Flies, Fins, Feathers, and Freedom

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Chilly on Amber Lake

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Breezy, overcast, cold. Amber Lake.

Last Saturday I took the opportunity to drive up to Amber Lake. Amber is near Spokane, and just over a two hour drive from home, so it takes some effort to get there. The forecast was for temps in the mid 50's, mostly cloudy, with a stiff breeze. Not ideal conditions, but doable.

I made the drive and got my pontoon ready. To save a few bucks on the long drive I deflated the bladders on the pontoon and took my Toyota Matrix instead of the F-150. It is very nice after the trip at the pump, but it probably takes me an extra 20 minutes to set-up and another 20 minutes extra to take-down. I was fishing 3 hours after leaving home.

Amber holds predominantly rainbows, with a few Westslope Cutthroat mixed in. I have only fished Amber one time before, around this time last year. My first fish was a cuttie. After that first fish it has been all rainbows. Once they reach sexual maturity, the sterile rainbows attempt to spawn in the shallows. Because they are unable to spawn, the attempt kills them. For this reason, the majority of lakes in the Columbia Basin have lots of fish in the 14-18 inch range. The Spring after the fish hit 16-20" (depending on the lake) the fish attempt to spawn and die. Last year I found an area they were spawning in on Amber, and I started out there.

On my first cast, within two seconds after my indicator hit the water it sunk. I brought in what was probably a fantastic rainbow three months ago. Now it was a dark ghost of what used to be. My second cast lasted on the water slightly longer, and it was maybe 10 seconds before my indicator tanked and I reeled in my second fish. Both fish were obviously spawning, and honestly, not what I was looking for. I fished the area for another half hour, missed a couple take-downs, and decided to move on.

First fish of the day. This fish would have been amazing last October!

Second fish, not quite so far into spawning, but still way too colored up.

I decided to move and catch some fish that weren't spawning. I tried stripping flies in shallow water, indicator fishing in shallow water, and suspending my flies shallow in deep water to no avail. With my fish finder I noticed that the weed line was at about 18 feet deep. At 17 feet the weeds rose approximately half way to the surface, they thinned at 18 feet, and by 19 feet they were gone. I focused on anchoring my pontoon in the weeds, and casting as best as I could tell at the weed margin. I set my indicator at 10-12 feet, or approximately the top of the weeds in 17-18 feet of water. I'm sure there were other effective methods of catching fish, but I was able to repeat this technique in four or five different areas of the lake, and catch fish at each.

SKINNY rainbow, but caught deep, not in the spawning area.

Another skeleton. It's sad to see fish in this condition.

Unfortunately, the first couple fish I caught deep were also in pretty poor shape. They too had clearly been spawning. I couldn't figure out how to get away from them! Finally, I caught a few fish that hadn't been spawning. It was clear from the second I set the hook. These fish took me straight into the weeds, and would make several strong runs before being willed into the net. Although these fish were smaller, they were fat, healthy, and strong. They made my day! I would really like to return to this lake in the fall and try to catch these 16 inchers after they have grown and fattened up all summer. We'll see if we can make that happen!

Finally some healthy fish! The bottom one was the highlight of the day. It fought like a champ, making numerous strong runs, and it was way chunkier than it looks in this photo!

Unfortunately, I had some obligations that I had to meet in the Tri-Cities, and I left much earlier than I normally would. The only thing that made it okay was that I was cold! I don't get cold very often. If you look through my blog, you will see that some of my favorite fishing is in the middle of winter. I wasn't prepared for the chilly conditions today, though, and I was actually uncomfortable - not cool! I need to make it a priority to fish Amber this fall and try for some pre-spawn chunky rainbows.

Me - cold.

Monday, March 27, 2017

Camping at Lenice - Kara's First Fish

March 24-25, 2017

Kara and her first ever fish! A solid rainbow at that!

This past weekend my brother Scott and I planned a little camping trip to Lake Lenice. There is an ORV area very close by that has free dispersed camping. The plan was to meet at the camp spot before dark, get camp set up, and then bring the pontoon to Lenice so that we could get an early start the next morning. Scott was also going to bring up his side-by-sides so we could ride around the dunes. The kids were really excited! Finally, I was going to take my sister-in-law Kara out to try to catch her first fish. It was going to be an action-packed 24 hours!

We arrived at a very damp camp and got our tent up just before dark. There was lots of standing water, but miraculously my kids stayed out of it, and Cheryl only had to sing them songs for an hour before they fell asleep! Unfortunately, Scott had workers in his basement taping, mudding, and texturing his walls and ceiling, and he wasn't able to get out of the house until 9:00pm. We were unable to get the pontoon out to the lake, but we were otherwise ready. There was some less-than-considerate campers near us, playing music and talking for much of the night. As is my normal, I slept like a baby. Scott, on the other hand, was up all night, not even getting a wink of sleep.

The next morning was brisk, but I awoke to the sounds of drumming rooster pheasants and chukar clucking from the hills - good sounds! Scott and Kara made a delicious breakfast of pancakes, sausage, and bacon, while I got all the fishing equipment ready. As soon as breakfast was done, my whole family drove over to Lake Lenice, and we got Cheryl fishing. I took the kids back so they could have a couple turns on the side-by-sides.

Cheryl did well fishing. She caught a fish trolling to our favorite spot. Then, in the first forty minutes she caught 4 fish with the indicator. She lost a couple more, but eventually had to head back to swap waders with Kara, so we could get out and fish. I was pretty proud of my wife!

One of Cheryl's fish. She said that she had to take a picture to prove that she actually caught something!

I let Kara use my pontoon, while I kicked around in the float tube. We anchored up the pontoon, and tied the float tube to it. Kara was able to get the flies out just far enough, and soon she had a take down! After an exciting battle, Kara landed the fish! It was her first fish ever, and she was pretty excited! Not excited enough to touch the fish, but excited none the less!

Good job Kara!

We continued moving around, and in the last half hour we had some pretty quick action. Kara caught another couple fish, and missed MULTIPLE take-downs. She had a lot of fun, and so did I. It was also fun to just small talk with Kara. I don't think that I've ever had a one-on-one conversation with her, and I enjoyed it. Sometimes fishing isn't all just about fishing. It is about competition though, and I made sure that I caught five fish so that Cheryl didn't outfish me twice in the same week!

Yep, I was there too - teaching Kara the long-arm technique!

In the end, it was a whirlwind trip. The kids did great and had a really fun time. ALL of us were tired. We were only gone for 24 hours, but it felt like a lot more! It was a lot of work, but worth it. Next time I need to be more diligent about getting more pictures of the kids, and hopefully we can get some more fishing time in too!

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Outfished by Cheryl at Quail Lake

March 23, 2017

Beauties like this is one of many reasons that I love fly fishing!

Cheryl's Aunt offered to watch our kids for the day so we could go fishing together. We jumped at the opportunity! Amazingly, the weather cooperated, and we were treated to a beautiful day on Quail Lake. Unfortunately, many of the Columbia Basin lakes are still frozen. This means that the ones that are open are quite popular. In my previous six visits to Quail, I have never had to share the lake with more than one person. Today there were four campers in the parking lot, and we shared the lake with five other guys. Everyone was nice, however, and although the lake is small, we were all able to find our spots and catch our fish.

The trail to Quail is short, but it isn't easy!

I set Cheryl up with a shallow chironomid/balanced leech rig. I anchored up in the location where I had success in the past, and started working a balanced leech off the bottom. Soon, I looked over to see Cheryl fighting a fish! I asked why she didn't say anything, and she said she hadn't landed it yet and was nervous. She played it perfectly and soon had a beautiful 18" tank of a rainbow in the net. She removed the hooks and kicked over to me while I got the camera out. She took the fish out of the net and it slipped right back into the water! Aargh! I teased her for a second, and then we each went back to our respective spots and kept fishing.

The only image we got of Cheryl's first pig. It's in there, I promise!

Soon my indicator was under too, and I landed a chunky 13 incher.

If they're going to be small, they might as well be chunky and beautiful!

After 45 minutes or so without a bite we moved, and decided to tie the pontoon and float tube together so we could chat and fish at the same time. While I was tying them together, Cheryl's indicator went under and she landed a small rainbow. Even the little ones put up a fight. We got a picture of this one though!

It looks like she's done this before!

There you go! Now try to hold on to one of the big ones!

I had a take down that I missed, and then Cheryl hooked into another nice fish. Soon she had her second 18" rainbow in the net! Again, however, she fumbled the photo, and the fish slipped back into the lake undocumented. Double Aargh!

Major bendo from a nice fish!

We made one more move, where, once again, Cheryl caught one, and I came up empty.

Good job! Way to make it look easy!

Finally, we kicked back to shore, and decided to fish a little area that I like from shore. Just as we were about to go home for the day, my indicator went under, and I fought and landed a big, beautiful rainbow! Luckily for me, I have more experience posing with fish - some say I have a Ph.D. in long-arm-ology. It was a beautiful fish! Both of Cheryl's that we didn't get pictures of were this size.

Boom. Fatty from shore!

I wish pictures did him justice!

In the end, it was a wonderful day. After eleven and a half years together Cheryl and I work together seamlessly as a team. There is no bickering or fighting, but plenty of laughing and teasing. I love these rare times that we are able to get out together, and hope that we have many more to come!

Saturday, March 4, 2017

35 Amazing Minutes at Lake Lenice

March 4, 2017

Lake Lenice. My kind of floatilla. These are mostly coots, with a handful of bufflehead, scaups, and ruddy ducks mixed in.

March 1 is an important date for flyfishermen in Washington State, as many lowland lakes open for fishing. Early season weather can be tricky to predict, and the fishing isn't always fast, but after a long, dark, icy, foggy winter, any time on the water is a blessing.

This year has been unseasonably cold, however, and to my knowledge, the only March 1 lake that is ice free at this time is Lake Lenice. This is pretty well known, and I figured that the 112 acre lake would be a flyfisherman floatilla. Thankfully, I was wrong. At most there were 25-30 people on the lake, which means you are never alone, but there is plenty of water to fish. Also, since we are all in inflatables or prams and moving slowly, people are almost always friendly and courteous, and everyone is out trying to have a good time.

As icing on the cake, the fishing was pretty darn good! As usual, I started trolling to my spot dragging a double leech rig, and within the first ten minutes I was on the board with a spunky 12-15 inch rainbow (I don't remember exactly how big he was, but he was in the cookie-cutter range!).

I don't have the pictures in order, but let's pretend this was the first fish...

Over the next half hour I caught two more on the leech. I tried anchoring up with a chironomid/balanced leech combo and caught a couple more before trolling over to find a new spot. Many of my favorite spots were taken, but I don't think "spots" make too much of a difference on Lenice - the fish are where you find them. Boy did I find them.

I trolled into a depth that looked good, about 8 feet, and caught a fish. I decided to anchor up and use the indicator rod. For the next 35 minutes the fishing was lights out. I would cast out my line, and within 40 seconds after landing, my indicator would tank. Most of the time it was 20 seconds. In 35 minutes I caught 13 fish, and my indicator was never on the water for more than 40 seconds - it was amazing. It was possibly the best half hour of fishing of my life! Most of the fish were cookie cutters, with one healthy 18" mixed in. Unfortunately, he was camera shy!

Some of the fish I caught. I didn't take pictures of all of them - that would take too much time - and they are mostly cookie cutters anyway. Healthy cookie cutters!

Eventually the bite slowed down, but I still caught a handful more fish in the area. When all was said and done, in two hours I caught 21 fish anchored in one location. That isn't bad! I trolled some more, and caught a few more fish for a grand total of 30 for the day.

Last fish of the day.

In the end it was a great day. Although the lake was busy, the fishing was very productive. There was lots of wildlife - I saw huge flocks of lesser sandhill cranes, elk, fighter jets, herons, scaups, bufflehead, mallards, ruddy ducks, heard an owl, and one other fishermen said he had a beaver attack his strike indicator - crazy! The best thing about today? Hopefully it is foreshadowing what lies ahead - bring on Spring!!

A small part of the duck/coot floatilla, with more ducks visible. When the entire floatilla moves around the lake gets loud!

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Wild Pacific Northwest Pheasant

December 3, 2016

When I was growing up my uncle owned a 10,000 acre wheat farm in central Montana. On the farm Dad and I had the extremely unique opportunity to hunt wild roosters on our "own" private property. We purchased, trained, and loved a wonderful black lab named Rocky just for the task, and we had some amazing pheasant hunts. The farm has long since been sold, and this pristine hunting experience is but a distant memory. Since then I have been blessed to make three trips to the Dakotas, where the birds are plentiful and shooting a limit by lunch is rarely a problem. But I know that for the average public land hunter, these opportunities don't exist. A wild, public land rooster just about anywhere is something special, something to be treasured.

A few months ago I got to know Parker and his Brittany, Houston. Parker grew up here and loves to hunt for the local pheasant and quail. Houston is well trained, and really has the game figured out - especially for quail. This was my third trip out with them this fall. The first trip was in a rainstorm, but we still managed few quail, which were a first for me! A few weeks later we made a trip focused more on pheasant. We hunted hard, and didn't see our first pheasants until early afternoon, but I was fortunate enough to bag a couple roosters at the end of the day.

Parker and Houston working the other side of the draw we found the birds in.

Parker called me earlier this week and wanted to know if I wanted to go out on Saturday. Of course I did! We met up in the early morning darkness and hatched a plan. We would be hunting public land, so I knew that any birds would be icing on the cake. The opportunity to carry a shotgun following a handsome pointer on a brisk December day would likely have to be enough.

Thick cover surrounded by planted fields - wonderful pheasant habitat!

As we crossed the open farmland to the patch of thick cover, Houston bumped a covey of five jumpy huns. They were the first birds I'd ever seen Houston bump - these birds had been hunted before! We got to a draw where Parker has had some luck with pheasants and laid out our plan. We were successful in pushing out four hen pheasants, but no roosters. We then pushed a long drainage, pushing only one other hen. It had been over three hours, and the hunters and dog were already tired.

Finally, we jumped a rooster! It was a ways away from Houston, and it took us by surprise. No shot was possible, but we marked where it landed, and decided to follow it. After some time we had pretty much given up on the rooster. I was taking a picture of an old pheasant track in the dirt, and I heard the rooster flush in front of me. In one movement I dropped my camera, shouldered my gun, and harvested the pheasant. It was pretty special. I don't take a prize like this lightly. A wild, public land pheasant in Washington State is a trophy to be remembered!

A beautiful public land, wild pheasant - a true trophy in my book.

The pheasant track I was taking a picture of when the rooster jumped.

The rest of the morning was eventful. We jumped a couple coveys of quail, and I was fortunate enough to be shooting well, and harvested two beautiful male California Quail.

My third ever California Quail. Another beautiful, special bird!

As we neared the end of the draw, just after Houston pointed another hen pheasant, he pointed something in the middle of a small, thick patch of tulies. It was the perfect spot to flush a rooster at the end of the day. Parker went into the thicket to flush the bird, while I prepared myself for a shot on the ridge. Parker got within three feet of Houston, but the bird never flushed, Houston never moved, and Parker couldn't even see him. Since I knew right where Houston was, we switched. I went in and could see Houston. He was staunch on point with something right in front of him. I gently pulled the tulies away to see, and then jumped when my hand came within inches of quills. Porcupine! I jumped, which may have startled the porky. We yelled at Houston to get away, but he still managed to get 15-20 quills in his chin and right paw. Luckily the quills came out easily with a Leatherman, and I spoke with Parker this morning, and Houston is doing fine.

In the end, I think we walked around eight miles for three birds. Some say it isn't worth it - some might say we are crazy - but I loved every second of it. I am so grateful that I live in a state, that I live in a country, where I can hunt public land. It was a great day indeed!

Monday, November 28, 2016

The LOWER Provo River

November 26, 2016

I flew to Utah to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, in-laws, and to attend my cousins wedding. Although I only had four days off and I had to fly to Utah and drive home in that time (10+ hour drive), I still found the time to sneak out for a few hours of fishing on Saturday afternoon.

I LOVE the Lower Provo River. It is where I learned to fly-fish, and if you've read my blog, you know I fish it whenever I get home. Thanksgiving weekend tends to get crazy, however, especially if there is good weather like there was this weekend. The browns are getting to the tail end of their spawn, and many of the browns (which dominate the river) are spawned out and sickly, there are still a pile of people targeting them on their reds, and the river is a general madhouse. Instead of battling the insanity, I decided to spend a few hours fishing much lower on the river.

The lower, Lower Provo River. The shallow, slower riffle just off the island yielded a couple fish!

The lower, Lower Provo River (below Olmstead Diversion Dam) runs much smaller (due to the diversion dam!) The regulations allow for bait, and due to these factors, the fish concentrations are much lower, and the average fish size is also smaller. However, the angling pressure is also much lower. Instead of fishing above the Diversion dam, where there may literally be an angler every 100 yards, I fished over half a mile of the lower, lower river, and never saw another fisherman. Great decision in my book.

I started working down stream with a large black leech. After an hour I was starting to think I had made a mistake. I had not seen a single fish, and the only signs that fish even existed in the river were the small reds here or there against the shoreline. Then, while working the tail of the last hole I intended to fish, I got a solid strike, and was treated to slow, powerful head shakes. When the fish slowly rolled on the surface, I laughed - it was big whitefish! In a river full of what should be aggressive browns, my first fish is a whitefish on a streamer. Go figure!

Streamer eating whitefish. I didn't know such a thing existed!

As I released the whitefish, I decided to work my way back upstream with a double nymph rig. I kept is simple, with a glow bug and a small brassie. Only half way through my first drift with the nymph rig I hooked into a small brown, and I started thinking - this could get good!

Greedy little brownie - it is nice to see a fish that isn't spawning.

For the next couple hours I was able to pick off quite a few more browns up to 15" or so, along with another nice whitefish. The fish were holding in the slower riffles, and were pretty predictable. It made for a fun couple hours of fishing.

All too soon I had to head home for my daughter's first birthday party. I had a great few hours on the water, caught more fish than I would have ever expected, and was SO pleased to have some water for myself. I'll be back to Utah in about three weeks, and those rainbows and browns on the upper, Lower Provo River better be ready!

Mallards and dippers were all that I had to share the water with!

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Last Day of 2016 on Lake Lenice, Washington

November 19, 2016

The Sun Lowering on Lake Lenice. Farewell until March!

As Cheryl and the kids are out of town, I had the day free. The forecast did not look good, and I did not have enough time to prepare to make a long drive, so again, I opted to stay close to home. I decided to fish what has become my home water, Lake Lenice, one last time before it closes for the season at the end of the month.

There was only one person at the lake when I got there, and as I got my gear ready I watched him catch two fish. I was thinking that this could be good! Apparently he hit one of the only flurries of the day, however, as I found the fishing to be quite slow. Trolling and casting a leech for over an hour yielded only one small fish, so I moved to the main lake reef, where there were still weeds in a depth of only 5-6 feet. Fishing the same flies (literally) that I had used at Quail, I set them up shallow, only 3-5 feet under my indicator, and enjoyed a snack while waiting for my indicator to go down. Over the next hour and a half or so, I would get a strike every 15-20 minutes. I managed to land three or four of those fish, and I was pleasantly surprised at their nice size (15-17"). People had been complaining of the lack of size, but that was not the case for me today.

Healthy 17" caught just 2 ft under the surface on the chionomid. The only fish on the chiro all day.

Another very healthy, hard fighting trout. This one fell for the balanced leech just off the bottom in 5-6 ft of water.

Eventually things slowed down, and I explored for a while, but the fishing remained terribly slow, and I only added a couple more, smaller fish. Finally I needed stretch my leg and take care of some needs, so I went to one of the only places you can actually get out of your boat on the shore. While standing on the island stretching I noticed some fish cruising just of the shore in front of me. There is a point on the island where the water drops off pretty quickly, and I decided to fish from shore. I used my indicator rod and set it up about 5 feet deep (I was assuming the water was 6-10 feet deep).

As is so often the case, I had come prepared with a float tube, two fly rods, a fish finder, etc, and the best fishing of the day was standing on shore. Go figure! In the next half hour I caught four very healthy fish and missed a couple more. Then, like a light switch, they turned off.

Biggest fish of the day - he was bigger, especially heavier, than this photo makes him look. They get hard to photograph at this size! He was pushing 18".

Bendo! Sure, I was a little under-gunned with the 3 wt., but it sure is fun!

The end result of the previous picture. Note the balanced leech in his upper jaw!

In the end it was a pretty slow day at Lake Lenice, with only a dozen fish over the course of about six hours. At least the size was good. As is so often the case, the fishing was only part of the experience though. Luckily the weathermen were way off, and there was no wind to speak of and only a little rain. Driving to the lake I passed over 200 elk, including three beautiful bulls, in least likely elk habitat in the world. I had groups of two and three swans fly by, I was constantly being buzzed by crazed flocks of bufflehead, and I even saw a covey of 5 pheasants take to the air. I don't see those sort of things at my office.

Next week I'm making an extremely quick trip to Utah, so I'll probably get a few hours of fishing in there - we'll see!

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