Nisqually float: 12/13/2011

Had some rogue reports of chums in the Nisqually, so Jeff and Phil decided to do some exploring and try drifting this river. The Nisqually is a freestone river that is a product of Mt. Rainier, which makes it run cloudy with the glacial minerals in the runoff.

Our trip down was a cold drive as the morning temps hovered in the low 30s and sheets of black ice were covered down my hill. Once we got onto the freeways it was smooth driving and we made it to Mounts road in an hour. Our plan was to launch from the Centralia Power plant, a hydro electric plant off power house road and the 510 Yelm highway to the Riverbend campground. This float appeared to be over 10 miles, with the flows hovering under 1000 Cfs, it would be a relatively moderate float with little froggy water but lots of obstacles.

The fishing isn’t opened until downstream of the military tank crossing bridge. We did see a soldier on the Lewis side playing a darker chum and thought to ourselves that it was going to be a good day. As we scanned the water for chum activity and actively fishing under a float or stopping and swinging a fly there was no evidence of fish activity. Despite the fact that it was a netting day for the natives, we would have thought that at least a few fish made it past and hanging out at some very likely runs.

Jeff did momentarily have one fish on as did I, but it wasn’t enough to call it a good catching day. A nice day to be cold, enjoy some scenery, view a couple dozen eagles along the drift and experience a new launch.

 

Skykomish float: 12/11/2011

Since Phil is taking a day off next week so we can fish the Nisqually, I thought it would be nice to make a dry run with some more practice time on the sticks. I want him feel comfortable rowing the drift boat as the Nisqually is a smaller river in places and there are more log jams and hazards that require some amount of rowing skills.

I had the day off an decided that it would be nice to float the Skykomish from Sultan to Ben Howard. The flows were running pretty low with about 3′ of visibility. While I launched the boat I thought we’d have a little more time on the water and decided to take out at Lewis street instead, but that would add another mile and half to the float.

We pulled off at the first nice looking beach and practiced with the switch rod and swinging flies in search of steel. While We didn’t find any there an old chum somehow took my steelhead fly. While the water looked fantastic and the conditions were ideal the river seemed devoid of fish and we fished many ideal bucket waters hoping to find a willing contender.

Halfway through the float my indicator took a b-line upstream and I had a nice sized Bull trout in the egg pattern. While we never got it to hand, I could see it was a very large fish of 25″+ just size of it’s mouth could probably hold my fist. A few runs later I drifted my rig through a likely slot and in the first drift my indicator went down and a native steelhead was hooked all 9″ of it! I guess I can say that it was a good trip as I didn’t expect to hook anything and ended up with a few willing players.the reports of bright chum are showing up on the reports and hope that were able to luck out with a few players.

 

Minter Chum: 12/10/2011

I’ve heard about this place and from the photos and description, didn’t sound like fun unless you’re ok with combat fishing in a mud hole. Tom E. did well the day before and invited me to join him for a few hours, so I joined him to give it a try and to know about a new fishery to me.

Although we did catch chums the majority of them were darker fish and or snagged. I do like fishing under an indicator as I find that it’s a better method when fishing in close quarters when the fish are stacked up.

I was using my Redington 9’8″ 8 wt and pink sparkle flies under a float with no shot and 15lb Maxima tippet. I didn’t take any photos as it will likely be the first and last trip to Minter.

 

Winter snake trout: 12/8/2011

Jeff and I wanted to get out and give the Snake a try despite the cold weather we’ve been having this December. The air temp was hovering in the mid 30s so we dressed appropriately as fishing Stillwater is tough to do when you’re cold. We met on the water around 11 and proceeded to row out to 40′ of water where fij activity was noted at the bottom of the 44 degree water. Imagine that?!? The water was actually warmer than the air.

Jeff rigged up his usual double set up with Amber Ted butt chironomid with top chromie and I slipped on a black micro rabbit fur leech. It was fun reading the humminbird 120 fishin buddies when a fish would appear we would call out and usually Jeff would have the fish on his fly!

Jeff ended up with 6-7 fish and I had 3 the coloration of these winter fish was strikingly beautiful. Although we only could stand being out there for 3 hours it was a nice way to spend a few hours catching some pretty rainbow trout.

 

Looking for our friends: Chum run, Dec. 1st, 2011

Jeff and I wanted to scope out some local chum in the Green but wasnt too successful. I did foul hook one near Whitney Park. We did see a feeder creek just chock full of chums but no signs of fresh fish. We decided to head out to Hoodsport the next day to give our try for some fresher fish.

We arrived at high tide, which was 10 am. There was one fisherman and he was barking out that the fish were lock jawed. Upon my first cast, I connected with a hen that was SDR’d. Haha!

A bad sign was no presence of schooling fish in the bay and just some dark fish milling in the receding waters as they were staging to enter the hatchery creek. We hung around for a couple hours and caught, foul hooked, and released a few chums. This got pretty boring after awhile so decided it wasn’t going to happen and packed up after noon. I don’t think it would’ve improved with the low tide. Perhaps the netting wiped it out last night? We noticed upon our arrival that there was a commercial opp in the hatchery craning out the excess fish from the hatchery creek. In speaking with the operators they collected 2600 fish from the creek and up river near the intake. The neighbors complain about the rotting salmon as there have been up to 5000 fish in the creek and you can imagine the chumaroma that comes off in the town of Hoodsport. Probably not very welcoming for visitors.

It was a cold day, foggy in the morning but it became sunny once the marine layer burned off. I don’t know how many more days I can manage before my wife is due but will try to get out at least a couple more times. I can still appreciate getting out to fish even if I don’t catch what I’ve intended. The tug is the drug!

 

Fishing but not catching… 11/20/2011

I’ve been trying to get out once a week but lately have been coming up empty handed. Last week Andy W. and I wanted to try out a new fishery to us based on his observance of some big slashes witnessed during the day. We must’ve missed the dinner bell but ended up getting some exercise with all the rowing we did.

Last week I wanted to scope out some new locations on the Green River, but ended up on a scenic road trip through the Duwamish, Interurban, Kent, Auburn, Flaming Geyser park and then back up through Maple Valley. I did note a few places where it would be nice to fish when there were fish present and when the water levels came down a bit and cleared up.

Today, I wanted to check out the new to me Drift boat, an older Koffler 14′ 2-man boat. With only a few hours of daylight behind us Phil K. and I floated from Plumb landing to Fall City. About a 3 mile float, that is good to take beginners down and close enough to test the sea worthiness of the boat. The weather started out sunny bit still chilly. It was good to get back on the sticks and to try our luck with some steelhead patterns.

We didn’t see anything in Tokul creek despite the hoards of cars and fishermen that were parked and plunking in the big eddy below the creek.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that it’s not always about catching. The journey and the scenery was nice to enjoy almost as much as catching a fish. I’ll try to head out on Tuesday to Hoodsport or Chico for one last stab at those chums, stay tuned!

 

Veterans Day Chum Report: 11/11/11

I had some business to take care of in Clallum county today, so decided that I should make my annual run to Hoodsport to check on the Chums. It was a horrible day to get out with a poor marine forecast with wind waves, wind, and more wind. Throw in some pelting rain and you have a great recipe for some good Chum fishing.

I was concerned about fishing so close to the full moon last night and the fact that there wasn’t a big swing in the tides with about 4′ of difference.  This coupled with the netting on Tuesdays and Thursdays that reduce the numbers that are out there for the sport fishers. Im not very fond of crowds and although there would’ve been room to shoulder up with your buddy on the bank, I much more enjoy the open water with room to backcast and cast in 360 degrees to moving fish.

This wouldn’t be that day… I met up with another forum member from Wff.com of whom I’ll remain nameless. I’ll give him a fictitious name, Aaron. Aaron hasn’t had much luck with the salmon on the fly and he was pumped up to give it a try, so I invited him to join me for a few hours. Once I passed the Skokomish, I get a text saying that he forgot his oars, oh snap! That wouldn’t be a problem, I’ve towed Jeff H. around when his oars weren’t set up properly for his pontoon, but those were nice conditions, sunny, warm, no wind, no rain… I jest, its all good, as my 10 lb anchor wasn’t enough to hold me in the torrent, and tide. After fumbling around several times with different positions and trying to barge together, I doubled Aaron’s anchor to my pyramid and it somewhat held while we casted.

Aaron did well, he hooked up with several fish in the short time that we did fish, about 2 hours since we both had to get out of there by 1 pm. I enjoyed seeing the thrill in his eyes when he connected with a feisty chum that crushed his fly. If I didn’t have to leave, I would have liked to stay a few more hours to see it out as the fishing was starting to get really good around noon as some big pods of finning and porpoising fish could be seen closing into towards the mouth of Hoodsport creek.

The bad part of the day was that I taco’d my Scott S3S, which I just got back recently from warranty. This time the second to the tip section exploded when I fouled a chum and he didn’t want anything to do with the landing net. At least it was towards the end of the fishing, so we packed it up at 12:45. Not feeling satisfied, I loaded up the pram and lined up my B2X 7 wt. which I happened to have in the truck. I just got this rod back from warranty as well and the two months it took, I wasn’t willing to send two rods in for repair.

I made two casts near the creek and stripped through with the first cast with no action, but the second cast, I decided to have the fly drop and swing and then stripped. Just about my third strip, the line went tight and an unhappy buck came exploding out of the water along the two rows of fishermen. I tried to quickly subdue the fish and bonk, and bled it went into Aaron’s cooler for his smoker.

Rod: Scott S3S, 9′ 8 wt (taco’d) and Winston B2X 9′ 7 wt.

Reel: Galvan T-8

Line: Cortland Clear Camo, with 5′ Maxima 15# tippet

Flies: size 6, black and chartreuse bead chain clousers

Notice the rope between Aaron and my pram? I finally figured out how we could hold our position in the wind…

Tight lines Aaron!

My 2 cast redemption fish on the B2X, I left feeling that I needed to stay a little longer, but it was good. There is always next week!

 

Leave it to Beaver: 11/9/2011

Knowing the WDFW usually dumps in their tripoids the first week if November, I usually like to be there on the day for some nearby fun. They’ve now started to code the launch as you can imagine it gets pretty congested with all sorts of boats and vehicles. Today I even saw a big box van that loaded and unloaded a aluminum boat in the back with all the construction supplies.

I had a ‘new’ double hulled Livingston that I wanted to try fishing from, so I launched it and was very impressed on it’s stability and tracking. The boat was very stable to stand and cast and move from the now to stern without risking of tipping over.

I fished with a full clear intermediate line and olive bead head leech which produced the first fish which came unbuttoned. After various fly changes and trolling around some two more were caught with a half back Cary special and even caught a fish with a small Dick Nite lure that the previous owner dropped in the boat. I guess that’s pretty good mojo for the new boat.

I’ve heard of guys fishing Dick Nites with a fly rod but never tried it until today. It casts well and probably about the only time that I would fish it this method, trolled and or cast and stripped. It was a fun few hours of fishing.

Rod: Winston B2X 9′ 7 wt
Reel: Galvan T-8
Line: Cortland Clear Camo and Airflo multi-tip.

I met Jason D. around 10 am and we fished for a couple hours as he managed to catch the only wet sock or crappie that I’ve seen at Beaver lake. Haha! Good job Jason

What I might try next time is just the Airflo line with the salmon or type 3 tip ad longer leader. A couple of guys in an older Alumaweld drift boat were killing them while back paddling and fishing black woolly buggers.

 

Johns Creek: 11/2/2011

Hearing some positive reports that there were fresh fish at Johns prompted us to make a run down to give it a try. It’d been two weeks since I’d fished it and I was pleased with the numbers of fish and their aggressiveness. High tide was at 1:20 pm with a 14′+ tide change which was similar to the timing two weeks ago.

We took the highway 16 route to Belfair and south on the 3 to Shelton. I’m not sure if it saved time or the distance was less but it was more scenic then taking the I-5 Olympia route. We arrived at 10 am and proceeded towards the water to find an incoming tide and rising and porpoising fish.

Within a few casts all of us: Jeff H.
Andy W. and I hooked up with some feisty chums. It remained good with the hour before and after the high tide bringing in the staging schools of fish. Some of these pods were larger than I’ve seen before at Chico creek or at Hoodsport. Most of the brighter fish were females that ran smaller in size around 4-5 lbs and the larger males were in the 7-10 lb range.

My black bead chain clousers worked well but I did change up colors to green and orange without much success. I landed 6 fish and lost 4. A few times that I thought I had snagged a fish it was surprising to find that they were indeed fair hooked. These fish are hard fighters and really put the test to our rods. Not sure that we’ll venture back as other runs are starting up but it’s nice to find some biting fish.

I must say that Johns creek is a dangerous place for Jeff. Two weeks ago he fell in the water at the start if the morning and spent the rest of the day wet, cold and soggy. Today while fighting and coincidentally losing that fish he lost his balance and went for another swim, submersing the top of his waders and filling them up with 50 degree salt brine. At least it happened at the end of the day but it was a wet ride home for him. Next time he should bring a full wetsuit…

Rod: Scott S3S 9′ 8 wt.
Reel: Galvan T-8
Line: Cortland clear Camo intermediate
Flies: Clousers size 6 in black, orange, green

 

Vedder River BC: Oct. 28th, 2011

After reading all of Rex T’s. reports from his outings to the Vedder river I wanted to see for myself and invited Tom E. to join me in the outing. We left Bellevue at 5:45 am under dark and cool skies for the 127 mile journey north. The border crossing was smooth with one other vehicle in the lane as we crossed the Sumas border towards the town of Yarrow.

Upon our arrival, we found one other car parked at the parking area and proceeded to suit up for the hike towards the river. We were met by Jorge A. who has been mentioned in Rex’s reports as well. He was fishing the area which looked to be fishy, but didn’t appear to have any fish as there was no presence of slashing or movement in that location other than a bunch of spawning Chum on their redds.

Tom and I ventured to a dug out gravel pond and thought it might be a nice place for holding fish as Coho like slow slack water to rest before venturing up. The high tide was 7:04 at Pt. Atkinson and Rex estimates that it takes a few hours for those fish to reach the area in which we were fishing, so we waited and continued to make our casts. I did hook into a fish which at first thought was a Coho since it appeared very bright in the pool, but it turned out to be a spawned out Chum. The white of its belly fooled me, but it was nice to have some activity.

Once 11:18 rolled around I heard Jorge yelling out as he picked up a nice 5 lb Coho hen which was just dime bright as could be with a float under a Colorado spinner blade. Just then, Wes T. who accompanied Rex had a fish on, and then Rex had a fish on. I would venture back to that spot and made a few casts and within a few minutes had a fish on, but later found that it fouled just behind the gill plate near the pectoral fin. It was a beautiful buck Coho of 7-8 lbs but just golden and chromed.

Tom E. ended up hooking a few Chum but we never really got into the Coho bite. Tom and I finally left at 1:30 as we had to be back earlier, but Wes and Rex stayed on fishing until dusk. After connecting with Rex, I would find that they didn’t get into any biting fish. Perhaps it was the weather or the new moon, not sure, but seems like there are still some fish showing up as I did see about 6-8 fish that entered the spot around 11:30.

I’ll probably not make it back there for a while, but at least I got to satisfy my curiousity about this place and hopefully make it up in the future.