Agony & Ecstasy

I headed out this afternoon to the North and the Middle Forks of the Snoqualmie. The weather is cloudy and cool in the morning and then magnificent in the afternoon starting around 1 pm.

The North Fork is at about 130 cfs and the Middle Fork is about 410 cfs. They are nicely wadeable now.

Not much to report on the North Fork. I hooked a couple of small cutthroat and rainbows but landed none.

The real story is the Middle Fork. After a lackluster experience on the North Fork I drove a short distance to my favorite spot on the Middle and caught a very pretty 12" Rainbow on a Stimulator quickly. I cast a short distance into the seam of a run and the fish hit it pretty good. 

I spent the next hour wading downstream and not catching anything. The shadows were growing on the far-side of the stream so I waded out into some bolders and cast a good distance out into a narrow part of the stream beneath some trees. I was using a dry fly when I saw the biggest trout I've ever seen in this river leap from the water to try and nail my fly. I would say the fish was 15-16" and fat. 

I cast a couple more times when I saw the fly disappear and the line tighten. I knew the fish was heavy because the flyline actually burned my finger.  I striped it in a few times but lost the fish. I think I fought rather than simply raising the rod and letting the fish hook itself a little better. Good fish-finding but poor technique on my part. I really regretted missing this one.

But it was a great day on the river.

Poking fun

My kids like to make fun of my interest in fishing. They know that if water is nearby I am wondering if there are fish.

The result is some pretty funny memes they've created.

Phantom Lake Bass

Phantom Lake is on the way home, and I've often wondered if it holds fish. By summertime the lily pads are so thick and the brambles so dense it's hard to see how one would actually access the water.

But yesterday I had an hour to spare and decided to try. I drug my float tube to a small clearing on the western edge and began kicking my way through the thicket until I found a little passageway out into the open lake. It was sunny and warm. No one was on the lake as I began casting a 5-weight with a brown Woolly Bugger back toward the lily pads.

There was no sign of fish but I had read several years ago an old post about someone catching bass in this lake. I cast for about 15 minutes with nothing. But then I slowed my retrieve a little and I felt the line tense. At first I thought I'd hooked the lily pad but then it began to quiver and I knew I had something on. Up came a one-pound black bass. I was thrilled to see the lake still had fish.

I switched over to a green popper and quickly had another largemouth, though this one was a little smaller.

By now it was time to get home so I headed back to my little passageway into the brambles and tried there before entering. There was some varied vegetation in this area and I must admit that a perfect cast was not wasted. I saw a boil and then a decent 1.5 pound black jumped out of the water for the popper. It fought pretty well and I snapped this photo below.

June and July have been good for bass. I caught a rock bass in Centralia last weekend in a river there. And I've written about the smallmouth bass I caught in Sammamish.

I am ready to get back to some trout fishing when time permits. I am partial to the beautiful streams where trout live and their more thrilling runs and fights.