Mother's Day Weekend

Tom has found a new tradition for Mother's Day weekend - send his wife to Seattle with her girlfriends, leave Tori in charge of getting her younger siblings to soccer, and then fish all night with Rick. Rick had been invited by his recent fishing partner, Kirk Morris, to try out night fishing at Lake Lenice. Since the lake is about halfway between Richland and Wenatchee, an invite to the brothers seemed to be in order. Tom accepted, but Rob had a lame excuse about a cancer fundraiser for a family friend (OK, we will accept that excuse, and an 18-month mission, but no others). It was OK, because Kirk was farming fish so much that we told him it was just like we were fishing with Rob!

 

Well, the first thing I will say is that it is nice to discover that we don't need to limit our fishing time to the paltry 16 hours of daylight the summer offers. We can now fish any time of day or night, or even round the clock in a 24-hour marathon! We met at the lake at 2 am just as the three-quarter moon was starting to rise above the Saddle Mountains to the south. Clear night, absolutely calm, and temp in the low 50's. Couldn't have asked for much better. By 2:30 am, we were on the lake, kicking our pontoons out into the darkness. The moon gave us just enough light to keep track of the shoreline and each other. Within a few minutes, Kirk had the first hit, then another. Tom followed. Rick changed to the small black bunny leach that seemed to be getting the attention, and he too soon found fish. The night action wasn't tremendously fast, and the fish were not super large, but the action was fairly consistent through the dark hours of the morning. There were lots of short strikes, which gave a good pull but nothing there when the hook was set. Also, the fish seemed to not get hooked as well, especially for Rob, I mean, Kirk. But there sure was something cool about being the only ones in the darkness of the lake, feeling the tug on the line, then hearing the fish jumping somewhere out in the darkness.

 

The sun just rising and we already had several hours of fishing in!

Note all the dead flies on the water - this lake has some prolific hatches

As the sky began to lighten in the east, we could see fish beginning to rise, apparently eating the leftovers from the previous day's prolific fly hatch. The surface of the lake was covered with spent flies. We switched to chironomids for the rest of the morning, with size 14 and black or dark seeming to be about the right size and color. The most action was at about 10 to 11 feet down, sometimes pretty fast, sometimes a little slow.

Saddle Mountains reflection while Rick's fish tries to turn Tom into Jonah

The telephoto keeps Tom honest by negating his world-class long-arming technique

A beautiful day to be on the water

About 9:30 am we headed back to the parking lot and Kirk cooked up some bacon, eggs, and English muffins so we could approximate the McDonald's #8 - just needed some hash browns. It was a concept foreign to Rick and Tom to mix fishing with eating, but both agreed it was actually a good idea and we might have to invite Kirk to join us again if he brings food again. Tom and Rick left for home, while Kirk stuck around for the inevitable mid-morning midge hatch. His report - "You should have stuck around..." That's what makes fishing great - the next cast, the next hour, the next day, the next trip, always the hope and expectation of better things to come. We'll be back to Lenice, maybe even for another night of fishing. And it might be even better...

 

 

May Day!

What better way to celebrate May Day than to look at Mayflies--while fishing.  Also, responding positively when Tom asks, "May I go fishing with you to the FRC?" and "May I see what fly you are using?"  But especially when he queries, "May I net that fish for you?" which he did numerous times this morning.

Tom did a fantastic job netting this fish for me

We did some brother bonding today with sunshine and calm, in contract to the "fast and furious" wind Dad & I experienced earlier this week.  Mostly various colored buggers near the surface and deep, though Tom found some very fast action near the end of our morning visit when he changed to a minnow imitation that had them ignoring all the other offerings I tried to put in front of them!

Tom had the fish of the morning and it was a great way to get an early start to the weekend.  Sorry you used up your fishing time last night Rick.  :-(   We'd have loved to have some of your magic with us, but we did the best we could on our own.

I did an "adequate" job netting this one for him

Fishing with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker (a.k.a. fast and furious)

OK, it didn't start that way, but it ended that way, which is what we remember most. I (Rick) met Kirk Morris at a walk-in lake in the Columbia Basin where he has fished a couple times and found both rainbows and largemouth bass. He was there early, and had just caught the biggest bass of his life when I arrived and helped with the photos. It was pretty chunky. 

Kirk and his bass

Releasing the big boy

Following that, it was pretty slow for the next two hours. Kirk had a couple take downs fishing chironomids from shore, then went back in the tube and found nothing. I had one take down which I hooked and fought for one run before it came undone (fishing three chironomids under the indicator, about 6 ft to 9 ft down). Next I tried spinning gear, first with lures, then with a leech behind an egg sinker. Nothing more.

As the sun was approaching the horizon and Kirk was packing up his gear, fish started feeding on the surface sporadically, then more frequently. I went into a shallower arm and tried pulling the fly and lures by them. No interest. While I was doing that, Kirk borrowed my fly rod that was still set up, adjusted the depth to about 18" to 3' and tossed it out (not nearly as far as the fish were rising). It didn't matter. This was when Vin and Paul came to visit. Within a minute or two, fish on! Kirk landed a fat, feisty rainbow. I quickly borrowed my rod back, and hooked three in succession, most within about 15 seconds of the fly hitting the water. All the rainbows were big, fat, and healthy.

A face to love (the fish's of course, not Kirk's)

Professional long-arming - note the size of the fish relative to the net - how did that even fit in there?

I told Kirk that he could take a turn after the next one I hooked. So the indicator goes down, he screams at me like a Mexican fishing guide on the bonefish flats, which excites me so much that I set it like it was a steelhead on 15 lb test. You know the obvious result. Kirk leaves to go set up his rod while I re-tie mine. By the time we get back in the water, the action was slowing. I missed one more take down, Kirk caught one more and had a couple other strikes. Then it was time to leave, walking the road out in a mix of twilight and moonlight. We'll definitely be back.

Beastly!

22"--best of the day

Dad & I returned to the FRC again today and it was WINDY.  Beastly windy.  But we also found some beasts.  :-)

Dad had four HARD strikes throughout the morning that snapped his 8lb tippet.  Others that took off running fast that he was unable to stop until they came off.  We put six over 20" into the net and lots of other fine fat fish throughout the day.  First hour was slow (with little wind) but as the wind picked up so did the fishing today.

Controlling the boat was difficult because it was so windy.  Several times fighting fish the wind put us into the shore or into the trees which was a bit of a challenge to get away from after releasing the fish.

Dad also caught a tiger--he's had one every time and I have yet to find one.  I had a nice brown today about 19".  I broke off several flies trying to release fish at the side of the boat that were too big to release that way.  Use the net and save your flies.

Intermediate sink tip line produced more fish than floating line.  Green flies with flashy sparkles and a red leech with bead head were most productive flies today.

A great day--fished from 8:30-1:30.  Did I mention that it was windy?

FRC Fun!

Dad & I decided to start of the week right--go fishing!  The drive to Ellensburg was fine, but gave way to elation when we saw the windmills idled and motionless--No Wind!!  A rare treat indeed in windy Ellensburg!

We were happy to evaluate the enhancement of last week and were very pleased.  As Dorothy from Kansas (or was it Oz) might be inclined to say, "Rainbows, and tigers, and browns--oh my!"

A nice fat rainbow--20"

Dad had most success on a black beadheaded bugger on a floating line.

Dad with a very fat Tiger trout.  Looks like he's been enjoying the bluegill!

I had rainbows on some green buggers with sparkle and the brown was on a flashback prince nymph on an intermediate line.  Risers were present intermittently throughout the time we were there--10:30-1:30.

We managed to have twenty or twenty-one to net.  Dad had the two tiger trout and we each got browns.  An excellent start to the week.  I'll have to come back Thursday with Natalie and Brad to see if fishing on a Thursday is as much fun as fishing on a Monday.

Culverts Glorious Culverts!!

Life is good when your wife says "You should go fishing today. You deserve it!"  Life is either good, or it's possible that there will be a large purchase when you arrive back home.

As there were no large purchases at home, I'll go with Life Is Good!

Brian Anantatmula and went off this afternoon to do a little exploratory fishing. We were chasing down some intel that Rick had collected. Rob was under the weather (the exact quote was "It is now affecting my GI system!"), so it was just Brian and me.  (Mom, that is correct usage of me!  Aren't you proud?)

We headed out to search a couple drains in the area. The first drain had a culvert (the first sign of a magical place) and running water.

Can't go wrong with running water and a culvert!

We quickly spotted some fish and it didn't take long to add another stream to the Washington state tally. It produced well on a head head pheasant tail. Most of the fish 8-10 inches.  All were very healthy!  Probably landed around 15-20.  Brian also found success fishing a prince nymph.  I think it was a size 2-0!!!  I have no idea how the fish got their mouths around it!  ;)

Typical drain fish

On the upstream side of the blessed culvert, I ran into a nicer rainbow.  Probably around 13" or so.  If put up some great jumps and runs.  The water was very clear, so the fish were a bit spooky.

Did I mention I have HUGE hands?

We moved on to try another separate drainage and found it running high and chocolaty with lots of sage brush floating down the middle!  We attempted to add to the stream tally, but with no success.  I'd think during the summer, some hoppers could do wonders against the grassy banks if the clarity improves.  Today it was around 4" of visibility.

Having had fun with the new streams, we moved on to the Rocky Ford petting zoo.  There were nuclear winds blowing, so it was tough, but we brought one nice bow to hand from the Ford.

Good day, new stream.  Could be fun for the winter doldrums!

Fish on!

- Tom

Dusty and a little windy

Kirk Morris, a friend in the ward, texted me earlier in the week and asked if I was free for fishing on Saturday (note that the subjunctive "were" is not used, since the following statement is rarely contrary to fact when fishing is involved). Not wanting to disappoint him, and having just completed putting everything back together from recarpeting two rooms, I had the green light to go. But Friday night, the outlook was grim, with winds forecast at 20 to 35 mph through the early afternoon on Saturday, not good for float tubing lakes as we had planned. We agreed to wait and see how things looked around noon the next day, and maybe hit a nearby lake if things were dying down. Saturday morning when I got up, the wind was barely blowing, well, for the TriCities at least, only 10 to 12 mph, and the weather stations in Quincy looked even better at 5 to 10 mph. So I gave Kirk a call, quickly got gear together, attached braided loops to the lead core line section I had bought a few years ago to go deep at Dusty after Tom schooled me on a similar trip early in the year, and we were off for Dusty.

 

Only three cars in the lot, which ended up being 4 fisherman from the west side who were worried about the wind on Lenice and came to check out Dusty instead. At the lake, I tried fishing the shore first, had a couple takedowns, but felt no fish. Only a few were cruising the shallows, and they showed no interest whatsoever in the fly. So I climbed in the tube and started trolling the standard olive leech and a green damsel while Kirk went to chironomids fishing towards the shore. Today he showed why he is the chironomaster. He landed 31, many from the outside of the weed bed off the inlet point, then a bunch more across off the point that divides the lake. I landed about 8 or so, alternating between chironomids and the leech. Lots of short or soft hits on the leech that were never strong enough to even feel the fish. However, the first one I hooked pulling the leech, I had about halfway in when the line went slack. Unhooked, I thought, until the line came in minus the lead core section I had recently added. The connection to my fly line had come off somehow, leaving the fish to pull around the section of lead core line.

 

Kirk netting one of many

Beautiful location to fight a fish

Nice little Dusty rainbow



The ticket on chironomids was a blackish snowcone, about size 14 or 16, with red wire ribbing. Fished deepish off the point in the middle, about 7 to 9 feet, only 3 feet by the weedbeds at the inlet. Kirk uses an indicator that pegs the line, then pops the line out when a fish hits it so the indicator slides down to the hook, allowing you to fish really deep if need be. Kirk, being a real fly fisherman, has tools that I don't have, like a stomach pump, so he found out the fish were full of really small chironomids, about size 22 or 24, grayish black. Having found that important information out, he proceeded to keep fishing the same fly. They didn't seem to mind the bigger flies.

 

Kirk and a typical dusty rainbow for today

Kirk found some nicer ones



Fish were mostly small and bright (well, Dusty small). Kirk got a few nicer ones and an ugly brown. All in all a great day. Next time fishing with Kirk, I think I will get two sausage biscuits instead of the number 8. That was the ticket today (and maybe a just a little more skill...)

 

Action shot

You call this a brown?

The lovely view of a place I love to visit