Great report Brenden and congrats on hooking up. Sounds like you hit
a lot more snow than we did. Was there any/much wind?
K
After re-reading Kents report, I wonder what we were thinking still
planning to head out to RF on Saturday.
Poker Friday night had me driving home around midnight in the snow.
I packed up the car, and settled in for a meager 3.5 hours of sleep.
Waking up at 4am, I peered outside. 1inch of snow on the ground, and
still falling.. Undaunted I pulled on my clothes and for good
measure supplemented the flask of Macallan with the bottle. "In case
we get stuck somewhere" I told myself.
I picked up the boys in Bellevue, and we departed about 5am. We hit
snow again in Northbend, and wouldn't see pavement until the drive
home that night. We arrived at RF with the car thermometer reading
15 degrees. As far as we could tell 6-8" of new snow had fallen,
and drifted to 12" in places. It was our first time there and we
were working off of notes from friends, so we were eager to survey
the water for ourselves. One of my compadres had never fly-fished
before, so I made him promise not to set any opinions or
expectations for this cold, snowy, nymph-and-streamer, trip.
With the newbie in tow we broke trail to the river side, and rolled
into one of the many clearings in the reeds. I immediately started
to point out what to look for. pointing to rocks mid-channel, and
explaining trouts habits, and where they like to sit, especially
when its cold. As Im pointing far away, saying, "We will be
targeting the deeper pools, because there wont be many fish in the
shallows since its so cold." not more than 3 seconds after finishing
that statement, something at my feet caught my attention. 12 inches
off the bank, I was looking down at the black back of a Rainbow that
must of have been 18-20 inches long (Probably bigger, but Im trying
to keep myself honest). It caught me so off guard, it made me jump
a little. We froze immediately (no pun intended) and just watched.
I started to slowly back off and as I tried to get my fly (started
with a black wooley) in position. I did the obvious thing, Yep,
dropped that big fly right on his head, and he bolted for the
middle. As I talked him through some basics of casting we noticed
large fish finning all over the river. In the shallows, in the
deeper sections, it was an amazing sight. I would scare 4 big trout
off the bank this day in total by lumbering noisily through the snow
to the waters edge. (I never learned my lesson)
We started by tossing streamers, mainly to keep warm. A few hours
passed with no bumps or action. We switched up to nymphs and scuds,
but no luck as well. I decided to go big and ugly again, and
started throwing marabou and bunny leeches. Finally after at about
11am the first hit. "Whoa.." It was a single powerful yank and I
swung the rod tip downstream. It was on. A very nice, very dark 18
or so inch Rainbow graced me with a few leaps and head shakes. It
was the only fish landed that day, with a couple of nice hits in the
afternoon, all on leeches. (Brown and Black)
After getting back to the car, I started to really notice how cold
it was. With the heater running full-blast, we were maybe 3 miles
past Ephrata before my ears and fingers started to hurt, meaning
they were just then starting to thaw out. it was a monumentally
cold day.
Saw 6 or so other anglers, only saw one other fish caught. I Didnt
get a chance to chat with them though.
Ill be back this winter, it was a good day all-in-all. Certainly a
new experience for me.
BP
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At 09:15 AM 1/5/2005, you wrote:
Ive finally rally'd the troops to spend a day this saturday. We
are still debating the destination (suggestions?). Ill post a
report when we are back. So far Rocky Ford seems to be the
destination of choice.
As we geared up under the clear blue dawn standing in the snow at
the south parking lot at Rocky Ford, Les and I both glumly
contemplated how foolish we were to even be there. The time and
temp sign in front of a bank in Ephrata indicated 19� at 7am. The
flag was standing straight out from its pole, pointing due south
like a cloth weathervane in the gale force wind blowing straight
out of the Arctic.
Once on the water and walking stiffly in all our layers, the wind
chill was well below zero, numbing our fingertips and noses,
freezing our guides, whipping our lines in random directions and
landing every other cast in the reeds or weeds.
In short, yesterday at the Ford was tough fishing at best and made
the proverbial witch's tit seem warm and inviting by comparison.
The good news is that we had the place to ourselves until two other
fools showed up about 3pm. I christened my new 1973 Orvis Limestone
Special bamboo rod by landing fish of 24 and 19 inches and SDRing
another of 18-20 inches after a several-minute struggle. All my
fish came in the morning with only a few brief hook-ups after 11am.
But the best news is that we were off the water and heading for
home while it was still light.
K
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