Met up with @Zak for a 5 day camping and fishing trip to the Gifford Pinchot NF. We ended up with perfect weather the whole time - not a guarantee in October, for sure!
Day one, Wed, we met up with @James St. Clair to try for some cutties on a beautiful Yakima County river. James was super cool, and had some nice flies and excellent river-specific advice for us (thanks James, and a pleasure to meet you!) Zak and James picked up a number of small & medium fish on dries/droppers, but I was set on trying to swing up something on a streamer, with naught but a couple half-hearted grabs for my efforts. Still, a gorgeous day in a gorgeous setting with good company, topped off by a final restaurant meal at a local pub before heading to camp on the river for the night.
Day 2, Zak and I headed towards Mt Adams. After stopping off to ogle the view at Dog Lake
we continued on and checked out a few different lakes before settling on an excellent site on "Camp Lake."
After setting up camp, we had a lunch of salami and cheese sandwiches on cheese bread baked for us by my husband, who had to bail last minute on accompanying us after hurting his back
We then made a quick drive to "Lake X" for an afternoon of fishing. We both picked up a number of pretty, standard rainbows on a variety of wet and dry flies - Zak in his adirondak-style pram/ guideboat, and I in my Hobie.
After a while, I switched over to a sinking line to see if I could hunt up one of the rumored lunkers. Went with my confidence fly, a pink bunny streamer that I'll call "Anyanka" (If you're a Buffy fan, you'll get it!)
Ten minutes later, this chunk of trout slammed it. As I had my type 5 set up on my 5wt, I had to backpedal over to where Zak was for a net and photo assist!
We left as the dying sun lit up Mt Adams in golden October light
Back at camp that evening, we enjoyed homemade spaghetti and garlic bread with a few brews by the fire, then retired for the night - Zak to his tent, me to my cot & minivan. Veeeery quiet out there at night!
To be continued: too many pics, I guess?
Day one, Wed, we met up with @James St. Clair to try for some cutties on a beautiful Yakima County river. James was super cool, and had some nice flies and excellent river-specific advice for us (thanks James, and a pleasure to meet you!) Zak and James picked up a number of small & medium fish on dries/droppers, but I was set on trying to swing up something on a streamer, with naught but a couple half-hearted grabs for my efforts. Still, a gorgeous day in a gorgeous setting with good company, topped off by a final restaurant meal at a local pub before heading to camp on the river for the night.
Day 2, Zak and I headed towards Mt Adams. After stopping off to ogle the view at Dog Lake
we continued on and checked out a few different lakes before settling on an excellent site on "Camp Lake."
After setting up camp, we had a lunch of salami and cheese sandwiches on cheese bread baked for us by my husband, who had to bail last minute on accompanying us after hurting his back
We then made a quick drive to "Lake X" for an afternoon of fishing. We both picked up a number of pretty, standard rainbows on a variety of wet and dry flies - Zak in his adirondak-style pram/ guideboat, and I in my Hobie.
After a while, I switched over to a sinking line to see if I could hunt up one of the rumored lunkers. Went with my confidence fly, a pink bunny streamer that I'll call "Anyanka" (If you're a Buffy fan, you'll get it!)
Ten minutes later, this chunk of trout slammed it. As I had my type 5 set up on my 5wt, I had to backpedal over to where Zak was for a net and photo assist!
We left as the dying sun lit up Mt Adams in golden October light
Back at camp that evening, we enjoyed homemade spaghetti and garlic bread with a few brews by the fire, then retired for the night - Zak to his tent, me to my cot & minivan. Veeeery quiet out there at night!
To be continued: too many pics, I guess?
