Breaking: Umptanum & Bighorn Land Swap

From Ass Hooked Whitey:
We've been hearing rumors that Jack Mitchell's tenure in the Yakima canyon (AHW's home waters) may be about to come to an end. Mitchell has been leasing two launches/camps -- Umptanum and Big Horn...The Scoop

OOOMPH!

Hopper vs. Jeep

Poly PMD

Pale Morning Dun, the mid-day mayfly. The banker's hours hatch. Bright sun or dark skies, big and little. We love this bug.

Walmart gives back?

This just in from Moldy Chum.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT - News) today announced a $500,000 Acres for America capstone grant to Trout Unlimited that will help protect more than 28,000 acres of working forestlands and important wildlife and fish habitat near the growing communities of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and Spokane, Washington...(link)

Water Boatman

Flytimes Water Boatman

hook: Dai Riki 075 (short shank, 2x heavy)
weight: .025 lead wire
tail: 4 or 5 strands of tinsel or silver flashabou
legs: brown superfloss
body: golden stone colored antron
shellback: brown poly yarn

This pattern got the job done again last week. In the hour that I fished it I picked up six fish, rainbows and cutts.
I almost always use a full sinking line with water boatman. Fishing the fly at various depths I retrieve it with short quick strips to emulate the erratic swimming motion of the natural

Chopaka. May, '06

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.

Cady Lake

I fished Cady lake for the first time last week. Cady is a private lake that allows public access. A PRIVATE LAKE THAT ALLOWS PUBLIC ACCESS! How cool is that?
I heard that the property owner stocks the lake with rainbows and the state stocks it with coastal cutthroats. I caught a few of each on a weighted water boatman pattern tied to a stout leader on a sinking line. Those trouts must have some deep seeded grudge against water boatman because they hit the fly hard, like they're trying to crush it.
Picked up a few more during the evening midge hatch then took out shortly after dark. Before I left I slipped a small bill into the donation box. Money well spent

Pass Lake

April 28, 2006
Pass Lake, WA
Fished for 5 hrs, see picture.