Fall 2014 Methow River fishing for Steelies

This past fall, the first week in November 5th we converged on the town of Pateros to get ready to fish the Methow river for chrome steelhead trout again.  This is becoming a annual event and if it keeps producing it will continue to be a repeat adventure.  Cal Knight, Bill MacDonald, Jim Passage and I met up with Jeff Brazda(Brazda's Fly Fishing) and Andy Simon, our guides for the next few days.  The Methow was being a bit finicky with rain and getting blown out easily and the lower section down through Carlton was in bad shape with a constant flow of dark mud, a result of the summer wildfires in that area.  So, we fished new waters on the upper Met from the town of  Twisp down to the top of Carlton.  We put in early that morning and it was raining but we made the most of it, while we could.

Heading to Twisp to start a day of Steelhead fishing... 

Bill and Cal teamed up with Andy while Jim and I were working with Jeff.  This was my first trip out with Jeff and both Jim and I were looking forward to working with him on improving our Center Pin fishing technique so we were focused on that for the day.  Starting up in Twisp we did some casting and caught a few Whitey's and a Bull trout and then we headed down the river in search of Chrome aka Steelhead trout.  After several take downs and a few long distant releases the technique started to come back.  This is still a very interesting way to fish.  The rods are 13 foot, very limber, often called "noodle rods" due to the action they provide.  Unlike many fly rods that either have a strong lower end and a flexible tip these rods are just limber from the butt section to the very top.  Then you add what looks like a fly reel that is filled with 150 yards of backing and then 150 yards of floating 50 lb braided line and the major difference between the center pin reel and others is that it has no drag and some amazing ball bearings that allows the line to spool off at the same speed as the water movement.  You clearly know when all is going well when the 4-6 in indicator is not bent over and is standing straight up during the drift.  You know all is really well when that indicator dives below the surface with a lot of jerky movement because that's a fish!!!  And when that happens you set the hook with a low sideways set as not to pull the fly from the fishes mouth and all connects up and this is when it get's interesting not having a drag.  Without that added feature of a drag your fingers and palm take the place of the mechanical drag.  So, you find yourself working hard not to add too much pressure while not letting the fish take off too far.  You also find yourself letting the rod take a lot of the shock that this fish is giving which is where the excitement comes in.
Our guide Jeff had several things to say during the drift.  One was the area that was prime for fishing was called the Kitchen and I head right over there is a great drift now get it "In the Kitchen"  that and several of my take downs and fish on's were followed up with, that was a really nice fish....  really nice...  In other words it would have been nice to get it to the net!!!!  Gotta love the guy....

Jim Passage with his "Jim Daddy" Pin rod reeling one in.. Jeff Brazda waiting and coaching

Nice colorful hatchery fish with some sort of Sasquatch behind!!!

Nice Hatchery Fish look on Jeff's face priceless!!!

Nice Native fish... we keep these in the water!!!

Cal and Bill had Nymph fished with their fly rods most of the day and did fairly well.  Cal nailed on right as we were getting ready to have lunch and it was a really nice native fish.  Bill picked up a few as well.  After a good day of fishing and a drift to the top of Carlton we took out in a new way.  Jeff and Jim had found this remote access point that had a rough trail that took you to the main road.  You could not get  a regular vehicle and trailer down to the river so we brought in Jim's DTV to tow the boats to the road.  Getting the DTV on and off my truck was a bit of a challenge but it proved effective to pull the boats out with and it bought us another hour so more of fishing time on the river!!!!.

Our Boat Puller in the back of truck

We all had a great day of fishing and with a quick dinner we crashed for the evening to get ready for our second day on the river.  We got up had breakfast and headed to the town of Methow to meet with our guides.  We drove up the river and found it not in shape to fish.  The levels were high and there was a lot of material like leaves floating in the river that had come off the banks up high.  We would have spent most of our fishing time removing the materials and not catching fish.  That and these fish are a bit spooked and even a leaf floating well below the surface could spook the fish so we called the day on the Methow a bust.  We then went back to the hotel and geared up to fish below Wells Dam on the Columbia to fish.  Jim, Cal and Bill armed themselves with Spey rods and I had my Center Pin.  This was a huge body of water to fish but there as a lot of surface action going on.  There was a lot of practice going on but not much action.  Cal lost his footing and ended up going for a little float with his waders holding his legs up so it was very hard to regain his footing.  He saved both his rod and his cigar but a box of flies came out.  Good thing Jim was below him and he was able to rescue the fly box!!!

Bill and Cal fishing/spey casting below Wells dam 

Damn that was a cold rinse!!!  

We packed things up and went back to the trucks, made great PBJ's sandwiches and got Cal back in order.  We headed back to the hotel where Cal was able to dry clothes and get ready for the next day/

The next day it had stopped raining but it had also cooled way down to the freezing point.  I teamed up with Bill MacDonald and Andy Simon who was our guide for the day.   I continued to focus on my Center Pin fishing while Bill did some bobber jig spin fishing.  The river was a lot busier with boats and the cold weather slowed the fishing down quite a bit.  I did catch one fish and it was slow to even get moving and just did not have much energy until it was next to the boat.  Things got a bit better when the sun came up and warmed the surface up some.  Bill Picked up a great colorful native fish off the bucket bank and caught a few others that day.

Bill MacDonald and Andy Simon our guide

I ended up catching a few fish but left a few more for others to hook up on.  All in all it was again a great outing with great guides and I met  couple of new fishermen which is always great.  We had mixed weather but that is the way it goes when you are fishing this time of year!!!  I keep learning more and more about this new technique of Center Pin, or Pinning  and that's what keeps me coming back. Thanks to Brazda's Fly Fishing and Passages "Take Out" service we had a great trip and will be ready for next years Methow's great adventure.....