I recently stumbled
upon some information about brown trout in the Touchet River while doing a
little research on the internet. If there's one thing that will put miles
on my truck it's the thought of fishing for browns in a river... My buddy
Jeff and I decided that it would be worthwhile to drive down and check it out
during my monthly trip, and throw some flies in the Tucannon while we're at
it.
Neither of us had
fished either river but we confirmed before going that indeed there are
populations of (mostly) rainbows and some browns in the Touchet. We fished
the Touchet from about 9 a.m. on Saturday until shortly after noon and hooked up
with somewhere in the neighborhood of half a dozen rainbows a piece. Most
of them were around 9 inches, while the largest was closer to 11 and looked more
like a steelhead that never went out to sea (I've heard they do that at
times). All but that one were clearly resident rainbows based on the
dark coloration and distinctive spots - they were really gorgeous
fish. We never got into any browns - there must be few of them in there...
we were definitely after them and fished a lot of "browny" looking water.
This was up by Lewis & Clark State Park downstream of Dayton. Saw
no steelhead.
We then went on to
fish a couple of stretches of the Tucannon looking for whitefish - one down
pretty close to it's mouth, and another up by the wildlife area. The lower
area produced a fair number of decent (9 - 11 inch) rainbows but no
whitefish. Saw a very sparse baetis hatch on the lower stretch but no
surface activity. Again, saw no steelhead but spoke with a landowner that
told us they are in the lower river now and was surprised we hadn't seen
any. I was disgusted to find two discarded rod/reel combo packages, all
that plastic and the little packages that came inside, just laying strewn about
a gravel bar. I can't believe people can go out in such a great habitat
and throw crap around. Needless to say that stuff made the trip back out
with Jeff and I and is now in a garbage can. I try not to have anything
against other types of fisherperople, really, people can fish how they want...
but I sure do notice a distinctly different attitude. It makes me sick...
fish bonking, treble chucking, @#%^& @#$$@#$!!!!
While up by the
wildlife area on the Tucannon (just downstream of the bridge where
it's open) I had worked quite a ways downstream of Jeff and was fishing a hole
when he came walking up and said, "Do you smell something funny?" I told
him I had smelled what seemed like bear dung a little ways back and his
eyes lit up... He asked, "Did you see all that water?" "No, where?"
I countered. He pointed right back to where I had smelled something.
Thinking there was almost certainly a bear nearby we walked back and he pointed
out a spot that I had absolutely NOT been in the river and there was a lot of
water on the rocks in a manner that made it very clear a bear had recently
exited the creek there. We followed the water trail about 30 feet... we
could smell the bear though not as strongly as when I first walked by that
spot. I found no dung and was convinced that I had actually smelled the
bear, not dung. I was left wondering if I had spooked it and it had run
off before I got to it, or if I had obliviously walked right by it and it had
taken off after I went by. In any case it was a very close encounter since
the water trail was so fresh.
So, the fishing was
okay, not worth driving that far again in the future but at least now I know
something about these two rivers. The scenery on the Tucannon is
awesome... beautiful country down there and a nice little
river.
-tight
lines-
Jim
Speaker
