White River Photo Shoot and Fly Fishing Adventure

The last couple of days I have spent wandering the Wenatchee Forest with a friend from my hunting camp Chuck Friedel.  We had sort of a photo safari and fishing adventure in the high hills and I learned a lot about my camera and photo composition which will help me in the future.  Chuck is an amazing man who has traveled the world on serious photo safari's and fly fishing trips.  His last trip was Argentina and he captured some raw images of the mountains and the people. I have also seen his African photo's where he did some amazing shots of animals and the countryside.  Chuck is a retired Boeing engineer out of the test labs and is very precise with all that he does.  He is a simple man, never married, and you can tell he has tried to get the fullest life possible and sometimes I watched as he just would sit deep in thought.  I enjoyed his company and his photo mentoring and learned a lot about F-stop usage, light compensation and just the photography process as he has learned it.  Chuck is also a person going through the challenges of dealing with cancer and just recently got of the second round of chemo treatment and is having to make some hard decisions going forward.  I have a huge respect for this man for how he lives with his challenges.  He and I walked several miles one day taking photographs and fly fishing and all he had to say is that he is not as young as he was the last time he was on these trails.  Then he would walk 11 miles, set up camp , and then walk the other 11 miles out the next day.  I didn't know when I invited him over that I would be bringing back some past "good" memories as a result of our travels.

I am blessed to come across people like Chuck and to learn so much about him, his life and his adventures over the past many, many years.  What a great two and a half days... I am sure that come hunting season he will show up with many of the photo's that he shot during our adventure.  He is a lot more learn-ed then me and has the "best of the best" equipment and clearly knows how to use it....

I wish the best for Chuck as he faces his health challenges head on and I will hold him up in my way to give him spiritual strength to make hard decisions and to continue to heal from this sickness so that we can do this adventure again.




Here are a couple of our early photo's up near Rainey Creek....

                                                                                        

Rainey Creek Feeder Stream

Great old snag....and feeder stream into Rainey Creek...Sometimes you have to get wet to get the good shots....

Sometimes you have to get up and personal....

High Country Pond with some great reflecting going on.....

Chuck and I fished both Rainy Creek and the Little Wenatchee River.  In the Rainey we caught some great little cutthroat trout up in the higher country and as we got down a little lower we caught some nice sized rainbows.

Chuck fishing the Little Wenatchee

The following pictures are from White River Falls....  it is a tough road to get up but well worth the trip.  Chuck and I set up early in the morning to do some pre-sun shots of the falls and try a few photo tricks and from what I can tell some of them really worked for me....

White River Falls... worth the drive...

White River Falls with some great composition tricks...

If you walk well above the falls the water starts to calm down some and you can at least get your line out to try the fishing.  In the past I have not done very well here but this time I stepped up my game and when with a bigger fly and got down and wet in the river and did well.  I use a size 10 Light Elk Hair orange bodied  Caddis Stimulator and it was clearly the fly that worked.  I sat in one spot and pulled out at least a dozen fish...  but who is counting.  It was great fishing and often times you would see the fish take the fly even before you would feel the tug and other times they would take the fly and jump clear out of the water....

Up above the falls on the White River.. Can you see where I might have fished?!?!?! 

T-Rod, 6'6" 2wt Completion....

This is my 3rd of these Forecast RX6 two weights to be built.  It is a really great high streams rod where you have to navigate in very tight area's and the fish are fisty 6-12 inches...with this rod you will think that you have a nice steel head on.... well that might be a fisherman's stretch!!!

I custom built this rod for my fishing buddy Tim Opitz and it has a burl wood cork handle with blue inserts and a matching fighting butt one of my signatures for the rods I build.  All will have fighting butts to keep the reel off of the ground when standing upright.  This grip is a custom "comfort grip" modeled after a old bamboo Southbend rod that I have and it has a thumb placement built in that is really great.  It has a anodized Alps reel seat and then flows out with silver winding check, folding hook keeper and blue anodized first eye with chrome snake eyes.  I used bright blue silk thread for the wraps with silver and a bright blue flash highlights.  The T-Rod also has Jungle Cock and bronze hackle feather inlay which really pops in the light.

Tim will have a great time fishing this little gem.

Halibut Rainer

I recently got some halibut from a friend and I don't know about you but it can be a bit of a challenge to cook and not have it turn out dry so here is something that worked out well for me  First I put olive oil in the fry pan and maybe a tablespoon of butter to give color.  I diced up some fresh garlic and when it started to turn brown under pretty high heat I dropped the 1 inch think pieces and added my fresh rosemary, thyme, dill and basil.  I let it brown and then flipped it over and added a little white wine (optional) and only cook a short time.  I then placed it into another pan to go under the broiler.  I put a dob of sour cream, sprinkled salad size shrimp on it and then topped it with Mexican blend cheese.  When the cheese turns color you are done!!!!  I think the key is not to fry too long so that it gets dry and the wine helps to keep it moist and almost just steam it.  

What to do with left overs:

We had a lot, so two pieces I did not put under the broiler and saved in the frig after just frying it.  The next day I took one of those pieces and chopped it up to make soft taco or maybe more of a quesadillas by taking some really good grain tortilla's (we got some great ones at Costco), smeared with sour cream set it into a hot fry pan and then add your chopped fish and cover with Mex blend cheese and fold.  Let cook until browned well and then flip over. Really, really good. 

Happy Cooking!!!!!

Chopaka with Jeff Peace

Jeff had to leave Chopaka on our first trip the day after we got there with a family emergency so we did another trip a few weeks later.  Jeff and I went in his camper with boat trailer filled with our pontoon boats.  There were a couple of guys up there who we knew, Dick Nicklas from the Plain Fly Tyers group and Chuck Friedel from my hunting camp.

It was already June, getting warm and the hatch patterns had changed again.  This time Damsel (dragon) flys were hatching and it was great to see the fish going after them.  It was also interesting to have the damsels come out of the water as water bugs crawl onto your boat and body, dry off get wings and fly off.  It was also a sight to see the fish come straight out of the water to try and catch the damsels as they flew off.  Another fun this to observe was to see the fish try and knock the bugs off of the reeds into the water to eat.

I still did well on a white wooly bugger pretty deep so I would drag it down to where the dry fly fishing was doing well.  One day I decided it was time to eat lunch so I tied this ugly dry fly with a strike indicator on it's top and threw it towards the shore.  I unwrapped my sandwich, took a bite and all of a sudden the shore exploded as a fish took the ugly fly.  Kind of caught me off guard but it did get it in and it was a 22inch Cutt-Bow, my first.  I learned through this catch to fish very close to the reeds with dry flies and you will do well, plus it is exciting to watch the water explode when the fish takes the fly in the shallows.

Jeff and I had several good days of fishing and some great "camp food" massive steaks and great chicken and wine before we had to pack up and head home.  I think we might do this trip again next year.

Jeff Peace with Dick Nicklas in the blue boat behind him

Jeff Peach and a little rain coming down

Fish On!!!

Nice Bright Chopaka Trout...

First time to Chopaka Lake

This year I did two trips to Lake Chopaka up near Tonasket Washington.  The first trip was in May with a group of Boeing retired friends and a few of the fly fishermen from the Lake Wenatchee area.  My Boeing buddies were Tim Opitz (aka CowboyT) and John Krueger (aka JK) and from the Plain Fly Tyers group Doug Pendelton, Tom Bartlett, Tommy Towne, and Dick Nicklas.
I pulled the All About the Fly drift boat and we set the Canvas Cabin, our 15 X 20 wall tent up, Jeff had his camper and Tommy pulled, well sorta pulled his trailer up.  There is a really steep hill to get up to make your way to the lake.  Tommy blew his tranny up about a third of the way up and so I got it to camp and then got it home.  I think everyone agreed, wall tent only next year!!!  The hill is a mean one.
 
We did really well fishing mostly with nymphs like wooly buggers and leach patterns.  White, black and green seemed to work well.  There were a few hatches coming off where emergers worked pretty well also.  Tim caught 20 some fish on one white leach pattern fly so he was pretty jazzed about the place.  JK did well and used the drift boat most of the time.
 
We had some great meals cooking with the big camp stove and it was the first time using the new camp kitchen.

Lake Chopaka Trout...  some had white tips on the lower fins like a Brookie

Lake Chopaka Bow with a white bugger hanging from it's mouth.....

Every morning around 9:30 a parade of pontoon boats would head out for the morning fish and head to each end of the lake.  There is a shallow end that does well with chronimids and the opposite end is deep with nice coves to fish with nymphs.  Everyone had a great time, caught some good fish and laughed a lot which is what it is all about....

Looking towards the shallow end of the lake

Looking over at the campground from the opposite side of the lake

Yak Yak Drift

T with a limp line.....

A while back I did my first drift of the Yakima River with my friends Eric Larsen and Tim Opitz.  There had been a storm the night before so the river was up a bit and getting cloudy with some mud flows that were coming in from some other rivers in the area.  We were going to try and do what is called the Canyon but the road was closed due to a massive rock slide so we went up stream some and put in at a KOA park.  Again, it was my first drift ride so it took some getting used to.  We would pound the shore lines as we drifted down throwing big dry flies with droppers beneath them.  We would also go into shore once in a while and fish some of the splits in the river which was great fun as well.  I picked up a few small fish doing this.

"T" with a nice Bow on the Yak

Not far into the drift Tim picked up a nice fish which did some good runs before he could get it to the shore.  I lost a few flies with the drift and trying to get close to the shore with my cast.  Lot's of low hanging willows that really liked to jump out and grab your fly..(o:








All in all we had a great time and it gave me an opportunity to hang out the new Plain Fly Tyers banner for the first time.

Dennis, Tim and Eric with the new banner

I think my camera has a mind of it's own!!!

Herding Sockeye

The past couple of days I have put down the fly rods and picked up the spin rods to try my hand at Sockeye fishing in Lake Wenatchee.  Tom Bartlett, Tim Opitz and I got into the "All About the Fly" drift boat with the little two horse honda and made the trek from one end of the lake to the other to meet up with our best friends several other fishermen trolling around the lake.  We put our lines with heavy weights, big ol flashers and a Pink Hoochie (yes it is called a Hoochie!!!) with a couple of red hooks.  Long story short, after a day of figuring out where to fish and another day to figure out speed and set up, we started to catch fish.  It is a very interesting fishery for me as a fly fisherman but a day on the boat with friends and some great weather and scenery who could ask for more..

Lake Wenatchee Sockeye Fishing

Timmy, Timmy, Timmy where are you???

Timmy, Timmy, Timmy where are you?

Oh, There you are!!!!

Went up another one of my childhood fishing spots Rainy Creek with Tom Bartlett of the Plain Fly Tyers group and Tim Opitz.  Tim and I have fished it a couple of times before but this was a first for Tom.  Fishing Rainy creek is what we call Combat fishing and Tim came out with the best scares for the day getting his leg caught in some woody, log jamb like material and breaking a rod on a good fall!!!!.  That's fishin!!!!.  We did pretty well and the next few weeks will be good as the creek gets even warmer and the bugs start to come off even more.  Rainy Creek is another one of those places that I have been going to since I was a small kid with my family.  At the time it was just a rough road pull off that we found and really we were headed for the Little Wenatchee River to fish when we found this little gem of a fishery.  What is really great is that you can fish the small creek down to the confluence of the Little Wenatchee and then fish the bigger waterway as far as you want to go....  It is a place that my wife Kim and I go to a couple of times a summer. She packs a book, lunch and sits in a great warm spot while I fly my fly for fish.

This is my good friend Tim Opitz fishing on the Teanaway...He had a great day catching 17 fish on one fly...  We had a great day....  weather was excellent and fishing will killer good!!!  Nice bows and cutts and Caddis Stimulators were the hot fly of the day!!!!!

Nice Cuts in Teanaway

Tim in the stream....  Your not doing well unless the top of your shorts are not wet!!!!

Fishing was really good on the Teanaway recently.  My good fishing buddy Tim Opitz and I hit the stream in the morning and it took a while but we finally, well Tim figured out, what was working really well and it was a orange colored caddis stimulator and pretty good sized for a small stream.  We fished the better part of the morning and Tim caught 17 fish on the fly he started with....  We had a great time and it was a pretty special to share a place where I grew up fishing and camping with my friend.  I am ready to go back anytime....

Plain Fly Tyers is created

The Plain Fly Tyers have been together for several months now and have done many outings together.  We typically tie flies every other Monday at Mountain Springs Lodge located in Plain Washington.  Our outings include places like Lake Lenice, Chopaka, and Fish Lake along with Rocky Ford.  The group is small with all levels of fly fishing experience which works well with the learning process which is always in place.

Mountain Spings Lodge is located in the Plain, Lake Wenatchee area and offers year round out-door experiences from horseback riding, hiking, fishing, snow mobile rentals in the winter.  The lodge is a great place to unwind and just enjoy the experiences that are offered.  The food is great with great chefs and local foods when available.  Thanks Bill, Jamie and team for allowing us to use your facility for our sessions.  

You will notice on the banner there is a logo, Dry Fly Distillery.  When I went to put the banner together I looked for several samples of flies and such that could help highlight the banner.  I was familiar with Dry Fly Distillery out of Spokane and had purchased several products from them including shirts and flask along with some great gin, vodka and whiskey.  They sent me their logo to use and it really makes our banner pop!!!  Thanks Dry Fly!!

Plain Fly Tyers working of several dry fly patterns

Plan Fly Tyers pose for a shot in front of our favorite meeting place, Mountain Springs Lodge in Plain Washington