First Fish on a Fly

Not much time for fishing today, as many in the family hiked to Ruth Lake in the Uintah mountains. Beautiful hike, but I had to drive by a lot of lovely water to get to the trailhead. After the hike, I got together with my brother-in-law, Aaron Wickley, who had flown in from San Diego the night before and really wanted to do some fishing. We first checked out a small creek in a section right next to the main highway. Here Aaron picked up his first fish ever on a fly!

Special guest Aaron Wickley and his first fish on the fly

However, most of the fish were small and there weren't a lot of them, so we decided to head back to my Saturday location to pick up some numbers now that he knew the basics. But it was not to be. As we started walking to the creek from the pullout, the rain started to fall. Then the bolts started to fall. Back into the car we waited, but the storm was slow moving and we eventually gave up and headed down the valley...to where I remembered seeing what could have been a beaver pond next to the road where a side canyon came in.

I have learned that there doesn't have to be much water for there to be trout, especially when beaver ponds are involved. That again proved to be the case. The small creek no more than a couple feet wide and shrouded completely in willows had been dammed by the busy mammals in a couple of places right next to the road. Pushing through willows and grass from near where the culvert went under the road (we know that culverts are most often a good omen for fishing!) we came out on a small dam and pond, just a short cast from the dam to the far end. There were a few fish rising and I could see some cruising. I guided Aaron on some casting, he got his fly out into the middle, and promptly hooked about an 11" or 12" trout, that swam right towards him. With all the slack in the line, he thought he lost it, but got the line tight again and fought it for a bit longer before it came unhooked. But he had a great thrill.

Sadly for Aaron, but good for me, his line got totally tangled with all the fun he had, so being the good guide I am, I promptly cast out and caught a couple fish while he untangled his line (I learned my guiding skills from Tom). We got Aaron back in the water, and while he was trying to get another rise (I think he did miss one or two), I eyed a good sized fish that was nosed up to a little inlet of water coming from the upstream dam at the far end of the pond. It was too far for Aaron to reach with his newbie casting skills, and approaching more closely would likely spook the fish. So I took my renegade (I had changed when the fish in this pond looked at my Turk's dry but didn't hit) and laid it out about a foot behind the trout. I watched it turn, gave a couple short strips to the line, watched the mouth open, the mouth close, then lightly set the hook. Perfectly done! After a short fight, this nice 11" rainbow was brought to hand.

Beautiful trout from the beaver pond

We weren't quite done, yet. Carefully creeping up on the inlet stream, I directed Aaron to cast into the moving water about 15 feet upstream where it spilled over the upstream dam. I was in the water downstream, Aaron was up on the bank. First cast was short, the second he dropped right in the current. As it floated down towards us, we both watched an 11" fish rise slowly to his dry and suck it in. He lifted at just the right moment and had the fish. Aaron's turn for a perfectly executed catch. Sadly, no picture as he tried to lift the flopping fish up to him with the 5x tippet, which promptly broke. That's OK. The memory will stick with him, as will the memory of this beautiful, hidden little pond by the side of the road.

The little pond with the nice fish

A Great Place for a Family Reunion...

July 4, 2015 Near Park City, Utah

We drove down last night for a reunion with all of Carlynn's family, renting a condo in Park City. I was looking forward to this. An informal reunion with lots of open time. And lots of open rivers. Nothing until the family barbeque tonight in Draper. I thought of the nearby Middle Provo and its 3,000 fish per mile. But with it being July 4, there would likely be almost that many fisherman per mile. I decided to head further up into the mountains to check out some small water, where I had seen numerous beaver ponds on Google Earth. And perhaps fewer people.

 

As I drove up the valley, every turnout with accessible water nearby had a car or two. It wasn't looking good. Then, magically, as I reached the National Forest boundary up one of the forks, there were no more people. Several turnouts were passed without a car, and the by now creek-sized stream was sometimes visible in thicket of willows filling the narrow valley bottom. I pulled off one to see if there was a reasonable way down to the creek. Here is what I saw - now the day was looking good.

View of the creek from the pull-out

First hole, I immediately raised a little cutt as I dropped the fly on the other side of a log and watched the fish slowly rise to the dry and suck it in. Then I was into the stream and started up. Initially I caught just a few, one here, one there. Lots of willows on the side, overhanging, but it was open enough to fish in most places.

Nice little run...

With a nice little cutthroats

The creek split here because of multiple outlets from a beaver dam just upstream. Which led to another, and another, and another. Some dams were large with the pool filling most of the bottom of the valley, others were small, just slowing the stream and creating a nice run with a little more depth. All were full of fish, and the stretches of moving water between them were at times incredible. In the little run pictured below, I caught about 20 from the sticks on the left up to the second rock. And more in the run up above until I reached the base of the next dam.

 

Little run between beaver dams

A nice brookie

There was a good bit of somewhat difficult willow-walking between ponds and always the concern about getting stuck in deep mud behind the dams. I found my way around/through each dam after greeting a number of willing fish. Most were beautiful cutthroats, 6" to 10" long. I turned one that might have gone 12". There were also brookies, which surprisingly tended to be larger than the cutts, mostly 8" to 10". Only one rainbow without any cutthroat colorings or markings. So it was a good day, catching three of the four trout species in about 1/4 mile of creek.

Nice cutthroat out of the shallow water below the beaver dam

Brook trout with a little size

Only rainbow of the day

I had started with the Turk's Tarantula, about size 10 or 12, and various droppers, but all action was on the dry, so the dropper came off. After a lot of chewing action from the trout, the legs fell off the Turk's. I had noticed a lot of lookers besides the abundant takers, so I switched to an Irresistible Wulff, size 14 I think. Great fishing became even greater. They really liked that thing, and the upright white hair wings made it easy to see. 

 

After 2 1/2 hours of bliss and dozens of fish, it was close to time to head back for the family barbecue. I came to the largest dam yet, about 5' high, with the pond filling the full bottom of the valley. Fish were rising throughout. Hmm, how long did it take me to drive here? Knowing me well, the heavens sent a little reminder that it was time to go, as a dark cloud approached with sounds of rolling thunder. Even I am not crazy enough to fish in a thunderstorm, so I made my way back to the road and headed back to the car, looking down with a smile on the maze of willows I had passed through, now knowing what was hidden therein. This little gem, which gave me solitude on the Fourth of July weekend, reminded me of the little streams we explored with my Dad when we were little. It will definitely deserve another visit.

Perfect memories

 

Stream 125!

June 27, 2015 Chinook Pass Highway

 

It is not always just about the fish. Left about 3:15 this morning to pick up Melinda and a friend from the Especially for Youth camp at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. Caught the first morning light on Mt Rainier looking up the White River Valley. Picked up the girls and told them we'd be travelling my style - stopping along the way, including a try at picking up stream 125.

 

Sunrise on Mt Rainier

Returning over Chinook Pass, we took a little time to hike a bit of the Naches Peak Loop trail, finding incredible wildflowers blooming everywhere.

Avalanche Lily trio

Lupine, paintbrush, and more

After a short hike to the pretty little Union Creek Falls, I spent about 20 minutes looking for a fish in this nice little stream. Dry-dropper was run through some really likely looking water, but no sign of even a small one. This left me to try my hand once again in the American River. Years ago I remember fishing a stretch of this river, beautiful water, with nary a rise. I was determined this time to change that.

 

I had scoped out some nice water near pull-outs in the early morning light on the way over. I came to one and headed down to the stream. Still with the Turk's Tarantula on top and a size 16 pheasant tail on bottom, something that works well on the Tieton. Three likely holes, sweet looking water, nothing but one very small fish (possibly fry) that flew downstream when I lifted up. I couldn't count that one. Upstream was a beautiful run, the flow split by a boulder, the water looks thigh deep water with a nice seam between the fast and the slow water. I laid out the fly on the edge of the fast water, dropped it in the slow water, drifted it down the main current. Nothing. There had to be a fish there. So I changed the top fly to a beaded stone to get it down and put on the thingamabobber. First cast right against the rock, seconds later this beautiful cutthroat was on and to hand. Probing the water above brought two more fish. Then it was fast water for quite a ways. It was time to go anyway. All it takes is one fish to make it number 125.  

 

Beautiful American River cutthroat

Squaw Action...or Pike Minnow for the Politically Correct!

Mutual tonight.  Boys were working on Watersports Merit Badge.  Boat was full.  Time to practice some spey casting on the Columbia!

Beautiful evening to practice casting into the wind!

Took out the 13'3" Sage VXP 8 wt for an evening.  Cast a black wooly buggar and did some stripping.  Landed 5 or 6.  The boys were happy to build a pool and play with their new friends.  The 8 wt did handle the 8 inchers pretty well.

I definitely need some work on the spey cast, but it's getting there.

FISH ON!

Rob's Farewell to The Creek

June 13, 2015 Somewhere in Eastern Washington

 

With Rob leaving for Peru on his mission for 18 months, it was time to say goodbye to one of his most faithful and reliable friends. For 25 years, The Creek has been there for us, ever since Rob moved to Wenatchee and discovered this little gem. It could always be counted on to deliver an abundance of beautiful redband rainbows. Some years the stream was fairly open with easy fishing; lately it has been filling in with grass, severely limiting the ability to fish. A big flood this past winter did a good job of washing away a lot of the grass and opening the water back up. It also washed away a lot of the fish, though still leaving plenty to keep things interesting. Based on past experience, it will only take a year or two to return to the normal abundance.

 

We (Rob and Rick) arrived about 10 am and found no other vehicles in the parking area above the canyon. That was a good start. Rather than walking the old road and starting at the crossing, we decided to start down in the canyon pools, hiking the steep, but scenic trail.

Parked above the canyon

Starting down the trail

That is the water we'll be hitting

 

Nice view!

Once down in the canyon, it didn't take long to find fish. Rob had the first one on while Rick was playing around taking photos. Deep pools, waterfalls, and a fish or two in most of the holes. This was a beautiful start to the day. The waterfall hole has really changed. I never knew it was so big as grass had previously lined both sides of the bank with the creek flowing in the channel in between. The floods took out all the grass, leaving a big pool that stretches from one wall of the canyon to the other.

Rob with the first fish of the day

A typical rainbow

Nice canyon pool

Narrow section...

...with a trout below the waterfall

The new waterfall hole



Leaving the canyon, we continued upstream through a much more open stream. Only one or two fish found in most holes rather than the typical five to ten, but it was pretty constant all the way up. Just below the crossing, I cast over the top of a fallen log about six feet above the water and high-sticked it to get a good drift. You could see the fish darting up to the fly and back, running in circles, but never hitting it (I was fishing a dry dropper, with a Turk's Tarantula on top that they had been hammering). So Rob tosses his Renegade the same way, and as soon as the fly hits the water, the trout comes flying 18" straight up out of the water and down on the fly. Crazy! And so it continued, some slowly rising fish, some darting out from under the grass, some appearing seemingly out of nowhere to take the fly down.

This section was a mat of floating grass last year!

Five hours after starting, we had fished higher than I had ever been in the creek, past the bubbling spring, past the side creek that comes in, sometimes pushing through grass that covered the creek, but always finding another stretch of open water beyond. And in most every stretch of open water, another beautiful little fish or two. If Rob hadn't had family pictures that evening, I probably would have kept going until it was dark, taking joy in each new hole and the fish encountered therein. But Rob did have pictures, so five hours and 1.4 miles from our starting point, we climbed out and started the long walk back to the car. We maybe even gave Rob enough memories to last him through the next 18 months...Don't worry, Rob, I'll post more pictures next year when the fish have grown even bigger!

Looking down the valley as we start back to the car

 

Wade Fishing the Yak

Midway between Richland and Wenatchee is the Yakima Canyon; well, not exactly the shortest midway point, but it was equal time for both Tom and I to get there. So it is a midway point and a good place to transfer kids, bringing Sarah and Melinda from Wenatchee to get them home to Richland. And to spend a couple evening hours fishing moving water.

With the drought this year, the water in the canyon is quite low, 1500 cfs instead of the normal 3500 cfs, which makes it much easier (or actually possible) to wade and fish. We started about 5:30 at Umtanum, crossing the pedestrian bridge and fishing the far side of the river. We found a few fish, quite small, the largest being about 12". Tom got a large whitefish. Caddis were flying all around, but action was on nymphs. Rick landed four, one on the psycho prince, the rest on a Montana X-wing or something like that. Tom caught a couple on nymphs, and at least one on a caddis.

Rick had to leave a little before dusk to get the girls home, Tom stayed a while longer and shortly before dusk larger fish started rising. He hooked four nice fish, up to maybe 18", but only landed one about 14". A good way to spend the evening.


Small Yakima rainbow

Yakima Canyon

The largest fish of the evening



Walking back to the footbridge

El Don del Pez

Went to the FRC today with Don and would describe our outing as "El Don del Pez" (that's the "gift of fish" for you Jon since I know they didn't teach you very much Spanish when you lived in Japan!)  Anyway weather was threatening when we arrived, ugly when we were fishing, and soggy by the time we were done.  Check out how wet my coat is in the photo below!

Don struck first with a nice 19" brown trout, followed not long thereafter with a rainbow.  I told him that he'd caught his two species for fishing merit badge so it was my turn to catch fish, but he seemed to recall that when we were scouts it was necessary to catch three species so we decided that we needed to fulfill the requirements for the merit badge as it existed back in our golden age of scouting.

I actually then caught a tiger, but you can't both work to fulfill each other's merit badge requirements.  Each must do his own work, so we kept at it.  Then I caught a nice rainbow that measured 22" in the net.  I know it looks like I jumped in the lake to get the fish, but that was just the sky dropping onto us.  Forecast was for "showers".  I guess they meant like standing under the shower.

Fuschia bugger, floating line

Merit badge requirement completed!  :-)
Black egg sucking bugger (weighted) on floating line

Don then had this tiger trout cream his fly and take off running.  He actually made me stop fishing while he fought it and wanted me to net it for him.  It was the toughest fight of the day and you can see the satisfaction in the smile!

Way too many strikes without successful hookup

As Rick & Tom well know (and sometimes use to their advantage) my vision has suffered since my ski accident four years ago and I don't always see very clearly.  That was "clearly" a problem today as I kept getting strikes on the rod with my intermediate line.  I kept checking the fly and it looked fine and didn't have weeds on it.  When I went to hook it up at the end of the morning and was unable to do so I discovered the possible reason for unsuccessful strikes.  I know that if Don had seen it he would have told me because he is a nice person.