The Fishes In My Head

Flytimes Foam Damsel
hook: TMC 200R
body: thin (THIN!) strip of 2mm foam, tan
post: tag end of foam body
hackle: grizzly cape, oversized
thorax: antron, hare's ear brown
note: hackle is tied as a parachute, post is then drawn forward over thorax and tied down over the eye.

Its late summer and the days are just now starting to get shorter. Nights are longer and cooler. Trout cruise the shallows of my favorite stillwater. The fish have a sense of the changing season. They feed mostly on unseen nymphs and scuds, occasionally rising to a bug on the surface.
Mid afternoon and the sun is high. There is no hatch to speak of and the wind is starting to blow. Through the clear water I can see well enough to tell the rainbows apart from the browns. There aren't many of them but if I'm patient and range quietly around the bay I find them.
I'm casting through the wind. The fly splats down above a fish. Without hesitation the trout rises to take the adult damsel imitation. I wait for the fish to turn down before I strike but it happens fast and I don't remember when I struck. I land this one and many more. I also break a few off.
The wind blows harder, the trouts continue to rise to my fly as it bobs along in the whitecaps. Sight fishing to big browns and rainbows almost as good today as it was the day I was out there five years ago.

Burning Pike

From the Fishing Jones.

Brown Trout Lake Redux

Big Brown Trout

'ol Sven and I rolled into camp just before sunset. Sven stayed in the truck whilst I chased all the snakes out of the campsite. Sven "don't cotton to no snakes." While drivin the last snake out of camp, an especially tenacious bull rattler, I heard a flushing sound. I looked up just in time to see a bowling ball sized void in the lake's surface. The void was in the center of large swirl which was itself in the center of an expanding circle of waves. Then with a loud burp the hole quickly filled with water. Sven saw it too, then he asked me if all the snakes were gone and if it was safe to get out of the truck.
We raised camp in no time. Set the fire, opened bottles and kicked back in less time yet. Then me and Sven spent the rest of the evening pontificating life, the universe and the meaning of the flush and swirl of big fishes.
The next morning we skipped breakfast, opting for an early start. I was on the water at the crack of 0930hrs. You just wouldn't believe how crisp the air is that early in the morning. Sven got out there even earlier than I did.
I spent the next four or five hours throwing the wrong flies, losing the right flies, and spooking rising fish. In short, I fished like an asshole.
Sven had a stellar day. Even calculating for the usual BS Sven had outfished me 4 to one. Surely there is a first time for everything.
The wind came up early in the afternoon prompting both of us to take a break for the rest of the day.
Evening comes early to the bottom land of Brown Trout Valley. The entire lake was in shadow by 7:00pm. We fished the evening hatch. Sven stuck with the dry flies and caught himself another "easy dozen." I trolled a streamer around the middle of the main lake and picked up a couple of fat rainbows.
Beer, fire, food, more beer and fire and eventually retirement to the fartsack.
Then the frogs began. Its a nice sound, an organic sort of white noise that a body can fall asleep to. Thousands, nay hundreds of thousands of frogs creating a cacophony of croaks.
At midnight a full moon rose over the eastern hills. The cliffs on the west side of the valley were awash in the proverbial pale moon light. Venus rose too. The whole scene was astronomical to say the least.
I lay in my cot with the bright moon shining through the tent door listening to the song of a million horned up toads. Seemingly an idyllic setting that one would like to find himself in at the end of every day.
At some very precise point in time every bird in the forest thought that the full moon was the rising sun. They sung their little hearts out accordingly, all at once, nonstop until morning. All those birds must have been real confused when the real sun rose over the mountain.
More fish, beer, fire, etc.
Packing up camp, return of the bull rattler. Little snakes will try to bite you in the leg, BIG snakes go for the tail swipe/leg sweep. BIG snakes want to bring you down to their level, then bite you in the nose. This was a BIG snake and he took me down quick. Thankfully Sven, who had posted himself on top of his truck cold beer and Ruger 10/22 in hand sniped that snake mid strike. "I don't cotton to no snakes!" said Sven as the now dead viper fell two inches from my nose. Buisness as usual for outdoorsman of our caliber.

Strange Mays

Big Mayfly

Weird bug, whatever it is. As soon as one of 'em would hatch it would attack and eat the first next one that hatched. Then, if it didn't fly off quickly enough, it too would be eaten by one of its own. It just goes to show you how cheap life is up there at Brown Trout Lake.

Mad Trout

Don't confuse Brown Trout Lake with some lowland desert stock pond like Nunnally or Lenice. Brown Trout is a wilderness lake and the fish here aren't just wild, they're mad. Mad as hell. Mad that there's never enough to eat, never time to sleep and never, ever a place to hide from the next biggest fish.
There's a lot of water in 735 acres of lake. Throw in bright blue skies and intense heat and you got yourself a typical day in Brown Trout Valley. Fortunately Trouthole and me are fish hunters from way back, back when it was hard.

Brown Trout Lake

Big Brown Trout Lake

Tucked away in a far and secret corner of this state is Brown Trout Lake. Most stories about Brown Trout Lake and its namesake valley are about hunting grizzly bears and mountain lions. Over the years I've only heard a couple of fishing reports from Brown Trout. They were rumors actually, vague tales whispered in the smokey back room of a Skid Row saloon. Really. For better or worse most folks have never heard of Brown Trout Lake. It sees very few visitors, offers no amenities and has probably taken the life of more than one casual sportsman. Trust funders and greenhorns please stay in your vehicles.

Speckled Wing Spinner

Flytimes Callibaetis Spinner

hook: TMC 101, #14-#16
tails: nylon bristles
body: gray antron dubbing
wingcase: gray poly-yarn
wing: oversize grizzly hackle

Another Flytimes variation of a Craig Matthews pattern. This imitation can be excellent for sight fishing to cruising trout when there is no specific bug activity. During an actual spinnerfall you better have a fresh spool of 6X and a dozen of these flies.

The Kraken

Baby Crawdad?

Dragonfly Nymph?


Hook: Dai Riki 710, #8
Weight: .030 lead wire, ten wraps on back half of hook shank
Abdomen: dubbing loop of bunny fur, palmered forward over lead wrap
Eyes: medium black chain eyes
Wings: orange crystal flash
Thorax: brown antron dubbing
Head: brown antron dubbing.

I fish this fly on a full sink line in stillwaters to imitate a dragonfly nymph or small crawdad.
I've tied a few in a light varient and plan on testing it out on the carp flats later this season.

Our Asses Handed To Us

A Smallish Smallmouth

Snapdad and I drove out to the desert the other day to put the hurt on some of the bass out there. It didn't quite work out that way though. In fact we only brought one fish to the boat. It was a smallie that Snap hooked, lost, hooked again then landed. Not much of a fish, prolly went 10 inches, but it had guts I tell ya. From where I was standing it looked like Snap was fighting 5 pounder.
Not many fish like that anymore.

Bream (Lepromus macrochirus)

Pond permit, miniature trevally, bluegill. Call'em what you want. Everyone who's anyone knows the angle on these little giants, including a few of us here at Flytimes.

The Empty Spaces

mjl photo

Idaho man MJL went fishing somewhere in the Great Basin and snapped some nice pics. This one reminds me of an old timey bomber sortee.
Check out the rest of the pics and the report at Westfly.

Good stuff.

Double Bunny

Articulated Double Bunny

Here fishy fishy fishy.

Yesterday on Pass Lake

Arrived at Pass Lake around 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon. As I prepared to launch my boat I saw tens of dozens of empty midge schucks floating at the water's edge. Then I noticed that there wasn't a drain plug in my boat. Brilliant.
Fortunately I have lots of experience with situations like this. I've even made up a check list.

#1. Don't panick, remain calm.
- Okay I'm calm, ignorance is bliss.

#2. What did I do last time this happened?
- Never done this one before, first time for everything.

#3. Is there a spare?
- Yes but it's at home, sitting on the workbench next to the one it's supposed to be a backup for.

#4. Look around, did anyone see you do this? Is Wife present?
- No one saw - self esteem intact. Wife's not here, no second guessing - confidence intact.

#5. Search rig, find duct tape. If no duct tape call 911 and/or light signal fire.
- Check, duct tape located.

#6. Formulate plan*.
- Check, plan in head...now.

#7 Gather tools and materials, implement plan.
- One roll of duct tape, one tube of chap-stick. Implementing plan.

*formulat plan" is survival checklist speak for "make something up" and stick with it until you...
a) fix problem.
b) help arrives.
c) something worse happens.

Twenty minutes later I row across the lake, chap-stick/duct tape drain hole plug firmly in place. Crisis averted.
The fishing was much less eventful. Leeches and streamers were ignored. Too early for the usual hatches of caddis, mayflies and damsels. No boatmen were observed. I was forced to fish chironomids.
It's called bobber fishing around here. The idea is to tie on one or two chironomid pupae and suspend them near the lake bottom using a strike indicator. When the indicator goes down you set the hook. It's just like fishing for bluegills with a bobber and worms.
It can be effective as live bait too. When stillwater trout are locked onto hatching chironomids this kind of fishing can provide non-stop action for hours. Other times you get vertigo from staring at the indicator for so long.
So I fished chironomids for the last couple hours of the day. I picked up one big 17 inch rainbow and a couple of fiesty 12 inchers. I hooked lots of other fish but they were recently planted stockers that shook off the hook before I could land them. Slow day.
At the boat launch at the end of the day the talk was that the hatch ended at about the 3 o'clock. Apparently everyone was doing real well until then.

Damsel Nymph

Marabou Damsel Nymph

Hook: TMC 2312, #12
Tail & Body: blood quill marabou
Eyes: plastic or x-small bead chain

Good for trout, bass, sunfish, carp and who knows what else.

Lakes: They're all we have left!

Stillwater Chironomid Pupa

Looks like the rivers around here are never comin down. That leaves lakes. Fourtunately there are some great early season stillwaters here in Washington and Washington Lakes has the dope on all of 'em. Tie up some chironomids, grab those indicators, pump up the tube and get out there!
Let us know how you do.

Sprague Lake To Be Rehabbed

Good new for one of the most fertile lakes in the Eastern Washington.

From the Spokesman Review,
"The plan is to plant rainbow and Lahontan cutthroat trout, crappie, bluegill, largemouth bass, channel catfish, and a few tiger muskies."

Sounds good to me.

Boyd Aigner's Chopaka May

Chopaka May

Hook: #14 Dry Fly
Tail: moose body
Abdomen: Olive Grey Superfine dubbing
Wing: single clump of deer hair, tied upright
Hackle: Dun, clipped across the bottom

This classic Northwest stillwater pattern was created by Boyd Aigner. Clipping the bottom of the hackle even with the hook point allows the fly to land upright on a calm lake surface. According to the 1986 edition of Flies of the Northwest the Chopaka May "provides a very natural silhouette. The take is slow and unhurried."
Flytimes has fished Chopaka Lake at least once a year but is going to skip this North Central Washington lake this year. Chopaka suffered a severe winter kill last year and encroachment from illegally stocked smallmouth bass has also taken its toll on the quality of this fishery. Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) has scheduled the lake for rotenone treatment this coming fall. Flytimes is an advocate of the plan to rehabilitate Chopaka Lake but would like to see it executed sooner rather than later.
Flytimes Logic: The fishing was bad last season and will be bad again this season. Ergo, WDFW might as well treat the lake this spring, giving the newly planted trout a full summer to grow, providing a quality fishery no later than springtime in '08.

Edit: This just in from Bob Jateff, District Six Fish Biologist, WDFW.
"Our plans are to do the rehab in the fall of 2007, but I do agree with you that spring would be better. Unfortunately, it takes approximately one year from the time that you decide to do a rehab until the time you actually complete the treatment. This is due to the Department of Ecology's regulations that we must follow very closely. That still doesn't mean that I can't try to move it up a bit, it's just that I doubt if it would be much before September before we get the okay."

52 Days And A Wake-up.

Dusty Lake

Just 52 more days until the Columbia Basin's finest stillwaters open for the '07 season. Woot! Woot!

Secret Lake

Columbia Basin Lake

This here picture of yours truly was featured in a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article in the spring of 2002. For two years before the piece was published Beda Lake was the secret hot spot in Central Washington. Needless to say fishing pressure sky-rocketed once the word got out. Unfortunately the sunfish population sky-rocketed too and the fishery collapsed by 2004.

Classic Flytimes

Dry Falls Lake

I found this old report on WFF. It's posted October 1, 2001 and it's probably the first fishing report I ever posted online.

I arrived at Dry Falls Friday just in time to hit the evening chironomid storm. It was the thickest hatch I have ever seen. During its peak, almost exactly at sunset, the rising trout brought the lake to a boil. Unfortunately I never got dialed into the right pattern, and only caught a couple of very nice rainbows.
Saturday was very kind to me. About mid morning I figured out that they were rising to adult chironomids that were trapped in the surface film. I convinced them to rise to a #14 Lady McConnell and #16 callibaetis cripple. As the sun got hot and high I broke for lunch.
After lunch I switched to a full sinking line and a #10 waterboatman. I would cast the line out as far as I could then troll out the rest allowing it plenty of time to get down. Then with short, rapid strips I would bring it in. This was the most succesful tactic of the day providing a lot of fun until the evening hatch.
Again the hatch was extremely prolific. However I only managed to land a couple of fish. When it was floating well and I could see it a #14 or #16 racoon was a good pattern, but mostly it sits right in the film(or below it) and is hard to see. Perhaps something like a parachute pupa would be a good pattern. I know for sure that they were not interested in a Lady McConnell.