The annual dads and kids trip has been reduced to a dads (2) and kid (1) trip this year. What teen wouldn’t want to come spend a weekend camping in coulee country with limited communication and lots of hungry trout? Apparently it’s not the adventure it used to be for some that were regulars. But the 13th trip with @Irafly and my son was a really good one.
We didn’t get to fish Friday night cuz that vantage bridge slowdown is no joke. Tacked 90 minutes onto the drive barely moving stop-and-go for 5 miles. Yuck. And the smoke in the basin was nasty. More yuck. But we made it to camp at dark and set up our tent and caught up with Ira as the smoke started to clear. By morning it was a-okay and we went fishing.
We trolled at first and caught some fish but the chironomids were thick. Everywhere. So we picked a spot that seemed right and got to work.
I don’t recall better chironomid action this late in the season. Once we keyed in the depth and pattern it was 1.5 days of game on. And the smoke left us alone the whole time. The fish weren’t monsters but solid 13-17” rainbows are a lot of fun. My son really did it himself and he’s not a big fly fisher. To be able to hand him an indicator setup and watch him match me fish for fish was super cool. He wants to go back in the spring and I do to.
We didn’t get to fish Friday night cuz that vantage bridge slowdown is no joke. Tacked 90 minutes onto the drive barely moving stop-and-go for 5 miles. Yuck. And the smoke in the basin was nasty. More yuck. But we made it to camp at dark and set up our tent and caught up with Ira as the smoke started to clear. By morning it was a-okay and we went fishing.
We trolled at first and caught some fish but the chironomids were thick. Everywhere. So we picked a spot that seemed right and got to work.
I don’t recall better chironomid action this late in the season. Once we keyed in the depth and pattern it was 1.5 days of game on. And the smoke left us alone the whole time. The fish weren’t monsters but solid 13-17” rainbows are a lot of fun. My son really did it himself and he’s not a big fly fisher. To be able to hand him an indicator setup and watch him match me fish for fish was super cool. He wants to go back in the spring and I do to.
