Nobody on the lake was catching fish. Rednecks, congressmen, hippies and queens threw ants, stripped leaches, dragged scuds and stared at chironomid suspending indicators to no avail. Lots of folks there but none of 'em were into fish.
There were more rumors than mayflies, no hatch but lots of excuses. The Broken Dam conspiracy was popular. Bass fisherman were blamed for poisoning the lake. Some saw signs of a fish kill. To me it was obvious that the fish were feeding on mormon crickets under the light of the full moon.
The fishing was bEyond bad it was coyote bad, we would have been better off to just sit by the lake and howl.
"Heineken? f*** that s*** ! Pabst Blue Ribbon is what you'll drink tonight!" ~Frank Booth from the motion picture BLUE VELVET
But the camping, ahh the camping, it was great. Who am to complain about being up there above the Okanogan Valley, sharing a campfire with good people and drinking bad beer.
Dr. and Mama Math brought the Mathlings, Teasin' Trout and Augustus (for those of you who don't aren't in the know the eldest Mathling is married to Teasin'Trout and Gus is their strapping young lad of eleven months.) Mathling #2 is called Mo and she fished ten times harder than anyone but as they say in the Math family 10 X 0 is still 0.
Jack came all the way up from Walla Walla but apparantly his truck was too full of satelite equipment (go Mariners!) to bring The Librarian and his Scandanavian bride. Rick came up for a couple of days too. Every night after a six pack of Bud Light and a few shots of JD Rick would go out on the lake and chase rises. That was fun to watch on the account of all the rises actually being ducks who were diving to the bottom to eat weeds. Rick did catch one fish though. We all looked up to him after that feat.
To top it all off Mrs. WT was there too. Her and the other girls clucked it up pretty good while the men pondered the finer points of the outdoor life.
We ate good, drank lots and watched the full moon rise. The air was clean and thin, the hangovers were mild and it didn't rain so all in all it was a good trip and I am glad that we all were there.
2 comments:
I was there the first week of May and Caught some fish. The guys next to me were nailing the fish any where from 16 to 20 fish a day using Chronies. I also saw that they plan on planting CHopaka with 8000 trips this years. Is that true.
Adam
The 2007 Stocking Report (http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/plants/index.htm) indicates that 8000 fry are to be stocked sometime this year. I'm guessing that they'll be put in after the lake is rehabbed.
As per the 2007 Triploid Stocking Report (http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/plants/triploid/index.htm) there are no plans to stock any triploids.
Hope that helps,
Manny Tarkleton
Chief Historian
Flytimes Research Office
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