Anahim Lake 2009

July 14-18, 2009

Tory, Rachel, Grandpa Merrill and Tom made the 13 hour exodus from Wenatchee to Anahim Lake. We left after work on Tuesday and drove until 1 AM to Cache Creek. We found a cheapo hotel where a cute asian lady wondered what was happening when somebody wanted to check in at that hour.

The next morning we finished the drive to Anahim Lake after a stop in Williams Lake for gas and breakfast at McDonalds (which led to more gas!) I was happy that the #7 Sausage, Egg and Cheese McGriddle is available in the Great White North as well. The sausage tastes a little different. Just like their "bacon".

Just before Hanceville (aka the Rick Powerslide Corner) Tory and Grandpa yell out "There's a bear". After waiting for all the traffic to pass (ha, ha!) we made a U-Turn and Tory posed as lunch meat for our friendly brown bear (see photo).

Anahim Lake Resort has had slow business but the fishing was as good as ever. The girls had a blast and became quite proficient at casting, hooking, landing and releasing their own fish. They also found that squawfish have a taste for puffy Cheetos (see photo).

I loved the short video of Rachel casting to the rising trout. She admittedly cast a little too downstream, but there were no shortage of feeding fish. Between the fishing, the s'mores, and a nightly game of Hearts we had a great time. Dad introduced the girls to Shooting the Moon by using his standard "Oh, no! I took the Queen of Spades. I can't believe it! Now how to I get out of the lead? Maybe by leading this?" (Down goes the Ace of Hearts followed by the King, Queen and Jack. At least some things are consistent in this world!)

We returned home to see the fire in Kelowna start (we were NOT the cause!).

It was a great trip. Not sure when we'll make it again, but it was a great time and an inexpensive trip.

Pine Creeks on Boulder Mountain, Utah

On vacation with the family visiting Southern Utah canyons, I found some time to visit two Pine Creeks, one on the southeast side of Boulder Mountain flowing into the Escalante River, and one on the northwest side of the same mountain flowing into the Fremont River. I had my secret fishing weapon Jessica with me, to kiss the fish and thank them before they were released, which increases the fish catch by about 50% when you are so polite to them!

Pine Creek (SE) was a small stream about six feet wide, clear and cold. I fished it right at the Lower Box trailhead where it flows out of a beautiful canyon cut through the mountain. Some of the holes were flowing along slickrock faces, really cool. I caught about 15 to 20 small browns in an hour of fishing, and Jessica came and joined me for the second half of that time and caught a couple. Fishing dries only, and could have had a lot more smaller ones that looked at the fly and decided it was too big. Worth visiting again and hiking and fishing up the canyon if you are in the area. I was going to fish higher up, but the van overheated and we had to turn around before we got to the top of the mountain.




Pine Creek (NW) was a smaller stream that you could jump across anywhere, more like a little ditch, about three feet wide, up to mid shin at about the deepest. Tumbling off the mountain beside the road, it would be overlooked by most people. Even I had my doubts. But Jessica and I climbed into the creek and immediately started catching small cutts, fishing for about 45 minutes and catching about 30 fish between us. What a hoot! Fishing a humpy with the upright white wings for visibility. I would definitely fish this one again if I were in the area, just because I love catching fish in miniscule streams. There was definitely fishing pressure as there were lots of trails from the road, but the creek left the road just upstream from where we fished, so I would like to walk up a ways and try some more. I think you could find a little bigger fish.





Some day my dream is to take a couple weeks fishing and exploring all these creeks in Sothern Utah. Fish two or three every day. Tom, you up for that? Hmm, maybe in 5 or 6 years when you have time again? Rob, you can drop off Mary in St George and join us?

Good Early Morning at the Pond

Being with the scouts at the pond means having to watch the scouts at the pond.  It cuts into fishing time.  However, when everybody is up around the fire until after midnight, and I wake up at 4:20 and can't go back to sleep, there is really nothing to do but climb into Tom's float tube (which he kindly left for our use!) and kick around the pond so as to not disturb the slumber of my wonderful scouts.  ( I am a kind and loving scoutmaster after all).  I landed ten nice bows for the morning and then came in when I saw signs of life.  Had breakfast together, cleaned and sanitized the cabin, and the boys then had a great time fishing and playing in the boats, dock, etc.

Brian did go out to the floating dock and hooked and landed a 24 inch rainbow--his biggest 'bow ever and all by himself.  He knows the exact size because he took my net with the measurement gauge in the bottom.  Only problem--the fly was hard set into the upper jaw and he had nothing to take it out with.  He quickly sent another boy in the boat to retrieve pliers from shore, kept the fish in the water, and released it unharmed.  A good learning experience about having what you need to not only catch, but also release your fish.  Way to go Brian!

The Pond with the Scouts

The Scouts from the Rocky Reach Ward (my ward) and the Eastmont Ward (Rob's ward) went to the pond in Ellensburg to do a cleanup service project and an overnight camp.... along with some fishing!

The fishing was good. The boys and leaders were already there when I arrived. I hopped in my tube and fished for about 45 minutes and landed 3 or 4 nice fish. All rainbows. I caught them on one of my home-tied cone head green moal leeches. It was extra fun to catch them on a self-tied fly! I went back in and let one of the leaders take out my tube. He proceeded to catch 2 nice trout including a large brown that broke off the fly at the tube.

I then took out Layton Judd in a rowboat and had him fish the clouser minnow that I had tied as well. He landed 3 bows in about 30 minutes. It was a good time.

Final stats for the night: Tom - 3 or 4 trout. Rob - 1 trout (I fished more!) Dad - 0 trout (he was busy rowing and calling the scouts "lard butts" and saying things like, "Do you think I'm rowing this boat for fun!") Rick - 0 trout (not present, but would the statistics REALLY have been any different??)

FISH ON!

Some Fish for Me!

I went to the Stake Father and Son's Outing on Friday and Saturday at Ensign. I called a somewhat less active family with a son and joked that I needed to have a son to go to the outing. His mom said he wasn't planning on going. About 5 minutes after I hung up, the phone rang. It was the less active boy. He said he'd be happy to go along with me so I could go on the outing. I wasn't going to turn him down.

Fished Friday evening in the lake. Lots of takes, but with no room for a backcast or a hookset it was hard to get a strip set on the little planters. After several takes from the little guys I put another strip set on a take. Then the excess line quickly peeled off! Several jumps and runs later I landed a 19" bow from the lake. VERY healthy and VERY fiesty.

The next morning I took Mark and Emmett out. We got one little guy which Emmett landed and posed next to while I held it. It reminded me of a picture of Mark, Jon and myself at Grandpa Ed's fishing ponds where I was holding a fish, Jon was holding 2 fish, and Mark was pretending to hold a fish (which I assume Jon must have been holding). Like father, like son!

Yakima River was off color and very high. No takes in a few casts there.

FISH ON!

No Fish for You!

Dad and I took a Friday AM trip with Hannah in the backpack to try for some NCW rainbows. We didn't catch nor see a fish in the our main stream, but in the tributary that is still closed, we walked up along the edge and saw 30-40 steelhead paired off doing their spring thing. Hopefully that means that 4 years from now we'll have a more sizable steelhead return.

End of Report #1

Train up a child.....

Friday evening in the spring, sunny, calm, tired of working in the yard - Melinda, I think we need to "go to Wal-Mart". That is code for taking a quick trip to a little irrigation pond in a new housing development nearby that is somewhat near to Wal-Mart. The pond is right next to the road and in people's backyards. It takes up about 3 building lots, with grass all around it down to the water's edge. It is more like a park. A great place for a kid to learn how to cast a fly. And a couple years ago it was full of bass, so you can do a little more than cast. But no such luck tonight. Melinda learned to work her 3 weight, I caught a little bluegill, spooked a couple big fish that were next to the bank (guarding nests I would imagine), then Melinda pulled two bluegill out by herself just before dark. We'll have to come back with small flies and target the little guys. I know, three bluegill isn't much to write home about, but I promised myself I would keep a faithful record of all fishing trips, unlike Tom who I see hasn't posted his getting skunked on his last trip out......