Washougal: 8lb tippet is not enough for a salmon

In my 20 something years fly fishing, I have never, that I can recall anyway, devoted a single day to fishing for Salmon. Sure, I may of cast out hoping to catch one while I was mostly targeting steelhead, but I never spent a significant chunk of time at it.

That is no longer the case. I decided to give it a shot. Chinook and Coho are currently in the Washougal river. Or so they should be according to the averages. Figured it was about time I give it a try.

Arrived at one of my favorite steelhead spots to give it a swing. I had my intermediate Skagit line on with a 7.0ips polyleader in front. My first fly of the day was a green and orange intruder. I've never fished the Washougal this time of year, and boy, is the river low. This run was so shallow I could hardly recognize it. Swinging was practically useless. Instead, I had to cast out and strip back. There was at least one big fish in there. He poked his head out a few times, but I couldn't entice him. After growing tired of the cast and strip, I sought out better water.

Deep down, I knew that upstream would be no better. I decided to look anyway. Come to find out, as expected, my usual slots were super shallow and I gave up after only a short time. Decided to go back downstream to a deep hole that I would walk right past when looking for steelhead.

I spent some time casting out and letting the fly swing, then strip it back using varying speeds. I really had no idea what I was doing. Salmon were and still are a mystery to me.

I tried a few flies until I got to a red/orange stinger fly with dumbbell eyes. It was about 2" long and was made mostly of finn coon hairs. Combine the weight of the fly with the sinking skagit line and I was hitting bottom in water at least 10 feet deep. Because I was getting hung up so much, I decided to strip the fly back quicker. My thought was, if I don't give it a chance, it won't get buried in the rocks.

Access	Washougal
Air Temp	Low 48, High 54
Water Temp/Visibility	~57F / 7 feet
Weather	Cloudy
River Stage	~3.8 feet
Time in/out	6:30am / 11am
Leaders/Lines	Int Skagit
	Intermediate and 7ips	All day
	8 and 15lb
Flies	Various large/bright winter	-
Notes	Water low and clear. Cloudy morning

That stripping speed change made all the difference in the world. The first time I applied my speedy strip, I hooked a fish. My first reaction was to not get excited. I didn't know if it was a small fish or not, after all, the tug was relatively mild. But, after holding carefully on the line with my stripping hand, I felt a very deep tug, tug, pulllll. Oh boy- Fish on!!

My rod was bent waaaayyy over. I spent an eternity reeling in the extra line that lay at my feet. At this point, the fish started bucking. I started moving towards shallow water to get a better foothold. Then I saw it. The fish was probably only 15 feet away. By my standards, it was enormous. He took a short run upstream. I started reeling him in. But he wouldn't have it. I don't know how much he weighed, but I could see he was easily north of 35".

My mind started racing. "This could be the biggest fish I've ever landed. Holy cow, this rod is bent over." And then, with that thought, SNAP! The 8lb tippet broke at the end of the poly leader. The fight was over.

I took the long walk back to my car for 15lb mono. Spent another hour or two in the hole with no luck. That was my chance and I blew it. This happened once before back in California where I hooked and then broke off the biggest steelhead of my life. You would of thought I learned my lesson.

I'll be back salmon!

Deschutes: Slump Buster

I haven't been catching much lately.  Not counting the smaller trout, I've been getting skunked day after day. When this happens, there is only one cure.  Head to the Deschutes.  Once again, the river delivered.

Parked my car at the fish hatchery well before sunrise.  After suiting up, I walked down river to a spot that I caught a 12 or so pound wild fish last year.  The water looked equally inviting this time.  I walked my way out sporting my brand new 420 grain Rage line and a floating poly leader.  The fly was a generic size 4 summer fly.

Since this was my experience with the Rage, it took me a cast or two to get dialed in.  I wasn't blown away by it.  I think I could deliver the Compact Scandi further and cleaner.  I stuck with it, trying to see if it would simply be a matter of figuring out any subtle stroke changes I needed to make.

Access	Deschutes
Air Temp	Low 33, High 80
Water Temp/Visibility	?F / 15 feet
Weather	Sunny
River Stage	~? feet
Time in/out	4am / 9pm
Leaders/Lines	Rage and Int. Skagit
	Poly leaders and T-8	All day
	8lb Maxima
Flies	Summer flies morning/evening, Winter mid day.	-
Notes	Water was good flow and temp. Great clarity with light fishing pressure. Two decent sized wild fish.

After about 1/2 hour, I decided to move downstream.  I walked a good mile, stopping anywhere that looked decent.  Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot of good looking spots.  Argh.  I finally convinced myself to abandon hope and go back upstream.  The walk was a long and lonely one on the railroad tracks.  Stopped by that same run again with nothing to show for it.

I was ready to head to the car, but decided to stop at a decent looking spot.  It wasn't an ideal place, but there were a few lines worth fishing.  This time, I had a 7.0 ips sinking poly leader and a heavier fly with dumb bell eyes.  It was around noon.  Much warmer out and fishing deep seemed like my best option with full sun on the water.

The cast was only 20 or so feet from the rod tip, but that was all it took when my fly took a sudden turn downstream.  Fish on!  A few minutes later, I had a nice, albeit not very big, steelhead in my hand.  She was probably only 7 or 8 pounds, but put up a decent fight.

A trip back to the car to take off layers from the morning.  After all, I arrived to 35 degree temps that morning, but now it was well into the low 80s.  I also took this time to put on a Intermediate sinking Compact Skagit.  I've been ready to try a sinking line out for a while.  I finally bit the bullet and bought one from Airflo.

Boy oh boy.  Do I love this line.  I had a short 8 foot piece of T-8 on the end, but the thing was sinking like a  rock.  Love it!  I could get down really quick.  And since the fly line is sinking, it wasn't getting all belllied in the currents.  Mending was minimal to get a good swing.  I cannot wait until winter to put on a heavier piece of T material and sink a fly down to the depths.  I'm excited!

After I put on that Intermediate Skagit, I got in the car, drove through Maupin and started hitting water from Maupin up above Sherar falls.  Lots of good looking spots.  As the day wore on, I took off the T-8 and put on an intermediate poly leader.  Guess what?  That skagit line tossed it out there smoothly.  Nice.  Did I say I love this line?

It was getting late, I found a run to fish for the remainder of light.  I was having so much fun that I continued fishing a deep hole as there was barely any light to see.  As I was about to call it quits, I hooked up with another fish.  Once I got her close, I couldn't see in the water.  I needed to be able to step down from my grassy casting platform to get the hook out.  I took a chance and stepped in the water.  Lucky for me, it wasn't deep right there, I could of easily gone swimming.  The fish ended up being about the same size as the one I caught earlier.

Thanks Deshutes for the busting that skunk.

Klickitat

Made it out to the Klick a week ago. The river was clear and pressure was light. Weather was a chilly 40 degrees in the morning, warming up to the upper 80's in the afternoon. Not a cloud in the sky.

Got to my chosen spot before sunrise. Walked in a bit and started swinging. No action. Not even a peck. Continued to walk down river for probably more than a mile (was on the trail side of the river). Fished lots of good looking runs using a floating line on my compact scandi. I used un weighted flies and a couple of skaters. A bit further along in the morning I caught a few small trout. No action from any big fish.

Around noon, I decided to get in the car and drive. The plan was to go15 or so miles upstream. Unfortunately, I didn't write directions down and never found my destination. Good way to waste a couple of hours.

After getting back to where I started, I stopped at a run that looked good last time I was here. It was now in the upper 80's and rather hot. Kept my comp scandi on, but rigged up a 10ft section of T10. With a 3 inch bright orange/red rabbit strip fly sporting a large set of dumbell eyes, I started casting into a riffly run.

An hour in, I had a fish pull a few feet of line out. Unfortunately, I was daydreaming, digging around in my pocket, or something else I shouldn't have been doing. I missed the fish. Tried the same cast again and got hit a second time. Argh! I missed it this time too. Sent that same fly out again with nothing. Uh oh. Missed my chance. I backed up a few feet and switched to a small fly of the same color. Fished through. Nothing! Backed up again with a new fly. This went on for 5 flies and about 45 minutes.  I didn't feel bad for wasting so much time here.  No one was around, and after all, there probably weren't that many fish willing to hit a fly  when the sun was directly overhead.  Never got another bump. Bummer.

I moved to a new spot. This one was receiving shade from the canyon walls. The water was a little deeper than I like. So, I kept the sink tip, but changed up the fly to something smaller.  Three of four trout later, I decided to move on.

It was getting late, I tried a few spots down river, and then I found this section I had never been to before. It was great. Everything about it looked perfect. No fish, but I will certainly be back to try that run again.

The Klickitat is a great river. It has really grown on me. Hopefully, I'll get in a few more trips before the year ends.

North Umpqua

My trip to the NU happened a few weeks ago.  I'm just now getting around to talking about it.  Seems my blogging has taken a back seat to everything else in life.

Left the house on a late evening to arrive at the NU early in the morning.  Early as in, enough time to sleep for a few hours.  The NU is a 4 hour drive from the house in Washington.  While the NU isn't really that far, it is enough where I wanted to snooze.

Got up before the sun did.  Put the waders on and wandered down to Camp Water.  My first stop was Lower Boat.  I figured that was a safer bet than trying to negotiate through the water to Station before the sun was up.  Saw some fish jumping, but couldn't catch anything but smaller fish.  The river was empty except for one other guy.  I took his spot on Upper Boat while he moved to Station.  I later went down to Kitchen, then went back up to Station.  No fish anywhere.  Bummer.

Access	North Umpqua
Air Temp	Low 50, High 85
Water Temp/Visibility	?F / 8-10 feet
Weather	Sunny and windy
River Stage	? feet
Time in/out	5am / 10pm
Leaders/Lines	Scandi
	floaters	All day
	8lb Maxima
Flies

unweighted summer
Notes
Windy with good water level and visibility. Typical magical Summer day on the NU

I made the walk downriver to several spots that I hit on previous trips to the NU.  No go.  Again, I saw some fish, but couldn't get them to my fly.  I was fishing floating lines and un weighted flies.  Often skaters.  

Sometime in later morning I did what I do every trip to the NU.  I slipped into the water.  After a trip back to the car and a change of clothes, I was back again.  This time up river of the bridge.  Decided to walk further than I have before.  Came to realize, once you get around the bend, there isn't a whole lot to fish unless you want to walk for a long time.  Oh well, lesson learned.

Back to the car.  This time I decided to drive down to mile marker 30 something and parked at every pullout available.  Found some great spots that I marked on my map for future reference.  Ended up catching some 18-22" fish.  Nothing to write home about.  

The day was windy.  Casting that compact scandi wasn't easy.  I concentrated on what was right in front of me and found some good water at my feet.  Had a blast while being blasted by that wind.

I ended up day somewhere between mile marker 30 and Camp Water.  Scurried home and had another fantastic magical Umpqua river trip in the books.