Scabland Creeks

October 9, 2015 Somewhere East of the Cascades...

My Hanford Friday off led me to plan a trip with Kirk Morris to a couple creeks in the scablands - Nunya and Little Nunya. With the dry weather, Nunya was little and Little Nunya was almost non-existent. But despite the low water we were able to find a few fish.

Early morning arrival at Nunya found the water really low. Hoppers gone, fishing black buggers, me with indicator, Kirk just stripping. Kirk quickly found a nice rainbow.

Kirk and his first rainbow from Nunya

Shortly thereafter, Kirk had a large rainbow, in the range of 18" to 20" explode from under the grass, then dive back into the grass and promptly come unhooked. Things were looking good if the first few holes were like this. We each caught a few, all rainbows about 12" to 16", all on black buggers, all in the first few holes and then in the moving water above the first big stretch of slack water. 

Rick with a bow from water that is normally running

Kirk and a nice 16" rainbow

After that, nothing. No fish spooked, no strikes, and barely enough water to drift. Kirk had one follow at the dirt bank corner, but after that we were ready to leave. It is hoped that the browns have taken shelter in the slack water and under the banks. You can see how low it is from this picture looking down on the corner at the dirt bank.

The dirt bank corner, normally rushing water all the way across

Second stop was Little Nunya. There was so little water, that everywhere was like fishing the still water of a beaver pond. Fish were really spooky, but we were able to get a few. 

A typical Little Nunya rainbow

The real purpose of the adventure was to hike in further to check out the water upstream. Cross country through the sagebrush for about 1.5 miles brought us to the edge of the scabland channel. Looking down we could see water, but almost nothing flowing. Enough for fish to survive, but not enough to entice us to climb down and fish. We will come back another time when more water is flowing to enjoy more than the view. 

Beautiful view of the Little Nunya coulee

With that, our day was done, and we returned home before dark, much to the surprise of our wives. Just so they don't get used to that...