Has anybody seen the bridge?

Last Wednesday morning started off like one of those dreams I often have in which I am supposed to take an exam, but I'm not sure when the exam starts, where it is located, or whether I've been to class all year. In my dream, I find myself anxiously looking for the registrar's office so that I can pick up another copy of my schedule. In other dreams, I'm supposed to play in a baseball game, but I can't find my uniform. In my worst nightmares, I'm trying to go fishing but I just can't get my gear together or get to the lake.

Wednesday morning I had plans to fish with Scotty, but I overslept and couldn't find my cell phone. I was late dropping my son off at school and I had to wait for the Elysian to open so that I could pick up my phone.  Also, I had to pick up new decals for the license numbers on my boat.

The good news is I managed all those tasks without having a heart attack, and Scotty and I were fishing Lake Washington by 11:30.  Within a few casts I hooked and lost a fish on the Articulated Zoo Cougar, Kelly Galloup's fly pattern.  On the next cast I got bit again but came unbuttoned. On the third cast to same spot, I hooked and landed this beautiful smallmouth:

I was particularly thrilled with this fish because I caught it on weightless, buoyant fly on a fast sinking fly line. The fly line would quickly sink deeper than the fly so that when I stripped the fly, it would dive like a crankbait.

A couple of hours later, we landed three more keepers while fishing along some bridge abutments. I thought we took pictures of Scotty's fish, but this is the only other photo he sent me:

It was great to see Scotty finally catch a couple of smallmouth this year. Like Ichiro, just when you write him off, he responds by hitting a couple of singles!

Kiss and Tell

I had the pleasure of fishing with my original fishing buddy, my dad, over Memorial Day weekend. I chose Moses Lake as our destination this year. We launched at Peninsula Park on Saturday morning and started hunting smallmouth along rocky flats.  I tied on a Murdich Minnow and began stripping it along the surface. Before my fly had a chance to even sink, a 3 lb. smallie pounced on it from above.

Later on we visited a flat near a bridge. There another 3 lb. smallie ate my Murdich Minnow although by this time the fly was water logged.

A little while later, I landed the 4 pounder in the picture at the top. Here's another shot of that lovely fish:

The Murdich Minnow lives up to its reputation.
Last year my dad outfished me 12 to 1 on the Columbia River using a senko rigged wacky style. This year the fish wanted the fly. Finally, the old man picked up a nice fish on a senko rigged weedless with no weight.

On Saturday afternoon we visited a private lake to fish for largemouth. Unfortunately, the bite slowed down significantly. I hooked and lost a couple of fish, but my dad caught the only sizeable largemouth of the day on a spinner bait.

By Sunday morning, the fishing was slower than ever. We managed one tiny smallmouth in about 5 hours of fishing. When the Murdich Minnow failed to produce, I went through my arsenal. I tried the Meatwhistle, a chenille worm, the T & A Rainbow, the Swimmy Jimmy, and the Holshlag Hackle Fly. I tried floating, intermediate, and fast sinking lines.  No love.
This is the second year in a row that my dad and I have fished on Memorial Day weekend. For two years in a row, we seemed to have hit the post spawn lull. The result has been slow fishing for smaller fish.
I can't wait to get back to Moses Lake to hunt some of the huge carp and bass that live there.  

Self Portrait with Bass

Yesterday I spent a few hours bass fishing on a local lake. I pitched my Meatwhistle near a dock and let it sink to the bottom. I saw my line tighten and I set the hook with a grunt like Bill Dance.  The result was this beauty:

 

Lake Washington Smallie

Yesterday Scotty and I hit Lake Washington in the afternoon after school.  It's great to know that trophy bass live within a few miles of my house. The trick will be finding and catching them in this huge lake. The current plan is to focus our efforts along the east side of Mercer Island.

I started off throwing an Articulated Zoo Cougar, a Kelly Galloup pattern, on a fast sinking line . I love the way this fly wiggles and I think the yellow coloration could imitate a perch. No luck on the Zoo Cougar.

Next, I tied an olive Meat Whistle onto my floating line as we explored some shallow flats. The result was my first smallie of the year.  Here's another shot of the fish pictured above:

This fish put me in a good mood!

Flies for the Coffeepot

 Squirrel Strip Leech

Stillwater fisherman like to spend more than one day on any given body of water because of the time needed to find the fish and match the hatch. On large lakes, hatches can be very specific to certain locations. You might spend all day trying unsuccessfully to match a damsel hatch in one bay while the fish out in the main channel are chowing down on bloodworms. I like to have at least two days to fish any given lake.

On our most recent trip to Coffeepot, Scott and I headed straight for the bay that has always held the most fish for us. This bay, we'll refer to it as "Starbucks Bay,"  is the most protected piece of water on the shallowest part of the lake. Thus, it warms up early and tends to hold huge numbers of fish. On our two previous successful trips, we caught the vast majority of our fish in this bay, especially on a trip just after spring turnover.  While water temps on the main lake were around 38 degrees, this bay had water up to 42 or 43 degrees.

Scott and I fished Starbucks Bay for the better part of a day and a half on this recent excursion. Results were disappointing. We managed a few fish on black leech patterns, but these fish were in spawning mode. Finally, we set out to find new water. As we headed towards another bay, Scott spotted birds feeding on chironomids as they hatched from a flat that averaged 14' in depth. Sure enough, when we arrived to the flat, we could see bugs hatching everywhere.

The VHS-mid

I immediately started hooking fish on a VHS-mid, a chironimid pupa that uses old VHS tape for the body material. This fly goes by several names, but my name for it will be the VHS-mid.  Although the fish were feeding on chrome colored bugs, this fly was successful for us over three days.

After catching a few fish, we were able to identify the pupae the fish were feeding on, a size 16 chromie with black rib. This was the fly of choice for matching these bugs:

Chromie

Unfortunately, the tiny hooks used in this pattern tend to straighten quite easily.  Nevertheless, this fly pattern is a fish magnet, and I've caught fish to 8 lbs. on it in British Columbia.

Finally, our before and after-hatch fly was the mohair leech. I've been carrying this pattern around for years. It was great to see it finally perform.

Mohair Leech

At times, fishing was fast. Often we had doubles, and more than once one of us helped the other to net a fish only to turn around and find a fish on the other line.

"Scotty, I haven't seen your bobber for a while." 
"Nor have I, James."
"I guess you better set the hook, Scotty."
Fish on. 

The best part of the trip came when Scott and I ditched our bobbers and started to fish naked. It's such a thrill to see some slight movement in your fly line and then set the hook into a 4 lb. rainbow.  No bobber to interfere with landing the fish, and best of all, no need to reset your bobber to 14' after landing a fish. Free yourself of the bobber and your mind will follow.

Good trips, bad trips, you know I've had my share

My first trip to Coffeepot Lake was magical. Must have been around 2006. Scotty and I had a good day fishing from the drift boat at the Northeast end of the lake. That afternoon, we met Bill and his dog, Scout. Bill was an unemployed heavy machine operator from Spokane. He was spending a few weeks camped at Coffeepot. He told us about the fantastic chironomid hatches at the Southwest end of the lake and vowed to tow us down there the next day. Given that Coffeepot is about 3 miles long and can become extremely windy, we were grateful for the tow.
We had a blast getting to know Bill and fishing with him over the next two days. The weather was gorgeous, bugs were plentiful, and we caught many good fish.

Our second trip to Coffeepot was not so wonderful. We arrived late on a Friday night. As we set up camp in the dark, the extremely drunk guys in the next campsite decided to drop in on us. These were the obnoxious and inebriated, uninvited guests that would never leave--my least favorite part about camping in public campgrounds. 

On the next day, the lake just seemed to be in a funk. Soon the heat gave way to high winds, and we were back in camp with time to kill. Too hot to be in a tent, too windy to be outside. Plus a neighbor was running his loud generator all afternoon. The combination of hot winds and generator noise made staying in camp like flying in a open airplane over the desert with no wind shield.

Trip #3 to Coffeepot was a cherry. We hauled all our gear to the other end of the lake and camped in an unimproved site. The lake had just turned over, the water was murky, and it took about a day for us to figure out the fishing. We caught most of our fish from a bay where the water was just a few degrees warmer than the rest of the lake. I learned that following turnover, the fish suspend in the top 3 to 4 feet of the water column. Once we figured this out, the fishing was fast.  Our good friend, Andy Towell, professional photographer, took many beautiful photos on this trip. To see his work, check out: Andy Towell's Coffeepot Gallery

Last week's spring break on Coffeepot may have been the best yet. My boat stayed anchored reasonably well in the wind, the chironomid hatches were good, and the campground was nearly empty. On our last day we drove into Odessa to get more firewood. The nice ladies at the local supermarket told us where we could find some pallets for free. We loaded up the back of the truck and returned for a warm evening by the fire.

 

A Brief Visit to the Upper Columbia River

Last week Scotty and I made the trek to Northport, WA to fish the Upper Columbia. We had a great morning fishing with Doug Lochner of Northport. Doug is a tournament bass fisherman who knows his stuff. He showed us some beautiful runs along the East side of the river. The Upper Columbia was flowing at half the volume of the normal summer flows. Nevertheless, I opted not to launch my boat. Even at winter flows, I was nervous about going out there with my little motor. Part of me wished I had tried while another part of me reminds me that I'm usually right when I'm in doubt about something that might not be safe.

That morning on the Columbia I managed to land a healthy 4-pound rainbow on a cone-head Bow River bugger and Doug got a 17" cutthroat. At the end of the morning, Scotty and I decided to head to our old favorite, Coffeepot Lake. The forecast for the desert was considerably warmer and we were looking for hatches and sunshine.

We had a wonderful evening camping at Steve Bird's place up near the border. Steve is still down in California for the winter, but he will be guiding the UC again this summer. Meanwhile, check out his blog at http://columbiatrout.blogspot.com/. If you like what you see, order his book: Upper Columbia Flyfisher. Steve's approach to fishing, writing, and guiding is as unique as any I have seen. Moreover, he is invested in the future of the Upper Columbia rainbow fishery.