North Fork Rattlesnake Creek

Saturday, August 15, 2009

With my horrible travel schedule this summer, I could see summer fishing opportunities quickly vanishing, so I canned my tomatoes, took care of my garden and honey-do list, and slipped away Saturday afternoon to commune with a couple small streams.

First stop was Little Rattlesnake Creek, where I stopped a short distance up the Little Rattlesnake Road (I normally go a mile or two further up). Nothing remarkable, some scattered small fish, rainbows rather than the cutts I normally catch further up. Small, dry caddis fly. I'd go further up next time. I think 8 or 10 fish in about 45 minutes.

Little Rattlesnake Rainbow

My real destination was about 7 miles further up the Forest Service Road, North Fork Rattlesnake Creek. Stopped here last summer and caught quite a few just up from where it enters Rattlesnake Creek. The road quicly climbs quite a ways above the creek, and I had looked down and wondered what the creek was like in that narrow canyon. I started at the turnout just past the bridge and fished up about 1/2 mile through a narrow, steep walled canyon. Steep climb out when you get to the talus field of broken basalt takes you right to the road where it switches back on its way to McDaniel Lake. Really pretty water, lots of pocket water, some nice holes.

But the catching was rather scattered, a lot of water that looked like it should have fish didn't bring any rises. Not nearly as many fish as my brief stop the previous year. Probably two dozen or so in a couple hours. Biggest was a 10-inch cutt, very pretty (see picture). What ended up working best was a dry caddis with a bit of red at the tail (I don't keep track of names of flies). All the fish I caught were pretty fat in the belly, so they may just be more selective because they are stuffed. When I fished Rattlesnake last year, I found I had little action until I hit on just the right fly, and then there were fish everywhere. Pretty hike, pretty fish, it was hard to stop fishing because you could always see one more run just upstream. When I'm in the area again, I'll stop and check it out even further upstream.

N Fork Rattlesnake 10" Cutt

N Fork Rattlesnake Rainbow

Chiwaukum Lake

August 6-8, 2009 I took the scouts to Chiwaukum Lake (12 mile hike in) and we day hiked to Larch Lake (2.5 miles further), total elevation gain for the trip was 4,200 feet. Found voracious cutthroat trout in Larch Lake, Larch Creek, Ewing Creek. One Larch Lake Cutthroat in photo, not the biggest, but a nice place to photo it where I landed it. Caught 50-60 fish here. Largest was 11 inches. Inlet stream to Chiwaukum Lake held lots of 9-10" brookies.

Following morning caught 10" cuttrhroat in Chiwaukum Lake on first cast. Smaller brook trout after that.

Brian and I were speedier hikers coming out so we stopped and fished at the creek crossing of the North Fork of Chiwaukum Creek (cutts and brookies and hornet stings, oh my!) as well as Glacier Creek (cutts), South Fork of Chiwaukum Creek(rainbows), and main stem of Chiwaukum Creek (cutts, bows, and brookies). We caught 46 on our hike out. We found fish in seven separate lakes and streams. A great hike, and a great fishing adventure!

Nunya

Nunya Creek
July 30, 2009

Fished Nunya today and landed between 10-15 trout. An equal mix of browns and rainbows. The pictured rainbow was in the drop off hole. It fought like a demon! While only 19-20" it was super thick.


The following pictures are all of a 26" taped brown. It took a pink chernobyl ant with a tiny sip about 4 inches off a rock wall. I didn't think it was that big until it peeled off line in an upstream run and jumped twice. It was fought, revived and released.




I also ran into a 4 foot + rattlesnake. I had the snake chaps on, but did still scream like a little girl!

Good day!

Enchantment Lakes

I day hiked the Enchantment Lakes with a few friends Friday with the assignment from Tom to see if there were fish in the upper lakes we didn't visit together a few years ago. Photo is of Colchuk Lake (fish rising) and at the end of the lake you can see the rock scramble (trail?) up to Aasgard Pass (another 2,200' of elevation gain in about a mile of trail distance).

I came around a boulder on a corner to find this guy staring at me 5' away.

Found the upper lakes to be devoid of any activity and unresponsive to flies, but finally did have some success with a stimulator with rubber legs in Inspiration Lake. I'd seen some grasshoppers on the climb up to Aasgard Pass and also found them in the Enchantment Basin.

The first cutt from Inspiration Lake. I found a 12" cutt in the outlet stream.

Had more great fishing on the inlet into Sprite Lake. Landed 30-40 and missed numerous other opportunties. All nice cutts. Using a big fly, the little guys couldn't get their mouths around it.

Inlet to Sprite Lake

Joe, one of my companions, was able to catch his first fish ever on a fly--an 11" cutthroat. He caught about 20 and missed lots more. We were sight fishing with the stimulator.

The trail down was also very steep (see photo) and the hike was an all day event. We covered 18.3 miles and traversed through 11,000 vertical feet of elevation change. (Okay, it was really only 10,900 according to the Green Trails map!) I'd highly recommend it if you want to have some incredible scenery and can live with sore legs for a couple days afterwards.

The few photos below are from when Michelle and I day hiked the Enchantments two years ago. It is truly a beautiful place.

At Leprechaun Lake

Above Inspiration Lake

Little Anapurna--I think? (upper basin)

Goats in the upper basin

Temple Lake

Lake Vivian with "The Temple" rising in the background

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!