Ice Fishing on Fish Lake

A week ago I went Ice fishing at Fish Lake near Lake Wenatchee with the group of folks in the picture below.  The group is part of the Family Lines "Family" and my friend Jon pulled this gaggle of folks together for some fun on the ice.  We all gathered to get ready at another buddy's home on the lake, thanks Dave Nier,  We got the fire going and burning well for those who needed warmth, hot dogs and smores.  Another neighbor brought in his Honda powered auger to cut the holes which was great because we moved once and hole cutting was a done in a flash.  The kids and dads, grand dads and significant others showed up boiling over with energy.  We got the set up and the first fish caught was a nice 14 inch rainbow and that started things off.  There were a couple more trout and lots of perch caught before the weather shifted and it got windy, rained, sleeted and then at the end snowed on us.  I was shocked, most of the kids were die hard fisher folks with water dripping from their hair and eyes, runny noses and lots of shaking going on but they stuck with it.  After a couple of hours we went in and I have never seen so many hot dogs contending for fire to get cooked.  After hot dogs a Perch Curling contest was held on the ice.  Jon said after the contest got going, "I am not sure that these kids may get a bit traumatized", because the fish were still alive as they were being used for the contest.  The last thing to do was to cook up the smores and then everyone was on their way home to get warm.
A great day with the Family Lines group.  If you want to learn more about them they have a website at familylines.org and if you are so inclined help them out with a donation or if you have a child that you would like to get interested in fly fishing connect with them.  They have a great program of building your own rod, tying your own fly and then going on outings.
If you are interested in ice fishing do it fast because the weather is changing and the stability of the ice is starting to come into question.

Doin the Yak!!!!

February 21st 2013, Tim Opitz and I headed into Ellensburg to meet up with our Evening Hatch guide Kevin for a trip down the Yakima River on what they call the Skwala Special.  Starting off it was a brisk, cold Feb morning and the plan was to fish the Canyon which was new water for me.  The river was a bit smaller than last time I fished it but all in all in good shape, nice and clear.  We got a later start but that was OK, the water needed to warm up some to get the fish working.  Kevin was a great and patient guide and I let him know right off the he could yell at me given this was really only my second boat trip.  We fished some of his hand tied skwala's and hung a copper John dropper or plastic egg bead off the skwala.  First fish went to Cowboy Tim, he had a very big Whitey right up to the boat before it released.  We caught quite a few white fish during the day which was something new to me.  I have not caught white fish while fly fishing before.  Kevin taught me a new roll mend technique which will come in play when I fish the Wenatchee for Steel head this coming week.  We did a 8 mile float and it wasn't to the last part of the float that I started to catch some fish.  One nice rainbow and another good looking Cutty.  The weather caught up with us right at the end of the float so we timed it great.  Since this was my first canyon float I have to say the scenery is excellent, the waters great with good opportunities to get out of the boat and fish from shore and we saw some great bald eagles on the trip. We were also looking at this trip as a means to get to know this section of the river since we are planning on spending a week there in May and floating it with our own boats.