July in the Salt

Last Saturday, there were lots of boats launching with me, even at 6:00 in the morning, and it would be a busy day on Puget Sound with Salmon fishermen working the traditional spots and the first day of crab season inviting even more folks out for the day. I zoomed by all of them and snuck inside the crabbers working in 40 feet of water to fish in-shore with an intermediate sink line for Sea-Run Cutthroat in two to seven feet of water.

I was literally all alone in an urban setting full of other boats and fishermen. It made me chuckle to realize that even here you can come up with a strategy to avoid fishing elbow to elbow.

The tide started to move pretty fast and I used the trolling motor on my boat to maintain my position in fifteen feet of water. Casting among the kelp and sea grass along shore, I let the small gray fly sink and then stripped it out into deeper water. Every once in a while a fish would follow all the way back to the boat. But other times I would see a quick flash and I knew the tug on my line was another fiesty Cutt... I was quite content and when the tide started to go slack I ran back in and was home by lunch.

Easy and casual, just the way we always want it. I need to seek more of these simple experiences...

Omak Part Deux

A friend convinced me that I could launch my boat on the sand and gravel launch at the lake. I was pretty worried but the tires didn't sink at all and we had a motor boat to run up and down the eight mile lake. It was sweet...

Terry caught the big one of the trip: almost 23 inches and fat, probably around four pounds.

The water is warming now and the fish will be going deep but we caught the end of the action and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

More Bass!

Gary, Ryan, and I raced across the state to get to the lake before the sun got too low for fishing. We made it and had a decent evening, fishing Smallmouth for a couple hours before dark drove us off the water. Pictured above, Gary is battling the big fish of the evening. He'd made a great cast behind a large rock and been rewarded with a strong take. Ryan grabbed the net and got ready to land the bad boy but as Gary got him alongside the boat, he slipped the fly and left us wishing...

Oh well, others would follow. It was still an exciting fight.

Spring in the high desert is unsurpassed in its beauty. At least as long as the wind isn't blowing too hard and the rain holds off... It did and we enjoyed a warm weekend running the boat around the lake in search of hungry bass. I say we do it again in a couple weeks...

Spring Bass

Sometimes conditions align and offer a great day of fishing. When that happens with the Smallmouth then you know you've experienced something special. And that was the case this past weekend. The water temp was finally up, the fish were in the shallows staging for the spawn, the wind was light, the water clarity was good...

With everything in place we had what we needed to slay Smallies on the fly and we will not soon forget how many one to three pound fish were brought to the boat.

If you've ever fished in the high desert then you know how beautiful it can be. The clean air, the sound of the birds, the smell of Sage, sand, and wildflowers... It gets in the back of your brain and remains there, making it something you have to periodically seek out.

We started at daybreak and ended at dark. We ran the bay boat at top speed from cove to cove. We were warriors pitting skills against the feisty Bronzeback. What fun...

Aggressive Smallmouth will always have a place in my heart. And I will continue to seek them out in the spring when sunshine finally arrives to warm my moldy western Washington heart. And I will continue to bore my friends with tales of skill, which they will demote to tales of luck. And I will still grin, remembering the good days such as those experienced on this trip...

Amber Lake in the Cold Month of May

A gray, blustery day made for heads-down, determined fishing. It took a couple hours but once the water warmed a bit, the fish began to move and we found success here and there on various patterns - Adam scored first on Chironomids, then I picked up a couple with a black Sealbugger. We had to search to find fish but they came steadily, if slowly. In the early evening, just before we quit, I tied on two Boatmen in tandem and took the 17-inch fish pictured below on the first cast.

I love stripping flies for aggressive Rainbows.

It had definitely been an early season, cold-day experience. But it was still satisfying to weather the 15 MPH winds and come up with as many trout as we did...

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.

Omak Disaster

Sometimes even the best plans turn to swill... The photo above proves it. The wind was blowing 20+ miles an hour but I had not driven 5 hours for nothing so I launched my pontoon boat and headed off for the south end of the lake. Three passes through the honey hole got me two nice Cutthroat when a wave came along and ended the day for me. The waves were whipped up one or two feet high and were bouncing me around pretty good. One wave too many and both welds on the right side of the frame gave way. The pontoon rolled over but didn't separate so I was able to let the wind blow me into shore.

It could have been worse but instead of consoling my wife that I was alright, I had to convince her I hadn't done it on purpose to justify the purchase of a much better boat the next day. Within 36 hours, I was back out there catching more Cutthroat!