Tom Fulk's Creek

Dave Westburg

Dave Westburg

Fish the classics
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Each year around Labor day I hike my 7' 5 weight Tom Fulk Bamboo rod to the stream in the North Cascades that Tom named the rod for. We had to cross a swollen glacial river to get there...

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The creek was low and clear with emerald water. We saw noone and no footprints but ours on the sandbars...

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I caught a mix of cutts and rainbows on partridge and yellow and partridge and orange soft hackle wet flies, mostly dead drift upstream under a small tuft of polypro yarn for an indicator...

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My friend did well with - what else - a size 14 Royal Wulff. He fished a brand new 8'6" Bob McLean Phoenix Bamboo Fly rod. The story is that Winston was going to throw out a bunch of bamboo that was supposedly damaged in a fire. Bob McLean (a now retired Winston bamboo rod maker) convinced Winston to let him sell rods made of the bamboo. Hence the Phoenix name. The rod is a delight to fish.

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Tom Fulk's widow graciously provided me a copy of Tom's fishing log. It's full of interesting places I'd like to explore. Watch this space for further developments...

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Dave Westburg said:
This creek has no lake in the headwaters but lots of beautiful cutts with red streaks along the side….View attachment 165100
We fished up to the confluence pool where the creek takes on a tributary. Tom fulk’s log describes 3 fishing trips up the tributary. Next year i plan to do that.

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It looks like its got a good flow of water in it, too, for this time of year in a low water year. That's a good find. I am guessing there are some high elevation areas in the drainage, maybe with some snowfields that are relatively persistent?
 
Matt B said:
It looks like its got a good flow of water in it, too, for this time of year in a low water year. That's a good find. I am guessing there are some high elevation areas in the drainage, maybe with some snowfields that are relatively persistent?
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A couple of the big pools make the stream look bigger than it is. Here's what it typically looked like.

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Ice cold water from off the mountain even in August. I wouldn't want to wade wet.
 
Dave Westburg said:
A couple of the big pools make the stream look bigger than it is. Here's what it typically looked like.

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Ice cold water from off the mountain even in August. I wouldn't want to wade wet.
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Compared to a lot of streams that looks like really good depth and connectivity between habitat units.
I think I’d wade it wet unless air temps were below low 60s or below. I can work up a sweat even in low 60s in waders. I’d rather not do that. Take a stream temperature or two next time if you can so I can geek out some more! 😉
 
Matt B said:
Compared to a lot of streams that looks like really good depth and connectivity between habitat units.
I think I’d wade it wet unless air temps were below low 60s or below. I can work up a sweat even in low 60s in waders. I’d rather not do that. Take a stream temperature or two next time if you can so I can geek out some more! 😉
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We hiked in (it was two miles) with our waders and boots in our packs and then donned the waders and fished upstream. I used waist high waders and my fishing partner used ultralight waders.

I was on Robinson Creek in the Methow a few weeks ago with daytime temps in the mid-80's and my feet went numb when I was wet wading. The high creeks run cold in the summer, especially if there are areas of tree cover.
 
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