Pre-Christmas on the Touchet

Took the day off today, and since it had warmed up with no snow or ice on the roads, decided to see if any steelhead could be found in the Touchet. Stopped between Waitburg and Dayton where Tom and I went the day after Thanksgiving. Water was up a bit with a little color. Found a few small trout, but no steel. Next up to Dayton to fish in town. The high water at the beginning of this month made some changes here. The nice hole right above the highway bridge was pretty much filled in and just a fast shot of water. Found a few more little guys, nothing big. The higher water turns this stream into a straight shot of fast water, channeled as it is between dikes. On the way home, made a final stop at the park in Waitsburg to check out a little run I had found there earlier in the year. Again, a couple small guys, but nothing big. All but one on the bead, the other on the black stone. No steelhead, but can't ever complain if you are finding fish.

 

Touchet Trout

Black Friday Deep Freeze

For the traditional post-Thanksgiving fishing trip, Tom came down to the Tri-Cities so Rick and Tom could try and find steelhead in the Touchet River. The weather didn't look too bad, about 25°F and foggy when we left before dawn Friday. Sure, it will ice up the guides, but we can live with that. We were heading to explore a section of the lower Touchet, which steelhead are reported to move into before heading upstream later in the season. As we headed east, the temperature started dropping, and as we pulled into the parking area next to the river, it was 15°F with dense ice fog.  Hmm, never tried fishing when it was this cold. Shelf ice lined both sides of the small stream, and after a few casts, not only was there ice in the guides, but the leader and line had a sheath of ice, and would cast like a stiff wire. Reeling in line was next to impossible as the ice from the line would jam up the first guide. Admitting defeat by the elements, we headed back to the car, and after the couple minutes it took to get there, our reels were frozen solid and unable to turn to bring in the excess line, punctuating our defeat with an exclamation point.

 

Not wanting to accept defeat, we checked the weather conditions with the smartphone. Waitsburg to the east was currently 21°F, forecast to get into the low 40's. Dayton, a little farther east (and closer to the mountains) was 24°F. Nice inversion. We could see the fog dissipated to the east, with the promise of sun to warm things up. So off we went. At our first stop east of Waitsburg, we found sun, a balmy 25°F, a couple really nice steelhead runs, but no fish.  Not surprising, as the steelhead usually don't make it up this far until later in the season. Tom turned one nice sized trout, but nothing else, surprising as normally you can catch a lot of small trout (smolt) in this section. The cold made some interesting ice in places, but it was nothing like the cold at the first stop.

 

Ice sculpture on the Touchet

By now it was nearing lunchtime, and we decided to try a favorite section near Dayton, after the obligatory stop for burgers and shakes at Ray's Drive In (Cougar burger - double 1/4 pound patties, slice of ham, bacon, and all the fixings - along the their awesome milkshake. Great!). Recharged, we headed to the stream with the temperature now a balmy 40 degrees or so, and promptly found lots of steelhead, just ones that hadn't headed out to sea yet (or that had decided to stay in the stream rather than make the long trip). They pretty much ignored flies (even the psycho prince), but couldn't resist the peachy pearl bead. It was still a little hit and miss, with some great looking water delivering no fish, while shallow riffles near the bank would crank out fish after fish. We found quite a few decent sized fish like the one pictured with Tom below.

Tom and a nice Touchet trout

It would have been nice to have found a steelie or two, but we did find some nice water that I might try and revisit later in the year. A great day fishing. Thanks, Elisabeth, for loaning Tom out for the day!

Rick Gives Thanks for Trout...

What would Thanksgiving be with a trip to "The Ford"? I finally found a day to get out with Boyd Robertson, a neighbor and fellow fly-fisherman. And he gets a special guest post on the blog.

 

Arrived fairly late (10:30 am) but no cars at the lower parking area. Beautiful sunny day, but I'm partial to snow and sleet for the best fishing this time of year at the Ford. Lots of weeds still in the water in the run above the lower bridge, only strippable from the corner to the bridge.

 

First cast at the corner above the lower bridge brought a wake and strike on the green bunny, good pull, but missed the hook. I wish that was a sign for how the fishing would be for the day, but it wasn't quite that good - until the end. I found some, but most of the wakes did not end in a take. I watched some smaller ones right in front of me at the bridge that would follow it in with a wake and almost have their mouth around it, but never close the deal. Boyd had some better luck fishing with a secret "fly" that I won't share here, but action wasn't wild and crazy. I tried a little in the skinny water, not too many fish down there, and no action on what I tossed their way. Some fish below the bridge and off the peninsula above the dam.

 

Boyd and a little guy

Mid-afternoon Boyd headed up the east side to the middle skinny, and a little later as I left the bridge to follow him up, I noticed a truck with blue tanks in the back drive up to the edge of the creek - I should have given that a little more thought...but we found no people and a few fish in the middle skinny. Heading back down I had lots of wakes, no takes, at almost every opening I fished. Boyd caught a couple more. Approaching the bridge, there were four guys lining the path to the bridge, hauling in fish after fish.  Yup, the truck had dumped a load of 18" to 20" fat, silver-bright, hungry trout. Boyd caught 18 from the east side down below the bridge, I caught not that many fishing above the bridge, but it was pretty fortunate timing. Wish I had stayed to see what was in the truck....But the action was fast and fun until almost dark, when we called it a day and headed home.

Klickitat steelhead--incredible!

The Klickitat River valley

Yesterday and today (Oct 8-9) Dad & I fished the Klickitat River with guides from Red's Flyshop seeking steelhead and it was an incredible trip.  These are the first steelhead Dad has caught since the Bella Coola days and we haven't been there since the early 1990's.

Dad's first steelhead since Bella Coola--bonked this hatchery fish!

Yesterday we fished with Shan and he was great!  Worked hard to put us into fish--and put he did!  We landed 7 steelhead along with two incidental kings.  A great day followed by fabulous food in the lodge right in the town of Klickitat and alongside the river.  When we arrived yesterday there was a guy in a rowboat right in front of the lodge who caught a king salmon.  Most of the folks on the river are fishing for salmon to keep so we were somewhat the oddities seeking steelhead to release.

We slept well in the comfortable rooms and had a great breakfast there at the lodge.  We got an early start with Joe from Red's today.  We were on the water today by 8:00 and had another great day of fishing with fish all day long.

Early morning mist on the Klicktat

We had landed our first fish less than 100 yards into the float again today and had the last fish shortly before the takeout.  I hooked and landed it about where the mist is rising in the photo above--pretty sweet!

While fishing for steelhead today we again hit some kings and they were hard fighters.  Today while fighting one of the kings my nice Ross reel exploded.  I mean for real--pieces went flying everywhere!  I'm left trying to fight a fish holding the reel without any drag mechanism or hub to keep it on the spindle. While fighting the fish (and killing my knuckles!) Joe is trying to put the drag and hub pieces back on the reel so I can continue the fight.  Alas, the fish broke off and my reel is dead.  I'll be sending it to Ross for repairs.  Better here where I can fix it easily than in Mexico next March on a bonefish!

A king I landed before a bigger one destroyed my Ross reel!

Dad and I had a double with whitefish early today and had two chances at doubles on big fish, but somehow one of us always lost the second one before firmly hooking it.  Great action, great company, great scenery, great guiding--need I say more?  Brothers, we've got to get this onto the schedule for 2014 most definitely!

Dad with a Klickitat king to quickly fight and release

I"ll finish with a few more photos from our trip so you get an idea of the topography.  Canyon is very narrow with very little bottom, much of it is isolated with no road access--the stretch we floated pictured in first photo is such a section.  Oak and pine forest mostly mixed and saw numerous deer and some turkeys.  Joe saw a bear consumed salmon yesterday so all kinds of furry and feathered (and finned) freinds.

Mixed pine and oak forest

Upstream view

Downstream view

The lodge at river's edge where we stayed

Conference and the Creek

Thanks to the wonders of satellite radio, we can listen to General Conference almost anywhere - including at the parking area overlooking the falls of The Creek.  That's what Dad and I did on Saturday. 

We arrived at the creek just as the closing prayer for the Saturday morning conference session was finishing.  There were two cars there, but no fisherman.  Turns out it was just hikers. Dad didn't want to face the slick basalt of the creek bottom, so he came along to enjoy the pretty day and watch me catch fish.  Which he did.  Lots of them.  Starting above the falls with a renegade at the end of the line, I dropped the fly into the narrow gap in the grass and promptly watched the white hackle disappear in a splash (just like my writeup in my blog - checkout the article I wrote about my happy place).  It was nice to find things a little more open and fishable.

Much more open after recent floods

Dad up on the road had a perfect view into many of the pools, watching the fish come up to the fly as clearly as I could (probably better than I could because of the glare).  Many small, 6 to 8 inch redbands, and one good sized fellow made it a beautiful mid-day trip.  By the time I reached the crossing, 61 fish had come to hand.  I stopped at the pools on the way back and found a half-dozen more.  Back to the car, climbed in, and turned on BYU-Radio just as the opening prayer for the afternoon session was starting.  Perfect timing to end a great mid-day outing.

Nicest fish of the day

Another Saturday on the Touchet

Saturday I was helping out a friend in the ward with a Scout class on the only MB required for life (not the Life badge, I mean real life).  Yup, the Fly Fishing MB.  I drove up to Teancum Timbers, the church property on the NF Touchet river, but left a little early so I could grab a #7 with OJ at McDs and stop at a couple places, one a new access point found on Google Earth.  Found a few small fish in a quick stop at a familiar place as the sun was rising (just checking out a place to take a friend and his daughter this next week for a first time fly fishing trip).  Fly of choice on this stream is CGPP.

 



Small Touchet trout

 

Found my new access point and happily several nice little runs stacked in a row.  About seventeen fish in 15 minutes, still on the CGPP, mostly small, but did find this nice one.  I just sampled the water to make sure there were fish here so I could bring scouts back in the afternoon to catch a fish on the fly.  Then it was on to Teancum Timbers, arriving right on time, amazingly.



 

A good-sized trout for the Touchet

Gotta love a face like that

While at Teancum Timbers, I was able to add another new stream to my Washington total - the NF Touchet.  Small stream, mostly pocket water with a few holes adjacent to the church property.  I'm sure it is heavily fished here, but I still found some fish.  While they were showing the boys insects and crayfish and stuff they found in the small stream, I picked up my friend's rod, tossed the EHC into a little pocket behind a rock, and pulled out a 6" rainbow.  The boys were like, "Where did that come from!?"  I taught them the proper etiquette of kissing and thanking the fish before letting them go.  Later after lunch, I put an EHC with a dropper on my rod and visited the deeper holes that had already been fished a couple times that morning.  Got 9 fish, all but one on the psycho prince dropper.  I love that fly!  No size at all, but it was fun.  After the boys tied a couple flies, we split up in groups and took them to different parts on the main Touchet.  I was able to help 5 boys catch their first fish on the fly, a very successful day.  Then in the hour or so before dark, my friend Boyd and I stopped at another spot on the way home for some time to ourselves and a few more small trout.  I got home later than intended (I thought the fishing was going to be right after lunch, but we didn't start until about 3 pm), but I have a very understanding and tolerant wife.  I just need to do a lot of chores this week before I go Saturday again.

I Like Taking Sarah to School...

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 - Well, it is that time of the year again, when I get to say goodbye to Sarah and explore more places to fish in SE Idaho.  We arrived in Rexburg Thursday night and unloaded Sarah's stuff in about 15 minutes - the advantage of having almost everything packed in uniform, small moving boxes.  I slept in the car and arose fairly early to go check out the Warm River and some old intel Rob had from Randy Bragg, to hike the railroad grade through the tunnel, then down to the river.

 

While at the campground entrance trying to decide if the trailhead was inside ($8 fee), I noticed a car pull up at the pullout behind me and someone in waders getting out.  I turned around and inquired if he knew where the trailhead was, but it turns out he was a student at BYU-I from NC who had left his rod leaning against the car when he had driven off about 15 minutes before.  Now it wasn't there.  I help him look for a while, then commiserated and said it was too bad, we could have fished together.  I entered the campground and was getting my stuff out of the car when he comes driving up and says this old lady walking by asked him if he had left his rod there - this about 30 seconds after he says he finished a prayer.  See, Heavenly Father is a fisherman!  I again extended the invitation to fish together, which Josh accepted, and we began the walk up the old railroad grade.  It was farther than I was led to believe, and the river was enticing below, so after about 3/4 mile we started down a trail to the river below.  In a deeper run, I quickly picked up three nice rainbows like the one in the photo (caddis green psycho prince size 16, of course), then nothing for a long while.  Changing flies, nymphs, dries, no luck.  Josh was new to fly fishing, and tried my double nymph, but mostly fished a brown, dubbed hair fly.  After the first hole, the river was flat and non-descript, and even in the riffles that were a little deeper where there would usually be some little fish, there was nothing.  



Warm River Rainbow

 



This was not at all the river I had dreamed about (yes, I really have dreamed about this section of the river, but it was always fast moving and tumbling white water in a narrow canyon).  But hope is always there for the fisherman, and we kept moving up around the next corner, until the river finally began to change after about 1/2 mile.  Big boulders appeared, the canyon narrowed, and we could see some white water ahead.  This was the river that was in my dreams!  I saw some fish rising on the other side of the river where Josh was fishing, and pointed it out when he caught up with me.  He proceeded to start catching them, with beautiful, long casts, not looking at all like a beginner.  And I began to find them with the CGPPN.  Ah, life is good, but not perfect, as Josh had a blind date set up for him for 3 PM, and so we had to leave just as we were getting into the nice water.  As we walked looking for a way out of the canyon, I made one last toss into a small pool below white water and immediately had a nice little rainbow - the river taunting me, that I had to leave, but that's OK, I will return.  And I will walk past the railroad tunnel next time.



Josh, my fishing companion on the Warm River with his first fish of the day

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 - After a final farewell to Sarah, I drove west to Birch Creek and again slept in the back of the RAV4 with the sound of the running water singing me to sleep through the slightly open window.  I awoke to a beautiful sunrise, briefly fished the creek in this heavily used public fishing area, then left and backtracked to a public fishing access I had seen in my headlights as I passed the night before.  I saw many fish as I walked up the river, but few takers, either on nymphs or dries.  Just as I was getting ready to leave, I came across a split in the river, where 1/2 to 2/3rd of the water had broken through a bend to a new channel.  That explained why the stream I had been fishing was more like a meandering meadow stream, and possibly why the fish were so easily spooked in the quiet water.  It was 9 am, and I had a 9 hour drive to get home, so I packed it up after getting the nice little rainbow below.

Birch Creek Sunrise

Birch Creek Rainbow

I had thought of stopping at the Lemhi River, but with limited public access I figured I'd probably hustle it to Washington and catch Little Nunya (I was coming home through Missoula and across I-90.  But driving by the Lemhi and seeing it in some spots near the road changed my mind (along with the reports of 16" to 24" rainbows on hoppers that I had read of).  So I found a spot with access and no other people, and waded into the fairly small stream, about Tucannon River size (100 cfs) with a little color.  I was quickly rewarded with a number of 7" to 9" rainbows, a whitefish, and some gurgling pikeminnow (there are steelhead that make it up to this river, so the rainbows could likely be smolt.  I caught a few nicer rainbows near 12" long, and then came to a nice long, deep run.  Found another 12" rainbow, then I'm sorry to admit, I began to have fun catching northern pikeminnow, one after another, from 12" to 16", fighting strongly in the deep current, and gurgling as I picked them up to unhook the fly.  It was automatic, cast drift, fish, one after the other.  I kept at it because there were rainbows there also, finally hooking and releasing this nice one.  From there, it just got better.

Lemhi Rainbow

I continued upstream, with a number of 10" to 12" rainbows, and came to another deep run.  Now the rainbows were 12" to 14" like the one below.  At the top of this deep run, I hooked into a nice one that leaped out of the water, then fought very hard.  As I watched in the water, I saw what turned out to be a 15" rainbow, with an even larger fish swimming all around it.  Bull trout? Nope, it was just swimming wildly, maybe 18", and then it was gone. I brought in the smaller of the two fish, and the dropper was gone.  It was then I realized I had a double with a 15" and about an 18" rainbow, but the 5x tippet couldn't hold the larger fish.  The next hole up, I found more 12" to 14" bows, then drifting along overhanging willows, lifted up as the indicator went down and a 20"+ rainbow tail-danced across the water.  I held several runs in the deep fast water, had it turned towards the bank several times, but each time it turned back into the fast water as I prayed the smaller fly would hold (it was on the dropper).  I must not be as righteous as Josh, because my prayer was answered by a dive towards the submerged willow branches.  I pulled just a little harder to hold the monstrous fish back, and the tippet broke.  With shaking hands, I tied on the double CGPPN setup again (size 12 upper, size 16 lower, with a small split), ran a few more drifts through the hole, then looked at my watch and realized it was 1 pm and I still had 8 hours to home.  I made one last cast down and across the flats at the bottom of the hole where I had seen a rise earlier, and promptly hooked into another bright rainbow, in the 18" range, who after a brief thrash across the surface, dove into the willows and broke off my flies.  A sign that it was time to go.  My intel on this stream - forget the hoppers!  The CGPPN was unreal.  I don't know if the color is always here or the result of recent rains.  Fishing might be harder if it were dead clear, as the river is small.  Also, there aren't a lot of places to fish, so it would not be a good location for a destination trip unless you were fishing with a guide who could provide access, but if passing through the area, you might want to check it out.

Nice Lemhi Rainbow, not the largest

I thought I was done for the day, but climbing north out of Salmon approaching the state line, the road wound along the NF Salmon River, a small, creek-sized stream.  Just a few miles from the summit, a historical marker beckoned (well, the stream next to the historical marker beckoned), and in 20 minutes I happily found some beautiful, small rainbows and cutthroats, all happily rising to dries.  A fitting close for the day, I happily packed my rod away and finished the drive home, still haunted by the tail-dancing rainbow on the Lemhi, and dreaming of next fall when Sarah returns to school again and I can again visit these beautiful waters.

NF Salmon Rainbow



Hollis birthday present (for real this time)

Today, Hollis and I floated the Yakima with Mike Canady from Reds' to redeem the birthday present I gave him and that his loving wife had used last month with me.  It was a hot day--90's--even though we are near the middle of September now.

Hollis had never fished from a drift boat before and today was his inauguration to nymphing.  He soon got the hang of it and in no time was hooking up with rainbow trout.  We had fish though most of the day.  The river is considerably lower than when I fished with Michelle a couple weeks ago and today we fished the middle rather than toward the banks.

We managed to have three doubles today so it was a good day.  Though Hollis didn't have any fish that matched Michelle's largest for size, he definitely managed to land more total numbers--including one northern pikeminnow (gurgle, gurgle) that managed to come to the fly.

Another great float with Red's.  :-)

Fishing the T's

In Dayton for two days with Carlynn to celebrate 25 years of marriage.  Of course I brought a fly rod along, and my dear wife was happy to oblige me a few minutes of fishing.

 

Thursday night shortly after we arrived, a mega-storm blew in with the creepiest looking clouds.  It just rolled in, started blowing like crazy and then poured.  Ray's drive-in had a tree fall on it, but not much damage so it is still good for shakes. 

 

Ominous cloud approaching

Friday morning while Carlynn was getting ready, I visited the Touchet, knowing it had risen quite a bit and found it pretty muddy.  I was here, though, so may as well fish.  I worked the psycho prince and found a nice 11-inch rainbow and one other small one, but the visibility was pretty bad and impacted fishing.  Tried EHC, but no luck.  Later that day on the way back from Palouse Falls, made a quick stop on the other T river and found 13 small ones in 30 minutes, all on CGPPN. It was still clear despite the rain - I don't think the front quite made it that far east.

Nice Touchet rainbow

 Saturday on the way home made another quick stop on the Touchet.  The river had cleared in Dayton but was still somewhat muddy further downstream.  Fished a stretch I'd visited with Rob and the girls long ago, and didn't find anything at first with an EHC, switched to CGPPN and started finding a few.  Ended up picking up eight, including one that ran about 13" (not the one pictured - I just had the iphone with no wrist strap, so after almost dropping it several times getting this photo, I decided to keep it put away).  A few nice quick stops and a few nice fish.

Hooked right where it is supposed to be, with my favorite fly

Elk River, Day 3

The weather forecast was for heavy rains in the afternoon today so we opted to float the lower section closer to town that we did on Day 1.  We packed our raingear and layers.  There was some scattered shower activity in the morning so the raingear was needed, but by lunch the weather looked pretty good.  It stayed sunny and got hotter as the day went on so we were glad as well as warm.

The fishing started really slow but occasionally we were catching a fish. We tried lots of different flies, streamers, and nymphs but nothing really seemed to be working well. When the weather began to clear, the fish began to strike.  What started as a rather slow day ended up being one of the most productive of our trip.  I again exceeded my age, and I think both Tom and Dad well exceeded me.

Rob with an Elk River cutt on Day 3

Some of the fish were heavy like the ones we'd caught Day 2 up higher.  In one corner late in the afternoon Dad and I were landing fish, multiple fish in the same hole including a double of a couple nice ones.  Later, Tom asked us if we'd seen the bear that swam the river right above us.  We didn't--we were too busy catching fish to notice!

We ended a great trip with another great day on the river.  Had baby back ribs at the Park Place Inn where we had stayed, then drove home.  On the way home, we encountered the weather that had been forecast for our day on the river.  Much nicer from inside the pickup than in the open Clackacraft boat!

Got to come home to the dahlias in bloom in the garden.  Though it is great to be out fishing, there's no place like home.

Elk River, Fernie, B.C. Day 2

Today we fished the upper Elk River in the beautiful Elk Valley.  Several HUGE coal mines up that valley with most of the coal exported to Asia.  They have found a way to balance the need to provide employment for people with protection of the river environment.  These mines which have been operating for many years don't seem to have impaired fishery adjacent to them.

First fish of the day. A heavy cutt

It started off with a bang again today.  I got first fish right at the bridge where we put in.  Photo shows what full-bodied fish they are in this upper section of river. All the fish we caught today were much stouter than those we caught yesterday.

Tom with one of many.  I mean MANY!

Tom was the crazy fish guy today.  I believe he caught more than Dad & I combined and we caught LOTS of these great fish.  Tom was definitely champion today.

A great Elk River cutt

Close up to show detail of this beautiful fish

Tom & Travis on the Elk River

We saw nobody on the river all day.  This is a stretch that doesn't receive much pressure.  The guides we fished with today--Brian & Travis--did great for us.  This was only Brian's second day this year on this section and it was the first day this year on this section of river for Travis.

Lunch stop

Elk River, Fernie, B.C. with Dad & Tom

We drove to Fernie from Wenatchee yesterday with a stop for lunch at Cabela's in Post Falls, ID so Tom could get a new flyline as well.  Uneventful border crossing.  Tom asked Dad not to make any wise cracks so we got through without a strip search.

First day fishing today on the Elk River in Fernie, British Columbia with Fernie Wilderness Adventures.  Our guides today were Kim (owner) and Brian.  Dad & Tom were with Kim in a Klackacraft and I was with Brian in a rubber raft with fishing frame.  Great guides who are well skilled and know the river.  They got us into lots of fish today.

Elk River cutthroat trout

We started the day with nymphs.  Nice cutthroat trout on the nymphs.  Action was good throughout the day.  Switched to drys before lunch for most of the afternoon.  I used a Copper John while nymphing and a H&L for the dry.  While numbers were good it wasn't until late afternoon that I realized I was within striking distance of catching my age.  Second photos is of fish #52--the age fish.  I managed to land two more after that.

Fish #52 to the boat.  Rare to be able to catch my age!  :-)

Tom's photos are on his iPhone and we didn't want to risk cell phone charges in Canada, so he'll post his photos separately in the blog later.  Looking forward to another great day tomorrow.  We'll be fishing high on the Elk River where it drops more rapidly and fishing is in pockets rather than in long runs like today.

Grandpa @ The Creek

The Creek is much more fishable after the flood.  Beaver dams are gone as far as we fished.

We set out to catch as many fish as Grandpa is years old.  The Creek was the place to make the attempt.  Grandpa caught a fish before I had even gotten my fly off my rod to get ready to cast.  We covered not a lot of water, but found oh, so many fish!

It took us nearly two hours, but we managed to meet the goal.  As you can see from the photos, a few nice ones in the mix along with more than a few "Chesters".

Sorry for the rotated photo

Grandpa tried "wet wading" in his jeans and while it was a lot cooler than waders, they also were a lot heavier when wet!

The Creek is Back!

I went to "The Creek" this afternoon.  Thunderstorms passed though our area last week with heavy localized rains and we were hoping that they were localized at the creek as well.  Garn and I went up to check it out.  As we went up the highway we saw evidence of flooding over the roadway and over the banks of the river channel along the way--encouraging.

As we got to the road crossing, it was evident that lots of water had passed there.  As we arrived and parked at the overlook to begin our descent to the creek it was evident that the grass on the sides of the creek had been pressed hard away by water, in some areas rolled back and away from the river channel like sod.   The river was still running high and somewhat murky, but the Renegade was the ticket.  I landed around 50 with the largest being 11" and Garn had between 20 and 30.  We fished from the big pool about halfway up to where the road crosses the river.

It was fun to even catch fish in the little pockets that had been inaccessible due to tall grass, bushes, trees and other obstructions.  While it is not scoured out, the grass has been rolled back and compressed by much of the water and it is much more accessible.  If you are up this way, it is definitely worth a visit.

Hollis' Birthday Present

I gave Hollis a float trip with his favorite father-in-law with Red's on the Yakima River tossing hoppers during high summer flows.  Only problem--a co-worker got called to jury duty and Hollis day off got cancelled.  What to do?  Michelle's response, "When the going gets tough, the tough go fishing!" so she came instead.  Our guide was Mike Canady of Red's.  Our first time fishing with him, but Dad & I will be with him for a week in Ascension Bay, Mexico next March so it was good to get to know him.

Great lunch on the river--thanks Mike!

We floated from Ringer to Milepost 10, a good 15 miles of river.  I'd landed two fish in the first four minutes of the float.  Fish most the day--way too many misses.  What do you expect? I'm a double visioned farmer.  We fished hoppers dry all day long.

In the last half hour we finished with four very nice fish, three of which are pictured with Michelle.  I didn't have her take a picture of mine because: #1 Mary says I have way too many pictures of me holding fish and #2 I think her biggest fish was bigger than mine, but didn't want to leave photographic proof.

Michellle--Happy Birthday Hollis!

Michelle again very happy for Hollis' birthday

Michelle with a pink hopper for her pink rod--this was the bug of the day!

A great day with Michelle and Mike.  Maybe Michelle will let Hollis go fishing if I give her a float trip for her birthday?

Did we mention that Michelle had a Happy Hollis Birthday?

Pasayten River

Went backpacking with the scouts this past week (56 miles--Brian 64 miles since he went back two days to help others into camp and carry their packs--he usually gets extra miles).  We entered dropping 3,000 feet in elevation into the West Fork of the Pasayten River.  Found small rainbows  (Renegade) at one of our stops while Brian and I waited for the other 8 in our group to catch up with us.  Beautiful stream with gentle gradient throughout almost its entire course.

West Fork Pasayten River

West Fork 

West Fork

Fording the Pasayten River after West, Middle, and East Forks converge

Small Pasayten River rainbow

Then at the end of day two after fording the Pasayten River (larger now) found some small rainbows on a small Humpy.  The next morning missed a nice cutthroat (red belly in spawning colors) that hit the Humpy but I had on very briefly, but knew he wouldn't hit again.  Changed to a bead headed pheasant tail and got him on the next cast. A solid 13" fish.  I hoped there were more in there!

Pasayten River cutthroat

Then proceeded to find this nice rainbow of 15".  There appear to be fish throughout the entire system.  It is a real grind to get into it, but was worth it.

Pasayten River rainbow

Hidden Lakes chain and Cougar Lake all held rainbows, brooks, and cutthroats.  We passed through quite quickly on our way out of the Pasayten River drainage.  One family at Big Hidden Lake lost about a 5-pound beast into a stump.  Big, healthy fish in this lake.

Had to cross Eightmile Pass and Lucky Pass on the way out--1,400 up then 1,200 down, then 1,000 up, then 800 down--so lots of elevation as well as distance. Maybe this is where I will hike the scouts next summer?