Tucannon/Touchet Trout

Posted pics on Facebook, but if it's not in the blog, it's not official.  And I can share more detail here.  September was free from work travel, so I took advantage of a Saturday to take the girls out fishing.  We headed to the Tucannon River for some fall fishing.  It's a pretty little river, generally with lots of fish.  Sometimes you find them mostly small (4" to 7"), sometimes decent sized (8" to 12").  Today we found a mix.  Pretty much all the action on psycho green under an indicator.  I tried the stimulator as there are October caddis around this time of year, but pretty much all the action was on the nymph. 

 

Once the girls were set up, I just pointed them to the water and they caught the fish.  In one wide stretch, we were all three fishing side by side and catching them.  We all caught plenty.

 

Jess fishing one channel where the river split

Melinda fishing the hole on the other half of the river

Melinda lands the big fish of the day.  I was just upstream when I heard an excited exclamation as she was surprised by this larger fish.  A good surprise.

Jessica is not far behind in size.  She was fishing the seam along the far bank, and doing it well

After a little more than a couple hours, the girls said they were hungry (don't know what that has to do with anything - I can be hungry and still fish for 12 hours....), but since I do want them to go fishing with me again, we headed back to Dayton and Ray's Drive-in, the traditional stopping place since Jessica was 2 yrs old.  After burgers and fries and other good stuff, I suggested that we stop by the Touchet River just a few blocks away.  The girls were happy to stay in the car and knit or play games on my phone, while I fished a familiar stretch from the footbridge to below the dam.  The fish were very willing, about 40 or so in the hour I fished, ranging from a little larger than fry up to about 9".  Both the stimulator and the psycho prince were well received.

Touchet trout

A very nice day with the girls.



Schaefer Lake with scouts

Today was a 10-mile day hike with the scouts.  Went to Schaefer Leke.  I've tried twice before to go there but had to turn back.  This time we made it.  Brook trout liked #12 yellow humpy.  Lots of fish, lots of fun.

One of  my scouts tried to throw his boot across the river we had to ford near the end of the hike.  His boot went up.  His boot went down.  His boot went plop.  His boot did drown.

It was a brand new pair of boots, worn for the first time.  After nine and three-quarters miles of use, it went very quickly downstream in the current.  It was the first time in 20+ years if scoutmastering that I've had a boy finish a hike barefooted.  Both of his socks were in the boot that went in the river.

Scout-a-vista Rainbows

Trout Lodge donated rainbow trout for the small lake at Camp Scout-a-vista above Wenatchee a few weeks ago.  They will be part of a fishing derby station for the cub scouts in a couple of weeks.  Today I was there with the 11-year old scouts doing an orienteering course.

As luck would have it, the course that I laid out had its end point near the lake so after I got a group of boys started on the mile long course I wandered up to the lake to wait for them and determine how close they were to the actual end point.  While there I had determined to catch and release a representative sample the fish to be able to ascertain their health status and verify that they would be satisfactory for the cubs a few weeks hence.  I noticed that a blue heron also had the same idea, but I suspect that he is there more often than I am.

I had three groups of boys so I had to go up there to the course end three times today.  Oh well, somebody had to do it.  I have a couple photos of rainbows.  Caught 14 on a size 10 flashback pheasant tail behind a cast-a-bubble.  It was better early in the morning.  Had lots that got on (briefly) and then got off after a short fight.  A few were also very hearty jumpers.  A fun day at Camp Scout-a-vista!

Oh yeah, the group of boys that were closest finished within 7.5 feet of the actual end point.  I was pretty impressed and had Trails End carmel corn as a reward for the group that was closest.

On the way to BYU-I (or back from) - Part 3

 

Spent yesterday unloading Sarah's stuff, helping her move in, buying more stuff, attending the Parent's meeting, and then biding farewell.  Headed to Birch Creek BLM campground to sleep in the car.  I rolled the window down a bit so I could listen to the sound of the creek as I slept - nice!  Morning came with a beautiful sunrise, a brown sugar and cinnamon pop tart, and an hour of fishing with similar results as Wednesday - a good number of 7 to 9-inch rainbows.

Sunrise at Birch Creek

Birch Creek rainbow

After an hour of fishing, I left Birch Creek and headed for the Big Lost River to check out the tailwater fishery below Mackay Dam.  There are a few sportsman access points around Mackay.  The first one I went in to (Upper Access?) looked empty, but then some bait chuckers drove in and plopped in the river just upstream of me.  Looking to move I found cars upstream and down, perhaps fisherman, perhaps not, so I left to check out the access a little ways upstream at the base of the dam.  This one was empty - yes! 

The river is decent sized and very nice in this stretch.  I was nymphing and rotated through flies the first couple holes, had a few misses, spooked some fish in the tailout, and finally settled in on a size 18 micro golden stoneflow and a size 12 caddis green psycho prince for the most part.  A size 14 purple psycho prince also produced.  Hoppers were ignored.

Big Lost River

I found the fish that were actively feeding (at least on what I was tossing) tended to be in the riffles, not in the tailouts or deeper sections of the holes.  Once I was dialed in, I landed probably 30 fish or so, most in the 8" to 12" range, with a few a little bigger, up to about 15" or 16" for the biggest.  I saw bigger fish in the holes and occasionally rising.  This was a short section of maybe 5 or 6 holes like the one pictured between the starting point and the base of the dam, but I spent about 3 1/2 hours here, enjoying every minute.  If there were other fisherman, you'd be consigned to trying to coax fish out of one or two holes.  As I was fishing on the right hand side of the island just below the dam, a couple other fisherman appeared up the left hand side and plopped themselves in the hole at the base of the dam directly above me.  That's OK, it wasn't that good a hole anyway (a big pool, not a riffle) and I caught a couple in the water they had just fished through.  Met another fisherman on my way back down who was fishing small dries in the flat water (tricos?) which I think is more typical for the purists who fish these waters.  Any rate, this is a great place to stop if in the area, and I will try to pay a return visit.

Nice Big Lost River rainbow

Big fish of the trip - healthy fighing in the fast water

I briefly checked out the access point below Mackay and found one brook trout and nothing else.  By the time I got back to Arco, it was 4 pm and I was only 111 miles from Rexburg, so I packed things up and turned for home.  I drove off to check out a Silver Creek access point, but it looked too much like a big Rocky Ford for my tastes, then as I passed Anderson Dam and the South Fork of the Boise, I was tempted to briefly wet the fly, but I decided to leave that exploration for another day.  I have four years of back-and-forths to Rexburg to check that one out.  Arrived home just after 10:30 pm, not bad for as much time as I got to spend fishing on the way home.

On the way to BYU-I Part 2

There are no fish in Montana!  At least for me today.  South from Missoula, stopped at the E Fork Bitterroot off the highway.  Pretty water, about the size of the upper Logan river, we fished a couple nice runs, nary rise, I didn't see a fish.  Enough of that.  On to Trail Creek, a tributary of the Bighole.  Not too large a creek, cold, pretty flat and meandering, fished a few run, not a rise, didn't see anything in the water.  Stopped at the Bighole Battlefield, nice visitors center and movie, drove down to the N Fork Bighole, a flat, meandering stream, and tossed a fly in a couple holes, nothing.  With so much smoke from fires that you couldn't even see the mountains, that was enough, let's get out of Montana.

We drove south from Wisdom towards Dillon, but turned off and found our way by gravel roads across Bannock Pass, down into Idaho and the Lemhi Valley.  The gazetteer showed a dotted line down along the road that led down from the pass (intermittent stream), but I soon noticed a small amount of water.  After passing a large side canyon, I thought I saw a good bit of water through the willows.  I started driving down the left side of the road to get a better look and looked down into a tiny stream, but big enough.  I quickly stopped and walked down the bank to the hole beside the road.  Five fish later, I came up and got my waders on.  Sarah stayed and knitted, while I worked my way upstream and found lots of small rainbows that acted like they had never seen a fisherman before, rising slowing to the hopper and sucking it in.  Just about anyplace you could get a fly that should have fish, had at least one.  Did I mention the willows?  Yeah, it was tough fishing in places, but what a hoot and a pleasant, unplanned, surprise. 

Canyon Creek rainbow

Canyon Creek

On to Rexburg via Birch Creek and a several mile section of BLM land.  Driving south through the wide, dry valley, all of a sudden, there is the rather large stream flowing through the sagebrush.  The BLM has a campground and access spread along a couple miles of the stream.  This was my last planned stop.  The stream is fast flowing, clear, cold, and not a lot of deep holes.  In the first little run, I found about five little rainbows.  Sarah came out and we fished a couple sections for an hour or so, and found a good number of fish.  Sarah got the biggest one of the trip, about 12 or 13 inches, but no photo as it fell off before I could get the camera out.  If you are in the area, this merits a stop, just to fish such a pretty stream in such an unexpected location. 

Birch Creek rainbow

Sarah fishing Birch Creek

On to Rexburg and preparing to kiss Sarah goodbye.

On the way to BYU-I Part 1

 

The RAV4 was full to the brim with boxes of Sarah's stuff, with just enough room in the back corner for waders and rods.  Our plan was to drive up over Lolo Pass to Missoula on Tuesday, then down to Rexburg on Wednesday.  With a little bit of a late start and long driving time, we made it to the Lochsa River very late in the day with just a little bit of time to sample the fishing.  I couldn't stand driving by the river for long without stopping, so I stopped and tossed an orange stimulator for a few minutes in the lower section where it isn't catch and release.  I caught one dink in pocket water near shore, then had three rises of good, chunky fish to long casts across a current, but missed all three.  Continued on to the C&R section, late evening, fished a nice run with rises at times to almost every cast, some hookups, no size to them.  Beautiful stream, wish I had more time to work it a little harder.  Based on my results, I'd fish more in the lower sections.  It would be a long drive to come over here just to fish this (almost 5 hours).  On across Lolo pass in the dark, so no admiring the scenery.

Lochsa Cutt