Rocky Ford - Big fish and lots of 'em

[Kent Lufkin]

With most Western Washington flyfishers busy chasing humpies and chum 
salmon, this seemed like a great time to beat the crowds and pay an 
autumn visit to Rocky Ford.

Les Korcala and I arrived at the Ford about 3pm Wednesday to find a 
half dozen cars spread out among the three main parking areas and 
perhaps a dozen spread out fishers. The weather was clear and calm 
with temps in the high 60s (it had been 84 the day before according 
to the lady in the Moses Lake liquor store.)

We parked in the south lot and found the water to be dead calm with 
large gulpers lazily sipping emergers with a sort of popping sound. 
Despite our best efforts, we never got dialed in on surface or film 
patterns and ended up with a couple fish to hand each plus breaking 
off several more on scuds or poopah patterns. Heading off after dark 
to Ephrata for a motel room and steaks, we plotted our strategy for 
Thursday over beers at the Bass Club.

Thursday dawned clear and very cold and we were on the water by 7am, 
alone except for the cries of coyotes and the answering barks of 
farms dogs in the distance. After some fruitless initial casting and 
pattern changes, I finally persuaded a bank hugger into taking a soft 
hackle not 5 feet in front of me. Great sport when we both realized 
that he was hooked and he tore off into deeper water before finally 
breaking me off behind a rock.

A few casts later a large fish put up a spectacular battle before 
finally coming to hand. He looked to be an older buck, with blueish 
eyes, a blunted nose and dark colored from his tail up past his 
adipose fin. As I'd forgotten my net, Les obliged by landing him and 
we revived him and nicknamed him Tommy (after the Who's deaf, dumb 
and blind kid) before he swam off a bit unsteadily. A half dozen 
casts later I hooked another fish from the same position. After a 
halfhearted fight, who should appear stuck on the business end of my 
line but Tommy again, looking very much the worse for wear after 
falling for my grizzly soft hackle a second time.

As the sun finally peeked up from behind the coulee wall to warm 
things up a bit, the wind began to gust from the south making casting 
among the reeds a challenge. We worked our way upstream along the 
east side, hooking, breaking off and releasing perhaps a dozen fish 
each. The fish in the upper section seemed less wary and more 
aggressive than those in the creek below. I had one 20 incher fight 
so hard he tore loose the bony plate above one corner of his mouth 
where the fly had hooked. We turned back for the aluminum bridge and 
lunch at Les' car at about 1:30pm. We never got there though, 
stopping to fish in the faster water section along the way and 
getting detained by obliging trout.

At about 2:30pm fish began to leap and swirl as they attacked a 
halfhearted mayfly and chironomid hatch. We switched to dries and had 
hookups on nearly every cast. One brute took my size 18 parachute 
Adams and made three porpoising leaps as he tore off line before 
finally shaking the hook and leaving me giddy with delight. In one 
area 150 yards or so above the aluminum bridge, we hooked and 
released perhaps a dozen fish including one monster that took Les' 
Once and Away pattern just a few yards from shore before nearly 
spooling him. Definately bourbon and cigar time.

But just as quickly as happy hour started the wind completely died, 
the water went dead calm and the fish became very selective, refusing 
even size 22 Griffith's gnats, raccoons and Quigley cripples on 7x 
tippets. We took a few more sporadic fish before finally calling it 
quits and heading for home at about 6:00pm.

We ended up releasing about 20 fish each and LDR-ed another dozen or 
so. The largest were about 24-25 inches with most in the 20 inch 
range (Les' net conveniently being 20 inches long). I had one 14-15 
incher fight and leap like a marlin after falling for dry.

Les has great success with innovative, European-style CDC flies, both 
dry and subsurface. Hot patterns for me were weighted, non-bead head 
gold ribbed hare's ears and scuds, both tied on 2X heavy wire 2457s, 
and a parachute Adams, all in size 16 and 18. While they work for 
lesser fish, I had several bruisers nearly straighten out flies tied 
on the fine wire 2487s.

But then at Rocky Ford, that's a nice problem to have.