Flowers and Fish

Spent the day with my daughter Sarah taking pictures of wildflowers, then stopped to check out my local stream after waiting out a thunderstorm. Still running pretty high (about 260 cfs on the nearest downstream station). I could only comfortably wade up the side halfway up the first hole. Found 7 fish in about 20 minutes on the double psycho prince caddis green. Size ranged from 6" to 11". The floods earlier in the year have changed the stream quite a bit. It will have to drop a little more before it is fishable.

About the average size

Slow shutter on the phone...this one was 11"

Looking for Bass

Tom and I (Rick) and a friend Kirk Morris met at a walk-in basin lake where Kirk has done well for largemouth in the past and where we have also caught planted rainbows. This late in the spring we were hoping to find some bass. A cold front had blown through just hours earlier and few bass were to be seen. Kirk found some in the end of a cove, but we saw few cruising the shore. However, fishing the dropshot with a soft rubber worm in about 20 ft of water was the ticket for bringing up trout after trout, all about 14 to 16-inches.

Nice planter rainbow on a dropshot bass rig

I finally changed from the rubber worm to a balanced leech fished dropshot style, using a triple swivel with the fly off a short leader on the branch of the tee and a split shot weight at the bottom of about 12 inches of leader on the run of the tee. It worked as well as the worm. Kept catching them in up to 30 ft of water. Maybe a dozen and a half to hand. Tom also caught a bunch of trout, and one bass slightly larger than the rubber worm. I may go back later in the year and give it another try for bass.

Spring at the FRC (Fighting Rainbow Club)

Rob and I met for a morning of fishing at the FRC. Governor Jay Inslee was lifting restrictions on fishing in the state around this time, so I may be a little vague on the date. However, Rob did graduate from the University of Oklahoma (Sooners)...

No photos, quite a few fish. Rob mostly trolled in the boat with green and black buggers, and consistently hit fish. I mostly fished balanced leech and chironomids. Sporadic success, until the last hour or so I dialed in on the bottom in about 16 ft of water in the NE corner, olive balanced leech and black chewy chironomid. Was picking up a fish about every 5 minutes. I landed a 22-inch rainbow and 21-inch brown, lots in the 15-18 inch range. Rob about the same.
Rick