The Lake Lenore Adventure

I have driven pass Lake Lenore many times on my way up to Dry Falls and some of the "Chain of Lakes" and wondered how well it might fish.  Many times the wind was howling with whitecaps and mist flying off there surface of the lake as I drove by.  I had also heard that the lake just was not producing many opportunities to fish it because the fish population was way down due to poaching and lack of continued population growth.  Lake Lenore is one of the few lakes that is known for it's population of Lahontan Cutthroat Trout.  Lake Lenore is between Soap Lake and Coulee City and is a long lake with rock walls down one side of the coulee and the highway down the other side.  There are a couple of launch area's and also a parking lot on the north end that allows walk in unless you can lift your boat over the barb wire fence there.  The highway side has shores that are clearly more shallow than the rock side.  Jim Passage and I brought up his 14 foot Lund boat and we found out quickly that the wind blowing from the north was not going to allow us to use the boat.  We drove to the north parking lot and walked in.  We met a fly fisher who was waist to chest high in the water casting with the wind.  We talked a bit and he said that they have been doing OK fishing off the rocks and since we didn't have our waders it was the only option.  We walked the shoreline and then got to the rocks and careful to keep good footing we walked out several several hundred feet and set our rods up.  I threw a red and white snow cone fly called a Jim Beam and below that a foot or so I had a "Buzzer" chironomid that my brother Dale had tied up.  With the indicator around four foot up the leader I gave the fly a roll cast 15-20 feet out.  As it floated it's way back into the rock shore and just off the rocks I gave a couple of six inch pulls and let it set and down the indicator went.  OK then, I know what I am using is going to work so back out the flies go.  Same pattern as before and down the indicator went again and this time I set and it was a big fish that snapped me off at the tippet knot.  I decided what I had heard about 30 inch fish that I needed to set up a new leader.  I got things in order and gave it a toss out and let it again drift back in towards shore.  Down the indicator went and this time I had a good fish on.  It ran a couple of times and I got it close to shore and realized that it was tail hooked  Slow and easy I worked the fish until it tired and finally I got it to the net.  A nice 20+ Lahontan, my first ever!!!

My first Lahontan Cutthroat Trout

A Slime Rocket For Sure!!!  

Sun out, clouds, and calm waters.,....  Jim down the rocks from me

Jim came over and checked it out and we talked about set ups so that he could try what I was using.  I gave the line a toss out again in the opposite direction and again close to the rocks my indicator went down and this time a smaller very colorful trout came to the surface and I netted it.  

Nice 14+ bright colored Lahontan

Fishing off the rocks was working well and I was into my third fish...

Fish 3 again a nice sized cutthroat

With the calm waters we made the decision to launch the boat and come back to the North end to try fishing from the boat.  With the boat in the water and the electric motor pushing us down the lake we saw some amazing rock patterns on the walls.  Vertical, horizontal, and sweeping rocks all colliding in some amazing configurations.

Some Amazing Rock Formations

In the Boat Headed to the North End....  

We got down the north end just in time for the wind to start making it's way from south.  Just a breeze at the start and within a short time a wind, with the waves going from small to white caps in what seemed to be just minutes.   We hooked up the second electric motor and made our way against the wind back to where the car was parked.  We got about half way and the second motor died.  We were doing OK with the last motor when the wind got just a bit stronger.  We got the oars out and I rowed with the motor for quite a while and we got somewhat closer to the launch pad and back on to the trailer.

For me this was a great experience on a new lake catching a new breed of trout, the Lahontan Cutthroat.  I will be back because there is another bigger fish out there some where on Lake Lenore....

Fishing the Olympic Peninsula, The "OP" as some call it.....

I recently went on my first fishing trip to the Olympic Peninsula to fish for bright chrome Steel head fresh out of the ocean.  I was a bit anxious about this trip after seeing the size of some of the fish being caught on the OP.  It takes about 7 hours to get from Eastern Washington...ferry across Puget Sound...up to Sequim...Port Angles and then the road out to Forks and home for the next several days, "The Bogy House".  The Bogy house sits near the Bogachiel river but you just cannot quite see it's waters.  Brazda's Fly Fishing homes out of the Bogy house and operates it like a lodge including sleeping quarters, and some great meals.  http://www.brazdasflyfishing.com/bogyhouse/  The house dog is Jesse who will help you limber your arm up with throwing the ball over and over for her.  Annie Waltz Kubika is our amazing chef and avid fly fisher and does an excellent job with all of the meals.  The guides are Jeff Brazda owner and head guide, Ryan Bullock, Andy Simon, Nate McDonough and Aaron O'Leary

The season had slowed some due to the water conditions.  The OP is at about 13% of it's normal snowfall and it just has not rained as much as usual for that region so the waters were down and very clear and the sun bore down on the waters which is not the norm for this area.  We concentrated on the Hoh because it was running better than most in that it is glacier fed.  Jim Passage and I fished with Ryan Bullock the first day and started up a ways on the Hoh and drifted down to the top of the lower section.  Jim and I were Center Pin fishing and the action was good with lot's of take downs and a few hook ups of some nice chrome fish.  We also picked up a few OP small Whiteys and a couple of Bull Trout.  The weather was bright, shinny and warm and we worked the shady area's hard because that was where the fish hang in these conditions.

I was fishing my "Green Hornet" a 13 foot Batson/Utmost Enterprises Center Pin rod that I built in 2014 one of 5 built so far for various clients.  It is a dark, deep green rod, bright green wraps with copper and green metallic highlights.  I have a Okuma RAW Center Pin reel on it and I am really impressed with the performance of this reel and rod combination.  It is a bit interesting fishing two of these out of a boat at the same time and to that end a new 11'6" rod is in the works for next year.

The Green Hornet....it stings....

A shot of the Olympic Mountains from the Hoh...  Typically you would not see these mountains with the cloud cover that should be in place and there would be drops on my camera lense!!!  

My fishing buddy Jim Passage and Ryan our guide....  and of course "Jim Daddy" the Center Pin Rod...

After a good morning of fishing and working out the kinks of our pinning technique and getting to know the special gear that Ryan had offered up.

Just above an area called the Hoh Canyon fishing a tricky deep hole my indicator went down and I hooked up with a nice fish.  I could tell from the way it fought it wasn't the typical 7, 10, or even 15 pound fish because this fish had some real force behind it's fight.  Slow and easy but not letting the fish take too much I worked this fish for a while until we got a good look at it and I said DAMN that is a big fish!!!  Flowing in and out of panic and calm I continued to let the fish have it's way but then would let it know we were going to get him in and get some pictures.  So I worked the fish from the boat while Ryan came up with a plan.  He set the boat and got out with the net to the shoreline.  I figured he was going to just net it while I was in the boat but no he says I needed to get out of the boat.  I first thought you are kidding, here I have this big fish on, fishing with a 13 foot rod rated for 6-10lb fish, a reel that has no drag, a steep loose river rock river bank and going through my mind is one bad move and this is all over.  I took my time and slowly made all my movements with caution and now I was on the bank working this amazing fighting fish.  My rod was bent all the way to the cork and I palmed the reel with caution and reeled in timing with what the fish wanted to give and Ryan coaching me all the way.  We had it in and to the next so many time that I could not count.  All I remember is Ryan saying keep it away from running in to the bolder field across the river,  keep it from going too far upstream because there wasn't a good path to follow and not too much pressure so the hook bends out and all I am thinking is SURE!!!  Well the fish finally tires some and I get it coming towards the net and as soon as it sees the net off it goes again.  Over and over this happens and Ryan is saying get the head up so he quiets and I can get the net under it and I am trying but the rod, the "Green Hornet" doesn't have enough backbone to let me do this.  Finally all things align and we get this big dude in the net.  Ryan is quick to get the tape out and it measures 38" long, 20" girth and it calculates close to 20 lbs. and it is one beautiful buck that is getting ready for spawning.

Happy, Hell Yeah I Am!!!

Amazing color on this buck and he is getting ready to be in defensive mode 

Check the spots out.. yeah I am breathing hard still!!!

One Last Picture before I release this amazing fish...

Wow that was an adventure of the lifetime!!!  Epic as I have often heard from the guides who get us into good fish!!  I could feel some interesting muscles reacting to the fight... this fish kick my butt and I loved it....  I released the fish and with a flash it was gone....  no shock which was great.
We drifted down through the Hoh Canyon which had steep banks on the sides and deep cuts and we fished the shady drifts.  The air was trapped in the canyon and had a great scent of leafy trees and slow running water.  Sun rays found there way through the massive firs, ceders and maple trees.  A boat had been through just before us so we made a bit of a quick pass though the area.   Down below the canyon we took out for the day and we crammed Jim into the back of the crew cab truck and headed back to the Bogy house...  I still had a great smile and a good stiff drink of Dry Fly Whiskey and a good meal ended that day and we were ready for another day on the Hoh.......

Day Two, Andy Simon was our guide and I had been with Andy on the Methow this past fall and he was a great guide.  We put in just below where I got my big fish the day before.  The put in was rather interesting coming off a steep bank into the water.  Our plan was to fish a bit of the upper, the canyon and then drop down low on the the river.

Andy Simon and Jim Passage getting ready to drop the boat down...

yep this is the bank we dropped the boat down on....

We changed up our center pin gear some and used some different flies and beads and it was a day of mostly take downs and some hooked but not to the net.  It was also a day of the "Parade of Boats" because the Hoh was one of the only rivers that had a decent flow because it is glacier fed  That being said we had a great time down through the Canyon and down into the lower section of the Hoh.  I had some great take downs and my sets were right on target according to Andy but we just didn't have a great connection to the fish.  The more I talk with steel head fishermen this is not unusual.  We did See Aaron O'Leary  on the river and just as we passed him one of his clients nailed a great fish.  We tagged pretty close to Aaron and they picked up a couple more when we were close by.  Right at the takeout we saw a great fish jump and went after it.  Jim got a great line with where the fish was, had a take down and guess what, par for the day it was a long distance bang bang and off.... story of the day but again a great day on the river with some good action.  We did pick up a few Whiteys and bull trout on the float.

Day 3 Guide Nate McDonough and we decided to fish the Bogachiel River and spend some time swinging with spey rods and between swing sites we would pin.  I have not spey cast much so this was a day of continue to learn and practice.  Jim on the other hand is very accomplished and fished below me so I didn't get in his way.  We set in just out of the town of Forks at the fish hatchery there.  Right away we picked up a few smaller hatchery fish which was great.  Again, the Bogy was really down and the flows caused us to have to walk the boat across several bars.  I liked the Bogy, it reminded me of the kind of rivers that I fished for trout when I was much younger.

The Bogachiel River and Nate walking the boat across a bar

You can tell with the right flow these rocks would be all covered...  Beautiful river....

Jim and Nate in the boat I speyed the section right in front of the boat for quite a while

We took the opportunity to swing several nice bars between pinning some of the deeper sections.  again we were plagued with crystal clear, low, sunny waters so fishing was tough.  We had planned a shorter day of fishing because we needed to get on the road for the long journey home.  We were fishing a deep hole down close to the take out when after three days I really tangled my line and called it quits.  A fish jumped right in front of me in the current.  We hopped in the boat and Jim again got a great line on the fish when his indicator went down....set...bang bang and it was off.  But it was really great that he was able to target the fish we saw jump and get it hooked up even if it was for a short time.  This was our last float until next year when we return and hope that the waters are a bit higher allowing and signaling more fish to come up the rivers.  I  had caught the fish of my dreams so I was still jazzed about my first day and it will bring me back.

Thanks Brazda's Fly fishing and all of the guides as well as Annie our chef for the great three days of fishing.

Thanks to Utmost Enterprises, Carol for the help with rod building blanks and components and to Batson Enterprises for the quality rods blanks that allows me to build some great rods to fish these amazing fish....

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.....

Chiwaukum Special and Miller Time Rod Builds

As many of you know this past summer we had several wildfires in the State of Washington and Eastern Washington suffered some real devastation.  The Chiwaukum Creek fire started just a short distance from my home and we were evacuated.  My wife Kim and I came back from the west side the next day with the full intent of helping our local fire district with food provisioning for our fire fighters.  Our fire grew so large so fast that they initiated a "State Mobilization" so we had fire fighters from across the United States here to provide support including a Helicopter Support group who we fed for a number of weeks.  One of the members of that team we got to know well, Ty Miller from Fairbanks Alaska.  As we spent a lot of time together we talked about fly fishing both here and in Alaska.  He came over and checked my rod building shop and some of my rods out and in the end he wanted a couple.  So over this past winter I built two new rods for Ty.

The first rod is one that Ty can use in the Alaskan rivers to catch steelhead, salmon and it can even be used for tropics fishing in that it is a salt water rod set up as well.  We named it "Miller Time" and it is built from a new Batson, Rainshadow Eternity2(RX9) Cobalt Blue 8 wt blank.  It has a Alps Triangular cobalt blue reel seat and bright blue wraps with blue metallic highlights over the chrome Pacific Bay guides and snake eyes.  I also added some red thread in to tie in the Allen Blue and Red Alpha II reel that we put on the rod.  The final touch was feather inlays of blue and red amherst pheasant, grizzly hackle, jungle cock which all really pops with the reel combination.  I did a custom handle with burl blue and natural burl cork along with spotted rubberized cork.

"Miller Time", blue and natural burl handle, Allen Alpha II Reel, Eternity2 RX9 Rainshadow Rod...

Embedded Feather work 

The second rod is a fire fighters special and named after the fire that Ty and team were here to fight.  It is called the "Chiwaukum Creek Special" and this is the second of these rods I have built.  One was auctioned locally and the funds provided to our Fire Department Auxiliary to support our local fire department.  This rod starts with a new Rainshadow Revelation RX7 6 wt matte black blank and added to it is a grey Pacific Bay composite reel seat, red and natural burl cork along with some spotted rubberized cork.  It is matched perfectly with candy apple red and black thread and red metallic highlights.  The Allen Trout reel looks amazing on this combination and it also has embedded feathers of amherst pheasant, grizzly hackle and jungle cock.  

Chiwaukum Creek Special...

Looking forward to getting the first pictures of Ty catching some great fish with both of these rods in the future.  I was able to pick up a great TFO rod carry case that allows for all of this gear to be stored in one case along with some gear and still be carried on an airplane.
Thanks Ty for all that you did for us last year....

Kenai Alaska Trout Unlimited, Purple Haze Center Pin Rod Auctioned off

Purple Haze

 

Last year I fished the Methow River up near Winthrop Washington for some fall steelhead.  Had a great time, picked up several nice chrome fish and learned a new way to fish called Center Pin or "Pinning".  There is a special rod for this kind of fishing of course and so after doing so well with it I ordered up the components to build myself one.  Well just about the time I finished this rod it was time to head off to Christmas Island where I ended up meeting Kyle Kolodziejski from Kenai Alaska who became part of our fishing group for the week.  As the week went on we all became good friends and of course drinking and story telling buddies.  Kyle had admired my rod building skills with several of the guys using my custom rods.  He and I talked and long story short I offered to help his Kenai Trout Unlimited group out by building a rod for their annual banquet, fund raising auction.  After we returned from the trip Kyle and I talked about what kind of rod to build and one was a single handed fly rod and then I talked to him about a Center Pin rod and that was it...  I started to order all of the materials to build this rod and found out that the blank was not going to be easy to get so I had already finished my rod called Purple Haze after the colors of thread I had used along with the fact that I was listening to a lot of the Woodstock Soundtrack at the time of the build.  I ended up sending my rod to Kyle to be auctioned off.  So I packaged it up and sent it to Kenai.  The rod and a great matching Okuma RAW-II 1002 reel made $750 for the local TU Chapter.  I was and still am really excited about how this all worked out. 
The rod is a Rainshadow blank, cork handles with Composite Grey Reel Seat and black guides all the way up.  This is a 13 foot rod when finished so I end up building it in sections because I just don't have enough room to do it any other way.  I have since built two more of these rods one with the same color design and another in bright green which turned out great as well. 

Here are some pictures of the rod and reel

The color is a little off with this picture but the thread is a brilliant purple with a lighter purple metallic band along with a copper band that matches the Okuma RAW-II 1002 perfectly!!!



Add Purple Haze with Okuma RAW-II reel
 

Here is the feather work with some Grizzly Hackle, Rooster Hackle, a purple Amherst Peasant and some Jungle Cock for good measure!!!  now you can see the colors better. 

 

 

 

Special thanks to Kyle for being on the receiving end of the rod and working with the Okuma Rep who donated the RAW-II 1002 matching reel for the auction.  If you are ever looking for a guide in the upper Kenai region make sure you check Kyle out.  His group is called Keen Eye Anglers and he can be reached at 907-227-5308, www.keeneyeanglers.com   Tightlines to the new owner of the Purple Haze rod and look forward to the 2015 auction and a new creation!!!

Avochie Dream.....  Last year I was paid a visit from a couple from Aberdeen Scotland, Donald and Lorraine Kamsley.   Don and I talked the evening away around the art of fly fishing and my custom fly rods of which he took a liking to.  Don and his wife were introduced to us by George and Jimi Wilson, friends of ours here at Lake Wenatchee.  Don and I kept in touch after he returned to Scotland and he asked if I would build him a rod and I was excited to build one that could be used in Scotland.  What he was looking for was a 7 wt. Sage Xi3 that he could use in the rivers there to fish Salmon.  He also wanted a Alp's cobalt "electric" blue triangle reel seat and blue insert guide eyes, chrome snake eyes, and matching thread wrap.  He was also looking for one of the custom handles that I build but with something new a removable fighting butt that allowed the rod to be changed from a single hand to a double handed switch rod.  After some research I pulled all of the components together and got this rod going.  Here are some of the early pictures:


loose cork in design, reel seat, shim and adapter for fighting butt





Everything glued together

With everything glued together the work of wrapping eyes with matching cobalt blue thread, and two metallic bands started.  The rod turned out great and was shipped to Don a few weeks back.  He was getting ready for some June fishing  for salmon and I know that this rod will work well because I have built a few in the past and they are excellent big fish rods.  Don Matched the rod up with a Sage 7060 azure blue reel....

 

Here are some pictures of the finished product!!!

Avochie Dream, two butts, blue rings in cork, comfort grip

Avochie Dream, named after one of Don's favorite area's to fish in Scotland

A bit of Feather work embedded in the epoxy...  grizzly hackle, blue Amherst pheasant, and jungle cock...

Ready for action and Don to catch many salmon on.... 

 

 



There are several rivers in Scotland that Don fishes on, the river Dee, Deveron, and the river Don to name a few.  Here are some great shots of the kind of waters this rod will find itself fishing...


Junction Pool River

Table Rock Pool
 

Upper Table Rock Pool

Could be a bunch of my fishing buddies!!!!  behind them is the lower junction pool

River Dee, Dinnet Beat....  that's a long rod!!!  and a nice fish on the shore!!!

River Dee!!!  beautiful color in that fish!!!

 

Don and I have talked about going over to fish with him in Scotland and it just was not in the cards this year but maybe in the future I can make it happen.  It looks like I would have an amazing time and the waters look beautiful and what a bucket list place to go to!!!!