Wet Wading in March, oh my! (Monday, March 3, 2014)

Score for the day:  Rob vs. fish 9-1 (Rob vs. crab 0-1)

First off, them me make this clear—wet wading in March is AWESOME.  I’m not talking about my normal March where I’m wading against shelf ice for steelhead, this time it is in the Caribbean and wet wading is nice in March.

First day fishing at Punta Allen on Ascension Bay with Red’s Flyshop with Shan as our host for the week.  My first time flyfishing saltwater.  Caught my first bonefish, barracuda, and permit today.  Guides William and Elmer were great with Grandpa and me.  By lunchtime Grandpa had landed 5 bonefish and LDR more than that.

Today I managed to land 5 bonefish, three barracuda, and one permit.  I only lost one.  While the others here with us caught more (LOTS more) bonefish and also tarpon, I figure I’m an amateur and just learning so I should get the hang of it.  I also figure that I landed that many more fish than Tom and Rick today anyway.  Oh yeah, they’re not here.  I think they are enjoying the snow more than the snow white sand on the flats.  J

Unfortunately, a crab got the best of me.  I poked at a small crab with my rod.  Mistake.  Next cast for a bonefish, the top 4” of the rod broke off on the cast.  I guess the crab won.  Glad I brought three rods, but I’ll need to do better than today or I’ll be done fishing Wednesday rather than Saturday.

First Steel of 2014

Today I landed the first steel of 2014 on the Methow. . .  wild fish, about 6-7 lbs. . .  great fighter. . .  on the bead dropper. . . in the sunshine. . . with only a shirt and my wading/rain jacket (and waders, of course.)

Unreal and beautiful day for early January, although since I was wading in front of a large ice shelf and walking with my hind end rubbing along the ice so I didn't end up any deeper than I already was so my toes were a little cold as if I were wading in ice water--which I was.

The hardest part was when I muffed a cast and ended up with a snarl--and no brother to untangle me! I had to tie on a few hooks (lost to the gravel bar or ice shelf behind me) but that was easier than the snarls.  I appreciate Tom & Rick more than ever for taking pity on my weird vision thing and helping me when they are with me, though I suspect Tom cuts off the end of the hook on my fly since he knows I can't tell if its there or not.  I seem to miss a lot more strikes when I fish with Tom.

Sorry I forgot my camera so no fish photo, but I do have two witnesses.  Fished today with Garn Christensen and Sue Morrison and a wonderful day it was.  Sue used her handy-dandy mesh glove to grab the fish by the tail and permit me to ever so gently remove the hook and tell the fish "thank-you".

I enjoyed fishing with Sue and Garn and hope to again soon!

Pre-Christmas on the Touchet

Took the day off today, and since it had warmed up with no snow or ice on the roads, decided to see if any steelhead could be found in the Touchet. Stopped between Waitburg and Dayton where Tom and I went the day after Thanksgiving. Water was up a bit with a little color. Found a few small trout, but no steel. Next up to Dayton to fish in town. The high water at the beginning of this month made some changes here. The nice hole right above the highway bridge was pretty much filled in and just a fast shot of water. Found a few more little guys, nothing big. The higher water turns this stream into a straight shot of fast water, channeled as it is between dikes. On the way home, made a final stop at the park in Waitsburg to check out a little run I had found there earlier in the year. Again, a couple small guys, but nothing big. All but one on the bead, the other on the black stone. No steelhead, but can't ever complain if you are finding fish.

 

Touchet Trout

Black Friday Deep Freeze

For the traditional post-Thanksgiving fishing trip, Tom came down to the Tri-Cities so Rick and Tom could try and find steelhead in the Touchet River. The weather didn't look too bad, about 25°F and foggy when we left before dawn Friday. Sure, it will ice up the guides, but we can live with that. We were heading to explore a section of the lower Touchet, which steelhead are reported to move into before heading upstream later in the season. As we headed east, the temperature started dropping, and as we pulled into the parking area next to the river, it was 15°F with dense ice fog.  Hmm, never tried fishing when it was this cold. Shelf ice lined both sides of the small stream, and after a few casts, not only was there ice in the guides, but the leader and line had a sheath of ice, and would cast like a stiff wire. Reeling in line was next to impossible as the ice from the line would jam up the first guide. Admitting defeat by the elements, we headed back to the car, and after the couple minutes it took to get there, our reels were frozen solid and unable to turn to bring in the excess line, punctuating our defeat with an exclamation point.

 

Not wanting to accept defeat, we checked the weather conditions with the smartphone. Waitsburg to the east was currently 21°F, forecast to get into the low 40's. Dayton, a little farther east (and closer to the mountains) was 24°F. Nice inversion. We could see the fog dissipated to the east, with the promise of sun to warm things up. So off we went. At our first stop east of Waitsburg, we found sun, a balmy 25°F, a couple really nice steelhead runs, but no fish.  Not surprising, as the steelhead usually don't make it up this far until later in the season. Tom turned one nice sized trout, but nothing else, surprising as normally you can catch a lot of small trout (smolt) in this section. The cold made some interesting ice in places, but it was nothing like the cold at the first stop.

 

Ice sculpture on the Touchet

By now it was nearing lunchtime, and we decided to try a favorite section near Dayton, after the obligatory stop for burgers and shakes at Ray's Drive In (Cougar burger - double 1/4 pound patties, slice of ham, bacon, and all the fixings - along the their awesome milkshake. Great!). Recharged, we headed to the stream with the temperature now a balmy 40 degrees or so, and promptly found lots of steelhead, just ones that hadn't headed out to sea yet (or that had decided to stay in the stream rather than make the long trip). They pretty much ignored flies (even the psycho prince), but couldn't resist the peachy pearl bead. It was still a little hit and miss, with some great looking water delivering no fish, while shallow riffles near the bank would crank out fish after fish. We found quite a few decent sized fish like the one pictured with Tom below.

Tom and a nice Touchet trout

It would have been nice to have found a steelie or two, but we did find some nice water that I might try and revisit later in the year. A great day fishing. Thanks, Elisabeth, for loaning Tom out for the day!

Rick Gives Thanks for Trout...

What would Thanksgiving be with a trip to "The Ford"? I finally found a day to get out with Boyd Robertson, a neighbor and fellow fly-fisherman. And he gets a special guest post on the blog.

 

Arrived fairly late (10:30 am) but no cars at the lower parking area. Beautiful sunny day, but I'm partial to snow and sleet for the best fishing this time of year at the Ford. Lots of weeds still in the water in the run above the lower bridge, only strippable from the corner to the bridge.

 

First cast at the corner above the lower bridge brought a wake and strike on the green bunny, good pull, but missed the hook. I wish that was a sign for how the fishing would be for the day, but it wasn't quite that good - until the end. I found some, but most of the wakes did not end in a take. I watched some smaller ones right in front of me at the bridge that would follow it in with a wake and almost have their mouth around it, but never close the deal. Boyd had some better luck fishing with a secret "fly" that I won't share here, but action wasn't wild and crazy. I tried a little in the skinny water, not too many fish down there, and no action on what I tossed their way. Some fish below the bridge and off the peninsula above the dam.

 

Boyd and a little guy

Mid-afternoon Boyd headed up the east side to the middle skinny, and a little later as I left the bridge to follow him up, I noticed a truck with blue tanks in the back drive up to the edge of the creek - I should have given that a little more thought...but we found no people and a few fish in the middle skinny. Heading back down I had lots of wakes, no takes, at almost every opening I fished. Boyd caught a couple more. Approaching the bridge, there were four guys lining the path to the bridge, hauling in fish after fish.  Yup, the truck had dumped a load of 18" to 20" fat, silver-bright, hungry trout. Boyd caught 18 from the east side down below the bridge, I caught not that many fishing above the bridge, but it was pretty fortunate timing. Wish I had stayed to see what was in the truck....But the action was fast and fun until almost dark, when we called it a day and headed home.

Klickitat steelhead--incredible!

The Klickitat River valley

Yesterday and today (Oct 8-9) Dad & I fished the Klickitat River with guides from Red's Flyshop seeking steelhead and it was an incredible trip.  These are the first steelhead Dad has caught since the Bella Coola days and we haven't been there since the early 1990's.

Dad's first steelhead since Bella Coola--bonked this hatchery fish!

Yesterday we fished with Shan and he was great!  Worked hard to put us into fish--and put he did!  We landed 7 steelhead along with two incidental kings.  A great day followed by fabulous food in the lodge right in the town of Klickitat and alongside the river.  When we arrived yesterday there was a guy in a rowboat right in front of the lodge who caught a king salmon.  Most of the folks on the river are fishing for salmon to keep so we were somewhat the oddities seeking steelhead to release.

We slept well in the comfortable rooms and had a great breakfast there at the lodge.  We got an early start with Joe from Red's today.  We were on the water today by 8:00 and had another great day of fishing with fish all day long.

Early morning mist on the Klicktat

We had landed our first fish less than 100 yards into the float again today and had the last fish shortly before the takeout.  I hooked and landed it about where the mist is rising in the photo above--pretty sweet!

While fishing for steelhead today we again hit some kings and they were hard fighters.  Today while fighting one of the kings my nice Ross reel exploded.  I mean for real--pieces went flying everywhere!  I'm left trying to fight a fish holding the reel without any drag mechanism or hub to keep it on the spindle. While fighting the fish (and killing my knuckles!) Joe is trying to put the drag and hub pieces back on the reel so I can continue the fight.  Alas, the fish broke off and my reel is dead.  I'll be sending it to Ross for repairs.  Better here where I can fix it easily than in Mexico next March on a bonefish!

A king I landed before a bigger one destroyed my Ross reel!

Dad and I had a double with whitefish early today and had two chances at doubles on big fish, but somehow one of us always lost the second one before firmly hooking it.  Great action, great company, great scenery, great guiding--need I say more?  Brothers, we've got to get this onto the schedule for 2014 most definitely!

Dad with a Klickitat king to quickly fight and release

I"ll finish with a few more photos from our trip so you get an idea of the topography.  Canyon is very narrow with very little bottom, much of it is isolated with no road access--the stretch we floated pictured in first photo is such a section.  Oak and pine forest mostly mixed and saw numerous deer and some turkeys.  Joe saw a bear consumed salmon yesterday so all kinds of furry and feathered (and finned) freinds.

Mixed pine and oak forest

Upstream view

Downstream view

The lodge at river's edge where we stayed

Conference and the Creek

Thanks to the wonders of satellite radio, we can listen to General Conference almost anywhere - including at the parking area overlooking the falls of The Creek.  That's what Dad and I did on Saturday. 

We arrived at the creek just as the closing prayer for the Saturday morning conference session was finishing.  There were two cars there, but no fisherman.  Turns out it was just hikers. Dad didn't want to face the slick basalt of the creek bottom, so he came along to enjoy the pretty day and watch me catch fish.  Which he did.  Lots of them.  Starting above the falls with a renegade at the end of the line, I dropped the fly into the narrow gap in the grass and promptly watched the white hackle disappear in a splash (just like my writeup in my blog - checkout the article I wrote about my happy place).  It was nice to find things a little more open and fishable.

Much more open after recent floods

Dad up on the road had a perfect view into many of the pools, watching the fish come up to the fly as clearly as I could (probably better than I could because of the glare).  Many small, 6 to 8 inch redbands, and one good sized fellow made it a beautiful mid-day trip.  By the time I reached the crossing, 61 fish had come to hand.  I stopped at the pools on the way back and found a half-dozen more.  Back to the car, climbed in, and turned on BYU-Radio just as the opening prayer for the afternoon session was starting.  Perfect timing to end a great mid-day outing.

Nicest fish of the day