Rainbows, and Tigers, and Browns--Oh My!

The boys scouts of Troop 37 from East Wenatchee camped at the Fighting Rainbow Club and began the process of removal of aquatic weeds at the FRC Friday-Saturday, June 3-4. Using the rollers/rake from shore we were able to clear much of the milfoil from the dock around to the southwest corner entrance to the club. Also dragged the cutters behind a boat with oarpower (insufficient) and determined that the cutter works well, but a more powerful method of propulsion would make the task more efficient and effective (understatement). Good to get some experience with those tools so that plans can be made by the club to continue the work begun by the scouts.

Friday night found fishing good with Brian catching a nice tiger trout and Rob missing lots of opportunities to catch other fish. Dr. Rob seemed to have more fun with the fish taking out lots of line, wrapping around weeds, and coming off. Good reason to reduce the weed population some.

Saturday morning water temp was 58 degrees and Rob had much better success from 5-8 a.m. bringing in a dozen nice rainbows. Largest was a 23" triploid that was 6" in depth--fish was in great shape and took a black woolly bugger on a floating line with about 9' of leader and out about 40-50 feet at a very slow troll. The other fly that worked well was a pheasant tail, size 14. Lots of surface activity, but much of it in weeds, so difficult to troll through without picking up weeds.

Once sun got up high and bright, fishing came to almost a complete halt--which made starting the service project much easier.

Opening Day

Saturday, June 4 The Creek

Thanks to Alyssa's baptism, Rick was able to make it to the Creek for another important event - opening day for streams. Well, kind of opening day, because it was clear there had been significant poaching before the opening.

The road up out of Moses Coulee is deteriorating, with one section just as you start up the hill that is just about at the point of high-clearance vehicle only. We parked at the tunnel collapse and were glad to see no sign of vehicles or people down in the canyon. The creek was a little colored and higher than normal, but still wonderfully fishable. We started around the waterfalls, and each caught several.

We then worked our way up to the crossing and up a short ways from there. We found fish, but not a lot. One or two in a hole, and that was it. Size about 6" to 10", but seemed a little more on the small side compared to past years. Perhaps floods cleared out a lot of the fish. Water was murky enough that it could have been hard for the fish to see the fly as much as they normally would. I tried the psycho prince and had some success, but the renegade still topped it here. Some things never change. Together we probably caught 50 fish or so, but it seemed a little slow. All in all a very nice morning together.

Floods had done some cleaning out of the floating mats of grass, but more would be nice. At least three dams/partially broken dams below the crossing. The one monster above the crossing is also still there. From the waterfalls to the crossing has a lot of trees and such that force you in and out of the water, over and under branches. I sure hope when I'm 80 years old that I'll still be bushwacking it like Dad!

Sunfish, Smallmouth, Spinners, and Sums

Friday/Saturday, May 20-21

Tom and the girls came down to Richland Friday to give Elisabeth some time away from the kids and to give the cousins some time together. We met at a small irrigation pond in a neighborhood just up the road that is full of bluegill with a few bass. It is a great place, right next to the residential street, with mowed lawn to the waters edge and a wide open shoreline (watch you backcast or you may hook a pedestrian passing on the sidewalk!). It did not disappoint. The girls and the 3-wts collected a dishpan full of sunfish (bluegill) within a short time. As the girls played, Tom and I intermittently tried to coax a smallmouth from the water. Tom finally found one with a big ugly green fly with rubber legs. After a short fight with a nice sized smally (16 to 18 inch estimate), his line parted and the excitement was done. As we were loading up the cars, we turned back and saw a bass about the size of the one he lost leap a full foot clear of the water, twist in midair, and splash back down, a parting slap in the face to remind Tom who won this battle.

Saturday morning, we all headed to Moses Lake where we dropped Melinda off at the Washington State Math is Cool Masters Championship (the state championships), then the rest of headed to Homestead Lake for a few hours of fishing. Along the way to Homestead, we saw a few bass in the small lake along the way, and Tom managed to pull a smallmouth from the near the shore on a fly. Then it was off to Homestead. Upon arrival, first cast with a Panther Martin (brass blade, olive body, yellow spots) and Tom hooked the rainbow below, then nothing for a long time. There were some fish sipping on the surface in part of the lake, but no action. While I tried different flies with the spinning gear, Tom worked his way to the opposite side of the lake, where he brought three more to hand with the spinner and lost a couple more. All rainbows, about the size of the one pictured or a little smaller. Not a lot of action, but more fish activity than we have seen there in the last few years. Perhaps we'll have a late fall trip to check it out when the fish have grown some more. The lake itself appears to be silting in a lot, and is much shallower than in the past. Some time in the future it may become another cattail swamp unable to support trout.

While we were messing around with spinners and smallmouth (and 'bows), Melinda was working with sums (and products and factorials and story problems....) to win the Division 1 Math is Cool state championship with her classmates. After the awards ceremony, we all visited Arby's together, then said goodbye until our next time together. Cousins are great!

Ultimate Catch and Release in Calf Creek

April 2011 brought a family trip to Southern Utah for spring break. As this was a FAMILY trip, I decided it best to leave the 5 weight at home.

Most of the rivers we passed were running high and dirty, but Calf Creek (NE of Escalante, Utah) was running clear and was loaded with brown trout. (There are also reports of Brook and Rainbow as well, though all I saw were browns.)

We parked and the Calf Creek recreation area and made the 6 mile round trip hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls. It is a beautiful hike with some Native American stuff along the way. We saw lizards, wild turkey and browns galore!

Without my 5 wt, I had to resort to fishing my SLR (no, Rob, that isn't Cabelas new line of fly rods.) I went with the Canon SLR and put a 55-250 mm zoom on the end of it. Attached you can see the result.I have determined that this is the ULTIMATE in catch and release. The fish are all released unharmed and as a plus, I did not lost a single fish that was photographed. It made me feel good to not farm out ANY fish on this trip!

I'd recommend a visit back to this creek with something other than the SLR.

Dinner from Dusty

After a morning of work, I cut out early to pay a visit to Dusty Lake in hopes of catching the spawning trout at their peak near the shore. Sadly, I found only a few stragglers cruising the shallows, but enough to make for a fun afternnoon. Here is the panorama view approaching the lake, dead calm (a rarity in the spring). This place is always worth a visit just for the scenery and the fun of exploring the basalt cliffs and many potholes lakes in the area.

I arrived at the mirror smooth lake and peered into the shallows. There were a few dark shapes moving around, but not the schools and schools that can be present at the right time in the spring. I think the peak was between two Fridays ago and today, as the fish I caught today were spawned out and those two weeks ago were bursting at the belly. A family that had been camping this week indicated they had seen a number of kids walking up the trail with full stringers of fish and powerbait, which could also explain the scarcity of fish in the shallows.

I quickly landed 4 of 5 from the beach, all on the size 12 purple pycho prince (they ignored the chironomid), then action stopped. All fish were about 13 to 15". I got in the float tube and tried fishing deep with a spinning rod and sinkers (like a downrigger almost). No fish at any depth. I switched to sinking fly line, and had a couple soft takes and a couple fish the same size as the others. But tube action was very slow. Finally, I switched to a floating line as there were quite a few fish feeding on the surface, but nothing. Fish from the tube were caught on the small green bunny leech, but both were snagged, so even those takes weren't great. Tried a white bunny, green psycho, green bugger, rubber legged hare's ear along with the leech to no avail. Finally tired of kicking, I went back to the beach.

The wind picked up a little from the west, which I believe helps the shore fishing. It breaks up the mirror surface so the fish near the shore can't see you, and also keeps the flies under the indicator moving slowly through the water. I wanted a fish to eat, so I decided to give the shore one more try. I quickly had a take, then caught another smaller one at 13" to 14". Well, at least I got one more fish, but the "one more cast" urge took over and kept me going for a few more minutes. A good thing too, as within a short time the indicator went down, I lifted up, and felt some solid head shaking. This fish stayed near the bottom, and I could tell it was nicer than the previous fish. After a short fight, I got it to the beach and estimated about 18", nice for a meal (it took the size 16 caddis green psycho, as did the previous fish). I taped it when I got home and was surprised to measure it at 21" and three pounds! A nice finish to the day, and a nice meal for the family.

Incredible Doubles

Today was the last day of steelhead season so Rob, Tom, Dad, and Dave Hemion went to the Twisp Hole. The river flow had increased about 25% since Rick was there two days ago and there was some color. I had to dodge a couple of logs that were floating down the river while I was standing near "Pride Rock".

I finally got the skunk off my season and landed some steelhead. Thanks to Tom for getting me to the right place!

The thing that was truly unbelievable today was the number of double hookups we had. Every time I got a fish on, I had fish on both the upper fly and the dropper fly! I have never had a day like that before when I caught eight fish in a morning. You can check out the photo above!

I know it pales to the number of fish that Rick and Tom put up, but I will rest satisfied in the knowledge that my conversion percentage--80%--is tops. I'll also acknowledge that I'd probably rather land 16/32 than fewer fish. =-)

More than epic!

My company was being moved to a new office building today, so with all my files in boxes and desks being moved, what better thing to do than to take a day off for fishing? I was moved by Tom's recent report of epic steelhead fishing on the Methow to brave the 8-hour round trip drive (I actually fished more than I drove - barely).

Leaving Richland at about 2:40 AM, my plan was to make it to the Twisp hole by 6:45 AM in hopes of being the first one there. I made it by 6:35 AM (plenty light to fish). After parking, the first glimpse of the hole showed an empty beach, but my hopes of having the hole to myself were crushed as I looked over the edge of the bridge and saw a curious looking green stripe in the water - a fly line from somebody under the bridge! I went ahead and moved into the very bottom of the run, as this older gentleman was more or less fishing straight downstream (not sure what he was doing). He was around for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, and ended up leaving about 7 AM. I quickly moved up to "pride rock", which became even more prideful today. First cast, strike indicator goes down, lift up to feel a throbbing fish, hear the screaming drag as the fish runs to the far bank. Wow, you gotta love this. Land the fish or break the line. Repeat. Again, and again, and again. That is pretty much how the day went. I quickly learned that big fish, fast water, and old leader material don't mix, and what works fine for 18-inch trout in a lake doesn't do so well with 30-inch steelhead in a fairly fast moving river. Of the first seven fish I had on, only two were landed. The rest broke off in various locations - once in the middle of my 15-lb section of tippet, a couple times on the bead. For the day, only a half dozen actually came unhooked, the rest that were lost broke somewhere in the line.

These fish seem to have oversized tails

After I had landed a few fish, a local high school kid showed up and joined me, and we had a wild time for a couple hours. By 9:30 AM I had landed 7 of the 16 fish I had had on (all from pride rock) and he had probably landed more than a dozen with at least 20 fish on. We also had seven doubles. He had to leave for school, and shortly thereafter a trio of fisherman show up on the bridge to peer down into the hole. One of them asks me if I was there last week with my daughter. I said that was my brother, to which he said "you look just like him" (I'm sure he meant in the way I handle the fly rod, not physical appearance, although Tom might dispute that; if the choice was between saying my ugly face looks like his, or my ugly casting looks like his, I think he would rather have the ugly face).

OK, back to the fishing report. Things slowed down a bit after 9:30, but I landed a couple more in the next half hour. About 10:00 the three guys from the bridge joined me in the hole. Since no one was on the other side and the hole isn't that big, this was rather bad form as it crowded me quite a bit. But I stayed on pride rock and kept on catching. By noon, I had reached 12 for 24, equaling Tom's epic total from last week. But the next two hours were full of futility, with only a couple take downs (nor much action for the three who joined me). Then to top it off, my 8-wt broke in the middle on a missed fish. Maybe I should just go home with an epic day....but wait, I threw my 6-wt Sage in the car at the last minute. All I need is one more fish to beat Tom.

On my way back to the car, I crossed the bridge and saw no fish in the pride rock area, but a few shadows by the eddy on the rip-rap side of the hole. Out comes the six weight and I climb down the rip rap to fish from that side (my buddies that joined me earlier had pretty much crowded me out of the hole on the pride rock side by now). Two or three casts, indicator down, same old story. Number thirteen to hand! But then, why not try for just one more? A few casts, indicator down, repeat, and repeat, and repeat. I hooked 8 more and landed 4 of them on the rip rap side, most of them right in front of the guys who crowded me in my hole. Ah, that was fun (they were nice enough guys, it was just annoying that they squeezed in there). That "one more fish" brought my total for the day to 16 for 32 (not counting unless they were hooked and fighting). Which leads to my question for Tom - What is a word for more than epic?

OK, the details. Started with double beads (10mm and 8mm) and seemed to catch more on the larger bead. Some of the time switched to beadhead black stonefly with a bead below it, and caught fish on both (more on the bead, but quite a few on the stonefly). Fished 5 to 6 feet below the indicator, with two BB splitshot added. Depth is critical. Most of the fish my first two hours were close in front of pride rock. When I started making longer casts, I was having no success. I deepened up by another foot, and fish on. Fish ranged from the low 20s" to a little above 30". I landed one hatchery fish, 29" long. In addition to the steelhead, I landed 15" and 19" cutts and two whitefish. Definitely worth every minute of the 8-hour drive.