Final Day- March 18

Stonefly shuck

Chul reriging his nymph rod

When we awoke in the morning Chul and I left Erica at the motel to sleep in as we got breakfast before hitting the water.  Once we saw the water we could tell that the water was now off color from runoff.  And once we crossed the river we knew it definitely was higher than the last time we hit it with Ed.  Chul took the seam across the parking lot and within a few cast he was on a beast only to pop off.  I moved to the area that I saw the pikeminnows on the last outing.  Crossing the water was tough and I was surprised I didn't fall again.  I spent the next few hours casting blindly as I could no longer see fish beyond a couple feet.  I did see a monster pikeminnow spook in the shallows while I was wading upstream.  After about an hour Chul left me there to pick up Erica.

When he arrived I was frustrated as I was fixing my leader as I had broken off once again.  Chul tried the seam once again without any luck.  they eventually reached me and Chul asked if I wanted his dry fly rod as it was reaching noon and a hatch was possible.  I accepted as he move upstream to guide Erica on a fish as she was skunked so far on the trip.  He took her to the hole we caught fish the last trip as the two hole were right next to each other.  

Leech

Caddis Larva

They returned and Erica had missed her chance.  Chul  said he missed a pikeminnow because he was located above on a boulder and had an awkward drift.  We moved back to town for lunch and waited for the water to heat up with the sun.

After lunch we headed to the area we fished on the trip with Tuck and Joseph where I caught my first sucker.  They moved downstream as I fished a few holes without any success.  I moved down toward them and watched as Chul worked a huge plunge pool.  He managed to pull out his first sucker out of that hole.

I moved downstream fishing huge plunge pools without any luck.  Throughout this process I kept breaking off on submerged structure.  It would be the theme of the week.  After fishing several pools downstream I gave up and started my way to the truck.  Chul and Erica had the same idea and popped out onto the road in front of me.  We reached the truck and decided to hit our "honey" hole.

Once we got there Erica was given the choice of where she wanted to fish.  After only a few casts she managed a small trout.  I took the head of the pool and lost two very nice fish.  One actually was strong enough to run upstream.  That fish put a serious bend on my rod and gave my forearm quite a workout.  He gave the hole some more drifts before giving in and heading home.  Another skunk.

Although the four day trip was tough and we only averaged about a trout a day, I did have a good time.   Even though these are "fishing" trips, most of the memories were made at the campfire trying to entertain one another by telling tall tales or trying to make the others laugh.  It's just too bad we were minus two clowns that should have been sharing our campsite.

Caddis Larva

An Unwelcome Kiwi Import



Stonefly

Stonefly Schuck

 

Mayfly Swimmer Nymph

Mayfly Nymph Crawler