hike out. We found fish in seven separate lakes and streams. A great hike, and a great fishing adventure!

Nunya

Nunya Creek
July 30, 2009

Fished Nunya today and landed between 10-15 trout. An equal mix of browns and rainbows. The pictured rainbow was in the drop off hole. It fought like a demon! While only 19-20" it was super thick.


The following pictures are all of a 26" taped brown. It took a pink chernobyl ant with a tiny sip about 4 inches off a rock wall. I didn't think it was that big until it peeled off line in an upstream run and jumped twice. It was fought, revived and released.




I also ran into a 4 foot + rattlesnake. I had the snake chaps on, but did still scream like a little girl!

Good day!

Enchantment Lakes

I day hiked the Enchantment Lakes with a few friends Friday with the assignment from Tom to see if there were fish in the upper lakes we didn't visit together a few years ago. Photo is of Colchuk Lake (fish rising) and at the end of the lake you can see the rock scramble (trail?) up to Aasgard Pass (another 2,200' of elevation gain in about a mile of trail distance).

I came around a boulder on a corner to find this guy staring at me 5' away.

Found the upper lakes to be devoid of any activity and unresponsive to flies, but finally did have some success with a stimulator with rubber legs in Inspiration Lake. I'd seen some grasshoppers on the climb up to Aasgard Pass and also found them in the Enchantment Basin.

The first cutt from Inspiration Lake. I found a 12" cutt in the outlet stream.

Had more great fishing on the inlet into Sprite Lake. Landed 30-40 and missed numerous other opportunties. All nice cutts. Using a big fly, the little guys couldn't get their mouths around it.

Inlet to Sprite Lake

Joe, one of my companions, was able to catch his first fish ever on a fly--an 11" cutthroat. He caught about 20 and missed lots more. We were sight fishing with the stimulator.

The trail down was also very steep (see photo) and the hike was an all day event. We covered 18.3 miles and traversed through 11,000 vertical feet of elevation change. (Okay, it was really only 10,900 according to the Green Trails map!) I'd highly recommend it if you want to have some incredible scenery and can live with sore legs for a couple days afterwards.

The few photos below are from when Michelle and I day hiked the Enchantments two years ago. It is truly a beautiful place.

At Leprechaun Lake

Above Inspiration Lake

Little Anapurna--I think? (upper basin)

Goats in the upper basin

Temple Lake

Lake Vivian with "The Temple" rising in the background