Hopper Birthday!

It's that time of year when Tom and I get together to find some trout to celebrate our one-day-apart birthdays at the beginning of August. Boy did we ever find the trout this year.

Twelve and a half hours fishing with no stops at our favorite Nunya Creek. The morning started a little slow with the hoppers and nymphs, as we often find it does. In one of the large pools there was a school of a dozen or more fish feeding on tiny emerging flies with no interest in bigger bites like the hopper. Fun to watch. A little later approaching 9 am, we came to a run Tom said never seems to produce fish any more. We promptly caught seven, Tom on the Moorish hopper, me on the October caddis jig head nymph. From then on, it was pretty consistent action all the way to quitting time 10 1/2 hours later.

Tom fished the hopper exclusively, I followed his hopper with my nymph when the water was big enough with a lot of success; otherwise, we took turns running our hoppers along the banks.

For the day we had in the range of 60 to hand, consistently fat, 13 to 19 inch rainbows and browns, with a few more than a dozen measured from 20 to 23 inches. Big, powerful fish in a small stream. Nothing like watching a 20-plus inch trout slowly approach your hopper, slurp it in, then explode out of the water as you set the hook. 

Or in Tom's case, disappear with your hopper as your tippet parts. It's hard to call it an off day when you get 30 fish including multiple 20-inch plus to hand, but for Tom, it was an off day or he would have had 40. He broke flies off in a half dozen fish pushing 20-plus inches, missed many more with nary a tug on the line (we temporarily renamed the 5 fish hole the 5 miss hole...). That's pretty normal for me, but for Tom, it looks like he's gotten a little rusty. Maybe he was missing the guides at Christmas Island who'd spot the bonefish and tell him when to set the hook...

We ended the day in the evening light finding big trout in the middle of long stretches of dead water, quite different from the normal hugging of the grassy bank to find fish. Long, upstream cast of the hopper, watch a big trout arch out of the water and drop on the fly, then fight it in while your brother tosses up to find the next one (we had a number of doubles). Throw in sighting of an otter, a porcupine in the tree right over our heads above the creek, and a female moose trotting up the hill away from the creek, and it was a pretty epic day. Definitely a hopper birthday!

Hunting for Bulls

No, I haven't changed sports and decided to hunt instead of fish. This was a trip to a stream where it is legal to fish for bull trout (catch and release). They are federally protected in much of their range and off-limits to target even for catch and release, so this is a unique fishery. Backpacking into a remote wilderness stream where it is possible to catch trout in the mid 20-inch range on giant, articulated streamers is pretty exciting. The fact that the area is inhabited by bears (lots of poop seen, no animals), rattlesnakes (none thankfully, but we did see a rubber boa), and even a wolf pack (didn't hear any, a combination of disappointment and relief) makes it even more exciting. My friend Kirk Morris has hiked in to fish a couple times before and was looking for a companion. I jumped at the chance.

It's a smallish river, cold and clear, tumbling fast in a narrow canyon. I'd marked 14 larger holes in about 3 miles of stream on my satellite map. We made it to twelve of them in our three days of fishing. After the hike in and setting up camp, we headed for a few of the closest holes for the evening. Kirk graciously let me be first up, swinging a big, black streamer into the softer water at the edge of the main current in a nice sized run. The first swing drew a strike, the second swing was hammered, with the fish and the fast water putting a good bend in my 8-wt. A nice 20-inch bull soon made its way into Kirk's very undersized net. Kirk stepped up and quickly found another. None of the others we could see in the tail of the hole were interested, so we moved on to the next hole, where we found a couple more bulls, and so the evening went. By the time dusk was approaching, I had four to the net, the biggest 22-inches, Kirk had five, including a monster 26-inch brute. Only a couple were less than 20 inches. What a start to the trip!

22 inch bull trout

Kirk's monster 26-inch bull just behind our camp

26-inch bull

My only reel with a sink tip was an 8-wt, which may seem like overkill, but I was glad I had it to better toss the heavily weighted flies and to handle large fish in the swift current. Fishing barbless on both hooks made release a breeze with minimal hurt. Beautiful fish.

The next day, we hiked downstream a couple miles on the barely visible remnants of a trail to check out a number of the holes we'd marked. Tough hiking to to the river, bushwacking along the river between holes, and climbing back out, but well worth it. The fish were more close mouthed than the night before, but we still had quite a few strikes and brought a couple each to the net, including Rick's largest at 23.5 inches. Kirk found quite a few decent sized rainbows with smaller flies after we'd tried enticing the bulls. 

Rick's 23.5-inch bull trout

A nice rainbow on this stream is bait for bulls (literally)

By the morning of the third day, we'd hit most of the holes we'd planned on, and with thunderstorms dousing us the previous two nights, clouds threatening in the morning, and cooler temperatures, we decided to fish the morning and hike out in the afternoon before camp got wet again. We could again see the big bulls laying in the holes, but could only entice a couple more each to our flies. One I found was on my 3-wt with a size 16 psycho prince when looking for rainbows (luckily a small one at 17 inches). Kirk had a similar sized bull the previous day on a different size 16 fly. 

All in all a great trip, beautiful fish, and a unique fishery. Kirk had 9 bulls to the net, I had 8. Throw in some rainbows and the beautiful scenery and its hard to beat. Thanks to Kirk for the invite!

2023 Solstice Celebration

In keeping with tradition, I made a trek to my local stream on or about the summer solstice to celebrate the longest day of the year. I left work early and arrived in the late afternoon at my normal starting place. Double psycho prince caddis green as always. The fish came quickly, perhaps not in as high numbers as some years, but back to normal compared to last year when I barely made it out of the single digits fishing with Melinda. Had 69 fish to hand in the quarter mile stretch I normally fish and finished up well be sunset. Size was very good, 70 to 80 percent in the 8 to 10-inch range. The larger ones always seem to come from the shallows at the sides of runs, where they aggressively grab the fly in water that barely covers them. All in all a great evening, first time fishing since last year.

I was also rewarded with a mink siting in the first run I was fishing. He (she) was on the left side of the river just above me when I started. Shortly thereafter I saw him running on the rocks on the other side of the river carrying a snake in its mouth before it disappeared into the boulders alongside the stream. A little while later he's running across the rocks again, this time with a good sized trout hanging from its mouth. Neither time could I get my camera out fast enough. As I moved upstream to the next little run, I saw the little guy also heading upstream and dipping into the water upstream of me. Shortly thereafter, he was headed back down the bank with another trout in its mouth. I dropped my rod and ran down the boulders lining the stream trying to get my phone camera out and get ahead of him. Got to where I could grab a few pics before it dropped into its den again. Bad lighting, poor quality, but you can see him carrying the fish. Pretty fun to watch. This is the same stretch where a beaver floating downstream bumped my daughter Sarah a few years ago. Watch out for the mammals!

Mink with trout

Streams 143 and 144

Rick is slowly approaching 150 streams in Washington where he has caught trout. It takes a little more intentionality to find new streams, but is an excuse to visit new areas. On a day trip to NE Washington to visit Rob's daughter at their family farm, I stopped at a couple little streams that Rob had recently scoped out. The first was a beautiful little stream where I found three nice little rainbows in our short stop. My daughter Melinda had chances at three or four, but was a little slow on the set. Still was fun for her to lay the fly out and see the strikes. The hooking will come with more practice.

A quick stop at a second stream on the way home (it was really "on the way" home for a change) nabbed me stream number 144. It was really small, but not as small as I've found trout in before. After missing a few, I finally got a little one to hand.

Time to get serious and make a few more intentional trips to reach 150...

Passing on the Skills

With Melinda home from college for a few weeks, we found the time to visit my favorite local stream. Fishing was slow for this stream, but we found a few fish and Melinda had a chance to greatly improve her skills at casting and getting a dead drift on a stream mostly free of brush and trees and grass that normally make the learning process more difficult.

I had visited the stream the end of June when water was still a little high and had markedly less success than normal (14 fish compared to the usual 70 to 100). That continued this trip, with about the same number to hand, all small. Still a fun morning fishing with my favorite youngest daughter! 

Happy Birthday to Me!

After a record number of consecutive days over 100 degrees, the forecast was finally for the temperature to drop to 90 degrees in the regions where we fish. Perfect timing for a day-after-my-birthday trip (Rick). 

Left home really early and arrived at the stream shortly after sunrise. Slipped into the water, still nice and cool even after all the heat. Swarms of small flies above the water but no fish rising. They generally seem to ignore those flies here, you rarely see fish rising, except to swallow your hopper. Water levels were good for this time of year, still up in the overhanging grass, giving lots of cover along the banks, which is where the hopper was drifted all day. Early always seems to be a little slow, but caught the first fish a few runs up from the start, a slow rising rainbow about 18 inches that got off at the bank. By the time I reached the first corner, I had hooked six fish without missing one, a pretty good start. Most had been smaller, but decent action.

Both changed at the corner, where my first toss into head of the run brought a rainbow well over 20-inches almost completely out of the water onto my fly. Or near it at least. Never felt it when I lifted and couldn't interest it in any other offerings. Didn't hook it, but a memorable take.

I continued to find fish with good frequency throughout the day. I watched a 20-inch fish come up from the bottom in slow motion, mouth wide open to close on my hopper. With great restraint, I waited until the mouth closed and the fished started down with my fly before lifting to set the hook, and was rewarded with a few leaps and multiple runs deep under the overhanging grass banks before it made it into the net.

In a long riffle above a slow stretch, I saw three fish rising in the middle of the stream, just small dimples which I thought were probably small redside shiners that also are found here. However, when my hopper floated over where they were feeding and disappeared, an 18-inch rainbow exploded out of the water after I lifted the rod to set the hook. 

Plenty of action on the Morrish Hopper, pink body today, both medium and large size. In deeper runs or where I'd had a couple takes with no more interest, I tied on the orange jig-head October caddis as a dropper and often found willing fish, although they tended to be smaller at 12 to 13 inches. I won't complain! The last corner hole before turning back to the car, I found a nice deep run, but only had a couple misses on the hopper. Tied on the dropper and proceeded to catch nine rainbows to end the day, seven cookie-cutter 12 to 13-inch babies, then a nice fat 18-inch chunk followed by one more baby. A nice way to end the day.

The score for the day ended up being fish - 25, rattlesnakes - 0. I always like a snake shutout on this stream, especially when fishing alone. More of the smallish 12 to 13 inch fish, but plenty of a good size, with a 20 inch, three 18 inch, a couple 17 inch, and several in the 14 to 15 inch range. Two small browns, the rest rainbows.

Glad I remembered water as the hike back was very hot even with the wind. Turns out the temp was 102F, not the forecast 90F. That's OK, the fishing was just as hot. A great birthday gift to myself.

Good Morning on the Yakima

Rob invited Rick to join him on a guided morning float on the Yakima for a delayed Fourth of July Celebration. With a scheduled early morning start, we spent the night before in a hotel in Ellensburg and had an evening warmup at the Fighting Rainbow Club. Action wasn't fast or furious at the Club but we found a few including this nice one that Rick caught trolling a tarpon fly (yea, you know action isn't that great when you start trolling tropical flies for trout...)

The next day on the Yak was better, guided by our friend Shan, who put us into a good number of fish including this fat 20-inch rainbow that we all watched slowly rise from the depths to engulf the fly. 

It was a typical Yakima day, with fast action interspersed with fishless intervals casting to banks that look just like the one the produced fish just a little ways upstream. Rob and I each had some nice fish along with quite a few smaller one to keep things interesting. Thanks for the trip, Rob!