Nebo Creek--Day 2

Brian & I went back to try a different stretch of Nebo Creek today after checking out of the hotel and packing all our luggage and Stepahnie Lacy's electronic piano into the van. Natalie is still at organ camp all day and Heather and Simon were taking care of business they needed to accomplish. We went upstream to what ended up being about 50 yards downstream from where Page Fork breaks off.

We spent three hours fishing about 75 yards of water. Brian said we had over 50 fish landed--all German Brown trout today. Brian improved his finesse today very much, having discovered that a brown will usually only come toward a fly once--one chance. It was fun to watch them come to the fly. I was with a Renegade-no surprises there, and Brian fished an Irresistable all day. He became much more careful with it once I told him it was the last one I had. We had managed to lose a few flies into the tree branches.

It was a fun second day on the creek; we saw a different stretch of water without so m

any beaver dams; Brian was glad he went even though in the morning when we were heading there he wasn't sure he wanted to fish again.

Nebo Creek

There was a mudslide Monday that covered Highway 89 near Thistle and Thistle Creek and Spanish Fork River were about the consistency of chocolate milk with just about as much visibility. Nebo Creek was running clear. Lots of browns. I landed three cutthroat trout as well. Brian commented, "We caught more fish today than all the other days combined!"

We had fun trading off casting. One would go until a fish was caught, then we'd trade. Bonus casts when the primary caster got hung up in a tree or broke off a fly on a fish (Brian?). It was fun softly casting into beaver ponds and watching the trout come up to take the fly.

I used Renegade again and Brian fished Humpies and the one that is shaped like a Humpy but the body is made of trimmed deer hair so it floats really well (the name of the fly escapes me right now). Another great day on a new stream.

Little Nunya

Stopped on the way to the Spokane airport with my coworker, David Lamar. Found the creek dirty from thunderstorms earlier in the week, but not chocolate brown (about 3 to 4" visibility). Water level was up higher than our first visit in the spring, but not a raging torrent. There was also a pretty strong downstream wind. Despite the less than ideal conditions, we were able to find some fish downstream, though it was much slower than normal. David caught the first fish and several others after that. I had about 15 to 20 to hand in a couple hours, biggest about 13", almost all on the psycho prince.

Logan River Cutthroats

The Logan River was running high. You can see a little color in the first photo. A pretty good thunderstorm moved through right before we started fishing. After only finding only two small cutthroat at Red Banks with two more coming up to the fly and fighting lots of current and fast water we moved to Franklin Basin where water was also high, cold (50 degrees) and though wading was difficult, we were able to find some nice cutthroat trout. Notice the sun glistening off the back of the one I caught? Nice photo Heather. I used the Renegade, Brian a Humpy, and Heather a Royal Wulff. We had a few to the hopper.

American Fork Creek

We found lots of brown trout in American Fork Creek today. We were having so much fun that we never made it to Fort Creek. Oh well, there will be other days. Brian and Heather tossed big grasshopper patterns all day and I fished the Renegade. All were successful, but we missed a lot more fish than we caught. All we caught were wild browns. Of course, Brian caught the biggest fish of the day. I think the hopper in its mouth is a size 4.

Rob

July 31, 2010 Twisp/Methow Rivers

Tom, Rick, and Brian A. took a day to look for cutthroats and more on the Twisp and Methow Rivers. Started on the Twisp at the confluence with the Methow and fished up perhaps 1/2 mile, mostly in peoples' backyards. Wilderness fishing at its best!

We found a good number of 8" to 12" rainbows and cutts, and a few nicer sized cutts in the 15" to 16" range. Rick picked up this nice cutt on a double beaded black stonefly. Brian caught a couple similar sized on a dry (caddis or stimulator - no picture as he wasn't nearby). Most of the action was on a stimulator or elk-hair caddis dry, or a smaller prince/pheasant tail nymph, but the stoneflies seems to get the bigger fish.

On the Methow in the big hole above the confluence with the Twisp, Tom skillfully hooked into the biggest fish of the day, a beautiful 18-inch cutt that fought long and hard (tilt your head if you want to watch the video). The fish took a stonefly. We moved downstream to a run off Gold Creek Road and caught or had on a couple other good sized cutts as well as a number of smaller fish on the same flies as the Twisp, and Tom even brought in a couple whitefish. All in all, a beautiful day.

Enchantment Lakes, July 29-30 day hike

We crossed the Enchantment Lakes on an extended day-hike (can you say “headlamps”?) and did have some limited time fishing the outlet of Perfection Lake (the 30 feet that wasn’t covered in snow and ice and the inlet of Sprite Lake. Tim Johnson found a 15” full bodied cutthroat (sorry, came off the hook before I could snap a photo) at Perfection on a bead-headed green hare’s ear I had given him on our last outing with the scouts and Brian took my rod and headed down the trail to Sprite Lake while I stayed with Tim.

He figured if he carried the rod, he’d get first crack at the fish. After

lots of strikes (yellow wooly worm) he finally landed two (see photos) and I asked if I could have a shot at them. “I catch two, then you catch two, then you give me back the fly rod.” (Who taught that kid anyway?)

Beautiful warm day like I’ve never experienced up there. Lots of goats, saw marmot, ptarmigan with lots of small chicks and lots of gorgeous scenery. A tough hike with 18.5 trail miles and 11,000 vertical feet of elevation change (4,400 up & 6,600 down). Michelle, Hollis, Natalie and Elisabeth came along as well. A very memorable day!