Nice report, Tim! And fun fishing, to boot!
Richard Embry
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Harris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2001 7:56 AM
Subject: Methow Valley report
> I just got back from a 5-day trip in the Methow Valley. We rented a house
> on the river and had a fairly good stretch of water there plus we did some
> hikes to lakes and visited another small stream at the recommendation of
the
> rental house owner. The fires surrounding the area added a bit of
> excitement to the trip and gave us some amazing red suns in the afternoon
> and at sunset.
>
> The Methow itself was fishing pretty well for cutts and rainbows from
7-12"
> in size. I hooked one bigger one of about 13-14" that suprised me a bit.
> All the fish were hanging in the very fast water at the top of a pool,
just
> below the really hard white-water from the riffle above. Most fish came
on
> a MadamX though I got a few on a BH GRHE nymph. I think we landed about
2
> dozen fish in hitting different portions of the river on three seperate
> walks down to the river on Thursday late afternoon, Friday morning, and
> Sunday afternoon.
>
> On Friday afternoon we hiked into Blue Lake at Washington Pass and found
it
> chock full of small cutts in the 4-10" range with a few monster fish of
> 11-12". They were in the shallows at the north end of the lake and could
be
> found rising or chasing anything thrown at them. I have no idea how many
we
> caught in there and it was fun letting my 12 year old step-son catch them
> for a while and he ended up with the biggest fish of the day.
>
> On Saturday we fished Boulder Creek in the morning, a small tributary to
the
> Chuwich River. This creek is very tiny and full of brush so a short rod
is
> in order. I used a #16 Royal Stimulator and it was beat to a pulp by the
> end of the morning, I caught probably 30-40 brookies over the course of 3
> hours and one really nice cutt. The brookies ranged from very small 3"
fish
> (suprised they could take a fly) to a few that were over 10". Very fun
> fishing.
>
> Saturday afternoon we hiked to Cutthroat Lake off of Hwy 20. Easy hike in
> for 2 miles to a very shallow lake on the one end. We worked around to
the
> far end of the lake and fished briefly since the sun was under and the
wind
> was blowing and it was a bit cool. We caught a dozen or so very small
cutts
> there, most of the fish were 4-6" in size with a few going maybe 8".
>
> There seemed to be a lot to explore in this region, many other creeks,
> rivers, and lakes we could have hit if we'd have had more time. The
Methow
> itself is getting better fish now that it is under C&R regs according to
the
> land owner. We fished most places without ever seeing another fisherman
in
> the area, the only exception was Cutthroat Lake which had a group of
people
> spin fishing when we were up there.
>
>
