White Pass area, July/Aug 2013

A quick post summarizing a few quick casts while getting ready for and while at Girls Camp.  After hiking with Carlynn on July 20, stopped at a new part of the Tieton, about milepost 175.  Found some decent looking water, not a lot of fish or any size.  Elk hair caddis was the fly.  Lost the pic somehow.

 

After more hikes with Carlynn on July 27, stopped at Wildcat Creek and fished up from the Forest Service road crossing for the first time.  I think it gets more pressure here.  Also the stream is of a different nature, falling steeply through big rocks and pools.  Found a baker's dozen of little cuts in about 45 minutes.  Love the fish in this stream.  As always, elk hair or Goddard caddis is the fly of choice.  Then stopped for a bit on the Naches just before the town of Naches.  The wind was howling downstream, making any kind of fishing hard.  Found a few small ones on the psycho prince, nothing on a big stonefly nymph.  Dries were impossible due to the wind.

 

Wildcat Cutthroat

On the way to girls camp on August 7, I left early since I just had gear and stopped at another new stretch on the Tieton, between milepost 179 and 180.  Found some nice water and quite a few fish, maybe 18 or so, a couple of decent size.  Elk hair caddis or small stimulator chew toy were popular, a couple on the psycho prince.  Some of the best fishing I find on this river is along the steep rocky banks by the road.

Nice Tieton rainbow

Thursday afternoon during free time, I made a run up the SF Tieton for a couple hours of fishing where I had briefly visited with Mel a few weeks ago.  No fish in the hole at the bridge, found a lot of pretty water (fairly low gradient stream), but only found fish in a couple of the deeper holes.  This area was right by a popular horse camp, so I think it might get a lot of pressure.  Caught maybe 8 or 10, mostly in one hole.  They were healthy, fat cuts (look at the small head and large body), possibly because they get fished out leaving fewer fish with more food.  Anyway, in the one hole I had a large fish grab the nymph enough for a strong pull while I saw the flash in the clear water.  I'd estimate at least in the 15 inch range.  Oh, and I broke my rod while getting the fly out of a tree, about 4 eyes down, so I was fishing with a 6-ft stub.  Made a delicate presentation difficult, but still caught fish.  Some interest in elk hair caddis, but the most consistent and reliable interest was on purple psycho prince size 12.  All caught up on reports now!

Pretty SF Tieton cutt

Fat, healthy fish



To 100 and Beyond...



Spent a Saturday with Mel lining out hikes for Girls Camp next month, which gave me the excuse to hike up Indian Creek as this is one of the hikes we will be doing.  It just happens that this creek is closed to fishing up to the falls, which was the destination for the hike.  It was a nice trail, a little rocky, one steep stretch climbing out of the canyon to get above the falls, and a nice little waterfall.

 

Indian Creek Falls

Having found the falls, we continued upstream a little ways and found a small brook trout in stream #100, unofficially ending the quest for 100 (the list of streams still must be validated by the impartial jury of Tom).  It was a pretty little stream, but only found a couple fish, so we didn't stay long.

Indian Creek Brook Trout - Steam #100!

Later in the day, we drove up the South Fork of the Tieton, a nice-sized stream that was just out of the way enough to have not been visited yet (the first 12 miles of stream or so are closed to protect bull trout I believe - the state record of about 22.5 lbs was caught in this stream in 1961, but it has been closed to fishing for a long time).  We stopped at the South Fork Falls, a nice falls a short hike down from the road.

South Fork Tieton Falls

A little further upstream, the river opens at the crossing of a Forest Service road.  Fishing right at the bridge, I landed five colorful cutthroats and missed quite a few more, mostly on an orange stimulator chew toy.  It was a decent sized stream, and you could watch the fish come up from the deeper water to attack the fly.  Fished the one hole for about 15 minutes, then back in the car to head home.  This one would definitely be a fun one to return to and explore some more.

South Fork Tieton Cutthroat

 As the sunset was approaching, we stopped at the Tieton River at a favorite place alongside the highway.  Mel had a chance to practice casting and mending and found a small rainbow.  Great end to a great day!

 

Tieton Rainbow

It Could Have Been 100

I invited Rick to come to Heather's to get #100 notched, but he was unable to come--too bad.  First, I tried to prevent Brian from catching more fish that I did by tying him up in some waders (see photo) but he ran away, grabbed his rod, and outfished Simon and me.

Brian escaping wader confinement

The three of us fished Sheep Creek which runs through the ranch where Heather and Simon live.  We found Brook Trout and Rainbows.  Brian caught more than Simon and me combined, but we all did catch fish.

Brian with a Sheep Creek brookie

After that, when Simon had to go to work Brian, Mary and I went to the north and south forks of Chewelah Creek.  I did find Brown Trout and Rainbows in the north fork, but fishing was really tight and really brushy.  I had to do most of the fishing slingshot style and be really careful.  A fun day.

We also identified two other streams where we want to go fishing next time.  I'll save those for a future report.

Wish you'd been here Rick.  It would have been fun to be with you for #100!

Brian with a Sheep Creek rainbow

One fish from number 99 (and a whole bunch more from the Touchet and Tucannon)

With the rains finally ended and sunny weather forecast, things were looking good for a trip to the T-rivers (Tucannon and Touchet).  And due to a quirk in the 2013 regulations, a chance to pick up stream #99.  For years the regulations have had the first two lines shown below, effectively closing all tributaries to the Tucannon.  This year, for some reason the third line was added, which to my reading, opened the Little Tucannon for fishing (it enters between Rainbow Lake intake and Cow Camp Bridge).   So I decided to pay it a quick visit on this trip.




 

A quirk in the 2013 regulations...

I fished a section of the Tucannon and walked up the Little Tucannon back to the road.  Very, very small stream, but I finally came upon one spot where it made a little hole.  (The picture makes it look bigger than it was - that log was only 6" diameter or so.)

 

Little Tucannon (really little)

 

And in that little hole, was one little fish...kaching!  Number 99!  On the caddis green psycho prince, of course.



A fish to match the river size

Well, besides that one mighty fish, I found plenty of others.  I fished several places on the Tucannon and had 76 fish, most in the 8 to 11 inch range.  Fly of choice was generally the psycho prince, but at times the X-wing prince came through.  Fishing both, I had 80% or more on the psycho.  A great day!  I also found why the psycho green could be so effective.  I squeezed a larvae out of a rockroller from the river bottom, and out popped the little worm, about size 16, with a little black head and a bright green body - put a hook in it and it would look like the fly.


 

Nice Tucannon rainbow

But wait, there's more.  Fishing alone, I didn't have anybody with me that needed food or other sustenance (I forgot the granola bars I was going to bring but at least remembered the quart of water), so passing back through the town of Dayton, how could I pass the Touchet without paying a visit?  Started at the footbridge by the football field where I normally fish, and immediately found large numbers of willing fish in the smaller, Touchet size (4" to 9", occasional to 10").  Many are likely steelhead smolt.  Again, psycho green caddis almost exclusively.  Finally changed the X-wing prince on top with a psycho green size 12, so I was fishing size 12 and 16 psycho green, and started catching them on both flies.  Proof it wasn't just the size of the fly - they like the psycho.  Anyway, the fish were generally not in the deeper water, but in moving water over medium gravel near the bank.  Some of the nicest fish came from water 6" deep next to the great looking deeper water which delivered nothing.  And did they ever come - 78 fish before I could see the dam and had to climb out!  So relaxing to walk up the shallow stream, cast, drift, set, unhook, repeat...



Typical Touchet rainbow

With the fishing done, I could now eat, so I paid a visit the Ray's in Dayton for a giant burger and great milkshake, always a fine way to end the day.



Alyssa makes a Nunya visit and makes the Blog!

I got an early Father's Day present today with a fishing trip with Alyssa to Nunya and Little Nunya.

We woke up early (5 am) and made it to Ritzville for the #7 breakfast.  Alyssa went with pancakes and sausage, so I blame her for any poor results.

We arrived at Nunya to find two other groups there.  One guy and his wife came back from fishing below the bridge.  He hadn't turned anything, so we hopped in and started working our way up.  We turned one on a black wooly buggar in the first holes.  We picked up a nice brown just above the crossing right on the bank.  Alyssa fought it like a champ.  It was a nice brown that jumped several times.

As you can see from the photo below, Alyssa gets her fish holding skills from Rick.

Visibility wasn't great, but wasn't terrible (about 18 inches).   Water levels were good.

We hooked and landed a nice rainbow at the corner bank hole crossing again.  Alyssa fell in trying to get the pose for that one.  (Enter the reference to Rick's posing skills again.)  So that ended our Nunya trip.  It was time for lunch as well, so back to Ritzville!

After some nutrition (or at least calories from Zips) we headed up to Little Nunya so Alyssa could get some easier casting and faster action.  She managed to cast, hook and land 4 all on her own below the bridge.  She was really getting the hang of it.  One of them was a nice little brookie pictured below.

Perhaps the most amazing feat was in the slow pools above the bridge at Little Nunya, I was able to cast, hook and land about 10 without spooking the others.  There were literally HUNDREDS of trout schooled and swimming in the pools!  I've never had much success there, so the 5 pm lighting must have been good.  They were rising, but were all caught on purple Pyscho Prince Nymphs.  (Need to order more caddis green!)

It was a great day with a great fishing buddy!

Naches River

Dad & I floated the Naches River yesterday with Joe of Red's Flyshop.  Rubber raft and swift water made for a fun ride.  A little windy most of the day, but sunny and pleasant temps.  Golden stones were on the water and both dry and as nymphs were recipients of welcome attention.  We found nice native cutthroats, rainbows, and bull trout.

Joe Rotter, our trusty guide, with a nice cutthroat

Dad contemplating his next cast on the Naches River

Biggest that were landed were 18".  Some BEASTLY big ones were on the lines briefly, but not to the boat.  A fish in that very swift water is a challenge to fight.  Joe did a great job for us.  We did almost all of our fishing from the boat.

Dad & I are looking forward to some saltwater flyfishing in March at Ascension Bay south of Cancun, Mexico.  That will be a new and exciting challenge.  Spots are open if anyone is interesting in joining us.

Sore Mouths?

Yesterday (Tuesday) the day after Memorial Day weekend my dad & I spent the morning at the FRC.  I think there may have been some sore mouths from the weekend because although weather was perfect, overcast and a light breeze, we only had action from the small guys.  We did catch one that was 15" but the rest were the recent plants.

Almost all were on a size 20 spent midge.  A couple on black bugger and olive bugger.

There is a nesting hawk in the pine tree midway along the north shore.  Maybe hawks will make it less hospitable to osprey?  Although there were two osprey present much of the morning.  Even saw one tuck and dive into the water in an attempt to get a fish--hopefully a bluegill--that was unsuccessful.  Easy to distinguish hawk from osprey--osprey has mostly white feathers in front and on its face with dark circles around the eyes.

Those darn fish catching osprey.  :-(