Enchantment Lakes, Saturday, August 27 got my goat!

Caught some nice cutts in the Enchantment Lake basin again this year, but did have one very unusual hookup. I was backcasting and the billy pictured below had wandered behind me. I suddenly snagged on the backcast. I'd thought I'd checked behind me and didn't know what I'd have hooked on.

I turned and there was the billy with my hook buried into his rear end! I didn't dare yank it out for fear he'd charge me. He turned and ran and I played him for a little on my flyrod until he wrapped me around a tree--just like all the big fish do--and the hook pulled out with a chunk of him attached. I cast it back out and resumed catching the cutts. Twenty minutes later when we started out, he was still icing his haunches in a nearby snowbank. Probably wondered what insect had bitten him. Some hikers passing by who were watching me fish had a pretty good laugh!

I guess I'm the first Merrill brother to catch an ungulate flyfishing.

Saturday, August 20 @ The Creek

I went to The Creek this evening with Garn Christensen, our school superintendent and a good fishing buddy. We started down low in the big holes by the cave at the turn of the valley. We clawed our way down there because Garn had snorkeled it yesterday with the Rotary Club clean-up of the creek (nice work Rotary Club!) and saw about one-hundred fish in the big hole there.

The fish weren't interested in what I was tossing so Garn wanted to go to the next hole down. I saw something I'd never seen before--somebody swimming in waders. I've seen people bobbing down stream in waders after getting out to the neutral buoyancy point, having done so myself on a number of occasions. No, this was swimming--launch into the water and then crawl stroke--across the hole (10'+ in depth) with fly rod in hand. He did catch one or two down below. I finally managed to land one small rainbow in the upper cave hole.

Once we headed upstream though, the fishing picked up and was pretty steady. Garn did stop to empty some water out of his waders. Grasshoppers are very thick this year. Some of the foliage on the willows even showing their effect. Some of the fish were so stuffed with insects that they had the body form of triploids with their distended bellys. I fished a Renegade, and Garn a hopper most of the time. I think that the Renegade had the slight edge tonight. A great way to spend the evening after a day spent in work!

Big and Little Nunyas

Friday, August 12, 2011

Work is highly overrated, so when Tom said he was wife and kid free we quickly planned an outing. Tom wanted to float the Kettle, but decided the water level might be too low for the driftboat by this time of year, and we opted for the old standbys, Nunya and Little Nunya, along with exploring a little more water on Little Nunya.

Tom got a late start, having to return home to retrieve his rattlesnake chaps. Good thing, because we ran into three this trip, only one of which we could see. But they were all nice and did let us know with sufficient warning that they weren't happy with the direction we were headed. We got this one to come out onto the trail (Tom wanted a new set of rattles for Tory, but the rock missed). Afterwards, we decided that next time we'll give one of our rattlesnake chaps a real, live, performance test (after taking it off our leg, off course).

The day started nicely, with this beatiful 20" brown about three holes up from the bridge on a black, bead-head bugger. Tom got several small ones on the hopper, but things were a little slow, even when we made it up into the better water. A little above the honey hole, we looked upriver and there were three fisherman in the water. They were either dropped off below, or were fishing their way down. Based on our seeing very few fish of size, and not many fish in the normal places, we may have been fishing behind them a good part of the day. Still, it was a bad day as we had some action throughout the stream and turned some nice fish besides those we caught.
Who can't love that face?

Tom pulled this fat-shouldered rainbow from under the grass bank (several times, in fact, as it kept running under and tangling in the grass.

This face is a little harder to love

My highlight of the day was the second big brown I caught (18") from another grassy bank. Tom had stung a nice brown about halfway down the bank and had worked all but the very upstream end of the undercut. I took my turn, trying to replicate Tom's graceful casting. He seems to place the hopper perfectly in the grass every second or third cast, while for me it is more like every tenth cast. Well, it must have been my tenth cast, because the line laid out perfectly while the flopper-hopper gently curled to the right and landed at the edge of the bank just upstream of the overhanging grass. "Perfect cast," I thought, "Just like one Tom would make." Tom, who was tying on a fly behind me, thought the same thing. The hopper drifted into the grass and was lost to view in the shadows, which didn't really matter for what happened next. The water under the grass erupted in spray with an accompanying sound like that of an our slicing through the water. You don't need to see the fly to know what to do when that happens! Rod up, fish on! Extremely gratifying to have such a perfect cast rewarded with a nice fish. Fish with Tom enough, and you can pick up some good habits.

After Nunya, we stopped for a double everything burger at a local shop (not bad), then made a couple quick stops at both the upper and lower access points on Little Nunya. A few small fish downstream from the upper access. We walked about 1/2 mile downstream, and found the river highly straight and channeled like a canal with cattails along both sides. Water was deep enough and flowing, somewhat fishy looking, but without structure and banks, did not appear to hold a lot of fish. More fish at the bridge at the lower Little Nunya access, but not as willing as normal (although lots were present). We were there late, so it may have been fished earlier. Finally, we checked out a new section and found flowing water with at least small fish present based on the rises, but Tom couldn't entice one to a hook. Private land all around, so just fishing right at the bridge. We were treated to a wonderful sunset over an abandoned house. A great way to end a great day.

--Rick

Near the Land of Zarahemla...

Saturday, August 6, 2011

I had to check out a couple hikes for our Beehive Camp next week at Camp Zarahemla on Clear Lake near White Pass. The first hike up Round Mountain had no water but what you could see far below in the Tieton Valley; also great views of Mount Rainier, Mt Adams, and the Goat Rocks. The second-year girls should be challenged by the 1700 ft of elevation gain and somewhat high altitude (just under 6000 ft at the top).

Mel and I then checked out a bushwack hike to Clear Creek Falls which will be challenging for the first-year girls, but rewarding as it is pretty cool. Mel and I climbed up the ridiculously slick rocks into the spray shooting across to the opposite cliff.


More importantly, this was a stream that bested me years ago. In fact, it was at this very creek (Clear Creek) that Jessica informed me the fish didn't like me because I didn't kiss them and tell them thanks. Well, I have obviously kissed enough fish since then, because in the first hole I pulled out this nice rainbow that waked after the elk-hair caddis skillfully skated downstream!

Next stop, North Fork Tieton above Clear Lake. A washed out bridge left us miles short of the trailhead we went to investigate, so I went straight to the river that had skunked me years ago. Beautiful looking stream, a little colored from the glacier that feeds it, but same results as my last visit - not a sign of any fish. I couldn't see any bugs on the rocks in the stream, so I'll just claim this as a fairly sterile piece of water and cross it off my list of places to visit. Unless I'm in the area with Tom, who can then show me how the catching is done.

On the way home, the girls allowed me a few minutes to toss a fly into the Tieton below Rimrock Lake along the rip-rap next to the road, usually a sure producer of fish. That was the case again, even though the water was fairly colored. Five rainbows, all about this size, mostly on the caddis green psycho, one on a brown stonefly, and a few hits on the stimulator chew toy (dry). A great way to close the day.