Just got back from my yearly trip to our neighbor to the east. It's approaching about 18 years for me visiting the same area now. I've missed a few years but was especially fortunate to be able to get to go this year and for a few extra days than normal. I recently sold my business and am in the midst of a career change, and this was the first time in a long time I was able to just flip the off switch on work while I was out in the wilderness.
The end of September can sometimes be tricky with the weather, but over 8 days we had chamber of commerce weather with highs in the 70s and 80s and lows in the 40s other than one strange night where the wind and rain picked up and it was in the upper 60s all night. Wet waded all week. The fishing pressure seemed a bit lighter than the past couple years, save for one day where I was low holed twice in the same run in a 10 minute period. The october caddis were already flying, and the fish were looking up. To be honest it didn't seem to matter much what you threw as long as you got a good drift over the likely spots. My top producing flies were small black ants, purple haze, and a tiny little rubber legged stimulator I pulled out of the face of a Yakima rainbow back in the spring, haha. Dedicated a full day to fishing streamers on a sinking poly leader and got into quite a few fish as well. The streamers also produced a couple bull trout.
I thought after 8 straight days I would be ready to go home, but I could have kept going, it was just too much fun. Highlights below!
Camp for the first couple nights. Not a bad spot to come back to at the end of the day.
Neat little side channel that gave up half a dozen cutthroat in the 12-15" range.
Cuttbow? Rainbow? Definitely not full cutthroat here.
First couple bull trout I've caught out of this system. Although to be fair this was the first time I had dedicated an entire day just to fishing streamers.
This wasn't the biggest fish of the trip, in fact it probably best represents the average size of most of the fish over the week. But it was likely the most memorable. I was walking along this stagnant side channel with hardly any water in it and noticed that where a small creek dumped into it was a small bucket about a foot or so deep and a few feet wide. Decided what the heck and tossed a small stimulator into the head of the pocket and immediately had this fish poke its head out of the water and inhaled the fly.
Till next year!
The end of September can sometimes be tricky with the weather, but over 8 days we had chamber of commerce weather with highs in the 70s and 80s and lows in the 40s other than one strange night where the wind and rain picked up and it was in the upper 60s all night. Wet waded all week. The fishing pressure seemed a bit lighter than the past couple years, save for one day where I was low holed twice in the same run in a 10 minute period. The october caddis were already flying, and the fish were looking up. To be honest it didn't seem to matter much what you threw as long as you got a good drift over the likely spots. My top producing flies were small black ants, purple haze, and a tiny little rubber legged stimulator I pulled out of the face of a Yakima rainbow back in the spring, haha. Dedicated a full day to fishing streamers on a sinking poly leader and got into quite a few fish as well. The streamers also produced a couple bull trout.
I thought after 8 straight days I would be ready to go home, but I could have kept going, it was just too much fun. Highlights below!
Camp for the first couple nights. Not a bad spot to come back to at the end of the day.
Neat little side channel that gave up half a dozen cutthroat in the 12-15" range.
Cuttbow? Rainbow? Definitely not full cutthroat here.
First couple bull trout I've caught out of this system. Although to be fair this was the first time I had dedicated an entire day just to fishing streamers.
This wasn't the biggest fish of the trip, in fact it probably best represents the average size of most of the fish over the week. But it was likely the most memorable. I was walking along this stagnant side channel with hardly any water in it and noticed that where a small creek dumped into it was a small bucket about a foot or so deep and a few feet wide. Decided what the heck and tossed a small stimulator into the head of the pocket and immediately had this fish poke its head out of the water and inhaled the fly.
Till next year!
Last edited:
