On the way to girls camp...

July 22-23, 2010

I'll admit I have a little better sense of direction than Tom, for whom the way to girls camp involves a 2 1/2 hour trip in the opposite direction from camp. I stopped at several creeks north of Ellensburg on the way to camp. Two were new for me, to add to my total of streams in Washington that I have caught fish in (which I haven't totalled yet). Any rate, brief report:

Cooke Creek: Small and brushy, difficult to fish most holes, about as big (or should I say little) as Swauk Creek; fished 3.5 miles up from the "T" in the road. Seven rainbows (some may have been cutt hybrids) in 25 minutes, about 6" length. Size 14 tan elk hair caddis.

Coleman Creek: A little bigger than Cooke, also brushy, but a little more open; fished 2 miles up from the "T" in the road (the same "T") just inside the Naneum State Forest. Fifteen in 30 minutes, again rainbows or possibly hybrids, up to 8" to 10" in length. Had to bushwack a bit between fishable areas in the area I was fishing. I'd definitely return here to do a little more exploring of different stretches. Size 14 tan elk hair caddis and size 16 caddis green psycho prince (rapidly becoming my fly of choice !).

Naneum Creek: Fished the same stretch as a couple weeks ago. Water was lower, but still pretty fast in the pocket water. Fifteen in 30 minutes, most 8" to 10", most action in just a couple bigger holes. One brook, rest rainbows. Didn't have time to walk up farther today, still on my list to do. Fished dry-dropper with caddis/psycho prince. All fish in the first hole were on the psycho prince. Switched to double nymph - all remaining fish were on the psycho prince.

Yakima (at Ensign): Fished some from Riverbend down past Locamora. Not a lot of trouty riffles, more deep, fairly fast water. Found three small rainbows and a whitefish. One on a prince, the rest on the psycho prince.

July 23, Swauk below the culvert: It's Swauk! Very overgrown, difficult to fish most places, a lot of very small cutts (3" to 4"), a few up to 6". Shut my temple fork in the door - dang it!

Nunya Business No Longer

Had a great time at the wedding dinner last night. Good food, good company, and the actual name of Nunya. Yes! I am now the only Anderton to know the holy grail of Merrill fishing lore and will probably head over there myself to be taught how to fish through interaction with its holy waters. Kind of like a pilgrimage.

On the way from Michelle's wedding....

July 9, 2010 Naneum Creek

Stopped to explore Naneum with Sarah on the way back from Michelle's wedding today. I forgot about the locked gate on the road at the mouth of the canyon, so we hiked up just a bit from the bridge - it is some kind of state forest land. Not much in the way of holes in the first 1/4 to 1/2 mile or so of river, and the water was still running fast and a little high. I caught about six - fairly small, turned a couple in the 12" range. Sarah watched her strike indicator bounce around a few times. Caught on size 14 caddis green psycho prince, size 8 or 10 of something like a fly called tarantula (deer hair head, rubber legs, yellow body, swept hair wing - hopper like), and a size 14 hair wing caddis - light color. There were caddis flying around, but with water running so fast it was a quick float everywhere. Worth a return trip in a few weeks with a longer hike in to check it out.

One thing that was kind of cool - there was a dam on the creek, and as we were fishing in the pool below it, I saw several fish try and jump the four feet or so up the face of the dam - small fish about 12" or so. Don't know where they were going!

Why Can't Merrill Family Reunions Be Like This?

July 1, 2010 Nunya/Little Nunya

Tom, Rick, and Mike Courtright (special guest fly-fisher visiting from Portland, OR for Beth's family's reunion) paid a visit to Nunya for some pre-fourth fireworks. Alas, the fireworks were all relatively mild, as we only caught fish in the 12" to 15" range, despite the triple #7 with OJ at McDs (I should've had chocolate milk). Tom and Rick had a half dozen, Mike had one and missed some others. More action on black buggers than on hoppers, but not a lot of action overall. Nice fat fish, just not the behemouths we were looking for. Water level - good, visibility - fair, rattlesnakes - none.

Nunya 'bow

Not wanting to leave Mike with such a mediocre day, we dropped by Little Nunya. Ahh! There we found more fish for Mike. Many more fish. We all abandoned counting in pretty short order. Many fish in the 11" to 14" range, more in the 8" to 11" range. Strong fish, fight well. I had one that was 14" make a couple runs, then it bury itself headfirst halfway into the gap between rough basalt rocks, where it played dead. I couldn't pull it out, so I had to wade in and reach down to dislodge it, whereupon it took off and started fighting again. Weird fish! The strongly preferred fly - caddis green psycho prince nymph, size 18 on dropper, same fly - size 12 on upper. Water level a little lower than my last visit.

Wildflowers Out in Force

Burke Lake and exploration

June 26, 2010

Stopped with Sarah on the way home from picking her up from girl's camp. She wanted to float tube. Went to Burke Lake on the way home. Kicked around for an hour with no action, no rises visible, nothing. Buggers, hare's ear nymphs, small nymphs, nothing drew a strike.

Next went south of George to check out a couple "Drains" that are planted yearly with fingerling trout. First location was high and somewhat colored, and I would have thrown out a few casts except for the several hundred beehives right next to the parking area, the beehive in the ditch bank, and the bees flying all around everywhere. Saw a school of small (3" to 4"), trout-shaped fish suspended near the bank.

The next location further downstream was much larger, higher, and dirtier, winding between grassy banks. Both locations look interesting enough for a return exploratory visit before or after irrigation season (of course, that applies to just about anyplace I see with year round moving water!)

Michelle & Rob on the Yakima

Michelle and I had a "last hurrah" trip before I'm no longer her favorite boy. We floated with Joe Rotter from Red's and had a great day fishing. Started the day with some nice activity on dries, then changed to a double nymph set up and got lots with stones at first and fish changing over to small prince nymphs as the day wore on.

Had a great lunch with grilled chicken breasts on the river. Seasoned with lemon pepper and then topped with Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. Chicken pasta salad, fresh orange slices and a cookie. Not bad!

Had several fish in the 20's, lots in the teens, and a few "Chesters" mixed throughout. Fish in great shape and a nice distribution. A great day with my number one daughter.

On the way to Wenatchee and back....

June 18/19, 2010

Holding to my commitment to myself to report on all fishing trips, I'll add a couple brief notes here (sorry, no photos):

Friday, June 18 The Creek. Stopped with Sarah taking her up for girls camp. Started at the flat rock falls and worked up. We only caught a few, and the grass was heavily and freshly trampled, so we moved up to the crossing. Similar results. Although no other vehicles were present, it appeared to have been fished earlier. I probably landed a half dozen, Sarah a couple. Renegade, of course, although I tried a psycho prince nymph in the beaver dam and landed a couple.

Just up from the crossing is a big beaver dam that innundated the deep hole by the big rock/concrete you had to climb up and around. Don't step off that thing, it was six feet deep (measured with my rod, not me!). Worked our way past the beaver's den, where you could hear him chomping or something like that. Sarah wouldn't crawl in to see.

Climbing out we ran into a flyfisher coming down the road. He said he'd been fishing a beaver dam up farther and had driven in from the north. Said the road had been graveled and was in good shape.

Saturday, June 19 Upper Caliche Lake. I wanted a quick stop with my float tube, so I thought I'd see if I could find anything at this sentimental stopping point. It was a bit windy, no surface action. In 40 minutes of trolling around about half the lake, I caught a 12" fat perch, and that was all. Black sparkly wooly bugger.