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!