Spring as it was meant to be...

I needed to get one more day of fishing before my license expired, so I called Tom and suggested we check out the early season on Lenore, then head to Dusty if there was time.  The day was absolutely gorgeous - calm, sunny, warming as the sun got higher in the sky.  But Lenore was a bust, with murky water from the spring turnover and no apparent action from fish near the shore.  We quickly left and headed for Dusty.  It was a beautiful hike as always.  We met an LDS troop from Issaquah camped there, and I got to explain to them a little about the Ice Age Floods that carved out this unique area.  We even found a few fish, though nothing spectacular.  I believe the fishing on the shore peaks a little earlier, about the third week in March; either that or there are too many people making the hike down from the put and take lakes and hauling out more fish than allowed.  Regardless, we had fun sight fishing to a few of the fish that were cruising the shore, and got our share of the beautiful sunshine.  Fish were really fat with bulging bellies.



I'm fishing and you're not

Tom said that the unspoken message of this post was, "Rick I went fishing today, and you didn't" so rather than write something flowery that delicately makes the point I'll just say it.

We headed to the Methow before dawn seeking steelhead and had no success at bridge and fish weren't visible.  We went up to Winthrop and fished below the bridge and Tom found this nice cutthroat trout.  He thought it might be a small steelhead until he saw the slashes on the throat.

Pretty fish, sunny day, good company.  It rarely gets better than this!  Of course, Rob didn't catch a fish so the previous sentence implies that he rarely catches fish.

Winter is officially over...

Winter is officially ended with a beautiful, sunny day of trout fishing.  Started at the Ford (well, after the #7 meal with O.J. at McD's).  One car at each of the first two parking areas, no cars at the last one (by noon when I left, there were 9 cars at the third parking area!).  Things were a little slow, more Ford-like than the last couple trips where the fish were waking regularly after a rapidly stripped fly.  No chases at all this time with a fast strip of a skinny green leech above the bridge (perhaps the water is colder).  Landed one below the bridge swinging/slow stripping the leech. 

Dumb fish flipped right before I took the picture, ruining his great colors reflecting the early morning sun

Moved down to the skinny water and hooked nice one on a small prince nymph, but it broke off.  Farther down the skinny water, there was no sign of fish, so came back up and tried small nymphs and stripping small and large flies.  Some of the little holes were packed with something like a dozen 20" to 25"+ fish, and I broke a couple off on the hit while stripping, but managed to catch only one very small fish, about 7".  Went back above the bridge, and just before leaving, hooked and landed a 26" football.  A good way to end the morning at the Ford.

This thing hand measured at 26"; took a while to get in on 5x tippet

With the whole day free, I decided to stop at Little Nunya "on the way" home, not knowing if it would be fishable with the snow that has been melting.  Approaching from the north, I was happy to see clear water, which though a bit high, was fishable at the bridge.  Rigging up, I realized I had left my psycho prince box at home!  Luckily, I had some other similar nymphs.  Caught four under the bridge, about twenty from the hole above the bridge, and only one from the little run above that (it was pretty fast water there).  Size was much better than the summertime, with all but a couple in the 10" to 13" range.  Funny thing was, didn't see a fish anywhere else below the bridge.  I started walking down to the falls, but noticed a large No Trespassing or Fishing or Hunting sign on the other side of the river where the fence is.  I don't remember seeing that before, so unless we can find someone to ask permission, that stretch may be lost to us.  Sad!

Beautiful rainbow from Little Nunya

Wake and Take II

Tom and Rick met post-Thanksgiving at the Ford to try and repeat the previous weeks' success.  Dad and Eric "Here Bear" Burns came along (glad there weren't any Grizzlies at the Ford for Eric to attract by dangling splashing fish in front of them).  We started at the same running water at the second lot as last week, and although there were a few wakes, it was definitely slow compared to last week.  Eric was able to pick one up stripping in the soft water above, and Tom found several, including the large one artfully landed as shown in the photos below.

Eric and his first Rocky Ford fish

Tom and his relaxed fighting technique

Delicate handling of the fish and a view of Tom's better side

Big fish of the day - almost pulled Tom's hat off!

With the limited success here, we moved down to the third lot with intentions of checking out the skinny water down below.  The stretch above the bridge was empty, even though there were a half dozen cars in the lot, so of course Rick stopped and started stripping right at the corner above the bridge.  Three casts and three wakes and takes, and it was clear the skinny water would wait for another day.  While Rick was landing these fish, Tom caught the first of six while standing on the bridge, Dad started breaking off flies in fish and in addition to landing a few from the other side just above the bridge (we neglected to tell him that we had switched to 3x).  Eric got into the action somewhere there.  While Tom and Eric were playing at the bridge and below, Rick and Dad worked up the far side above the bridge, pretty much finding fish every cast stripping bugs for more than an hour.  Rick thought they were pretty small, until he measured a couple and found they were all about 15" and fat.  But that is little at the Ford.  After some really hot action, things finally slowed down enough that we were able to pull ourselves away from the stream and head home.  Another great day at the Ford.

Wake and Take

Tom and Rick paid a post-Phantom visit to the Ford.  No other fisherman were around when we arrived, and we stopped at the second parking lot and fished the little stretch of running water there.  Tom started with the scud and micromayfly that had been successful for him the previous week, while Rick began stripping bugs.  After Rick had six wakes, a couple flies broken off on fish, and one to hand, Tom was stripping and we had a lot of fish for the next while, black and olive bunny leaches in mid to large size (as were the wakes).  When that slowed down, Tom went back to his original setup and consistently nailed a bunch more.  Rick continued mostly stripping, and found more from time to time.  A very good day at the Ford.



Tom and a nice Rocky Ford rainbow

A nicer Ford rainbow

Steelhead success

Thursday, November 15 on the Wenatchee River with Don Shurtz.  We fished the stretch around Leavenworth putting in at the bridge on Icicle Road and taking out at the takeout on East Icicle Road.  As you can see the boat launch was somewhat steep.  We probably don't want to bring the Clakacraft to launch here.  River was running clear and 42 degrees.

We found a fish at the 4th hole.  It was only the third hole on the stretch, but is called the 4th hole because the  4th hole of the Leavenworth Golf Course is adjacent to the river there.

A hard day fishing, but finally found a nice wild hen.  Guide was Doug Pendleton with Red's Fly Shop and he worked hard for us.  Rain sprinkles a bit, but not as cold as Monday on the Methow.  The cloud shrouded mountains looked more like southeast Alaska or the Olympic peninsula.

Steelheading, or snow job?

That was the question Mark had after spending the day on the Methow with Uncle Rob.  Lots of snow--day started by passing an overturned car on the shoulder just as we approached Pateros.  Mark learned, and Rob remembered, that toe warmers work best if you let them warm up for a few minutes before putting them on your feet and into your boots.  Otherwise, they don't get enough oxygen to start the reaction and it doesn't happen until you take them out at the end of the day.

It was a nice day for a float--no wind, some sunshine, crystal clear water.  Flows were up a bit from normal and that made it hard to get the flies to tease through the holes.  Water temp was 36 degrees in the morning and warmed up to 38 degrees by the afternoon, but that is still bone-chilling and the fish may have been in a catatonic state.  In their thoughtless stupor they ignored our offerings.

Rob caught a bull trout.  That was pretty much it for the day.  With steelhead you have to put in your time.  I tried to reassure Mark that even Uncle Tom and Uncle Rick don't catch steelhead every time they go out (though admittedly they do far better than the average angler!)

I have to put my vote for steelheading, not snow job.