Omak Reprise

After recovering from the loss of my pontoon boat, I spent a day running to Spokane to purchase a replacement and then I was back at it. The weather was good and bad. It only rained on me once during the week but the wind blew non-stop and made it tough to fish in deep water because I couldn't hold my position well.

On my last afternoon, I found some shallow water near the south island and beached my boat. I waded along the long ledge that ran toward shore and found fish cruising in the deeper water where the ledge fell away.

At one point I was stripping a white wooly bugger and pulled it all the way back to the ledge when I saw a quick flash of red. A nice fish had come right up to the surface in an attempt to catch my fly before it got away. I was already lifting the fly up in preparation for my next cast and, if I'd been paying attention, could have left the fly in the water a little longer and probably hooked that fish.

I worked my way along the ledge, switched flies, and worked my way back toward my boat. At the exact same point, I threw a #4 black Scudzilla into the deep water and stripped it back. I was now being careful to work the fly all the way back to me before lifting and this time it paid off. Another fish flashed right at the edge of the drop off and a soft take resulted in a hook up.

The fish turned and ran for deep water and I fought him on the reel for a good long while, eventually beaching a healthy 25-incher in the sand. A great fish and another great week on this underrated lake...

A return trip in May seems in order.