South Fork of the Snoqualmie

Well.  Two firsts this trip.  First trip to Safeco Field to watch Felix give up six homeruns... and first time on the South Fork of the Snoqualmie.

In preparation for heading to Alaska to catch some BIG trout, I thought the 3 weight needed a little love, too.

The older boys from church and a couple leaders and I stopped on the way home to overnight at Denny Creek Campground.  This is right in between the lanes of I-90 just west of Snoqualmie Pass.  Not a quiet campground, as there is lots of road noise, but it is right along the S. Fork.

On waking up, I went to the stream and quickly added another stream to the total with a nice Westslope Cutt.  We also caught one rainbow, which may have been a cut-bow as it had some faint slashes present, but a definite rainbow spotting pattern.

After a quick breakfast we decided to brave the rain and hike to Franklin Falls.

Franklin Falls between the lanes of I-90

On hiking to the falls, we let most of those present have attempts at trout in the pocket water.  Using a size 16 yellow-bodied humpy brought easy surface action.  All rose trout, but liked to let them "take it".  Too much bait-fishing influence I guess!  Most of the trout were between 6-9 inches, but this one was the beast of the trip!

Jon Dickson was going to get a picture of this one, so he took a 1/2 step to the left from his video position.  The 1/2 step led to a full slide down the granite slab and off a small cliff onto rocks.  Fortunately, he landed well and only had a few scrapes on his hands and no damage to his phone.  If it were an iPhone, it would have been done for!!!  :)

Continued the drive home with a stop at the Roslyn Cafe.  (Highly recommend it! - Great parmesan fries!)

Now that the 3 weight has been appeased, it is time to make the 8 weight happy in Alaska!!!

Ungulates at Lyman Lake

Absolutely one of the greatest joys of being a scoutmaster is that I get into the backcountry with the boys on a regular basis.  Another joy is that I get to help determine the destinations and hence there happen to be a high proportion of those hike destinations where fish may be found!

Lyman Lake Friday Morning

You may remember that I had an experience back in 2011 in the backcountry hooking a goat on the fly.  (See previous post at:    http://fishingwiththemerrillboys.blogspot.com/2011/08/enchantment-lakes-saturday-august-27.html)  Well, this past week while hiking with the scouts I had another opportunity for ungulates on the fly.  Though my presentation was superb, the Renegade was refused on multiple occasions.

Refused on the Renegade!

Lyman Lake cutthroat

I had to give up on the deer and instead settle for a nice cutthroat.









We day hiked to Hart Lake and found lots of willing cutts and rainbow/cutt hybrids at the inlet of a stream from the hillside into the lake.  Chad Byrd, one of the adults on our hike got into the action here as did Brian.

Chad Byrd with a Hart Lake cutthroat trout

Brian with another Hart Lake cutt

After returning for Hart Lake, Brian later found a few cutthroats in small pockets in Railroad Creek below Lyman Lake.  Railroad Creek has very difficult and limited access in the Lyman Lake-Hart Lake corridor.

Friends along the trail

We eventually had to leave this wonderful place and return to our homes.  What a blessing to live in such a beautiful place.

Ascending to Spider Gap to leave Lyman Lake/Railroad Creek basin

Great loop hike with the scouts up and over Buck Creek Pass, Middle Ridge, Suiattle Pass, Cloudy Pass, and Spider Gap.  Lots of vertical ascent and descent.  And of course, some fishing along the way!

Rob & Brian above Spider Meadow.  Brian's last summer backpacking trip as a scout.

Stream #122

On the way to Girls Camp to help with hikes for two days, stopped to meet a new friend and visit an old one. First stop was at Cowiche Creek to try and pick up another new stream. Found a small stream, somewhat like The Creek in nature but smaller, flatter, with far fewer fish, at least in the stretch I fished. Very brushy along the sides, with very limited access in or out. Fished a 1/4 mile stretch from bridge to bridge in about 30 to 45 minutes. Found a half dozen fish, missed twice that many, most smallish, and spooked a few more. There were a limited number of deeper holes in this stretch, just not a lot of water to hold large numbers of trout. But those I found were fun, coming up to the humpy willingly. Might be worth exploring a different stretch with more gradient another time, but not a real honey-hole of a place to visit.

The devil fish from Cowiche - don't know what the deal was with the red eye

Nicest Cowiche fish - didn't see any others this size

Next was the traditional stop along the highway in the Tieton River. With the water running somewhat high, fishing was only possible near the boulders along the highway, but that's OK, it is normally where I find the fish. As I caught my first fish, I heard a voice behind me and there was a nice, young game warden to check my license and flies (this stretch is selective gear, which I wasn't aware of, but not a problem since I always fish barbless - if it is open to fishing, I'm OK). Told him it was only the second time I'd been checked in Washington in my life, the other being nearby on the Naches a number of years ago. He said they had hired more people, but still only had three wardens for the Yakima office to cover a lot of territory. Nice guy, checked me out, then was on his way. And I was back to fishing. About 30 minutes, found a dozen fish or so, some on the stimulator chew toy, some on the psycho prince, nothing of great size, one that came off was about 12". But it is always nice to visit an old friend and to receive a few nice gifts, which trout of any size are...

Tieton trout headed back into the water

Stream #121

Out with Mel preparing for hikes this coming week for Beehive Camp. Had time to make it over to the west side of White Pass to see if I could pick up some new streams. Stopped at Dam Creek, small, forest stream, but with plenty of water and some nice holes, but apparently sterile. Not a sign of a fish willing to come up and look at a dry or the dropper just under it. Up the road to Lava Creek. A little larger forest stream, a couple nice holes, not a look. Man! put me back on the east side! These streams do have limited drainage, have no lake in the headwaters, and are above falls so no connection to the Cowlitz, so perhaps they are sterile or have very limited populations. On to the third try, Summit Creek. It is in a deep canyon until you get to the campground. Beautiful stream, deep holes, some very small rainbows, which we were finally able to each hook one. Obviously fished a good bit, so perhaps further upstream there might be more, but it would be a hike in. No matter, I had #121.

Small rainbow from Stream 121 (after missing the first dozen)

Mel shows me how to do it, catching one on her second or third hit

Tried one more on the west side, Millridge Creek right along Hwy 12 flowing into and out of Knuppenburg Lake. Fast dropping stream, some nice deep pocket water around big boulders, a lake just upstream with brook trout - but no fish! Surprising. We did some hiking, then a quick stop at the Tieton, which was much higher than normal for this time of year. Mel pulled one small one out in a brief stop. Then a final stop at Oak Creek, where I found lots of fish a few years ago after a fire burned through and cleared out the willows. Stream was much smaller than I remembered and didn't see a fish. Not sure what has happened here. So a great day with Mel, a nice short hike, good views, wildflowers, watching Mel catch fish on her own, and one more stream to the tally for me.

Mt Rainier from Hwy 12 viewpoint

Mel in Dark Meadow

Red sand spurry, flower is less than 1/8" across, about 1 1/2" tall

Happiness is Hopperness

What is better than fishing on a beautiful summer day?  Tossing hoppers all day long!  Yesterday Don & I floated the Yakima River with Shan from Red's Flyshop.  It was a two-stage float fishing the lower canyon to Roza from 2-6pm then repositioning upstream and floating down to Red's 7-10pm.

Started the day well with Don & me both landing rainbows in the first hole, bringing fish to the fly and catching throughout the floats, and both of us getting rainbows in the last hole of the day when being able to see the flies in the dark was kind of "iffy".  We did have one double on the day and as usual Shan was an exceptional guide.  You may remember Dad & I fished steelhead with him on the Klickitat last fall (8 steelies in one day) and he was our guide host in Mexico in March at Ascension Bay.  I rarely fish a day with him that he doesn't teach me some new technique or better refine some of what I'm already trying to do.  I really appreciate that in a guide.  Today I learned how to gently tease a fly off a branch or other snag on the shoreline.

Happy Hopper-Eater

As we were first driving into the canyon to meet at Red's, I turned to Don and simply said, "Six."  He asked me with a puzzled look, "Six what?"  I replied, "My goal is to only break off six flies today."  Then I explained that tossing hoppers to the shore inevitably puts a few in the trees with somewhat predictable consequences.  We were pounding hoppers to the edges all day long.  And yes, I put some in the trees, and I think I may have (barely) managed to meet my goal.  (Shan could probably tell me for sure.)  Don was also acting like one of my brothers and just kept fishing while I was getting a new fly tied on and he caught fish while I was out of the water.  (See photo below:  Rob--no fly; Don--nice fish)

Don "I'm not stopping fishing just because you broke off your fly" Shurtz with a nice Yakima River rainbow

Fishing was steady all day long.  The plan was to fish hopper and then switch to stones.  Near the end of part one of our float we stopped for a dinner break--nice grilled meat, pasta salad, fruit--I love roughing it with the Red's folks!  When we repositioned Don switched to a stone but I stayed with hoppers.  I continued to get fish to the hopper and Don did the stone.  I figured I'd stay with the hopper until it was ignored, but it never was.

I still like hoppers

When I broke a fly off after dark and could no longer see it I asked Shan to tie on a stone for better visibility.  When I say "better visibility" I mean a stone with a white parachute on top that would make Don King proud, and I could barely make it out in the fading light, finishing the day with a really nice rainbow.  Thanks goodness for bright moonlight.  In short, another excellent day on the Yakima with the guys from Red's Flyshop.

Happy Birthday to Rick!

For day two, we had decided to drift the Yakima as Rob had done something to his toe and couldn't walk without pain, but he ended up waking up with it throbbing multiple times during the night and decided to stay home and keep it unconfined. So Rick and Tom cancelled the Yakima plans and with an early start (4:30 am) and a #8 with OJ at McD's, we set off to a different part of the state to fish an area that shall not be named. Tom had visited this area before, but it was new to Rick, and they both had a great day.

Tom stopped at the bridge crossing of a small tributary (Stream 1) so Rick could knock of a new stream. Standing on a culvert, he quickly had a rainbow and a brookie, while Tom took his turn to find at least one. Not a car passed on the highway the whole time. I like this country.

A roadside stop at Stream 1

Next stop was the main stream we were coming to fish (Stream 2). Nice big water with hopes of some bigger fish, fishing hoppers, sometimes with a dropper. The first hole didn't disappoint a Tom promptly hooked into a beautiful 16" rainbow on the edge of the fast water at the top of the hole. Rick had several looks, and finally got one about 13 inches. Tom found some smaller, and Rick had some more rejections. Fished a couple more nice runs in a side channel, and found some more nice fish. Tom had four in one little run, then Rick rose four more a little later, including the skillful catch of the day. A nice splash on the fly, but he was sure he could see the fly still floating - another short strike. Until about five seconds later he notices the flash of a fish rolling madly in the water and Tom finally says something about unusually slow reaction time. Rick realized he wasn't watching his fly, tightened the line, and brought in a nice 12" or 13" rainbow. It takes skill to do that on a barbless!

Nice rainbow out of a fast riffle

 

Tom fishing a little run where we rose eight fish

Moving on we stopped at another very small tributary (Stream 3). After surveying and determining there was enough water for fish (barely more than a trickle) we found a place to climb through the brush into the stream. Rick missed a couple and ended up snagged in the tree. Tom couldn't hook with the strip set. So we climbed out and found a pool with a little more open area where some people had built a water intake for their cabins. We each pulled a couple pretty redbands out of the hole, then moved on before someone showed up with a shotgun (it is that kind of country).

Stream 3

A couple more stops on Stream 2 found some more fish, nothing as good as our first stop, then on to a nearby town for lunch. Across the street from the lunch stop was Stream 4, another tributary of Stream 2. We dropped in at a culvert and Tom nicely let Rick get the first fish, a fat rainbow of good size for this creek, and we each caught a couple more before continuing down the creek to its confluence with Stream 2 for a few more casts, where Rick was able to pick up one more nice rainbow before we turned towards home as rain, and hail began to fall heavily.

Nice rainbow out of a small Stream 4

A farewell birthday gift from Stream 2

But leaving for home and getting there are totally different things. How about a stop by a stream Rick had visited years before where he remembered some pretty water in a nice forest stream. It wasn't that far out of the way, and we could still make it home by 7 pm when Tom needed to be home...So on to Stream 6, yes 6, because we had to stop at Stream 5 on the way. And at Stream 5 (new to Rick, not to Tom), we found a relative abundance of small rainbows as rain again began to fall and yet another thunderstorm moved overhead. Back to the car and on to Stream 6 by way of a good gravel road - 25 years ago...

Tom with his fish (little one on the left) and my fish (not quite as little on the right)

The road gradually became rougher and more overgrown, at times a tunnel through the brushy alder that lined both sides of the road. Even in Tom's truck it was often 10 mph. Then as we got into a more forested area, we encountered several trees across the road, mostly cut out except one we had to drive around. If there was one all the way across, it would be a long backtrack. At least the road was open as far as the national forest boundary, where we could start fishing. We found a creek that was smaller than I remembered, with fewer and smaller fish, at least in the stretch we fished. So after working our way through a number of holes, we returned to the truck and headed for home.

A decent fish from Stream 6

Our ETA home was now about 7:40 pm, still enough time for Tom to change and be at his 8 pm event. After a couple miles the road got better, we returned to populated lands, and then we came to a bridge...A quick look confirmed there was plenty of water for fish, and a quick check of the Gazeteer told us it was a different stream than Stream 6, and new to Tom, so he pulled off the road just across the bridge and we hopped out of the car and put our rods back together. Tom raised a fish from the bridge, but it was a difficult angle with overhanging trees. The weren't any No Trespassing signs plastered beside the bridge, so he walked down to the stream above the bridge, and I went below. Three minutes later we were back on the road, each having caught a nice rainbow. The rods were put away for good, and we arrived home at about 7:25 with time to spare - should have made a few more casts in Stream 7... Total for today was six new streams for Rick (now at 120 streams in Washington) and two new for Tom. Birthdays don't get much better than this!

Stream 7 from the bridge

Tom wants to build a cabin on this riverfront property on Stream 2

Happy Birthday to Tom!

We scheduled two days of fishing to celebrate the birthdays of Tom and Rick. For Tom's birthday, we decided to explore the Icicle River drainage. Rick had never even driven on the Icicle River Road, and Tom had never fished there, so this was all new water. We didn't expect anything big, but wanted to find fish in new places, and that we did! Eight new streams in a great day of fishing.

Started in the Icicle River at the end of the road. Long runs and shallow riffles with small fish all along them. Plenty of room to cast and work our way up the stream side by side. Most of the fish were on dries, small stimulator, humpy, foam caddis, irresistible. As we worked our way up started to find fewer fish after 1/3 mile or so, water started falling more, so we climbed out and moved on.

Pretty stream to start the day

Nice water on the Icicle

Next stop was the concrete road crossing of the tiny Black Pine Creek. We who know, know that just about any stream that has water flowing in August is likely to have fish, no matter how small. This one has a huge flood plain of boulders relative to the tiny stream. But within a few minutes, we had all landed a rainbow, and moved on downstream.

Black Pine Creek - only we would be crazy enough to fish here

Black Pine rainbow

We had to cross the Icicle to reach a couple more creeks, but first tried several holes in Chatter Creek. Nice looking small water, but found no fish, possibly due to the adjoining campground. Down at the Icicle we found a nice hole at the crossing with some nicer fish. Rick had the ticket in this hole with a small Humpy that brought fish after fish up from the bottom, watching them the whole way in the crystal clear water. Many fish today would jump out of the water and come down on the fly, we imagine this being a technique to knock flying insects into the water or something.

A good sized rainbow for the Icicle

Leaving the Icicle, we encountered Jack Creek as a side channel in the Icicle floodplain. Probably could have found fish if we went upstream into the forest, but we turned downstream instead, and no fish in this one. On down the trail to Trout Creek, which had a nice little bridge perfectly placed over a perfect little hole. We love bridge fishing! Tom pulled out the baby trout, Rick got the mama trout, and Rob got the daddy trout, all rainbows, from the small hole. Rob and Rick explored up a short distance and found a few more until the stream was completely blocked as far as we could see by alder overhanging from both sides. We met Tom back at the Icicle to cross back to the car, after catching quite a few more, of course.

Rick's beats Tom's...

but Rob wins the bridge fishing prize at Trout Creek

With thunder echoing off the walls, we next headed up the steep road to the crossing at Eightmile Creek, and stopped just long enough to pull fish out at the bridge, Tom a cutt, Rick a bow, not sure about Rob. There isn't much fishable water, as this stream is tumbling down a mountainside.



Not a bad Eightmile rainbow with thunder booming overhead

A couple hundred yards further along was Mountaineer Creek, a pretty little stream with a more gentle gradient. Rick showed his skill first by stepping into the creek next to a log, reaching for something in his pocket with the fly dangling a couple feet away, then finding the fly snagged on the log as he started to move upstream. But wait, it wasn't a snag, it was a skillfully hooked brookie! Rob broke off everything in a tree as the skies opened up, so I handed him my rod, and he caught another brook trout in the hole I was headed for. Tom was fishless down below, and we moved up to the next hole in the pouring rain. Nothing! Not even Tom could get a fish to rise (I don't know how they could see a fly with all the drops hitting the water. Finally giving up, he reeled in the fly - and a brook trout jumped on the fly and hooked itself as he was reeling it in. Yes, we are skillful.

Brookie from Mountaineer Creek

Back to Leavenworth for a late lunch of wonderful brats, a snack of tasty pastries, then on to the Peshastin to see what we could find there. Ruby Creek looked like a dry hole, or very little water and completely overgrown. Up the highway and stopped at the side to hit the Peshastin. Found some nice holes and decent fish; a nice alternative to Swauk on the other side of the hill.

Decent Peshastin rainbow

We converged on this hole and all caught a number of fish here

Further upstream to check out Scotty creek - not much in the way of water, so back to the highway and a quick stop further up on Tronsen Creek. Everybody found their trout, and we were headed back for one more stop at Negro Creek. It enters the Peshastin through a little slot, dropping in a small falls into a nice hole. Rob and Rick found fish here, Tom went upstream to find his. Pretty little place. After a few more fish in the Peshashtin, it was time to head for home and rest up for tomorrow.

Small but fat Tronsen rainbow caught from the hole just above my hand

Flying back into Negro Creek