Lake Crescent

My year one anniversary of really learning to flyfish is this month. I still need to reflect on and write about that. It's been an amazing year learning to cast, read water, scout new locations, study fish, etc.

My last two adventures have not been very productive, however. I fished the Cedar River last weekend. I managed to slip away Saturday late afternoon. Water levels were low but it appeared to me that they were releasing water from the dam because the flow was a little more pushy than I had remembered. 

I used an Elk Hair Caddis and caught little 10-inch rainbows. Beautiful, feisty little fish.  As I waded downstream hoping to catch a feeding frenzy or at least a nice sized, my line got caught in a large tree stump that jammed into the middle of the stream. Rather than lose my fly, I waded out to dislodge the little bugger. Slippery rocks and pushy water caused me to force it more than I normally would. I pulled the line and heard a snap.

Snap!

The third segment of my wonderful Trout Unlimited 5-wt Winston rod snapped. It's the first time I've broken any equipment in this first intensive year of flyfishing. I wasn't upset but was disappointed that I didn't simply close the fly. I am now in touch with the Winston rod manufacturers. I will need to ship the whole rod back so they can customize the replacement. Because the rod is registered it should cost just about $50 plus shipping and handling.

On a happier note, I chaperoned my daughter's 7th grade school trip to Lake Crescent, nestled in the Olympic National Park. Below is a photo I took the first evening looking West.

 

 

I was excited for the experience with my daughter and her classmates, but I was also excited to learn that there is a rare sub-species of rainbow trout in Lake Crescent called the Beardslee trout. One of the camp counselors told me that he routinely catches 14-15 inchers, and he told me where to look.

 

In between programs and during free time, I would literally sprint down the lake shore looking for rises.  The counselor said to use large stimulators. At the mouth of Barnes Creek I found several rises near sunset on the first night. While searching the water for the next rise I felt a couple of good strong strikes, but never managed to bring one in. I got several follows, but that was about all the action over the course of several days. The weather shifted and the fish quit biting.

 

While hiking up Storm King Mountain on the second day I snapped the photo below of Lake Crescent from the trail.

 



A Sunny September Sunday

Thomas sat on a VW-sized boulder in the late afternoon sun, and told me the "king of the pool" was right behind yonder rock.

Having bushwacked through a fast-descending mountainside trail and crossed the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie, I was eager to fish. I barely heard his practiced advice as I started casting to a seam in the middle of the river, which this time of year is a very pleasant 200 cfs. Temperatures were in the mid-70s around 3:30 pm with light winds.

I quickly caught plenty of 8- and 10-inch cuttthroat and rainbows.  Thomas had brought us to a series of very nice pools.

To use an over-used phrase, the water was gin clear and trout were rising nicely to dry flies.  Nothing better.

Thomas (below) had lent me his 3-wt trout rod and he was using his brand new bamboo rod, which has quite a provenance (perhaops another time).

 

 After awhile, I started eying the same spot Thomas had seen immediately upon arrival. His words came back to me, and I cast over the top of currents moving at different speeds and my fly landed just behind a large rock with a nice pool behind it. I didn't quite like the location or the presentation so I cast again.

From the depths darted a good-sized trout like a shark in some Hollywood film. He snatched the fly and dove down behind the rock. I set the hook and watched with great excitement as the largest rainbow I've ever pulled out of the Snoqualmie dove, jumped, banked right and left and ultimately landed in my net (see below).



 



 

I can't even count the number of fish we caught during 4 very active hours on the water. I got my share of small and medium sized cutts and bows. I learned a lot from Thomas and am very appreciative. Hopefully we can do it again another time.