Yeah, great report. I was up there last weekend and split early because of
the fires without really giving the fishing a shot. After reading your
report, I wish I had stayed!
Gary Meyers
> 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.
>>
>>
>
>
