Methow report

[David Duvall]

I fished the Methow Friday and half a day on Saturday. I fished egg and leech patterns on sink tip lines and did pretty good. The heavy rain that brought the river up must have stimulated the fish. I witnessed the take on a smaller fish. As I was stripping in to make another cast, I saw a fish slash toward my fly. I quickly rolled out a 10 foot cast and started stripping again when I saw her open it's mouth and my fly disappeared just before I felt the solid tug. At first I thought it was a bull trout, being so aggressive but she did a jump, revealing her black spots. She would have barley made the 20 inch regulation that the regulations would require her to be a steelhead.   Later I talked with the fish checker. The guys throwing jigs and shrimp had not been doing much at Pateros. He also recommended that the fly guys actually keep some of the hatchery fish. This was a main reason to get the fishery open; to help reduce the hatchery fish on the spawning grounds. Later I caught a large buck that was starting to darken up. He was adipose clipped so I kept him. He measured 36 inches. Later, when cleaning him I was surprised to find his milt sacs were very green as he was several weeks or months away from spawning. Although he was very firm, I would have judged him, by his color, to be more developed than he really was.   I hurried past some unlikely water to fish some prime water down below a riffle. Not finding anything there I decided to make a couple of casts into water that I had passed up earlier. It was flat water and moving pretty good with a relatively even cobble bottom without much cover. I assumed it was too shallow to hold any fish. Two casts and two fish later made me re-think what I thought classic holding water was. After looking at the spot from the opposite side of the road later on, I quickly decided they could be holding anywhere.   I originally planned on staying the night in the back of my truck at a friends piece of property. Having fished all day in the snow, I was pretty wet and the thought of putting on my frozen waders in the morning almost sent me home. But I decided fishing was too good to leave and spent the $40 for a room, bed, and a place to dry my gear.   On Saturday morning, I started looking for different water to fish. I broke one off (watch those hooksets on fluorocarbon tippet) and landed a couple more. One fish had a large orange fly stuck in her jaw. It almost looked like an orange Bomber style fly. I couldn't tell at the time if it was a dry or not. Now, thinking back the body was chenille and not deer hair. She was rather large but did not put up much of a fight.   Overall, the fish fought very well, considering they had not actively fed in months, had swam passed numerous dams, and the low water temperature. There was only one, true wild fish with a strait dorsal fin. The rest, with the exception of the big buck, were not marked even though they were obviously hatchery fish because of the bent rays on the dorsal. I fished some really good looking and some places that have produced in the past without hitting any fish. Sometimes those steelhead just make you wonder...They are where you find them.   David Duvall Ellensburg, WA   "I won't pay for guides or hookers. There are some things a man should arrange for himself."   Friend of John Gierach