Traver Fly Fishing Writing Award

Fingers crossed.

I've entered the prestigious Robert Traver Fly-Fishing Writing Award, offered by the John D. Voelker Foundation in partnership with Fly Rod and Reel Magazine.

For old timers and film buffs, Justice Voelker's pen name was Robert Traver .  Traver wrote Anatomy of a Murder, which led to the Jimmy Stewart movie by the same name. I have known Traver more for his excellent trout fishing books, including Trout Madness.

I am now reading an anthology of Traver Award winners, In Hemingway's Meadow, which I recommend.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Silver and Cedar

I fished all three days of this Memorial Day weekend, darting between my son's baseball games and three new fisheries. 

I was skunked at Kayak Point near Marysville on the Puget Sound. I went looking for searun cutts and searun bull trout.  I saw some dimples on the surface and even had a small fish take my popper, but no bites and no fish. The day was warm and so swimmers and boaters basically ruined the opportunity. Note to beach people. If you see a guy fishing please throw your rocks in some other direction.

My two other fishing opportunities were more productive and more enjoyable.

Silver Lake is located in Everett, Washington. It is nestled into a neighborhood and has recently been stocked with triploid rainbow trout. I saw one of the big ones jump. I didn't get into any trout, but I did catch my first crappie (I think it's a white crappie) on a fly. Below you can see an area of water I fished and below that the little crappie I took on just my second cast with a Hare's Ear/Copper John nymph combo. He took the trailing Hare's Ear.

I also fished a section of the Cedar River near Landsburg. I hiked a nice trail for about a half hour and climbed down the riverbank to a section where the 800 cfs water pooled nicely near some fallen trees. The water looked perfect for holding trout away from the rushing current to my left. I precariously climbed over tree branches and hugged the bank until I got good footing and could cast about 40 feet into the pool, which made a small cove partially covered by brush. I half expected to find one of the reported 12-13 inch rainbows in this secluded area.

I started off with a March Brown but switched to the trusty Hare's Ear. I had felt a few nibbles and then finally was rewarded with a hard strike from a small but beautiful cutthroat.

The photos below show the Hare's Ear and the stretch of water I fished.  The final photo is taken underwater. Notice the prominent cutthroat coloring below the jaw.

Mother's Day Trout

Mother's Day and I 'cutt'-n-run around 2 pm to fish the Snoqualmie. This weekend has been unseasonably sunny and warm. Temperatures reached 80 in North Bend this afternoon. I gauged water temperatures at 50-even. Water flows were picking up as warm temperatures are melting the remaining snows in the upper elevations of the Cascades.
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Note that I successfully last fished the Middle Fork earlier this week on May 7th as water levels hit median daily averages. Today I wanted to test the waters as they started to spike again with spring run-off. I found the river easily wadeable at today's slightly elevated levels. The wind was gusting upstream but was manageable.

With limited time I returned to my favorite fishing hole, and made my way downstream, casting my new Winston 5 wt and the best-ever flyline from Orvis (more on that another time). I used a Copper John and Blue Winged Olive Emerger team in a nice pool just away from the rapids. Plenty of submerged boulders and riffles on the surface. The water looked trout-ish even if there were no risers.

A very aggressive cutthroat took the BWO Emerger, which trailed the Copper John, and fought very nicely working first to the right and then to the left. The fish had nice coloring and was easily 10-inches, a nice cutthroat on this river.

Yesterday I purchased a sweet little Brodin trout net from Orvis. I had struggled in my early flyfishing experience to get the time I needed to examine the fish, photograph the fish and safely return the fish so I bought this net to facilitate the whole process. Turns out you buy the net and then a magnet-clip combo so that it attaches to your "D" ring on the pack or vest. Who know what "D" refers to but it's the ring on the back of your flyfishing vest. This whole combo makes it easy for you to carry and cast with the net then simply pluck it from your pack or vest when needed.

I also bought a cheap Fugi underwater digital camera, which I carry around my neck to improve my fish photos.. I am still the world's worst fish photographer, but at least I got photos this time.

When will I have so much equipment hanging from my neck that I simply topple over into the cold stream?

May flows

Today I had about an 90 minutes to fish from 12:30-2 pm. Temperatures around mid-day in North Bend along the forks of the Snoqualmie reached the mid-60s on their way up to low 70s. Winds were gentle, and much to my delight the water flows looked manageable at less than 1,500 cubic feet per second.

I suited up quickly in waders and assembled my new Winston trout rod, which has had a pretty good catch-ratio so far. I tied on a Hare's Ear emerger for no particular reason other than I knew I wanted to get below the surface and I was seeing bug activity at mid-day.

The Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie was relatively clear, cold and surprisingly wadeable. The boulders in this particular stretch create a number of pools and slack water where I felt trout would be holding just out of the rapids. After a half hour or so I switched to a team approach -- a March Brown dry on top and a Copper John nymph as the dropper. I cast just just the seam of the run and pool, let the team drift a bit and stripped in line at a purposeful rate. Just as the fly was reaching a boulder I felt a healthy tug and a cutthroat bent my pole. After a strip or two the fish jumped up out of the water and made another effort to get downstream. I brought the fish in but did not measure or photograph. I would estimate the fish was 8-9 inches with nice coloring.

I felt certain there more fish to be had but that was it, and I ran out of time.

There is more snow melt to come, but it felt like today might be the beginning of more fishable streams and rivers in our near future?

Friday I fished for searuns on the Puget Sound. I saw a lot of small fish -- I assume baby Chum. Sunday night I tried again for hatchery rainbown on Green Lake. I didn't see any nor did I get any nibbles. Even the Osprey seemed to get skunked.

But optimism is in the air this May afternoon.