On friday, I caught a Washington double, of sorts.
I began the morning by fishing the Narrows with Earl Harper. The gate at
Doc's was closed, so we began under the bridge and worked south. We walked
well past Doc's and did not see a fish or any signs of feeding. It was not
looking good, in fact, the harbor seals weren't even around. As we were
walking back north, a boat with a single flycaster, that had been working
near me earlier and had left to go around Pt. Fosdick returned. It was Tom
Wolf and he told us to get in and he would take us to hundreds of feeding
fish around the point.
The water was dead calm and there were schools of silvers slowly circling
and tipping their noses up while taking in bait. The riseforms looked
exactly the same as the school I was fishing to the day before. I reported
to this list that they were feeding on euphasids, in fact, I even caught
two fish on Les' euphasid pattern. Boy, was I wrong. These schools were
slowly and methodically feeding on small candlefish. And even odder, the
candlefish weren't acting like candlefish! They weren't spraying the
surface or even attempting to escape. I asked Tom why he thought they were
feeding so unlike predators chasing small baitfish. He said it may be that
the only food they have been feeding on up to now were euphasids, amphipods
and crab larvae. It may explain why I was able to hook two on a shrimp
pattern the day before but it doesn't explain the candlefish's benign
behavior. Earl caught one and I caught two 18" silvers before the harbor
seals (now, I knew why they weren't at Doc's) spooked the schools of
silvers, so we called it a morning and Tom dropped us off at the bridge.
Besides, I had a plane to Spokane to catch.
My friend, Michael Mathis, picked me up at the airport and we drove west on
I-5 to a lake that he and a group of flyfishers lease from a farmer named
Brown. We call it Farmer Brown's and it is a 45 acre lake back in a little
coulee and has a healthy population of large kamloops trout. At 3:45, I had
my double: A silver in the west and a rainbow in the east.
There was an evening hatch of large midges (how's that for an oxymoron?)
and the trout were on the adults. They were size 12 to 10's. I didn't have
any flies to match, so I trimmed the tails off my callibaetis parachute
Adams. Perfecto. Earlier, before the adults were on the water, I caught my
first dozen or so fish on a #8 weighted TDC, in the wind, on a long leader,
with a dryline and no bobber, in my tube. I cast across the wind, kept the
line taut and straight by making small mends and adjusting my tube
direction to compensate for the wind.
On saturday, a howling windstorm kept us off the lake until just before
nightfall.
Sunday, I contracted a bit of food poisoning after eating breakfast at
Dollies Cafe. Believe me, it's no fun kicking in off the lake as fast as
you can, running off in your waders (sometimes with your flippers on) and
digging holes with your hands in sagebrush, rocks and cow patties. I'll
spare you the rest of the details.
Leland.
