Resident Coho Time

It is that time of the year, when the trout streams and lakes here in Washington State are closing down for the season, but fortunately the Puget Sound remains open. The end of the trout season heralds in the beginning of the winter's resident Coho Salmon season. These resident Coho opt out of the long oceanic journey that their migratory brethren undertake and instead remain in the estuarine waters of the Puget Sound throughout their life cycle. For local fly fisherman, this means that they are available throughout much of the year. For the last several weeks I had to cut back on my fishing time a bit in order to study for the GRE, so that I can hopefully get into grad school. I got the test out of the way last week and have been itching to get back out to chase some fish around.

On Monday the weather was typical for western Washington, cloudy and rainy, but with only a light breeze, and there was a good outgoing tide that slacked off right around dark... Perfect conditions for fly fishing. With conditions looking good, I headed out to an old standby beach for resident Coho to try my luck. When I arrived at the beach, I found that I had the beach to myself like usual, so I started walking down toward a point were the fish usually hang out. On the way down to the point I saw a fish jump a few hundred feet down the beach, followed by another and another. As resident Coho generally don't stay in one spot for very long, I knew that if I wanted to have any chance of catching any of these fish I had to get to them fast, so I did the only reasonable thing and ran for it. The fish were still jumping when I got to the spot so I placed myself slightly in front of their path and started casting like a madman. On the first cast a fish slammed my Marabou Clouser Minnow and I quickly brought it in, turned it loose and started casting again. On the next cast my fly barely had time to hit the water and another Coho attacked it. In regular Coho form, the second that the fish felt the hook he was straight out of the water and doing his best to throw my fly, but it was not to be so and after a short fight I brought him in.

A typical resident Coho

A gray day on the beach

After this fish, it was over and the school had moved on either in search of food or more likely due to a group of seals that were lurking about in the area. With the fish gone from this spot, I move over to the point and covered the water there, hooking up with another slightly larger resident Coho that was kind enough to spit my fly out before I could bring him in. After this the fishing completely died, so I decided head down to another spot that the Coho seem to like to frequent and kept my eyes open for jumpers along the way. I didn't find any jumpers like I was hoping for, but when I got to the spot I did catch a small Chinook Salmon. At this point the tide was slacking off, and it seemed that the resident Coho had moved on, but instead of throwing in the towel I decided I hiked down the beach about a mile to another point that gets the current moving even when the tide has died down. I spent about a half an hour here and did hook up with one resident but LDR'd him.

At this point it was starting to get dark, so I figured I better head toward the trail. However, one the way back I finally spotted some more jumping fish and it was game on once again. As before, on the first cast I caught another fish and on the next cast I missed second one, but these fish were on the move so the third cast came up empty. Jumping fish kept giving away the school's position, so I took off down the beach in pursuit. I tried to get in front of the school before stopping to fish again and would get a few casts in at each spot that I stopped before the school moved past me and I had to relocate again. I picked up another fish this way and lost several others, before I finally lost the school again. It seemed that the fishing was going to stay good for some time, but the light was failing so I put on the head lamp that I keep in my vest and changed my fly out for a glow in the dark one and got back to fishing. 

The sun was completely down, when the resident Coho returned and liked what they saw with my glow in the dark fly and I pulled one out of the group before they vanished into the darkness. With the resident Coho gone, I started fishing my way down the beach hoping to find them again, but instead found another small Chinook Salmon before the weather convinced me that it was finally time to call it a night. 

When I called Blake up and gave him a report of how I had done, his reply was "what are you doing tomorrow," and my reply was "fishing you in?" Of course he was, but when Tuesday rolled around the wind was absolutely howling and we almost opted to just tie some flies instead, but somehow convinced ourselves that our spot would be sheltered from the wind. It wasn't. Me, Blake and his friend Mark arrived at the beach to find the Sound looking more like the ocean with whitecaps, rollers and a crashing surf. However, the fish were still there so we got to it.

Blake and Mark working the beach

Within a couple of minutes of arriving, Blake had caught his first fish and I stationed myself off of the point. Shortly after stationing myself on the point, a saw a fish jump in between a couple of waves and made a cast to it. It is probably stretching it a bit to call it casting under these conditions, as I had to face shore and make a short forward cast and than a high back cast and let the wind do what it would with my line. This was definitely not the most elegant cast I have ever made, but the fish didn't care and smashed my fly. I quickly released this fish and lobbed my fly back out and immediately had another fish on. This one was a much larger resident at around 17" and put on a fine show of acrobatics before I finally landed it. What struck me about this fish wasn't it's length but its girth, the pig of a fish was proportioned like a football and must have been a good 5" or 6" from the back to the belly. After releasing the fish, I watched the rest of the school jumping towards Blake amid the waves. Just like clockwork once they got to him, he caught two fish, then they were gone.

An average resident Coho

After this I got one more resident, and missed another before the wind got even stronger and it became risky to wade much deeper than my knees as a huge sneaker wave was likely to come in an soak anyone who wasn't paying enough attention. With sunsetting and the Sound looking like it was more suited for surfing than fly fishing, it was time to head home after a great albeit windy outing.

Me casting amid the surf at sunset

Back to the saltwater

It had been sometime since I had fished the saltwater, so when my friend Blake called me up wanting to go out to a couple of our favorite spots there was no way that I was going to turn him down. October is prime time for salmon, which are returning to spawn in streams throughout the Puget Sound area and as such our first spot to hit was a local estuary, which receives a healthy run of Coho and Chum Salmon. We arrived at the estuary a couple of hours after the tide began to flood and started fishing. The thing that I have always loved about this place is that it has been left in a fairly natural state, and even though it is close to home it gives the feeling of a wilderness experience.

 

The estuary at high tide

When we first started fishing the water had poor visibility, but we found a school of Coho almost right away and each got several good takes, but no solid hook ups. However, as the tide began to rise the water cleared and fish showed less and less interest in our offerings. Even so, as I was working a school of fish I heard Blake yell that he needed the net, so I ran upstream to find him tied into a heavy fish. When he finally brought the fish to the net, it wasn't a salmon but instead one of the biggest Coastal Cutthroat that I have seen. This stream certainly has the potential to produce some large Cutthroat and this fish was a prime example, measuring right around 20" and weighing over 3lbs.

Blake's big Cutthroat

Another shot of the big Coastal Cutthroat

After Blake got his big Cutthroat the fishing for salmon didn't show any signs of improvement and so we gave it another hour before deciding to move on to our second spot. The next beach is located within close proximity to several estuaries, and usually holds good numbers of staging salmon this time of the year. We got there at slack tide and fishing started out slow with a few fish jumping, but not much biting. However, once the tide started moving again the fish started biting and the fishing improved. Most the fish here were Chum Salmon averaging 8 to 12lbs, but there were also some Coho hanging around as well. Numbers were not the problem either, instead the difficult part was finding the right fly and retrieve that might entice the lock jawed salmon to bite. Once we figured that out though and found some willing fish we started hooking up with fish every few casts. These fish were no push overs either and thought nothing of taking us well into our backing and putting our gear to the edge of its limits. When all was said and done, Blake and I caught and released about five salmon apiece, including several chrome Chum, before the weather finally gave out on us and we were blown off the water.

Me hooked up with a big Chum Salmon

A bright female chum salmon just beginning to show its spawning colors

Blake with a big male Chum Salmon in its spawning colors

Finishing up the Cutt Slam

About a month ago my sister invited me to join her on a trip to eastern Idaho to visit her husband's family. This area is one of my favorite parts of the to world, so of course I jumped at the opportunity. The trip also prompted me to decided to finish up the Wyoming Cutt Slam, in which anglers have to catch four of Wyoming's native Cutthroat Trout in their native streams. Back in 2006, I had fished in Wyoming and caught three types of it's native Cutthroat, so I just needed one more to finish it up. That last fish was the Green River strain of the Colorado River Cutthroat, which is native to central Wyoming, only a few hours from where we were staying. 

Day 1: Saturday, September 27th 2008: The entire first day of the trip was spent making the 13 hour drive to Driggs, Idaho. Not much exciting happened except for some issues with our hotel reservation, which ended up being at a place that Expedia was offering reservations for but wasn't actually open during the off-season. Once we got things cleared up with Expedia, we ended up at a Best Western which worked out alright. 

Day 2: Sunday, September September 28th 2008: My sister and I took the day to check out the area (including a couple hours for fishing), which is located just on the slightly less famous western side of the Teton Mountains. We grabbed some lunch at in Victor, ID, which happened to have some of the best Potato soup that I have ever had. After this, we ran down to the Teton River where I tried my luck fishing for a little bit.

The Teton River

Essentially the Teton River in the Driggs area is a huge spring creek with a strong population of Yellowstone Cutthroat, a few Brook Trout and some Mountain Whitefish. The only problem is that the river gets a lot of attention from other fisherman. Needless to say the fish were extremely picky and I didn't have much luck. The next place that we went to check out was the Grand Targhee Ski Resort, which is just outside of town. Even though it was way to early to think about snowboarding this place looked like it would be a fun slope, and the fall colors in the Tetons were awesome.

Fall colors at Grand Targhee

From here I went to try a little fishing at a local stream. When I first walked up to the creek I spooked a trout, but this was also the only fish that I saw. Even though the fishing tough, the scenery was great, so I still had a great time.

The creek

Day 3: Monday September 29th 2008: Today I had a full to devote to fishing, so I headed up to a small stream in the Tetons to see if I could find any Yellowstone Cutthroat. I arrived at the trail to the creek little after 9:00 AM and started hiking.

 

The wilderness area boundary

I reached the creek about a 1/4 mile up the trail, and rigged up my rod with a size 12 Royal PMX and Copper John dropper. The creek was a classical medium gradient mountain stream, consisting of riffles, runs and a few pools and pieces of pocket water every once and a while. I started systematically covering the water and working my way upstream, but after a half an hour I still hadn't had any grabs. I finally came to a small pool where a few fish were holding, but when I got closer wasn't to happy to notice that they were all Brook Trout. Outside their native range Brook Trout generally outcompete other trout (especially Cutthroat), so they have been a big problem to the continued existence of many populations of native trout. Even so, I was here so I might as well fish for them, and just upstream of the pool I rose one, but lost it. I continued working my way upstream, without any further grabs until I came to a small piece of pocket water where I saw a fish rise. I made my cast and the fish eagerly ate my dry fly. The fish fought in the typical Brook Trout fashion, going deep and doing a bit of thrashing around but little else.

Even though they aren't native to the west, Brook Trout are an extremely beautiful fish

The creek

After catching my first one, I started noticing a few more Brookies here and there, but they are all extremely spooky so I had to be very careful not to scare them when I approached promising looking water. This often meant that I had to hide behind something or make an extremely long cast to get a response from the fish. The sneaky approach tactic worked great though, and I started hooking up and catching Brook Trout left and right, but still no Cutthroat.

A spawning pair of Brook Trout

About a mile upstream from where I started, the creek began to change in character, having a much steeper gradient and consisting of more pools and pocket water. It was just at the beginning of this high gradient section that I finally hooked a fish that didn't act like the typical Brook Trout. Instead it shot strait out of they water, then followed up with several more jumps and when I brought it to the net it ended up being a beautiful little native Yellow Cutthroat.

My first Yellowstone cutthroat from the stream

After the first one, the amount of Cutthroat drastically increased, although Brook Trout still seemed to outnumber them about 3:1. If I had to chose a favorite type of water to fish for trout it would probably small stream pocket water, so I felt like I was in my element here. Just about every pool that I came held at least one fish, and as I progressed further upstream, the Tetons began to come into view, really adding to the experience. After a while I came to a perfect looking pool with a small water fall at its head that just screamed trout. I hid behind a large boulder and made a short cast upstream, only to watch a "monster" Cutthroat materialize from the depths, and slowly but confidently rise to the surface to inhale my dry fly. The fish turned, and I set the hook and it was fish on. Even though the Cutthroat put up a valiant effort and a good bend in my fly rod, it really didn't have anywhere to go and I brought it to the net after a short fight. Against the basket of my net I figure that the fish was about 14", which was extremely impressive for the surroundings that he was living in.

My big Cutthroat

The pool where the Cutthroat came from

A few pools above where I got the big Cutthroat, I got a slightly smaller but still impressive sized Brook Trout. However, not to far above where I caught this big Brookie, the stream began to level off again and I decided that I had probably fished enough for one day so I made my way to the trail and hiked back out to the car.

The big Brook Trout

Looking upstream toward the Tetons

That evening after fishing, my sister and I joined her husband's cousin on a horseback ride to a small lake in the mountains, which was a lot of fun and a new experience for me. 

Day 4: Tuesday September 30th 2008: I spent the day with my sister going to meet her husband's family. No fishing, but we got some killer Indian Tacos at the Fort Hall Indian Reservation with her relatives for lunch. After visiting the family, we left Idaho behind and headed over to Jackson, WY for the next couple of days. 

Day 5: Wednesday October 1st 2008: This was my day to see if I could finish up the Wyoming Cutt Slam by catching some Green River strain Colorado River Cutthroat. Prior to leaving a native trout buddy Dave B. had pointed me in the right direction for a decent stream, so I got up early to make the long drive over to the Green River drainage. Even though it had been nice every day, the mornings showed signs that fall was in progress, and the temperature was 25 degrees when I left Jackson in the morning. Once in the Green River valley, it became evident that the Pronghorn Antelope were making their annual migration to their overwintering grounds, as every open field had 10-20 antelope in it. About 8:00 AM I turned off on the road to the creek and covered the 30 miles of dirt road to finally reach my destination, a broad valley tucked back in the Wyoming Range.

The creek valley

One couldn't ask for a more perfect little trout stream, and besides a few hunters driving up and down the valley, I had the place to myself. This was a stereotypical little meadow stream, that lazily flowed through the valley doing a series of perfect U turns with a few beaver ponds thrown in here and there. I hit the water using my ever dependable Royal PMX and Copper John dropper set up and caught a fish almost right away.

A Green River Cutthroat

However, after this initial fish the fishing unfortunately slowed down a bit and even though I cast to every likely looking spot, I didn't find anymore fish for the next 1/4 mile upstream. It seemed as though the combination of the cold morning air and the fish moving to more suitable over-wintering water may have been working against me. I finally found some fish at a where riffle came into a deep pool as the creek turned a corner. The first fish I got was a Cutthroat, but the second was something unexpected; a small Mountain Whitefish. While Whitefish don't have the best reputation with fly fisherman and the one that I caught was tiny, I was pretty happy about my catch as it was a first for me.

The little Mountain Whitefish

A beaver pond on the creek

After this, the fishing continued to improve and I caught several more Cutthroat as I worked my way upstream. After covering about a mile of the stream, I put a Wooly Bugger and began working my way back downstream. In one of the pools that I came to I caught a small Brook Trout while stripping the Wooly Bugger in, which was an unwelcomed sight in this beautiful little Cutthroat stream. Since this was the only Brook Trout that I saw, it can only be hoped that they will not establish themselves in this creek. On the next cast I got one of my better Cutthroat from the creek, then made way back to the car wishing that I had more time to spend in the area.

A Green River Cutthroat caught on a Wooly Bugger

I got back to Jackson around 3:00pm and my sister and I wandered around town for a while to check out the shops and sights. Next we ran up to Teton National Park and drove around for a bit doing some wildlife viewing and sight seeing. While there, we saw our first moose, which was exciting even though our view was pretty obstructed by some willows that it was laying behind. After going up to the Tetons, went back to Jackson where we got some Sushi for dinner at a little restaurant called Nekai. The Rocky Mountains and good sushi do not seem like something that would go together, but this place was excellent and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

A few Elk in Teton National Park

Day 6: Thursday October 2nd 2008: Today we would begin working our way back home. My sister had never been to Yellowstone, so we decided to drive though park on the way back. While driving through the Tetons, we saw four more moose, which was really cool. It is kind of crazy though, as I have been to the Yellowstone area seven other times and this was the first trip that I had seen any moose on and I end up seeing five of them...

A Moose from across the Snake River

October is a great time to visit Yellowstone, as the crowds have died down, the animals are out and the trees are in their fall colors. The first stop was at Old Faithful, and our timing couldn't have been better as the geyser went off right as we got to the viewing area.

Old Faithful

From here we went up to a hot spring area along the Firehole River and did a bit of hiking, before heading up to Mammoth and out the north entrance of the park. After leaving the park, the rest of the day was spent crossing Montana, and we ended up making it to Coeur d' Alene Idaho where we stayed for the night. 

The Firehole River in the hot springs area

A Bison in Yellowstone

Day 7: Friday, October 3rd 2008: We spent a little bit of time in Coeur d' Alene, then headed back home to Washington. Overall it was an awesome trip, and felt great to just get away for a while. Beyond that, the fishing was great and I managed to catch three native salmonids including one new one, plus I finished of the Wyoming Cutt Slam.

Hunting for native trout in the saltwater.

After my trip to Oregon searching for Alvord Cutthroat, I had not been able to free up my schedule for any fishing my trip to Oregon until this past Sunday when I finally found myself with a few hours free. Fishing for native Coastal Cutthroat in the waters of the Puget Sound has always been one of my favorite things to do, so I called up my friend Luke Filmer (owner of Blackwater Fish Replicas) to see if he was free. It turned out that he was and the two of us to headed out to one of our favorite local beaches. 

The tides for the day weren't ideal, but the weather was beautiful and it would be great to get out on the water regardless of the fishing. When we got to the beach, the wind was howling,, which certainly wasn't ideal. We figured that would just have to push through the wind and started off of a point that usually draws in some migrating Coho Salmon.  However, the combination of seaweed and wind was just a bit too much to deal with, so we worked our way around to the other side of the point in search of some more sheltered and less seaweed infested waters. As we started working down the beach fish started showing signs of their presence; one fining on the surface here, another jumping there, and finally a tug on the end of my line. Unfortunately this fish didn't stay on long, but while I was fighting it another grabbed Luke's fly and he got a nice 12" Cutthroat. We continued working down the beach, each getting a few hits, before something big latched onto my fly. I was fishing an 8wt as the salmon migrating through the sound during this time of the year can do some serious damage on a lighter rod, and apparently so could this fish... It made several strong runs and had my rod doubled over most of the fight, but I finally managed to bring it to the net. A beautiful Puget Sound native Coastal Cutthroat just shy of 20". An amazing fish any day.

Me with the 'big Cutthroat'

A close up of the fish, just shy of 20" and chrome.

After turning this bruiser Cutthroat loose, we headed a little further down the beach to an area that usually holds a good number of Cutthroat. As usual, this spot not disappoint and we spent the next hour fishing our way down the beach and catching a handful of Coastal Cutthroat between 8" and 14". We saw one more fish that looked to be around 20" jump, as well as a couple of salmon, but didn't connect with anymore of this big fish. After a while the fishing died off as the tidal flow slowed down, so it was time to pull the plug on a great day on the water.

Eastern Oregon Trip Part II: In search of something that doesn't exist: Alvord Cutthroat

After my stay in Sun River, my dad and I broke off for a trip out into the desert in search of a fish that isn't supposed to exist; the Alvord Cutthroat. What lead me on this search was evidence that indicates that fish from Trout Creek in the Alvord basin may have been stocked into a small stream in southeastern Oregon in the late 1800's. Unfortunately, the creek in question was later also stocked with Whitehorse Basin Cutthroat, Lahontan Cutthroat and even Rainbow Trout. However, according to Dr. Behnke, on a trip to the headwaters of this stream in 2006, instead of finding Rainbow Trout or hybrids, he found some fish that matched the outward appearance of the Alvord Cutthroat among a population of more typical Lahontan Cutthroat. With it appearing that there were two distinct phenotypes present in the creek and leaving open the possibility that the Alvord Cutthroat is not extinct as once thought.

We hit the road at 5:30 AM, bound for the Alvord stream and for being late August we were amazed at how low the temperature was as we drove across the Fort Rock Basin, where it bottomed out at a chilly 22 degrees. The drive was a straight shot to Lakeview, Oregon to refuel before heading out into the desert. Last year I had caught several Warner Lakes Redbands, but none of them had any real size to them so I had made plans to fish another small stream along the way to the Alvord Creek. However, what was supposed to be a fairly main road on the map ended up being a 4WD track at best and I had to take the blow of scratching the Warner Redbands from the trip due to being defeated by a road. To top it off, this road hadn't finished dealing it's punches, and about 10 minutes after reaching the highway one of my rear tires blew out. Ironically this is the first blown tire that I have had after years of driving on rough roads for native trout and came just three weeks after I had put new tires on my car in preparation for this trip. After quickly replacing the flat tire, we hit the road again for the creek. Upon arriving at the turn off for the creek, the road turned out to be as rough as the one that I provided us with a flat and without another spare there was no way that we were going to try to drive in. This meant that if I wanted to try to get some fish from the creek I was going to have to hike in.

The view from the first ridge

I wasn't quite sure how far it was to get into where the creek would become fishable, but I strapped on my hiking boots and hit the two track road at around 11:00 AM. From looking at a topo map I knew that there was a high ridge to cross that dropped into the headwaters of another creek and then a higher pass before I would reach the headwaters of the creek. The first ridge was a real butt kicker, with the summit being about 1,500 ft above where I started. However, the view from the top was amazing giving me a panoramic view across the high desert out to the Steens Mountains.

Looking out from the top of the first ridge toward the pass into the drainage holding these rare trout

I worked my way down the road into the extreme headwaters of a small creek where there was a small guard station built back against the hills. This was a beautiful little area with high desert meadows and a few Aspen groves scattered throughout the valley. I took a quick break just beyond the guard station at an Aspen grove along the creek, before tackling the pass.

 

The bottom of the valley looking toward the guard station

The pass was quite a haul with the summit just below the top of the 8065 ft peak. Just as I reached the top, I had a solo Pronghorn Antelope run across the trail 50 feet ahead of me and stop a short distance up the ridge to watch me pass.

The top of the pass

From the top of the pass it was a nice walk down the hill beginning in high desert sage brush and changing to a grove of Aspens once I ran into the creek. The road followed the headwaters of the creek as it curved down the slopes of the peak, but the creek was way to small too hold fish and it was evident that I would have to follow it downstream until it added a few tributaries or springs to its flow. Once the road emerged from the side of the mountain, I got a view across the valley and could see that for the next several miles the creek traveled through a flat valley and picked up several tributaries. It was a long distance, but hopefully I would find what I came for there.

Looking out across the valley

I arrived at the creek at around 2:45 PM, had a quick lunch, then rigged up my 2wt with my favorite set up for native trout, a Royal PMX and black Copper John dropper. When I walked out to the creek, it was about a foot wide and three inches deep in most places. Certainly too small and shallow to hold any fish. I only saw one option ahead of me, so I continued downstream another 1/4 mile in search of fishable water. On the way I was interrupted by a herd of pronghorns crossing the valley. Once I finally connected with the creek again, I found some holding water and began to try to locate some fish. As the creek rounded a corner and dredged out a small pool, I finally found a fish. I made a good cast and fish confidently grabbed my fly. As soon as I saw the trout, I knew that I had something unusual. I have caught most of the varieties of trout on the west coast and had never seen a fish like this one. It had red cutthroat marks, with a deep rose band and along its mid section and rosy gill plates. Beyond the caudal peduncle, its spots were concentrated above the lateral line and it was olive on the back transitioning to a brassy yellow color. Based on its appearance, the fish perfectly matched the description for the Alvord Cutthroat Trout!

A small cutthroat with the traits of an Alvord, a red lateral line with sparse spots above it.

The creek

I continued to fish my way downstream, finding decent holding water every time the creek would round a bend. In fact, at each corner with a decent amount of flow, I could expect to hook up and either catch or spook a trout. The creek was so small though, that my target area to land a fly in was generally about the size of a 6" circle, which was especially problematic when the wind kicked up and led to me spooking my fair share of fish. I caught a fair number of fish, most of which resembled Alvords, others appearing more like typical Lahontan Cutthroat and few appearing like a cross between the two.

A small Cutthroat with some with the deep that was typical of Alvord Cutthroat

After working a ways down the creek and catching a fair few trout, I decided that it was getting close to time to pull the plug on things if I didn't want to be hiking in the dark, so I turned around and started working my way back upstream. Not too far from where I caught my first fish, I saw a large trout holding in a pool that I had either spooked or missed on the way downstream. I found a spot where the fish wouldn't see me and worked my way into position for a good cast. I made my cast and my fly landed just where it needed to be and the fish confidently rose to take my dry fly. My line tightened and the fish was on, with nowhere to go in his little pool. After a quick battle, I landed the fish which measured 15" against my net and accurately matched the description of the long lost Alvord Cutthroat. It was amazing that a fish this size could manage to survive among such meager surroundings.

The fish I was looking for a large 15" cutthroat with the outward appearance of an Alvord Cutthroat

After catching the big fish I managed to hook one more smaller one, which shook my fly loose. Once past this pool though, the creek ran into the bushes and there wasn't much in the way of good holding water so I began working my way back. Already having covered more miles that I had planned on and fished hard, walk back out was torture.

Looking across the meadow on the way back towards the pass

The sun was at its hottest point by this time and the first few miles left me completely exposed to its burning rays. Although reaching the base of the pass meant that it was time to start on the long uphill trek, the shade of the trees growing there at least provided some relief from the sun.

A tree full of vultures at the base of the pass

The long uphill slog on the way over the pass

The hill up to the pass seemed to last forever, and once I was over it, I had to start on another hill again. Around 6 PM the sun finally began falling behind the peak and with the shade the walk became much more bearable and interesting as the wildlife began coming out of the wood work.

A buck just before reaching the end of the road.

All told, the hike ended up being a 20 mile round trip, with a few thousand feet of elevation gain. However, with the fish that I caught it was well worth it. It remains unclear how genetically pure these fish are, but Behnke has suggested that even if they aren't pure Alvords it may be possible to recreate the Alvord phenotype or genotype from these fish through a selective breeding program.

Eastern Oregon Trip Part I: Hosmer Lake Atlantic Salmon

With an upcoming family trip down to Sun River Oregon, I hatched a plan to extend out my stay by a few days to seek out a couple of elusive varieties of fish. The first of these, the Atlantic Salmon was well outside of its native range but was a much more feasible option than a costly trip to the east coast. I had fished Hosmer Lake which holds stocked population of landlocked Atlantic Salmon last year, but failed to land anything. This year I sought redemption for last year's skunking, but would have to pay my dues before accomplishing my goal of catching an Atlantic Salmon. 

With the first leg of the trip winding down, I pulled away from Sun River for the day and departed around 8:30 AM. On the way out of town, I popped by The Hook Fly Shop to get my license, some info on how the lake was fishing and pick up a few flies that were working. The shop staff was extremely helpful and it ended up being a good thing that I stopped by as they warned me about a fire near the headwaters of the Deschutes River that had the main road to the lake closed. This made my drive slightly longer as I had to go up and around Mount Bachelor, but I ended up arriving at the lake at around 10:30 AM.

When I got to the lake it was partly cloudy, breezy and in the low 40's F with a threat of rain. The only silver lining was that the weather had scared everyone else off, meaning that I had the lake all to myself. I set up my 8 foot Avon raft and hit the lake, with hopes that the weather would hold out for me. I worked my way down through a channel that separates the lake into two parts, casting streamers, dries and nymphs without so much as a hit. The biggest problem was the wind, which was so strong that at times it was pulling my anchor out of position and dragging me across the lake. About the time that I hit the far side of the lake, the weather turned on me and it started pouring down rain. The sideways rain stuck with me for the next couple of hours and me very grateful from my rain gear.

Hosmer Lake, as another set of rainy weather begins to move in.

I hung out at the far end of the lake for a little while, but I could seem to find any fish and didn't like being so far from the car considering the conditions, so I began working my way back. I fished my way through most of the channel, and for a change the wind started working in my favor. The wind allowed me to drifted me back through the channel as if I were on a slow moving stream and made casting slightly easier. I still couldn't get anything to hit until I tried an Aggravator Prince nymph, which brought me two long distance releases from some of the big Altantics and Brook Trout that holding in the channel. However, I still couldn't seem to land anything and after a few brief hook ups the fish had spooked and the bite died off.

Hosmer Lake with the top of Mount Bachelor hidden behind the clouds

I got out of the channel and back to the south end of the lake at around 3:30 PM, feeling defeated and about ready to throw in the towel. However, just before reaching the boat launch I saw a fish rise and decided to give it a few more minutes. This was a very good call as on the first cast I had a good grab, but missed it.  On the next cast, I finally got a solid hookup and after a short batter, I ended up with my first Atlantic Salmon.

My first Atlantic Salmon

The Atlantic Salmon in the lake are stocked landlocked Sebago strain and although not caught within their native native range, they were a new species of fish for me and it was a relief to finally catch one. After catching my first fish of the day, the fishing remained hot for several minutes and I managed to land one more Atlantic out of the 7 or 8 that grabbed my Aggravator nymph. However, the last fish which was much larger than the rest managed to snap off my last on of these Aggravator nymph and after raiding my fly box, I couldn't find anything else that they would hit. With the fish not being responding to my offerings and chilled from the rough weather, I headed back to the boat launch. When I got back to the launch it was 48 degrees out, and my car heater was a very welcomed luxury. Despite the slow fishing and rough weather, I still managed to catch a new species making it a very successful day on the water.

Another Sebago strain Atlantic Salmon