Methow Steel II

What better way to spend "Black Friday" than fishing for steelhead in the almost pitch black early morning hours? I took Katie (Anderton) and her friend John (Maughan) up to the Methow as they wanted to go fishing. After warning them that some people fish for several years before catching their first steelhead, John proceeded to hook and land about a 24" wild steelhead within about 5 minutes of his first cast! I'd like to say it was the quality of the guiding service, but we know that's not true. He lost another one a short time later. Both of these in the hole above the bridge (if you have a need to know, you know which bridge). We moved downstream, where I hooked and briefly fought a nice one in the hole at the bend before losing it. It was a gorgeous morning, a great day to be on the river, and a very memorable one for John. And Katie did a pretty good job of handling a fly rod, too! Great job!

Search for Steel on the Tucannon....

was unsuccessful. Spent 4 hours at a stretch of the Tucannon I had visited before. Caught a 15" bull trout in the first hole on a purple egg-sucking leech (sorry, no photos). Landed a couple 10" rainbows later, and turned a couple more. Pretty slow morning. The river has changed quite a bit from when I visited a few years ago. Not nearly has many holes, several new channels. I don't think there will be a repeat trip here this year.

Methow Steel

A quick early morning trip to the Methow was rewarded with a small non-clipped steelie to hand and another of unknown genetic heritage fought and lost within the first hour. Thanks for the photo, Dad. Then dweebs showed up in the downstream river, cutting off my access to additional water. So we packed up and came home. Caught on pegged bead - thanks, Tom!

The Fishin' Bishop

I had the opportunity to go with the Fishin' Bishop this morning, and what a morning it was. Hooked five and landed three on the Wenatchee. Unfortunately, none were "bonk-able" so the steelhead dinner will have to wait for another day. I probably won't make it back out until I have to knock the ice out of the guides. Oh well.

STEEL!!! October 19, 2009

At last there is something worth posting on the fishing blog! Native steel was landed on the Wenatchee this morning. Rob and I got in a couple hours of pre-work fishing. The river had colored up and come up about a foot since I was last out with Hannah in the backpack.

Rob and I tried the Turkey Shoot run out of Cashmere. Nice water, but no tugs. When we got to our spot at Monitor we started fishing the tailout of a run. There were old kings rolling on the surface. We fished for a while and Rob had a solid hit that took his bottom fly, an egg pattern. I moved up a little and mooched Rob's water (after he had moved upstream a bit).

I was fishing a black Kauffman's Stone with a size 8 prince trailer. When I laid a nice drift through the area where Rob had his hit I saw the Thingamabobber dive under. I lifted up and could feel solid resistance. I knew it was a king or a steelie. It didn't really run much for about 20 seconds, so it left me guessing. Then it put on a nice run with an acrobatic leap into the air. No doubt at this point.

The fish took me all the way across the river into the backing and into some heavy water. I was worried that the pull of the water on the fly line would cause the tippet to break, so I kept my rod high to try and keep as much line off the water as possible. After taking me down a couple rapids, I coaxed the beast to shore.

Enjoy the pics below.

Just landed and hook out.
Legal fish picture for a wild fish.

At least there is some water dripping off the fish!

OK, maybe there's not a whole lot of water dripping now, but I covered the adipose fin with my thumb. Maybe this was a hatchery brat???

The Creek, October 6, 2009

Haven't visited this little piece of heaven for some time, so I just had to stop on the way back from picking Sarah up in Wenatchee. Grandpa is always looking for a chance to spend time with his kids and grandkids, so he came along. It took a little bit for Sarah to get reacquainted with the art of fly-fishing, but once she did the fish were no longer safe.

The creek is badly in need of 1) a grader on the steep part of the road on the first switchback, and 2) a major flood to flush things out. The road will soon be difficult passage for low clearance vehicles. And the creek is not only overgrown with trees, but grass is filling in all the way across the creek so in many places the stream is flowing through a mat of grass. But anywhere you could drop a fly in, there was a fish or two. I love this place, even in its overgrown state.

Kulik River

Again, thanks to Michelle for posting this on her blog!

Our last day fishing was AWESOME! We had to leave early, just like normal, and get on a plane and fly to the river. The amazing thing about the Kulik is that it is only 1/2 mile long. And we were able to fish just about the entire day in one spot.

This is my grandpa and I wading to shore after getting off the plane in the morning.

The first "real" fish I caught was a rainbow that had previously broken it's back. can you see how it looks humped? The rainbow stripe follows the hump. Somehow this little guy managed to survive breaking it's back, and is still around to show it.

In this daddy-daughter picture, my dad has a bigger fish than me. It happens.

And this is my beautiful rainbow. In front of some beautiful land. While I'm kneeling in a beautiful river.

There were so many bears! I saw at least four different mammas with their cubs. And one juvenile, and at least one big male. They were so fun to watch! And they weren't threatening at all. We take a lot of precautions so that the bears won't associate humans with food. We eat only in the boat (so all the crumbs fall into the boat which we pack out with us).

See the red fish I'm holding? That's a sockeye. I caught a lot of those, but usually they aren't fun to catch. The sockeye have reached their nesting grounds, and most of them have already mated. They are just swimming around waiting to die. This is the kind of fish the bears eat. But this sockeye (shown below) fought like mad. I was sure it was a trout because it was so alive, running with my line, swimming all around the stream. But it was a beautiful sockeye! And now my fish is bigger than my dad's fish. :)

This is a movie of a bear fishing. He just jumps in and pops out with a fish in his mouth! It was amazing to watch.

And this is what the sockeye look like underwater.

You know how every fisherman had those awesome pictures of them holding a fish? And you wonder why fish hold still for them? Well, the truth is that fish don't hold still. I snapped this picture of my dad failing to hold onto his fish. This is what I look like so much of the time. :) (don't worry, he just picked the fish back up (it was still hooked) and we took a good picture).

And these cute little guys were my "pet" white fish. They always swam about six inches off my boots. I was proving a break in the current, and they enjoyed resting there.