Danger on the river and a friendly Sheriff

Now that I knew there were plenty of large aggressive steelhead in the Skykomish I resolved to have another attempt at catching one. As it was the 4th July and for some strange historical reason my American friends make it a holiday I decided not to try spinning or plunking under the hatchery as I was sure the guys would be there in large numbers.  Standing shoulder to shoulder, crossing lines and getting tangled up with another chap's tackle is known as "combat fishing" and it is not my idea of a pleasant time by the water.  So I thought I would fish further down stream and try to see if by learning from the last time in that location I could over-come some of the obstacles.  So this time I had a home-made wading stick, wore a personal flotation device and used a full sinking line.  Anyway the net result was that in spite of carefully wading quite deep my 9 foot 8 weight rod was still not getting me to where I thought the fish would be, so after an hour of trying I quit and walked back to the car,  As I had come 40 miles to fish I had a go spinning etc just down from the Big Eddie boat launch ramp.  By this time several lovely families had arrived and I watched in horror as a couple of dads launched themselves in a very small, beat up, row boat into the Big Eddie.  They didn't row it but used the oars as paddles. They were not wearing PFD's and only just made it to the bank just upstream of some fairly serious rapids. 

The picture makes it look safer than it was, they were wobbling like crazy!

They then proceeded to fool around and several times had to paddle flat out to avoid being swept downstream.  This was all done in front of their wives and children none of whom seemed aware of the potential danger.  As I walked back to the car I said to the wives that I hoped their husbands had plenty of life insurance! 

Whilst getting in the car I noticed that the Sheriff had arrived so being inquisitive when he walked back from the river I wandered over, introduced myself and asked him if he could explain the difference between the roles of the Sheriff and the police. 

He was very friendly and explained that he was a deputy and that the Sheriff was elected by the community and that they worked closely with the police but did not do detective work.  I said I was concerned about these dads downstream with their little boat.  He said that he had come down because he had a call saying that there was some dangerous activity on the boat ramp.  I told him where the dads were now and he said that 2 days ago he had pulled the body of an 18 year old out of the river. Then he went off to warn the Dads and I jumped in the car for the cruise back to my holiday home and a rest as that afternoon we had been invited to a 4th July party on the lake!  On this holiday it's all go!!!

 

Rattlesnake Lake, WA, USA: Deep Water Fly Fishing Techniques!

Mark with his truck and "pram"

 

I met a real gent yesterday and he very kindly gave me a “master class” on how to fish the bottom of a deep lake with Buzzers (Chironomidae) using a fly rod.  Mark had responded to my request for guidance on the Washington Fly Fishing Forum and he proved to be a star.  He gave me some buzzer patterns, loaned me a reel with a fast sinking line and gave me one of his special homemade plummet weights.  Now recently Mark had been fishing Rattlesnake Lake regularly and his special method had been delivering the goods big time, which was why he suggested we fished there.

Mark concentrating on catching!

Mark was fishing from his fully equipped 8 foot “pram” and I was in my less fully equipped float tube.  Mark and his pal had developed this particular fishing approach because a bit of arthritis had cramped their casting style and they still wanted to fly fish.  The method was to use a team of two buzzers with a small shot crimped to the leader just above the flies and measure the depth exactly by attaching the plummet to the bottom fly.  Mark had put depth markers on the main line using white nail varnish (his wife’s I hasten to add).  The first thing that rapidly became apparent to me was that you need to be anchored to work this method and keep the flies right down.  Having tried holding position with my fins and failed as it was quite breezy Mark came to the rescue producing a 5lb dumbbell from the bottom of his pram (I said it was “fully equipped”) and I attached that to 45 feet of nylon cord I had brought with me and I used that successfully as an anchor!

Mark gently sucked the stomach contents out of one fish and showed me what they were feeding on.  Buzzers!

Anyway to cut a long story short Mark managed 5 fish and I caught zero.  So how do I explain that?

Well here goes:-

·         Mark had a fish finder

·         Mark’s anchor was a bit longer than mine so he could fish deeper

·         I was using a 6 weight rod and Mark was using a 3 weight set up so his rig was more sensitive than mine

·         Mark really concentrated hard on detecting fishy activity whereas I was distracted by the joy of just being there

·         Mark is well practiced at this method

Mark was disappointed with his 5 as he normally catches shed loads!  Although I was clearly outfished I was delighted with the day for the following reasons:-

1.       I had met a really nice guy

2.       I had been fishing

3.       I had learnt a new technique to try on the deep reservoirs in the UK in the summer when the water warms up and the fish go deep.

4.       I didn’t sink and have to swim and I learnt that I can anchor a float tube and fish provided I have a dumbbell with me.

 

 

And when it was time to go and I got cramp in my right leg (and could only paddle round in circles) Mark came to the rescue and towed me back to the launch ramp!  A real star!

 

Some of the buzzers in the plastic container were still alive, have a look at this short video clip.

 

 

 

 

Now to get on with stripping “popcorn” off of 300 square feet of ceiling!

Fishing Excitement on the Snoqualmie, WA, USA

Having got on well with my chores I finally went fishing today,six days after I arrived.  The chaps on the Washington Fly Fishing Forum had given me lots of useful tips on where to fish and I plan to follow that advice as much as I can.  However, I thought I would make today a practice run and fish somewhere familiar to me, so after I had laid some mortar in a remodeled fireplace I headed up to the Snoqualmie. 

 

I found a promising spot and waded out to a gravel bar that had a perfect seam running along it. Second cast and my copper john was hit by an 8 inch little feller, then I realized that not only had I forgotten my hat but I had also left the camera with my wife who was reading on the bank 50 yards away.  Still I thought there are going to be others to photograph so no problem.  So everything was quiet and peaceful and perfect. 

Then it happened, a helicopter suddenly showed up and started circling right above me, making a hell of a racket (sorry of that is swearing, it isn’t in the UK)!  It was so persistent hovering overhead I started to wonder why it was there.  My guesses were as follows:-

·         Someone knew I had arrived and they wanted to film me fishing

·         The pilot had it in for fishers and he was trying to scare the fish and me

·         A rooky pilot was practicing turns

·        Then I noticed someone standing on the under-carriage skid and I thought I was about
          to see a spectacular suicide attempt.

·        The auto pilot was stuck

Anyway after about an hour I was getting a bit fed up with the noise so as the chopper came round again, I put my hands on my hips and scowled at it.  I was rewarded with it flying off to try and land on the face of the adjacent large mountain (Mount Si of Twin Peaks fame)?

Meanwhile having thought my wife was completely safe round the bend sitting on the gravel bank I found her in the company of two charming Park Rangers dressed in attractive orange waistcoats!  She insisted in having her picture taken with them. 

About this time the helicopter reappeared and the Rangers advised that it belonged to the Sherriff and they tactfully pointed out that it said that clearly on the side.   I expect the Sherriff is a charming helpful person but I could not help the words of a song involving a Sherriff and a Deputy running through my mind.

Armed with the knowledge that my wife was safe in the company of Rangers and with the local Sherriff keeping an eye on her from above I wandered upstream to try and find an undisturbed seam.  At a tempting spot I noticed what looked like several brown torpedo shapes in the current.  Weed?  Logs?  Both seemed unlikely given the speed of the current.  They reminded me of what I had seen a few years ago downstream of the Wallace Hatchery.  My fishing buddy had pointed to them and I in my ignorance said ‘“what are they”?  He replied by catching one and it turned out to be a rather large steelhead!   So I decided to wade out towards the torpedo’s because they just couldn’t be big fish.  As I got about six feet from the nearest torpedo it moved sideways further out by a foot or two!   I walked back to the car and tooled up with a small selection of steelhead flies.  I then proceeded to cast my selection of flies at them from all angles other than the optimum one as there was a large tree/bush in the way.  I tried going up stream through the jungle to the other side of the tree/bush but the bank there was steep and straight into what looked like deep water.  I didn’t want my last glimpse of my wife to be as I drifted downstream to the falls!

Eventually feeling rather tired I gave up but it was a hard decision to make.  The questions are:-

1.       Have I gone mad because of the noise of the helicopter?

2.       Did I really see fish?

3.       Were they steels?

4.       If the answer to 3 is Yes, how should I have tried to catch them?

If you have any suggestions they would be gratefully received.

Embarrassing footnote: A real gent on the Washington Fly Fishing Forum has gently suggested that even steelhead would find jumping the Snoqualmie Falls a bit too demanding.  Blogger has egg on face. So what fish were they?