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.

O-"fish"-al Engagement

I was fishing with Mark and Emmett at the FRC this morning--and a very nice morning it was, thank you!  Each of us had boated a fish--me a 19" brown, Mark--a somewhat smaller rainbow, and Emmett--his first rainbow that he hooked and reeled in all by himself--and a nice rainbow it is!  He probably wanted to operate the net as well to be fully self-sufficient, but consented to let me net his fish and hold it for the photo.  He tried to hold it but said something about it being somewhat slippery--go figure!

Emmett with his first rainbow

Anyway, as we were making a second pass in search of more fish the alert tone on my cellular phone indicated that I'd received a text message.  I opened the message and it said that Natalie was o-"fish"-ally engaged.  Okay, I'll admit that Mary didn't actually spell the message that way, but it was very much a homophone for my activity this morning.

Nat, presumably after observing Brad's awesome fishing ability at the FRC last month when he visited, must have decided that he was a "keeper" and Brad must have recognized that Nat was a "fine catch" so I guess it was bound to happen.  I think the fact that Brad was man enough to accept that Nat might catch bigger fish than he could have been part of the attraction as well.

Brad with his first FRC rainbow (4/23/2015)

Natalie with her bigger FRC rainbow (4/23/2015) Notice Brad is still smiling!

I think the fly pattern that was used was the "round brilliant" carbon fly. (Rick would probably add that while this fly is very hard, technically it is thermodynamically unstable.  I would respond that it is constructed of natural materials which is much better than if he'd used foam and made some kind of chernobyl hopper to try to attract her.)   Obviously Brad must have had perfect presentation and a drag-free drift and received the desired response from Natalie.  Great fly selection!

The successful fly

The happy couple

Emmet later caught a bluegill, thus ensuring completion of that requirement of his fishing merit badge that involved catching two different species of fish.  He finished with the last fish of the day that measured 22" (rainbow) and was really a fat fish.  He quietly said, "That's okay" when asked if he wanted a photo with the fish.  I think he didn't want to embarrass me by having a photo of a bigger fish than mine.  What a nice boy!  Is he really related to my brothers if he can be that nice?

The proud papa

Oh, and I did manage to catch a few rainbows today as well.  It was a great day with Mark and Emmett!

Mother's Day Weekend

Tom has found a new tradition for Mother's Day weekend - send his wife to Seattle with her girlfriends, leave Tori in charge of getting her younger siblings to soccer, and then fish all night with Rick. Rick had been invited by his recent fishing partner, Kirk Morris, to try out night fishing at Lake Lenice. Since the lake is about halfway between Richland and Wenatchee, an invite to the brothers seemed to be in order. Tom accepted, but Rob had a lame excuse about a cancer fundraiser for a family friend (OK, we will accept that excuse, and an 18-month mission, but no others). It was OK, because Kirk was farming fish so much that we told him it was just like we were fishing with Rob!

 

Well, the first thing I will say is that it is nice to discover that we don't need to limit our fishing time to the paltry 16 hours of daylight the summer offers. We can now fish any time of day or night, or even round the clock in a 24-hour marathon! We met at the lake at 2 am just as the three-quarter moon was starting to rise above the Saddle Mountains to the south. Clear night, absolutely calm, and temp in the low 50's. Couldn't have asked for much better. By 2:30 am, we were on the lake, kicking our pontoons out into the darkness. The moon gave us just enough light to keep track of the shoreline and each other. Within a few minutes, Kirk had the first hit, then another. Tom followed. Rick changed to the small black bunny leach that seemed to be getting the attention, and he too soon found fish. The night action wasn't tremendously fast, and the fish were not super large, but the action was fairly consistent through the dark hours of the morning. There were lots of short strikes, which gave a good pull but nothing there when the hook was set. Also, the fish seemed to not get hooked as well, especially for Rob, I mean, Kirk. But there sure was something cool about being the only ones in the darkness of the lake, feeling the tug on the line, then hearing the fish jumping somewhere out in the darkness.

 

The sun just rising and we already had several hours of fishing in!

Note all the dead flies on the water - this lake has some prolific hatches

As the sky began to lighten in the east, we could see fish beginning to rise, apparently eating the leftovers from the previous day's prolific fly hatch. The surface of the lake was covered with spent flies. We switched to chironomids for the rest of the morning, with size 14 and black or dark seeming to be about the right size and color. The most action was at about 10 to 11 feet down, sometimes pretty fast, sometimes a little slow.

Saddle Mountains reflection while Rick's fish tries to turn Tom into Jonah

The telephoto keeps Tom honest by negating his world-class long-arming technique

A beautiful day to be on the water

About 9:30 am we headed back to the parking lot and Kirk cooked up some bacon, eggs, and English muffins so we could approximate the McDonald's #8 - just needed some hash browns. It was a concept foreign to Rick and Tom to mix fishing with eating, but both agreed it was actually a good idea and we might have to invite Kirk to join us again if he brings food again. Tom and Rick left for home, while Kirk stuck around for the inevitable mid-morning midge hatch. His report - "You should have stuck around..." That's what makes fishing great - the next cast, the next hour, the next day, the next trip, always the hope and expectation of better things to come. We'll be back to Lenice, maybe even for another night of fishing. And it might be even better...

 

 

May Day!

What better way to celebrate May Day than to look at Mayflies--while fishing.  Also, responding positively when Tom asks, "May I go fishing with you to the FRC?" and "May I see what fly you are using?"  But especially when he queries, "May I net that fish for you?" which he did numerous times this morning.

Tom did a fantastic job netting this fish for me

We did some brother bonding today with sunshine and calm, in contract to the "fast and furious" wind Dad & I experienced earlier this week.  Mostly various colored buggers near the surface and deep, though Tom found some very fast action near the end of our morning visit when he changed to a minnow imitation that had them ignoring all the other offerings I tried to put in front of them!

Tom had the fish of the morning and it was a great way to get an early start to the weekend.  Sorry you used up your fishing time last night Rick.  :-(   We'd have loved to have some of your magic with us, but we did the best we could on our own.

I did an "adequate" job netting this one for him

Fishing with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker (a.k.a. fast and furious)

OK, it didn't start that way, but it ended that way, which is what we remember most. I (Rick) met Kirk Morris at a walk-in lake in the Columbia Basin where he has fished a couple times and found both rainbows and largemouth bass. He was there early, and had just caught the biggest bass of his life when I arrived and helped with the photos. It was pretty chunky. 

Kirk and his bass

Releasing the big boy

Following that, it was pretty slow for the next two hours. Kirk had a couple take downs fishing chironomids from shore, then went back in the tube and found nothing. I had one take down which I hooked and fought for one run before it came undone (fishing three chironomids under the indicator, about 6 ft to 9 ft down). Next I tried spinning gear, first with lures, then with a leech behind an egg sinker. Nothing more.

As the sun was approaching the horizon and Kirk was packing up his gear, fish started feeding on the surface sporadically, then more frequently. I went into a shallower arm and tried pulling the fly and lures by them. No interest. While I was doing that, Kirk borrowed my fly rod that was still set up, adjusted the depth to about 18" to 3' and tossed it out (not nearly as far as the fish were rising). It didn't matter. This was when Vin and Paul came to visit. Within a minute or two, fish on! Kirk landed a fat, feisty rainbow. I quickly borrowed my rod back, and hooked three in succession, most within about 15 seconds of the fly hitting the water. All the rainbows were big, fat, and healthy.

A face to love (the fish's of course, not Kirk's)

Professional long-arming - note the size of the fish relative to the net - how did that even fit in there?

I told Kirk that he could take a turn after the next one I hooked. So the indicator goes down, he screams at me like a Mexican fishing guide on the bonefish flats, which excites me so much that I set it like it was a steelhead on 15 lb test. You know the obvious result. Kirk leaves to go set up his rod while I re-tie mine. By the time we get back in the water, the action was slowing. I missed one more take down, Kirk caught one more and had a couple other strikes. Then it was time to leave, walking the road out in a mix of twilight and moonlight. We'll definitely be back.

Beastly!

22"--best of the day

Dad & I returned to the FRC again today and it was WINDY.  Beastly windy.  But we also found some beasts.  :-)

Dad had four HARD strikes throughout the morning that snapped his 8lb tippet.  Others that took off running fast that he was unable to stop until they came off.  We put six over 20" into the net and lots of other fine fat fish throughout the day.  First hour was slow (with little wind) but as the wind picked up so did the fishing today.

Controlling the boat was difficult because it was so windy.  Several times fighting fish the wind put us into the shore or into the trees which was a bit of a challenge to get away from after releasing the fish.

Dad also caught a tiger--he's had one every time and I have yet to find one.  I had a nice brown today about 19".  I broke off several flies trying to release fish at the side of the boat that were too big to release that way.  Use the net and save your flies.

Intermediate sink tip line produced more fish than floating line.  Green flies with flashy sparkles and a red leech with bead head were most productive flies today.

A great day--fished from 8:30-1:30.  Did I mention that it was windy?