Hello fellow Washington flyfishers,
I'm recently back from my honeymoon with my lovely wife Ellen which
included 5 days in the Methow Valley. Many great flyfishing adventures were
had.
The river regulations have greatly changed from last year due to the
endangered salmon and steelhead runs. But from the efforts of many folks
including the Methow Valley Fly Fishers, parts of several river sections
remain open to selective gear rules with all catch and release. The
visitor's center in Winthrop and most of the outdoor shops have a pamphlet
showing a map of all the closed and open waters in the valley. It also has
beautiful color pictures of the game fish in the valley.
I did happen across a dead hook-jawed salmon decaying in the Methow River
above Winthrop. I'd estimate it at 6 to 8 pounds. According to the owner of
the Mazama flyshop, that fish had to clear 9 dams to get back from the
ocean. Amazing! He's seen 6 dead salmon in the Methow in the last week.
But on to the fishing. Several month's ago I posted to this fine list a
pattern for the "Easy Rider" (ER) foam-bodied dry fly. It is a variation of
a madam X style fly. It turned out to be a must have fly. And that's
because the valley is exploding right now with grasshoppers. The ER turned
out to be a very good match for some of the grasshoppers that swarmed about
when we got out of our car.
I fished the Twisp River first and had a great time. I turned over some
rocks and netted stonefly nymphs, some sort of segmented worm and many
black mayfly nymphs. I've never seen a black mayfly nymph nor the worm,
which might be a giant October caddis larva (but I'm no expert; just
guessing here). I started out with a elkhair caddis with a soft hackle
dropper. This setup caught several rainbows around 8 inches in length. I
switched over to an ER with a black beadhead gold-ribbed hair's ear (GRHE)
as a dropper and the fishing improved greatly. In the early afternoon, most
fish hit the GRHE. Later, it was mostly the ER; so I cut the dropper off
and fished just the dry.
The Twisp River is small and runs down a beautiful valley. It is almost
entirely pocket water with some pools and runs. I could spend (and did)
hours slowly working upstream working my fly through all the little pockets
tempting the feisty rainbows shadowing low in the river. Once hooked, these
fish put up the grandest fight I've seen in a long time. Many put on aerial
displays with leaps of several feet out of the water. The fish almost never
came to hand on the first run, with fights of several minutes the norm.
These rainbows were mostly 8 to 12 inches in length with several late in
the day up to 13 inches.
I tied up several black GRHE's and these proved to be a very hot fly,
pulling up some of the bigger fish in the middle of the day.
I fished the Methow River on several occasions as well. Again the setup was
the same. The ER and GRHE dropper worked well. Several rainbow up to 14
inches fell for the GRHE in the bigger pools. It was exciting for me to see
the fish rise to the dry and then see the dropper and nail it! I hooked the
biggest fish of the trip at the head of a pool on the GRHE. He made the mad
dash for the deadfall trees and limbs at the back of the pool. I knew if
he reached them, he'd break me off for sure. I was able to put pressure on
without breaking him off. Eventually, I landed and released it on a fine
and sunny afternoon.
I saw lots of wildlife while fishing: deer drinking in the river, a rattler
(not near the river), a garter snake (right next to the river), a squirrel
carrying a pine cone half as big as him, ospreys, kingfishers and cedar
waxwings catching mayflies as they hatched off Big Twin Lake.
Ellen and I camped several nights at Big Twin Lake to end our honeymoon.
I'm not much of a lake fisherman and it showed. I wasn't able to land any
of the fish there, but had several bust me off on an ER and foam bodied
beetle. Most of the folks catching fish were using mayfly and caddis
nymphs, choronimids and grasshoppers. Folks trolling brass spinning lures
were taking fish in the morning as well.
It was quite a sight to see 4 pound trout lazily cruising the shallows
right in front of me eating what I guess must have been chronimids. I threw
everything I had at them, but they would inspect my fly offering and cruise
on.
The last morning we were there I witnessed something incredible! About
11:30 am, red dragonflies began to mate and lay eggs. A male a female
dragonfly attach to each other and fly about the water dipping their
abdomen every now and again into the surface of the lake depositing eggs.
Trout of all sizes began leaping out of the water eating the coupled
dragonflies. I'm talking fish over 20 inches. Some of these big guys were
leaping out of the water only 4 feet away from me.
Again, I threw every fly I had that had red or might be mistaken for a
dragonfly at them, but the trout were keyed in to the insects above and not
upon the water! Frustrating, yes, but an aerial display that was worth
seeing. I estimated the success rate of these trout at well over 50
percent. They really had their timing down to snare a big tasty meal in
midair.
So I must say it was a fantastic honeymoon spent in a truly wonderful place
in our great state of Washington. I will remember it always.
Danny McMillin
