Schaefer Lake with scouts

Today was a 10-mile day hike with the scouts.  Went to Schaefer Leke.  I've tried twice before to go there but had to turn back.  This time we made it.  Brook trout liked #12 yellow humpy.  Lots of fish, lots of fun.

One of  my scouts tried to throw his boot across the river we had to ford near the end of the hike.  His boot went up.  His boot went down.  His boot went plop.  His boot did drown.

It was a brand new pair of boots, worn for the first time.  After nine and three-quarters miles of use, it went very quickly downstream in the current.  It was the first time in 20+ years if scoutmastering that I've had a boy finish a hike barefooted.  Both of his socks were in the boot that went in the river.

Scout-a-vista Rainbows

Trout Lodge donated rainbow trout for the small lake at Camp Scout-a-vista above Wenatchee a few weeks ago.  They will be part of a fishing derby station for the cub scouts in a couple of weeks.  Today I was there with the 11-year old scouts doing an orienteering course.

As luck would have it, the course that I laid out had its end point near the lake so after I got a group of boys started on the mile long course I wandered up to the lake to wait for them and determine how close they were to the actual end point.  While there I had determined to catch and release a representative sample the fish to be able to ascertain their health status and verify that they would be satisfactory for the cubs a few weeks hence.  I noticed that a blue heron also had the same idea, but I suspect that he is there more often than I am.

I had three groups of boys so I had to go up there to the course end three times today.  Oh well, somebody had to do it.  I have a couple photos of rainbows.  Caught 14 on a size 10 flashback pheasant tail behind a cast-a-bubble.  It was better early in the morning.  Had lots that got on (briefly) and then got off after a short fight.  A few were also very hearty jumpers.  A fun day at Camp Scout-a-vista!

Oh yeah, the group of boys that were closest finished within 7.5 feet of the actual end point.  I was pretty impressed and had Trails End carmel corn as a reward for the group that was closest.

On the way to BYU-I (or back from) - Part 3

 

Spent yesterday unloading Sarah's stuff, helping her move in, buying more stuff, attending the Parent's meeting, and then biding farewell.  Headed to Birch Creek BLM campground to sleep in the car.  I rolled the window down a bit so I could listen to the sound of the creek as I slept - nice!  Morning came with a beautiful sunrise, a brown sugar and cinnamon pop tart, and an hour of fishing with similar results as Wednesday - a good number of 7 to 9-inch rainbows.

Sunrise at Birch Creek

Birch Creek rainbow

After an hour of fishing, I left Birch Creek and headed for the Big Lost River to check out the tailwater fishery below Mackay Dam.  There are a few sportsman access points around Mackay.  The first one I went in to (Upper Access?) looked empty, but then some bait chuckers drove in and plopped in the river just upstream of me.  Looking to move I found cars upstream and down, perhaps fisherman, perhaps not, so I left to check out the access a little ways upstream at the base of the dam.  This one was empty - yes! 

The river is decent sized and very nice in this stretch.  I was nymphing and rotated through flies the first couple holes, had a few misses, spooked some fish in the tailout, and finally settled in on a size 18 micro golden stoneflow and a size 12 caddis green psycho prince for the most part.  A size 14 purple psycho prince also produced.  Hoppers were ignored.

Big Lost River

I found the fish that were actively feeding (at least on what I was tossing) tended to be in the riffles, not in the tailouts or deeper sections of the holes.  Once I was dialed in, I landed probably 30 fish or so, most in the 8" to 12" range, with a few a little bigger, up to about 15" or 16" for the biggest.  I saw bigger fish in the holes and occasionally rising.  This was a short section of maybe 5 or 6 holes like the one pictured between the starting point and the base of the dam, but I spent about 3 1/2 hours here, enjoying every minute.  If there were other fisherman, you'd be consigned to trying to coax fish out of one or two holes.  As I was fishing on the right hand side of the island just below the dam, a couple other fisherman appeared up the left hand side and plopped themselves in the hole at the base of the dam directly above me.  That's OK, it wasn't that good a hole anyway (a big pool, not a riffle) and I caught a couple in the water they had just fished through.  Met another fisherman on my way back down who was fishing small dries in the flat water (tricos?) which I think is more typical for the purists who fish these waters.  Any rate, this is a great place to stop if in the area, and I will try to pay a return visit.

Nice Big Lost River rainbow

Big fish of the trip - healthy fighing in the fast water

I briefly checked out the access point below Mackay and found one brook trout and nothing else.  By the time I got back to Arco, it was 4 pm and I was only 111 miles from Rexburg, so I packed things up and turned for home.  I drove off to check out a Silver Creek access point, but it looked too much like a big Rocky Ford for my tastes, then as I passed Anderson Dam and the South Fork of the Boise, I was tempted to briefly wet the fly, but I decided to leave that exploration for another day.  I have four years of back-and-forths to Rexburg to check that one out.  Arrived home just after 10:30 pm, not bad for as much time as I got to spend fishing on the way home.

On the way to BYU-I Part 2

There are no fish in Montana!  At least for me today.  South from Missoula, stopped at the E Fork Bitterroot off the highway.  Pretty water, about the size of the upper Logan river, we fished a couple nice runs, nary rise, I didn't see a fish.  Enough of that.  On to Trail Creek, a tributary of the Bighole.  Not too large a creek, cold, pretty flat and meandering, fished a few run, not a rise, didn't see anything in the water.  Stopped at the Bighole Battlefield, nice visitors center and movie, drove down to the N Fork Bighole, a flat, meandering stream, and tossed a fly in a couple holes, nothing.  With so much smoke from fires that you couldn't even see the mountains, that was enough, let's get out of Montana.

We drove south from Wisdom towards Dillon, but turned off and found our way by gravel roads across Bannock Pass, down into Idaho and the Lemhi Valley.  The gazetteer showed a dotted line down along the road that led down from the pass (intermittent stream), but I soon noticed a small amount of water.  After passing a large side canyon, I thought I saw a good bit of water through the willows.  I started driving down the left side of the road to get a better look and looked down into a tiny stream, but big enough.  I quickly stopped and walked down the bank to the hole beside the road.  Five fish later, I came up and got my waders on.  Sarah stayed and knitted, while I worked my way upstream and found lots of small rainbows that acted like they had never seen a fisherman before, rising slowing to the hopper and sucking it in.  Just about anyplace you could get a fly that should have fish, had at least one.  Did I mention the willows?  Yeah, it was tough fishing in places, but what a hoot and a pleasant, unplanned, surprise. 

Canyon Creek rainbow

Canyon Creek

On to Rexburg via Birch Creek and a several mile section of BLM land.  Driving south through the wide, dry valley, all of a sudden, there is the rather large stream flowing through the sagebrush.  The BLM has a campground and access spread along a couple miles of the stream.  This was my last planned stop.  The stream is fast flowing, clear, cold, and not a lot of deep holes.  In the first little run, I found about five little rainbows.  Sarah came out and we fished a couple sections for an hour or so, and found a good number of fish.  Sarah got the biggest one of the trip, about 12 or 13 inches, but no photo as it fell off before I could get the camera out.  If you are in the area, this merits a stop, just to fish such a pretty stream in such an unexpected location. 

Birch Creek rainbow

Sarah fishing Birch Creek

On to Rexburg and preparing to kiss Sarah goodbye.

On the way to BYU-I Part 1

 

The RAV4 was full to the brim with boxes of Sarah's stuff, with just enough room in the back corner for waders and rods.  Our plan was to drive up over Lolo Pass to Missoula on Tuesday, then down to Rexburg on Wednesday.  With a little bit of a late start and long driving time, we made it to the Lochsa River very late in the day with just a little bit of time to sample the fishing.  I couldn't stand driving by the river for long without stopping, so I stopped and tossed an orange stimulator for a few minutes in the lower section where it isn't catch and release.  I caught one dink in pocket water near shore, then had three rises of good, chunky fish to long casts across a current, but missed all three.  Continued on to the C&R section, late evening, fished a nice run with rises at times to almost every cast, some hookups, no size to them.  Beautiful stream, wish I had more time to work it a little harder.  Based on my results, I'd fish more in the lower sections.  It would be a long drive to come over here just to fish this (almost 5 hours).  On across Lolo pass in the dark, so no admiring the scenery.

Lochsa Cutt

Diamond Fork with Ethan

So today is my off Friday, making this a 4-day weekend for me. I thought I would kick it off with a trip to the river with my favorite fishing buddy Ethan. We headed up to Diamond Fork around 9am. The time is important because as we were driving up Diamond Fork road, we passed at least 5 vehicles. This was making me a little nervous. All of my spots had cars in them. I kept driving to one of the spots Rob and I fished last month, just above the first campground. In fact it was the same spot Rob hooked into a couple of nice browns, so I knew fish were there. I tied on a brown stone fly with a psycho prince nymph. 2 casts in and landed this beauty.

It was Ethan's first fly fishing excursion and he loved it.  He asked when he gets his own fly rod.  It gave me goose bumps.

The Trip Home...

My route home from Metaline Falls was planned to maximize the number of streams we could visit, turning a 4-hour drive into a 12-hour adventure.  Mel was a trooper, indulging her dad's mania while serving as official photographer.  After all was said and done, I put eight new streams under my belt, bringing my uncertified total to 97 streams.  Here is the rundown for the day:

Silver Creek was a quick stop to pick up a geocache and a brookie.

Silver Creek brook trout

Fished Deep Creek at the highway crossing, but with the long cast laying across water and a small grassy mudflat, missed the only strike I had.  Beautiful meandering meadow stream, but private land.  So we moved on to Meadow Creek, which was a mismash of fallen timber.  In the first hole a cutt was found, but fell off on the way to hand, so we continued up a few holes until we found this nice brookie.

Meadow Creek brook trout

On to Mill Creek tributaries, first pulling a small rainbow out of the hole below the culvert at the road crossing on the Middle Fork Mill Creek.

Middle Fork Mill Creek

Next on to the South Fork Mill Creek, small and brushy in the publicly accessible areas, missed a small one in the first hole so we continued until I was able to entice this nice brookie to the fly.

South Fork Mill Creek

After recharging at McD's in Colville, it was on to the North Fork Chewelah Creek where I was surprised by a nice little brown.  This was a pretty little stream, but full of timber toothpicks and difficult to fish.

North Fork Chewelah Creek - brown trout

Crossing over the ridge to the nearby South Fork Chewelah Creek found a very small stream by the time we got to National Forest Land, but we were able to find a fish at the bridge crossings of the South Fork Chewelah and two tributaries, Wilson Cr and Six Mile Cr.  Good thing there were fish at the crossing, because these streams were so small they were virtually inaccessible once they entered the forest and brush.

South Fork Chewelah Creek

Wilson Creek

Six Mile Creek

It was time to turn for home, but since there were still a few hours of daylight left and we were north of Spokane, there was really only one possible route home - by way of Little Nunya!  Approaching from the north, I was again amazed by the sudden appearance of a trout stream in the midst of rolling expanses of wheat fields stretching from horizon to horizon.  We arrived shortly before sunset, and quickly made our way to the bridge hole.  This was psycho prince country now!  Melinda quickly was catching fish and learned and practiced the downstream mend.  After we had both brought a few from the bridge hole to hand (eight inch fish seemed like monsters after the fish I'd been catching earlier in the day), I told Melinda we had to move up to the little run above before leaving.  Only one strike in the lower section, but we could see fish actively feeding on the surface in the upper section.  Carefully moving up, she and I stood side by side taking turns, catching probably 15 or 18 fish between the two of us, all 9 to 12 inches.  Then as it got dark, the fish went to sleep and we turned for home.  No pictures here but those etched in my mind, fishing side by side with my daughter in one of my favorite places to visit.