Methow Valley Steelhead Fishing

Last week, October 18th I spent the day on the Methow River with my friend from the Lake Wenatchee area Jim Passage.  I had only been Steelhead fishing a couple of times and still had not caught a fish.  The night before we stayed at the Rand home near the town of Methow which was an experience in itself.  It was a beautiful lodge style home filled with elk, deer, moose and several other mounts.  The bedroom I stayed in had 5 massive elk racks in it alone.  The Rand's were great hosts and we had a great breakfast before we started our early morning trek up the river to set the boat/raft into the water.  Aaron from Brazda's Guide Service was our guide for the day.  We set in just below the town of Carlton at the Gold Creek access where we spent some time swinging flies and getting into the groove of Spey Casting.

Jim Passage first thing in the morning gearing up at Gold Creek 

 It took me quite a while to relearn some of the techniques but Aaron was a great patient instructor.

Jim Setting up a Spey Cast below me

 After a period of time we got in the raft and headed down the river nymph fishing with eggs.  I caught my first Steelhead down the river some.  It was not huge but it was my first of the day and I was pretty excited!!!

HippieD's First Steelhead!!!

 We continued our drift and Aaron saw that I was struggling with my spey cast to my right so he asked if I would like to try "Pinning" and I looked at him like what the hell is "Pinning".  Well we got another rod from the raft out and it was a 13 foot, very flexible rod with a clear torpedo like indicator and a couple of egg set up's on it.  After a few examples of how to cast the rod Aaron turned the weapon over to me.  Here is the deal, this is a long rod for sure and along with the rod comes a reel that is a direct drive, free wheeling, fly reel like looking set up.  You use your fingers to slow the cast down and then once you get a fish you use the palm of your hand as a drag.  Yes, there is no drag on this set up.  One lesson learn real quick is that when you get a fish in be careful on getting your fingers around the handles of this reel because they are rotating very fast as the fish strips line off and you will get some bruised knuckles really fast.  Well after some casting Aaron works with me on some places to fish and very quickly the indicator goes down and I set.  All Hell breaks loose and the fish shakes the rod with angry motions and then it breaks the water several times while I palm the reel to put some pressure on the set up.  I finally get the fish in and whew!!!  That was an amazing fight.  It is a great native fish of which I caught several during the day.

Our Guide Aaron with a beautiful Native Steelhead...  amazing color...

Aaron holding one of the Hatchery fish which came home with us

We continued the drift and I also continued to work on my Pin Casting.  Found that I did pretty well overhead casting if I wanted to get out just a bit further and then I would underhand or even side cast to do shorter throws.  I had my share of tangle ups but the braided line was pretty forgiving and Aaron, watching me was able to coach me on what I was doing wrong.  Jim Passage tried the pin fishing but was more comfortable single hand nymph fishing and caught several fish as well.  The Chinook were up in the river nesting and as we drifted over the reds we seemed to pick up some great fish.  We were anchored in one hole and I was casting out when the indicator went under.  I set the hook and fish on.  It was an interesting fight more of a small fish shake and then it seemed to just come in on me.  As it got closer to shore and the boat it took off like a bullet.... up out of the water came this huge black shape with a red stripe down it's side.  It shook wildly and the line went limp as it long distance released (LDR) on me.  I still wake up thinking about this huge fish which may have been a Coho....  Would have loved to have brought it in and taken a picture.
We continued our float and I learned to catch fish from the boat and also from the shore.  I had a great day and it was filled with grins and smiles.  As my brother Dale would say I had a "Good" day....

Jim shot this great picture of me fighting a great fish on the pin rod...

We worked the Methow from morning dark to early evening dark.  It was a glorious day with sun, little wind and just amazing conditions.  I was fulfilled learning two more fishing techniques and catching some great fish.  We were just about at the end of the float and we were still one fish down in terms of hatchery so I did a final pin cast and down the indicator went...set... and the fight was on.  This was a great fish just sensing the dramatic tugging that was going on.  We worked the fish gently in and put her in the net.... a very nice hatchery hen and our day was complete.

Thanks Jim for the invite to play on the river for the day.  Thanks to Brazda's Fly Fishing and Aaron for the great guiding, education and help on the river.  This was clearly one of my greatest fishing days and as Aaron would say "Epic" just Epic....

Peace Rod In Action

And here are the pictures.  The weather was amazing.  Only a day and a half of rain in 7 days.  The river was somewhat high from the previous week when we arrived then dropped and cleared from  Sunday to Wednesday when it rained.  We generally fished with spoons and spinners until we were within a couple of fish of our limit then got out the fly rods.  On Monday, I think Angie hooked about 8 fish on the Peace rod.  She lost the first three then got the hang of setting the hook, getting the fish on the reel, and leaving her hand out of the way of the reel handle on the runs and jumps.  Ryan hooked three fish on fly rods but was not able to land one.  We all caught plenty of salmon however, many in the 10 to 15 pound class.  I had one take out a full fly line, 120’ of shooting line and get into the backing before it went around a bend in the river and broke off.  We could not get on the boat fast enough to chase it.

Peace Rod getting a workout!

First fish landed on the Peace rod (11 lb hen coho)

Angie with her big buck on

Angie’s first salmon on a fly rod.  A 15 lb buck on the Peace Rod.

The trip was a blast!  We limited out most days (three fish apiece) and caught a few more which we released.  Between the three of us we came home with almost 250 pounds of fillets.

Thanks for building the rod.  It is going to be great at Christmas Island.

Jeff

This is what building rods is all about, the adventure, action and the joy of success!!!!! 

Brian's 12 wt GT Rod

Now here is something new for me a two handled "single handed" fly rod.  The build request came in from a fishing buddy Brian Bowden who was looking for a saltwater rod that could be used to catch Giant Trevally in the tropics, specifically our trip to Christmas Island in December or Ling Cod in Puget Sound.  The second "foregrip" handle offers a place to hold the upper part of the rod without gripping the rod itself.  I hope to give it a try in the future.
The rod all started with a real stick, a 12wt Winston and the reel seat is also a Winston branded seat along with some great cork both foregrip and handle.  The eyes are black stripping guides and snake and Brian with looking for more of a "stealth" look so I used green thread but did not color preserve so it turned almost the same color as the rod.  I added just a few highlight bands on the first section and some feather treatments using jungle cock, bronze grizzly, and some reddish brown rooster feathers.
This is the "biggest" size wise rod that I have built and can easily handle salmon, GT, Tarpon and a lot more sizable fish.  I am looking forward to seeing how this rod works when we travel to Christmas Island in December.

Saltwater Cowboy "T"

This is a rod build for a good friend of mine Tim Opitz, Cowboy T as he has been named over the last few years.  The rod is a Sage Xi3 8wt fast action Saltwater designed rod.  It includes some great components from Utmost Enterprises including chrome eyes, cobalt blue winding check, stripping guides with cobalt blue inserts along with a Alps Triangle reel seat which I have used on several of my rod builds over the years.  It also includes a custom "comfort grip" cork handle and fighting butt made of cork burl with some blue cork rings inserted.  Tim has done some tropics fishing in the past and this new rod will be a great add to his collection and for going to Christmas Island in the future.  This rod could also be used for Salmon fishing either in Puget Sound or some of the local rivers.  I "flashed" this rod up a bit with some bright almost chrome highlight bands combined with nice cobalt blue thread wraps.  The rod also has a signature embedded feather feature of jungle cock, grizzly, amherst pheasant, and even some blue guinea hen.
Tim and I do a lot of fishing together after working two significant airplane programs together at Boeing.  We worked on the Joint Strike Fighter and the 787 Programs and found our common interest are fishing and hunting and we have done both together over the past couple of years.  We went to Alaska and did a week of cod, halibut and salmon fishing and he is also one of the group that is going to Christmas Island in December for some bonefish and GT fishing adventures.  Looking forward to years of fishing together with Tim as we explore new streams and lakes here in Washington.

Saltwater Cowboy "T" Cobalt Blue and Silver Highlights with Cobalt Thread

Blue Custom burl handle with comfort grip and ALPS reel seat

Feather work includes Amherst Pheasant, grizzly, guinea hen and jungle cock....

Saltwater Cowboy "T" 8wt with custom cork, and Alps reel seat...

Peace Rod

A while back one of my fishing buddies Jeff Peace asked me to build him a new rod for a trip that he was taking to Alaska and then a follow-up trip that he and I will be taking to Christmas Island in December.  After a bit of talking we settled on a new Sage Xi3 7wt which is a great Saltwater fast action rod.  I ordered the rod from Custom Fly Rod Crafters and it came with a sock and a really nice tube.  I ordered the components from Utmost which is located in Sequim Washington from Carol who has been a great person to work with when building custom rods.  The components are high quality Pacific Bay or Batson Enterprises.  Jeff was looking for a fairly simple straight forward rod so I toned down my urge to do tropics flash for this rod although it still has some great features.  It has a Batson saltwater reel seat and cork handle kit, chrome eyes and nice brilliant blue highlight banding that blends really nice with the deep sea blue rod and thread wraps.  I added my signature feather grouping of jungle cock, grizzly hackle, and a touch of blue dyed Amherst Pheasant.  The rod blank provider did the lettering, Peace Rod by HD.
Jeff and I have known each other for a few years now.  He and I worked at Boeing together and he was the Program Manager of the 747 Program for a number of years and held several other titles over the years.  Jeff and I worked together after we both left Boeing and did a some consulting work focused on the Aerospace Industry.  We both have hung that up for now and have been doing some great fishing adventures together and I look forward to fishing with him and watching catch fish with this new beauty.

Jeff Peace's new rod custom built by HippieD (HD) me (o:

Batson Saltwater Reel seat and cork kit, finished rod with sock and tube

Grizzly, Amherst Pheasant, Jungle Cock Combination...

Chopaka, Chapoka, It's Chopaka

Chapoka, Chopaka......  it's Chopaka!!!!  There is a story behind this but we will just go beyond it.

What a great trip last week...  A good part of the group headed up early Sunday morning and by the time we got there it was noon and a few folks had already left leaving some good open spots to set up camp.  Finding a flat spot on the slopes of the lakefront is a difficult thing to do especially when you are looking for a spot to put up a 15X20 wall tent.  We found the best spot available and it even allowed for our friend Jeff to have his camper and Bill to have his Suburban right with the group.  Sunday was all about getting camp set and getting all of our gear organized for the week.

Ok I need to back up, we all did well getting up to the lake and for those that have been there you know there is a bit of a hill you have to climb.  In the past two years, two of our group have lost transmissions trying to pull RV's up to the site.  I did have a bit of a near miss in that my drift boat trailer bounced off the ball as we traveled up the steep rocky hillside.

Not a big deal we just made a nice groove in the road....  Tightened things up and off we went.  Good thing, otherwise brother Dale might have had a new Hyde hood ornament.  The picture below is the hill that you have to go up to get to the lake.  It is long and steep and gets oiled with transmission fluid fairly often!!!  The tow truck drivers over here know exactly where it is at!!!

By the way this is the hill that eats transmissions up!!!  It continues to climb out of the picture!!!

Camp was set when a few other folks from the Plain Fly Tyers group started to show up.  Tom Bartlett, Rene, and Rollie Smitten were next.  Then we found out that Jim Passage had blown the front seal in his transmission so a few folks helped him get things organized and towed the trailer he was trying to bring up back to Tonasket where his truck was to be fixed.  No one fished that first night, it was pretty windy and we all were tired from getting things organized.  We had a French Dip and French Fry meal that evening and warmed up a Homefires Bakery Marion Berry Pie for dessert.  Life was good.  

The next morning we had a nice breakfast and the gang headed out for some fishing.  I headed down to Tonasket to help my friend Jim out with moving his trailer to Spectacle Lake so that he could come up and fish with us while his truck was being repaired.  We got him set up and then we headed up to Chopaka and got some good fishing in for the afternoon.  There had been a Mayfly hatch the day before while we were setting up camp so we expected the same the following day.  There was a short one which made for some great dry fly action.  Also the HippieD White Bead Headed leech like pattern was on fire.  Bill Moffat said he quit counting how many fish he caught (somehow I don't believe he was not counting!!!).  Buggers and leech patterns were working really well down deep.  Every day there was a damsel hatch and it was fun just to step back and watch the animal life take advantage of it.  Ducks, fish and even dragon flies were in for the meal.  Here are a couple of shots of damsel's going through the process of coming out of the water onto the reeds and flying away.

Damsel having come up out of the water in a larva form and drying it's wings

Wings dried ready to fly

These are the left over larva casings and they were all over the reeds around the lake,.

Most everyone had a good day of fishing Monday and we all mixed it up with some dry fly fishing along with nymph.  Here are a few of the guys fishing.

Tomme Towne

Cowboy T (Tim) and Bill

Is that Graham Nash or Rene?  It's Rene

Jeff Peace Man

Jeff with a nice fish on....  

Vern with a nice fish caught on a white HippieD

Still Fighting

A smile and a nice fish to the boat...Great job Vern

Bro Dale fishing the dry fly up against the woods...Maybe an egg pattern on intermediate line!!!  It worked

The pontoon boats came in all colors, shapes and sizes

Peace man is one of the most experienced guys on the lake.. been fishing there for years!!!

Cowboy T takin' a break....  must have caught 20 by now!!!

Doug and Rio out for an evening float....

Now this is a group...  Jeff, Tomme, me as the oarsman and Tim as the boat Director... he is good at that...  

We had many good meals, the second night Cowboy T introduced many of us to Red Beans and Rice and Tomme BBQ'd up some ribs to go with.  Jeff had smoked some great meats which we added to many of the meals.  A spicy Sausage, Brats and then his most famous Beef Brisket which is killer!!!  Red beans and rice clearly had that nice spicy flair to it.  Bro Dale did up some great spaghetti sauce that we did with penne noodles and some bread.  The last night Bill and the gang all helped to put a great meal together.  Prime Rib Steaks, Cowboy beans and grilled bread over the BBQ.  It was amazing.  Must I not forget, Jeff also supplied the ice cream most nights.  I think there was a peach mixture, cookie dough, cinnamon bun, and a couple more.  And there were cookies coming out the ears!!!  Here is a picture of dinner that last evening.  There is Jeff, Dale, Me at the head, Cowboy T, Dick Nicklas, Tomme and the guy standing up is from the camp next door.

Prime Steaks, cowboy beans, sauteed mushrooms and grilled bread oh and some wine

There we go, now we have Bill in the picture but again Rich Archer eluded the shot!!!!

Now there is a lot of time during the morning and day to tell tall stories or close to lies around the campfire.  It is the one thing that brings the guys together in the morning and in the evening.  Here are a couple of shots of people just hanging out....

Doug, Tomme, Me, Dale and Tom Bartlett just telling a few lies

Tomme, Tim, Me, Vern, Dale, and Doug eating some ice cream

One of the things I really like about the lake is the wildlife.  There are some great ducks and sometimes a few loons.  One morning we saw a cow moose and a smaller calf across the lake from us.  When I went fishing that morning I went over to where we had seen them and the reeds were pulled up and eaten.  Here are a few pictures of some of the ducks we saw....

A Male Golden Eye

A female golden eye

This noisy Cout was eating damsels as they came up the reeds

This guy wanted me to quit bugging him

Another Male Golden Eye

Mama Golden Eye with the ducklings below hanging on the stump

Two Blue Bills hanging in the reeds

The Blue Bills do a great little dance when they are around the females

Check my bill out!!!

Thinking this is what most people call a Rock Chuck....  mountain marmot

With a whistle this little guy stood up to check me out....

Well another trip to Chopaka Lake ends with a lot of memories and stories to tell.  I remember one day we were out and several of us had taken our rain gear just in case.  Well the clouds rolled in and the sky's darkened and it rained the kind of rain that makes a splash on the water.  Then it hailed for several minutes.  It all passed and the sun came out.  The amazing thing is that the best hatch of the time there occured and we caught some great fish.  Here is what it looked like outside

A storm moves in

Sunset the last evening...  finale

The people who did not make it into pictures but were up at the lake are Rollie Schmitten, Jim McKenna, Kris Pendleton, Mike Payne and Jim Passage.

What a great trip....  thanks to all that helped with setting up camp and making food.  Until next time, tight lines......