Incredible Doubles

Today was the last day of steelhead season so Rob, Tom, Dad, and Dave Hemion went to the Twisp Hole. The river flow had increased about 25% since Rick was there two days ago and there was some color. I had to dodge a couple of logs that were floating down the river while I was standing near "Pride Rock".

I finally got the skunk off my season and landed some steelhead. Thanks to Tom for getting me to the right place!

The thing that was truly unbelievable today was the number of double hookups we had. Every time I got a fish on, I had fish on both the upper fly and the dropper fly! I have never had a day like that before when I caught eight fish in a morning. You can check out the photo above!

I know it pales to the number of fish that Rick and Tom put up, but I will rest satisfied in the knowledge that my conversion percentage--80%--is tops. I'll also acknowledge that I'd probably rather land 16/32 than fewer fish. =-)

More than epic!

My company was being moved to a new office building today, so with all my files in boxes and desks being moved, what better thing to do than to take a day off for fishing? I was moved by Tom's recent report of epic steelhead fishing on the Methow to brave the 8-hour round trip drive (I actually fished more than I drove - barely).

Leaving Richland at about 2:40 AM, my plan was to make it to the Twisp hole by 6:45 AM in hopes of being the first one there. I made it by 6:35 AM (plenty light to fish). After parking, the first glimpse of the hole showed an empty beach, but my hopes of having the hole to myself were crushed as I looked over the edge of the bridge and saw a curious looking green stripe in the water - a fly line from somebody under the bridge! I went ahead and moved into the very bottom of the run, as this older gentleman was more or less fishing straight downstream (not sure what he was doing). He was around for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, and ended up leaving about 7 AM. I quickly moved up to "pride rock", which became even more prideful today. First cast, strike indicator goes down, lift up to feel a throbbing fish, hear the screaming drag as the fish runs to the far bank. Wow, you gotta love this. Land the fish or break the line. Repeat. Again, and again, and again. That is pretty much how the day went. I quickly learned that big fish, fast water, and old leader material don't mix, and what works fine for 18-inch trout in a lake doesn't do so well with 30-inch steelhead in a fairly fast moving river. Of the first seven fish I had on, only two were landed. The rest broke off in various locations - once in the middle of my 15-lb section of tippet, a couple times on the bead. For the day, only a half dozen actually came unhooked, the rest that were lost broke somewhere in the line.

These fish seem to have oversized tails

After I had landed a few fish, a local high school kid showed up and joined me, and we had a wild time for a couple hours. By 9:30 AM I had landed 7 of the 16 fish I had had on (all from pride rock) and he had probably landed more than a dozen with at least 20 fish on. We also had seven doubles. He had to leave for school, and shortly thereafter a trio of fisherman show up on the bridge to peer down into the hole. One of them asks me if I was there last week with my daughter. I said that was my brother, to which he said "you look just like him" (I'm sure he meant in the way I handle the fly rod, not physical appearance, although Tom might dispute that; if the choice was between saying my ugly face looks like his, or my ugly casting looks like his, I think he would rather have the ugly face).

OK, back to the fishing report. Things slowed down a bit after 9:30, but I landed a couple more in the next half hour. About 10:00 the three guys from the bridge joined me in the hole. Since no one was on the other side and the hole isn't that big, this was rather bad form as it crowded me quite a bit. But I stayed on pride rock and kept on catching. By noon, I had reached 12 for 24, equaling Tom's epic total from last week. But the next two hours were full of futility, with only a couple take downs (nor much action for the three who joined me). Then to top it off, my 8-wt broke in the middle on a missed fish. Maybe I should just go home with an epic day....but wait, I threw my 6-wt Sage in the car at the last minute. All I need is one more fish to beat Tom.

On my way back to the car, I crossed the bridge and saw no fish in the pride rock area, but a few shadows by the eddy on the rip-rap side of the hole. Out comes the six weight and I climb down the rip rap to fish from that side (my buddies that joined me earlier had pretty much crowded me out of the hole on the pride rock side by now). Two or three casts, indicator down, same old story. Number thirteen to hand! But then, why not try for just one more? A few casts, indicator down, repeat, and repeat, and repeat. I hooked 8 more and landed 4 of them on the rip rap side, most of them right in front of the guys who crowded me in my hole. Ah, that was fun (they were nice enough guys, it was just annoying that they squeezed in there). That "one more fish" brought my total for the day to 16 for 32 (not counting unless they were hooked and fighting). Which leads to my question for Tom - What is a word for more than epic?

OK, the details. Started with double beads (10mm and 8mm) and seemed to catch more on the larger bead. Some of the time switched to beadhead black stonefly with a bead below it, and caught fish on both (more on the bead, but quite a few on the stonefly). Fished 5 to 6 feet below the indicator, with two BB splitshot added. Depth is critical. Most of the fish my first two hours were close in front of pride rock. When I started making longer casts, I was having no success. I deepened up by another foot, and fish on. Fish ranged from the low 20s" to a little above 30". I landed one hatchery fish, 29" long. In addition to the steelhead, I landed 15" and 19" cutts and two whitefish. Definitely worth every minute of the 8-hour drive.

Tom's Homeschool PE

After taking Rachel out the previous day for Homeschool PE and science, I decided it was my turn for some PE. Brian Anantatmula and I headed up to the some hole Rachel and I fished the day before. We arrived early, so we got a prime spot. I call my spot Pride Rock (Lion King reference for the non-Disney inclined). Pride Rock got its name by being the Rock I hooked 14 steelhead and landed 9 in one morning in 2010.

No snow today, just a lovely sleet falling. Ahhh. I LOVE steelheading.

As I stood on Pride Rock and hooked a fish within 10 minutes of arriving I knew it was going to be a good day.... and it WAS. Pride Rock is now named Piedra de Orgullo, too! Brian and I had an epic day of steelheading. After about 3.5 hours fishing, I was 9 for 9! No farming them out today! I wanted badly to get to double digits. Nothing quite like having to take off my shoes to count how many steelhead I landed in one day.

The next 1.5 hours left me struggling to hook anything. Brian continued to land a couple hatchery brats (mine were all natives - or non-clipped hatcheries). Finally I hooked into #10! Which I proceeded to farm out after about 3 or 4 minutes of fighting. I thought maybe it wasn't meant to be.

Brian and I packed up to leave and as we were walking out, I caught view of all the fish that were in there. I KNEW I was not to be denied, so we attacked from the other side. It WAS meant to be! On the other side, I hooked another six and landed 3 of them. One was foul hooked so I just cranked down the drag to see who would win--the tippet, the fly or the fish flesh. Fish flesh lost as I kept my unbent hook!

All in all an epic day to end my steelhead season with. 12 for 16. Some were smaller (around 25) 4 or 5 were over 30 inches. It was a great day. I made sure to call and rub it in on Rick. Too bad Rob was out of the country!

Homeschool PE

I took Rachel for some Home-school PE and science up on the Methow River. The day started our rainy in Wenatchee and by the time we reached Carlton, the rain had turned over to the seasons last wet, slushy snow.

We first went and fished a confluence hole where we didn't catch anything, but did see some rises. Based on previous experience, probably a few whitefish.

When we moved to the hole that was the object of our desire, we found it well populated with people already. We took the tail out as there was nobody fishing there. With the snow falling and being slightly underdressed, Rachel got cold fairly quickly. That changed for her once she hooked into her first steelhead. She fought and landed a nice little native. Maybe 24 inches or so. Hooked on the bead of course.

The second fish she landed was much nicer and as such, she couldn't pick it up. It was 30 inches +/- an inch. Very beautiful cheeks on that doe. It is now my screensaver. Landed on a size 16 caddis green psycho prince nymph. (I knew Rick would like that.)

After landing that fish, Rachel was cold enough to be ready to go. I knew that I would be back however.

Math, Dusty, and More

Thanks to Melinda for participating in Math is Cool which was held in Wenatchee today (she took 8th place and received a trophy!) and gave me an excuse to take a vacation day to go see her (it should be pretty obvious why I had to take a whole day off to go see her evening competition.......)

Yes, it was a day for fishing. But where to go. Homestead always beckons with memories of big fish, but has been rather lackluster lately. Little Nunya is flowing water, but might be high this time of year. The fish may be in the shallows at Dusty, but it is a little early and has been cold. Exploring the drains (wasteways) could be fun, but it wasn't clear in the regs if they were open. Decisions, decisions. Moving water won out against better judgement. I headed for Little Nunya and found they had had a lot more rain than we had, so it was a raging, muddy torrent. I threw three or four casts off the bridge into a bit of still water, and then moved on.

I was going to head straight for Dusty (we'll never know if my judgement of Homestead was good or not), but curiosity won out and I detoured to Drain 645 where it crosses I Road south of George. Water level was very fishible, not clear, but not muddy, two culverts, not just one! But since I wan't sure if it was open water or not, I just threw a few casts from above the culverts before moving on to Dusty. Arriving at Dusty, I found a pretty good wind from the west, which put a chop on the water and made it impossible to see if there were any fish near shore. Only one thing to do. A couple casts later, this was on the end of my line:

No, it is not a moldy dead one I found on the shore and hooked on my line for the picture. The wind was piling foam against the shore! Not much later, I hooked into this beauty.

What is that in his mouth? Could it be? Yes, it is! A Psycho Prince, in purple! Fish ignored a bead and a red snowcone chironomid in preference for the purple.

A little later in time (and several fish later) I landed this 19" taped rainbow.

Wait! What is that in its mouth? Could it be? Yes, it is! In caddis green this time. Everything from shore was on a Psycho Prince, size 12.

OK, a few specific details for the record. I was the only one there, except for a couple kids bait fishing, with whom I talked amicably but explained to them the rules for Dusty. In 2 1/2 hours from the bank, I landed 8 and missed/lost 3. All were caught on the west side of the inlet peninsula a little ways left of the point. Fished about 4 1/2' to 5' down from the thingamabobber. Never caught anything on the second fly, so after a while I left it off. With the wind, subtle takes may have been missed, but I don't think there were a lot of fish in yet. The action was spotty, with two or three fish in 5 or 10 minutes, then a dead half hour or so, and so on. I think there were just a few fish schooling around, hence only occasional action.


The action finally slowed enough that I decided to take a couple turns off shore in the float tube. I put the purple Psycho Prince as the top fly and a small green bunny leech as the bottom fly on my sinking line. Kicked around to the north of the inlet and maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the way across to the peninsula. Fished ten to thirteen pulls from the reel to the first guide. Within a few minutes I had a light strike, then a few minutes later a solid strike. Neither one made a connection between me and the fish. Third time was the charm, and I landed a 15" bright silver rainbow (as opposed to the colored bows near shore) on the green leech. I had several more strikes, but did not get the hook in any of them. In all, about an hour in the tube, 1 landed, 5 or 6 missed.

Other than the moderate wind and a bit chilly on the temps, it was a pretty good day. Action was consistent enough to keep me fishing. Fish were beautiful, fat, and lively, several doing nice tail-dances, others staying near the bottom with a pulsing pull on the rod. And I even left in time to make it to all the Math is Cool that parents were allowed to observe, which means I left before dark! Another week and Dusty could be hot!

Life Imitates Art

So here I am in Valencia, Spain when as I walk through a sculpture garden I see statues that couldn't be anything other than of my two brothers, Rick and Tom. My only explanation is that they must be close friends with this sculptor and he knows what they are thinking about all of the time.

Just to keep it in the Valencian theme he made their heads shaped like palleros (the pans you use to make paella) in order to keep their true identity camouflaged. Even sculptors have to comply with HIPPA regulations, I guess.

Methow Magic

Tom & Rob made a trip to the Methow March 10. It was a little colder and whiter than expected. However, since it was white Tom decided to make the most of Rob's first excursion since his accident.

After making sure that there were no rapidly moving fisherman waiting to crash out of the bushes and come crushing into Rob's head a la Alta, Tom went to work making a white day whiter. He found several whitefish and got them in. Some were even sipping insects on or near the surface. The whitefish must have taxed his reel because when he hooked a nice solid steelhead, the bail (bale?) popped open and he found himself free-spooling and trying to fight it with either all or nothing for drag. Soon he discovered that he had "nothing" left on his line. =-(

It was a nice morning, for me I'd never tromped through 3" of freshly fallen snow in waders, but it did make it much easier walking across the boulders that were buried under a thick, smooth, even layer of snow.

Columbia Park Pond

Saw they planted 2000 fish in Columbia Park Pond earlier in the week, so I took off a little early Friday and picked Melinda up from school to go check it out before she had activity day. It didn't warm up like it was supposed to and there was a bit of a wind, so it was a bit chilly. There were no signs of any fish on the surface, no one else fishing, and no fish interested in the power eggs, so we didn't stay long. Melinda was able to practice her casting, we had a little time together, and of course we stopped for McD's fries on the way home. A successful trip, even if we didn't see any action from the fish.