Fall in the North Cascades: Part 1

So far this year, the "egg hatch" in the Pacific Northwest has provided some phenomenal fishing for beautiful native trout. With this "hatch" winding down on some of my favorite rivers, my friend Dyllon and I made plans to travel a little further afield to the rivers of the North Cascades where the salmon spawning was still going strong. We got on the road by mid-morning and after battling our way through Seattle traffic, we found ourselves driving up the river valley and into the towering peaks of the North Cascades by mid-afternoon. We had selected a river were Dyllon had done well in the past and luckily when we pulled up we were the only ones there. On top of the salominds that I am used to targeting such as Coastal Rainbow and Cutthroat Trout, this stream also happened to be one of a handful of places where it is legal to target Bull Trout and the possibility of encountering one of these elusive char just added to the excitement. 

Fall colors along the steam

Anticipation was running high as we grabbed our gear and headed for the water. When we reached the stream we found a side channel packed with spawning Pink Salmon - a good indication that we were in the right spot.  

Pink Salmon spawning in a side channel

Although the few deep pockets in the side channel failed to produce anything thing, when we got to where two braids came together, I drifted and egg imitation over a drop off and watched my indicator to shoot under. When I set the hook, it was clear that this fish had some size to it and while it took some good runs, the fish stubbornly stayed down and deep. After a couple minutes of back and forth tug of war, I finally got an eye of the fish and was happy to see it was a solid Bull Trout!  Moments later I was able to slide it into the net and admire the beautiful 20” Bull Trout. Across my native trout adventures and especially in the Pacific Northwest, Bull Trout have always been one of the must elusive salmonids. These predatory char are emblematic of quality habitat and as such have become rare across much of the region. This resulted in them being listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and with so anytime I find one at the end of my line is something worth being excited about.

Off to a great start! A beautiful Bull Trout!

After I released the Bull Trout, Dyllon decided to head upstream and fish a riffle, while I kept working the drop off. The next dozen drifts along the seam failed to produce any grabs, but when I put a cast in the slower water on the inside of the seam, my indicator made it about halfway through its drift before once again plunging into the depths. While the Bull Trout had been a solid fish, it was immediately clear that this fish had a bit more size to it, but the fight was way different than the Bull Trout. While this fish also stayed down and deep, it also started doing under water cartwheels, which gave me a solid hunch as to what was on the end of my line. Sure enough after putting my trusty 6WT Scott S4 through the paces, the fish finally tired and I brought bright wild Coho hen to the net.

Second fish of the day, a wild female Coho just starting to show some spawning colors

At this point, we were less than half an hour into our trip and I had already caught two native species and when I looked up Dyllon was hooked into a decent fish as well, (which turned out to be another Bull Trout) so things were definitely off two a good start!

Dyllon working a log jam just upstream

While Dyllon continued upstream, I switched over to my streamer rod and started twitching a black sculpin through the depths. After several casts I had a massive Coho chase my streamer right up to the rod tip, but didn't take and when I lost my streamer in a tree a few casts later I decided it was time to move on and catch up with Dyllon.

On my way upstream I decided to fish the riffle Dyllon had been working and within a couple casts I hooked into a nice fish, which appeared to be another Bull Trout, but it got in the fast water and tossed the hook. After several follow up casts failed to produce any other takers, I decided it was time to catch up with Dyllon. When I caught up with Dyllon he was wrapping up working riffle pouring into the mess of logs and indicated that he had already caught three Bull Trout. While he had already worked the spot pretty thoroughly, I was fishing a slightly different looking egg than him and decided to give it a shot. After a few casts I briefly hooked up with a fish, but lost whatever it was and nobody else seemed to be interested in the riffle so I shifted my attention to the back of the hole. To do so I had to play things on the dangerous side and float my rig tight against the log jam, but right as it floated past a root wad my indicator shoot under and I hooked into and landed another Bull Trout, which was followed by yet another on the next cast.

A darkly colored Bull Trout

After releasing these fish, I moved upstream to the next run and got a surprise when I tossed my line in the shallows to set up for my next cast and a humped out Pink Salmon shot over and latched on to my egg pattern. This Pink was not particularly fresh and beyond a few quick runs didn't put up much of a fight so I was able to swing it into the shallows and remove the hook and send it back on its way.

A male Pink or "humpy" Salmon

Once I turned the Pink Salmon loose, I continued on to the next riffle. The tailout upstream of this riffle had a bunch of spawning Pink Salmon and there were 4 or 5 Chinook holding at the head of the riffle as well. With all of this spawning activity, Dyllon was able to get a decent Bull Trout just behind the Chinook and when he moved on I gave it a try. With the best holding water just downstream of the Chinook, I started by casting upstream and to the right of them and letting my rig sink and after a few casts I had a Bull Trout grab but I lost it. I decided to put in a few more casts to see if there were anymore trout around, but was surprised when one of the male Chinook broke from the group and took my egg imitation. This was not a small Chinook and it immediately took off and started peeling line, making it clear that I was severely under-gunned with my 6WT. As soon as the fight began it was over as the hook popped loose mid run. While I certainly would have loved to land a Chinook, I was also relieved when this fish popped off, as my rod was clearly outclassed.

. 

Looking upstream

Not wanting to risk another encounter with a Chinook, I kept moving upstream and caught up with Dyllon at a trench where the side channel split from the mainstem. Dyllon took the lower part of the trench, while I took the head of the trench and after just a couple casts my indicator shot under and I was hooked into a hefty fish. This fish stayed down and I had a hard time getting an eye on it to see just how big it was. However, once it finally came up Dyllon said I was going to want a hand with the net one this one and I had to agree. Luckily the fish stayed in the hole and most played a game of tug of war and after a few minutes, I guided it over to Dyllon waiting with the net. The Bull Trout in the net, was 25" battle scarred beauty that was starting to show its spawning colors with a gorgeous pale yellow tone showing along the belly and was definitely my fish of the day.

Releasing a beautiful 25" Bull Trout - my fish of the day

After releasing the big Bull Trout, Dyllon and I continued upstream, to a gorgeous run that screamed fish. This time Dyllon took point and headed for the top of the run, while I decided to fish my way upstream with a streamer. It didn't take long for Dyllon to start getting into fish and it seemed that every time I looked up he was hooked into a Bull Trout. While it wasn't lights out with the streamer, about halfway up the run, I watched a female Pink Salmon dart across the run to chase it down. 

A female Pink Salmon that took a black sculpin pattern

After releasing the Pink Salmon, I had a long gap between grabs before another fish hammered the streamer. This fish immediately began doing the underwater cartwheels characteristic of Coho Salmon and despite being a big fish, it basically just cartwheeled its way straight to the net. After snapping a quick photo I watched the Coho shoot back into the pool and decided it was time to switch back to my nymph rig again.

A beautiful rose red hook-nosed male Coho Salmon

While I had been working the streamer though the hole, Dyllon had managed to pull four Bull Trout out of the riffle at the top end run. However, despite this when I came in with a slightly different colored egg imitation, it seemed like I had first water and I proceeded to catch four nice Bull Trout out of the spot myself. As we worked our way upstream, the fishing continued to exceed anything that I would have expected, with each run, riffle or side channel producing several more solid Bull Trout, until we finally came to a particularly challenging river crossing and opted to head back downstream. With a good stretch of water between us and the car, we decided to fish our way back downstream, and while things were a bit slower each spot continued to produce another Bull Trout or two.

Dyllon hooked into another Bull Trout

This was until we came to a nice run that I had passed over, but Dyllon had caught a single Bull Trout out of. With our previous light coverage of the run we decided to work it a little more thoroughly and it didn't take long for it to produce results. With both Dyllon and I hooking into a pair of solid fish just moments from each other, resulting in a 20" Bull Trout double. 

Not bad for a double - dual 20" Bull Trout

After releasing our double, I noted several Chinook on a redd towards the back of the run and when I threw a cast next to them, sure enough my indicator shot under and I landed yet another mid-teens Bull Trout. Slightly downstream of the Chinook there were even more Bull Trout and Dyllon and I took turns working the run and landed another 4 between us including my second best of the day at 22".

Me with another big Bull Trout

Spawned out salmon along the river

By the time we reached the car, we both had long since lost count of how many fish we had encountered, but needless to say it goes down as one of the best days on the water I can remember and certainly by far the best Bull Trout fishing I have ever had. 

While the day had already far exceeded my expectations, we still had a bit of daylight left and Dyllon said he had a couple spots in mind, so we headed back to the river. Unfortunately the first two spots already had folks fishing them targeting salmon and when we finally found a piece of water to ourselves, daylight was running very short indeed. That didn't stop the Bull Trout though and as soon as we found a riffle with some spawning salmon, the Bull Trout once again started showing themselves although keeping them on provide challenging and I only went 1 for 5 on my hook up to landing ratio.

Yet another Bull Trout

Right as we were getting ready to leave, I saw a nice sized fish that looked be a Coho roll in the tailout and I was pleasantly surprised when I tossed a casted just upstream and it went for it. After a couple of minutes I brought a beautiful rosy red Coho to hand, making for a perfect time to call it a day.

A last light hook nosed Coho

All I can say is that this day will go down as one of the best I can remember having outside of Alaska and fishing behind all of the spawning salmon, it really felt more like Alaska than the Pacific Northwest. However, this wasn't the end of our North Cascades adventure, as we had planned to this to be a multi day affair with our friend TJ meeting in the evening so the three of us could be back on the river first thing in the morning.

Washington Wanderings

 After my last native trout trip, it has been time for me to stick closer to home for a while, as well as to hunt down some local native trout with a couple friends from out of state.

My first outing after getting back was a short trip to my home river after some resident Coastal Cutthroat. As with everywhere around the west, Washington is feeling the exceptionally dry summer and the river was particularly low. On my favorite stretch of the river, the first riffle is usually extremely productive this time of the year, but barely had enough water to even hold fish. Despite this, I did manage to get one small Cutthroat and one Shiner, both on my dropper. Interestingly the Cutthroat had quite a bit more speckling than normal and appeared to have black spot disease, something I had not seen before in this stream.

A small resident Coastal Cutthroat with blackspot disease

A small shiner caught on a dropper

Fishing my way upstream, I found a deeper run and managed to pick up a few more Cutthroat around 6-8” on my dry and while I am usually able to find a few fish in the 10-12” range on most trips, it wasn’t happening this time and after a couple of hours and perhaps a dozen small Cutthroat I figured I had seen enough and called it for the day.

The river

A healthy little Coastal Cutthroat

About a week after my Cutthroat outing, my buddies from Utah, Dan and Paul flew in for three days of fishing. The first fish that they were hoping to check off was a Coastal Cutthroat and as the local river had been producing mainly small fish, we decided to start on the Puget Sound to see if wee could find some sea-runs. 

We arrived at our first beach shortly after the low tide and at a beach with a good constricted passage, prime Cutthroat water. However, after a couple hours we had only had a few short strikes and follows but no fish landed and we decided to move on. The next beach we went too was at its ideal tide, and Paul got one Coho smolt, but again the Cutthroat were nowhere to be seen, so we decided to try one last beach. Unfortunately, this one also gave us a blank. It seemed to be one of those days where the fish didn’t want to bite... As I was out of time for the day, Dan and Paul ran to the local river and found the Cutthroat right where I had found them the week before.

A beautiful day on the water, regardless of slow fishing

The next day we were headed deep into the Olympics after native Coastal Rainbows. The stream that we were heading too is one of the more unique ones in Washington. This river has a set of barrier falls in its mid-section and as a result has Rainbows with colorations that I have not seen in other local populations. These fish are and almost pure white color, with prominent part marks and a vibrant pink/red band down the lateral line. The other interesting thing about this river, is that it is one of the only places in the lower 48 states with a true native population of Dolly Varden. These Dollies fit a different niche than the Rainbows, being more of benthic feeders, but are mixed in a about a 50/50 ratio and are known to rise to dries from time to time.

The shady river

After making the drive several hours to the river, we geared up and hiked upstream another couple of miles to a stretch that has treated me well in the past. Paul took the first crack at the river and after a few casts caught a small Dolly Varden on his nymph and in the next hole he got a nice about 10” Rainbow. Not long after, Dan too caught a small Dolly this time on a dry fly. 

A small native stream resident Southern Dolly Varden

The greatest challenge with this stream is that it is very high gradient and it can be a long distance between holding water. After Dan and Paul got into their fish, spent some time working along the river before I found a decent little run wit a few nice pockets thrown in. I started out in the soft water near the top of the run and as I picked up my line to make another cast I noticed a fish holding in the soft water side of the seam. On my next cast I got the fly right where I saw the fish and it instantly grabbed my dropper and I pulled in a nice little Dolly. After few more casts, there didn’t seem to be any other takers so I worked down the run a bit. Where the water picked turned into a bit of a riffle, a decent fish rose and this time I brought in a Rainbow. After landing that fish, I cast a couple few feet further back and rose another nicer fish. This one ended up being about 10” and was beautifully colored.

A beautiful pale white native Coastal Rainbow Trout

The fast flowing stream

We worked the stream for most of the afternoon, with each of us getting in a handful of Dollies and Rainbows, before heading back towards Olympia.

For the last day with Dan and Paul, we were heading east to the crest of the Cascade Mountains to search for some Eastern Cascades-Clearwater Westslope Cutthroat. This stream was quite a bit smaller than the last one, but holds a pure population of some of the most beautiful Cutthroat I have encountered. 

Cascade Mountain Cutthroat country

Paul headed up the road to try fishing upstream a ways, while Dan and I started right by the car. Just as with previous trips to this stream, the Cutthroat were plentiful, if not all that large. Within a few minutes Dan had his first Westslope of the day and not too long after that I had mine. As we worked our way upstream and further from the car, the holding water improved and so did the size of the fish, with a few running up to 10”.

A vibrantly colored native Cutthroat

After covering about a 1/2 mile of the creek, we decided to use our last couple hours before Dan and Paul flew out to visit my one of favorite streams in Washington. This other stream is stunningly beautiful and has equally beautiful Cutthroat. I had fished this other spot a number of times of the years, a rarely ran into other anglers, although within the last few years, a Seattle area fly shop started doing guided trips and pressure has gone up significantly since. Unfortunately, this was meant that when we got to the stream, there was already someone else fishing my favorite stretch and while we got a few minutes of fishing in upstream, it took longer to get to the water and we only had time to get a few casts in, catching a single fish before it was time to head out.

Another native Cutthroat

Despite a set back on our last spot, it was a great trip and excellent to spend time on the water with Dan and Paul, touring some of Washington's unique native trout locations. I am hoping that next year, I will be able to make it out to Utah to visit with them and hopefully check the Bonneville Cutthroat off of my list as well. 

Winging it

I am always on the lookout for that perfect mountain stream. No matter how nice of a stream I find in know that there has to be another one out there waiting for me. A few days ago I made the run up to the Cascades with the full intention of checking out a stream that had been on my ever growing "to fish" list. However, as has been known to happen with me I over shot my destination by a few miles and ended up somewhere entirely different. My first thought was to just turn around go with the original plan, but it just happened that my first opportunity to turn around was at a creek crossing. Of course I had to take a look at this random creek before turning around and I really liked what I saw! With that I had a new plan and grabbed my 1wt and headed down to the water.

The creek

It seems that about 50-75% of the creeks in the Washington Cascades that look good and have such easy access end up being hardly worth the effort. This was not one of those. On my first cast the shadow of a trout rose from the depths of the small pool and slammed my dry. Being my first cast and with me doubting the fishiness of the creek, this rise caught me totally off guard and I missed the fish. However, on the next cast I was a bit more prepared and ended up bringing a beautiful little Rainbow to hand. This pool produced five or six more smallish trout, before I decided that it was time to go investigate some of the upstream pools.

That ended up being a much more difficult prospect than I originally thought, as the creek got hemmed in by a canyon pretty quickly. However, with a bit of cliff climbing I found a beautiful deep pool that screamed trout. My first few casts came up blank, before I noticed a nice sized trout working a foam line along the cliff a few feet in front of me. It took a couple of casts, but I finally caught its attention and the trout came up and gulped my dry. This trout had a lot of spirit and put up a good battle on the 1wt before finally coming to hand.

A beautifully colored Rainbow Trout

The coloration of this fish immediately struck me as compared to native Coastal Rainbow Trout that I am used to, this fish was much more vibrantly colored and looked much more like McCloud River Redband, making me wonder about the stocking history of the watershed. Additionally, ever now and again I would encounter a very clear Cuttbow hybrid. After the Redband like fish, I managed to get one more similarly size fish out of the same spot, this time on my dropper, but that was all that this hole would give up so I decided to move on. The terrain made in impossible to head upstream, so instead I went back down and found another very fishy pool.

The pool

Where I had to work for the fish in the pool upstream, this pool was packed with willing trout and provided me with a good half an hour of fun before the bite went off. The vast majority of these fish were Rainbows, although a handful of the appeared to be Coastal Cutthroat or hybrids.

A Cuttbow with an appetite for a Royal PMX

After covering this pool I decided to go with a change of pace and headed to a nearby larger piece of water. This river is one of the few Washington Cascade streams that still has a full fledged old growth forest along its banks and is truly wild still. No dams, no development, no clear cuts, everything is just as it is supposed to be. However, even with this being the case this river in not known for particularly strong trout populations and is touted as a tough fishery. In the hour and a half that I fish this stream, it proved that point as one silver bullet of a Coastal Rainbow was all that I could manage to find.

One wild Washington river

A typical silvery native Coastal Rainbow Trout

On the way home from the trip I decided to make a quick visit to one of Washington's more notable landmarks for a quick stroll in the high country before finishing my drive.

Mighty Mt. Rainier

Eastside Redbands

Last week I headed out to a small stream on the eastern slope of the Cascades, which I have been meaning to check out for the last several years. The research that I had done on this drainage showed that it was rather rugged and home to populations of native Columbia Basin Redbands, Westslope Cutthroat and a few Bull Trout. Being that creek the was located a little further east in the rain shadow of the Cascades, it took on a little be more of an arid Rocky Mountain feel. Also due to being a bit further east summer still had a stronger hold on the region and it was already in the low 80's when I arrived. Perfect wet wading conditions. Like usual I rigged up my 2wt with an attractor dry and a small size 16 bi-color prince nymph dropper. Being early fall the creek was low, but working my way upstream I quickly found and nice pool with fish rising along the basalt cliff edge.

A productive pool on the creek

Most of these fish ended up being juvenile salmon, which are slowly starting to repopulate the streams of the Yakima River watershed. These little fish were extremely aggressive and made it difficult to get my fly in front of any trout, but after a handful of casts my dropper went under with a little to much force to be a salmon fry and sure enough I hooked into a nice Redband. For their size these Redbands are exceptional fighters seemed to be bent on spending as much time out of the water as in.

A picture perfect Columbia Basin Redband

Each pool seemed to have several decent Redbands in it and the creek had just the right combination of pools and deeper pocket water to keep me occupied. At the head of one of the may basalt rimmed pools I placed a cast right along a perfect looking seem and was caught off guard when a solid 18" Redband cruised up and grabbed my dry fly. I got a good hook up, but the combination of the swift current at the head of the pool and my light rod gave the fish the advantage and within short order it was able to shake me loose. After combing the pool for any other unusually large fish, which of course there weren't any of, I continued upstream and continued to catch the more standard sized 8-10" Redbands.

A rugged section of the creek

Finally I got to the point where the shallow to deep water ratio got to low and the creek was too shallow to fish for an exceptionally long stretch so I decided to head back downstream. As I started to work my way back toward the car a nice October Caddis hatch kicked into gear and the Redbands started looking up a bit more. I put a size 8 Stimulator on and started catching a few fish out of each of the pools that I had thought were already fished out. I never did see any of the Westslope Cutthroat, but the feisty little Redbands continued to keep me occupied until I found my way back to the car.

An October Caddis eating Redband

A day in the high Cascades

I am still working on writing up a post on my Southwest trip as there is a lot to talk about with almost two weeks on the road. Since I am still a few days away from finishing that post, I figured that I might as well cover my most recent adventure first. Shortly after getting back from my long trip to the Southwest I got a call from my buddy Ryan wanting to know if I would like to go hiking near Mt. Rainier National Park. Even though this was really more of a hiking trip I threw my 2wt in my pack for good measure as there were some Brook Trout where we were heading. I usually am not huge on fishing for non-native trout, but as I said the fishing was a bonus on this trip.

We arrived at the trailhead at around 9:30 AM and began our 3.5 mile trek into a couple of small lakes that lie along the crest of the Cascade Mountains. It was a crisp morning in the mountains and the slopes were just starting to show the first traces of autumn. The lakes lie in a small glacial cirque and within an hour or so we were looking down upon the lakes.

A view of the larger of the two lakes from the ridge

It was about a mile down into the bowl that the lakes are situated in and upon arriving at the bottom we decided to head to the smaller of the two lakes to have lunch and maybe try a few casts. Other than a periodic breeze the lake was glassy calm with not so much as a dimple on the surface to indicate that there were any fish around. Even so after lunch I rigged up my rod with a small Thin Mint Bugger, found a decent looking point with a steep drop off and started fishing. I proceeded to worked my way around about a quarter of the lake, trying several different flies and casting to some great looking structure but never saw a sign of any fish. With the lack of fish activity in this lake I decided to head over to the next lake to try my luck. However, there was a small stream between the lakes that I thought that I might as well check out first.

The stream between the lakes

At this point I had a Zug Bug nymph on and upon approaching the stream I could see a number of small Brookies holding in the current. A definite improvement in comparison to the lake. I picked the largest fish that I could see and tossed my fly in front of it. My fly barely had time to sink a few inches before the Brook Trout rushed forward and engulfed it. Even though this was one of the larger fish that I could see in the creek, it was by no means a large trout and as such it was no match for my 2wt. After catching this fish I continued to work my way downstream towards the other lake catching several other Brookies as I went, some smaller and some larger than the first one.

A small but beautiful Brook Trout

Once I reached the next lake the same exact scenario as with the first lake replayed itself. No hits, no rising fish, nothing. As such I didn't spend much more time fishing and we decided to get back on the trail and hike out again. The hike out of the cirque was a bit steep, but once we reached the top it was an easy downhill jaunt across and alpine meadows with stunning views of Mount Rainier and the surrounding peaks.

Mount Rainier on the hike out of the lake

Central Washington Westslope Cutthroat

This past Saturday, I found myself in need of some hiking and more importantly fly fishing for native trout. The day's weather started out in the typical Western Washington fashion with clouds and a threat of rain, making a trip to the sunny eastern slope of the Cascade Mountains sound very good. The stream that I would end up fishing, sort of choose itself. The original plan was to fish one of the rivers in the area, but on the hike in I first had to cross a crystal clear small stream with a nice deep pool and rising trout. This was to much to resist and I rigged up my 2wt rod with a Royal PMX and black Copper John dropper and started fishing. In the first pool I turned two fish, but couldn't get a solid hook-up so I headed downstream to search out some more productive water.

My first Cutthroat of the day

This section of the stream flowed through a patch of forest, and when I came up to a small but deep pool I could see two trout holding in the shade just under a log jam. I placed my short cast into the main flow and just as my fly reached the log jam I watched one of the trout cruise over and confidently grab my Copper John. I got a good hook set and the fish thrashed around spooking the other fish before finally being brought to my net.

Another trout showing the typical coloration and spotting pattern of stream resident Eastern Cascades Westslope Cutthroat.

Just below the logjam was another pool with an exposed root wad. I placed my cast in a gap between the tangle of roots and watched Cutthroat slowly rise to my Royal PMX, however I was a little trigger happy and pulled the fly away before I had him on. This scenario played out several two more times before I finally got a solid hook up and landed another beautiful Cutthroat.

The stream in the meadow section

A little ways below here, I saw another Cutthroat holding at the tail of a small pool, which readily fell for my nymph. After catching this fish the nature of the stream abruptly changed as it flowed through a meadow reminiscent of the Rocky Mountains. The stream meandered through this section and was a joy to fish even though it was suspiciously devoid of trout. I fished to the end of the meadow and not finding any more fish so I called it on another successful native trout outing.

Washington's Native Westslope Cutthroat

The east side of the Cascade Mountains in Washington State hosts a handful of watersheds in which native Westslope Cutthroat have managed persist despite the onslaught of habitat destruction and non-native trout introductions that over occurred over the last century. Since discovering it a few years ago, I try to make annual trip to my favorite one of these streams to fish its beautiful native Cutthroat. While this is often a solo trip for me, this year I was joined by Clint. With the high snow pack and cool spring, we found the creek running about a foot higher than usual, but luckily it the water was crystal clear.

 

The creek

Generally this stream is a pocket water fisherman's dream, but due to the high water the fish were not in their usual lies, preferring the slower pools and runs. Once we found where they were holding through, the fish were quite eager to rise for a dry fly. We worked our way upstream catching several Cutthroat up to 13 inches in each likely looking spot.

 

A beautiful native Westslope Cutthroat

The little canyon on the stream

A beautiful and productive canyon stretch (photo above), Clint caught a fish, but after unhooking it his fly got tangled in the net. In the few moments that it took him to free the fly, I managed to catch 3 fish on three casts and lost a 4th one. 

A net full of Cutthroat

After we got Clint's fly free he pull two more Westslopes out of the hole before we continued upstream. We continued working our way upstream having to climb around several sets of falls to get to the best water between the last set of falls and the point where the creek forks.

The last waterfall before the best water on the creek.

Above these falls the average size of the fish drastically increased being closer to 10", instead of the 6-8" below. It was above there that Clint got his big fish of the day.

Clint's big Westslope

A dry fly caught native Cutthroat

We finished out the day by fishing up to the forks on the creek, I got a couple decent fish in my favorite riffle on the stream, before we worked our way back to the car about 1.5 miles downstream, after a very productive day of fishing.