A Few Little Cutts

An early fall trip was planned with Reese Femreite, a friend who has just started getting into flyfishing. My original plan was to visit the Tucannon River, a nice sized stream with a good number of fish that has fished well for me in the past in late September, however, consulting the State of Washington's ever changing regulations, I found the section I normally fish now closes to fishing on August 15 (so the state allows fishing in this section for a whopping 2.5 months out of the year! I long for Utah and their mostly year-round regulations...). Made alternate plans to visit the South Fork Tieton River (above the 10 miles of stream closed year-round to protect bull trout). It's big enough to practice some casting, easy size for wading, and a past visit found some nice cutts here.

Six AM start with a stop for a #6 at McD's got us to the trailhead at about 8:30, with clear blue skies and a temp of 35°F. That brought the waders out of the bag, which was a good thing as the stream is also painfully cold even this late in the year. We made our way through a lot of pocket water and shallow riffles without a sign of any fish, either to the fly or darting for the shadows after being spooked. That was my memory of this stream from my past visit.

Pretty water, not a lot of fish

Finally we came to a deep hole with a couple current streams entering from the side. Reese was tossing an irresistible Wulff which disappeared on about the third drift down the edge of the first current stream. A quick set and he had a nice little cutthroat to hand, his first fish ever on a dry fly!

Reese hooked and landed the first fish he ever had rise to a dry!

We found a few more here, some hooked and to hand, some missed (including the largest fish we saw on the day, perhaps an 11 or 12 inchers that Reese couldn't get the hook into). After a good bit more walking through mostly fishless pocket water, we came to another deep hole where a half dozen fish were actively feeding on the surface. I had a renegade on by this time, and with a sideways cast to get around some logs dropped the fly in the path of the fish and watched as one slowly rose up from the bottom to sip the fly. A quick set and this beautiful cutt came to hand.  

Love the pink hues!

We couldn't fool any more in this hole, but it was sure fun to watch them feed. With the sparse fish, we were ready to call it a day on this stream. Then we rounded a bend in the stream and were greeted by this view of the Goat Rocks rising above the stream and Conrad Meadows. What an end to our visit!

We made a quick stop at the South Fork Tieton falls a couple miles downriver, a pretty little fall that would be quite impressive in the spring with high water. 

Then made a stop along the Naches River on the way home to see what we could find. A much bigger river, but the fish we found were about the same size, a few 6 to 8 inch rainbows brought an end to our fishing. Burgers and stuff at the Laredo Drive-In in Naches replenished our energy for the drive home. Crisp fall temps, a few pretty little cutts, amazing views, and great company. A good start to fall!