Good report Kent. It almost made me want to take a break from fishing river salmon.... but then I like the taste of smoked salmon...
Bill W -----Original Message----- From: Kent Lufkin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 9:54 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Rocky Ford - Big fish and lots of 'em 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.
