Happy Opening Day 2017

Wandering upstream along the Touchet in Lewis and Clark State Park , I happened upon a gap in the brush revealing a deep pool with an enormous submerged tree. A swift current slowed just above it, creating a seam in the water and then a tranquil piece of water.

If ever there was ideal water for a trout to hold, this was it. Yet, I've never caught a single fish in this stretch of the Touchet. Not even a bite. So I wasn't optimistic.

Nevertheless I paused to survey the prospects of making a cast in such a precarious, confined spot. To begin, the bank was higher than I like. And the brush was smothering. As I looked up to my right at the branches, I heard a considerable splash in the water. Ha, there are fish here. I decided that if I held my rod high and did a backcast I could get the stimulator with a prince nymph dropper into the right piece of water.

On the first cast, the white stimulator contrasted beautifully with the deep blue water as it floated gently downstream. Nothing. I must have been just short. I would need to get more line out and let it slip beneath the overhanging branches of a large tree.

False cast, false cast and there. The fly was headed just where I wanted it.

Suddenly, from the depths, I saw the flash of a broad trout side as it attacked the stimulator with such gusto that it bent my new 3-weight Helios to the breaking point. I set the hook and watched what looked to me to be an 18-20" rainbow plunge deeper and head for the current. The rod felt heavy as I got the fish on the reel and turned it away from the fast water. This was no dummy. The rainbow then made for the submerged tree as a I grunted and reeled with haste in hopes of getting him back up and away from harm's way.

Unfortunately, the combination of my inexperience at landing large fish like this in tight spots, and being a little under-powered with the 3-weight led to the trout spitting the fly right back at me -- like a slingshot.

"Thanks for playing," the trout seemed to say.

"Happy opening day," I replied, thrilled for the experience.

This year I returned to the same spots I chronicled five years ago. After watching my son's Walla Walla Sweets win their Opening Night against the Wenatchee Applesox the night before, I rose just before daybreak at 5 am to celebrate my own Opening Day on Washington's wonderful trout rivers.

I named this one Dayton

I drove straight to Dayton as the sun rose above the gorgeous Walla Walla hills. There are spots right in town that I had held trout back in 2012 when I fished a rainy and blustery opening day. And sure enough, those spots still hold trout, though they seemed smaller this year. I did manage to get a couple of nice 12" rainbows near the bridge. And in all, I probably caught a dozen 'bows.

Earlier in the week my friends J.C. Biaggi and Jeff Cirillo caught some smallmouth bass on the Walla Walla River.

So the summer is starting well.