The first fish to hand had an interesting marking. Fishy melanism?
We weren’t hooting and hollering too much, I thought, but we did attract some attention because a big bay boat came by and asked us how (and what) we were doing and then moved in shallow to fish the bank we had just fished. I think they got stuck doing that, too. Then the drift boat checked in and when I said yeah we were catching smallies on poppers I saw a fly rod get strung up but I think they just kept trolling in an oval.
This was pretty big water with some nice variety to it, with plenty of shallows and flats and more dispersed underwater veg. You can see in the picture my Fishin’ Buddy said the water was 64-65. The best fishing seem to come from stretches of rockier bank (as opposed to vegetated) and from the 2-5 feet deep rocky flats and subsurface outcroppings. When I saw that type of habitat, I really focused and it paid off. Of course, I missed some toilet flush takes that just had to be 5 pounders, right? And I jumped (and lost) a fish that I am pretty sure was a largemouth. It came from a blackwater weedy spot and was a nice fish, the losing of which sorta bugged me a lot…until I caught this fish.
And another nice one--
Yeah, I wore the same shirt all weekend. I told you it was a dirtbag trip. I also ate horrible food (Cool Ranch Doritos and Cocktail Peps, for example) and drank beer before noon, so what of it? It rained hard as hell most of the way home and we got stuck in the hour-long Cle Elum summer (??what summer??) weekend backup on I-90 but no matter—the trip was a resounding success, in no small part thanks to those members whom I pumped for info as I was planning this trip. Thanks y’all! Hope you enjoyed this report. This trip renewed my faith in Washington bassin’ on the fly, and so thanks for the inspiration! When popper fishing works out, there isn’t much that’s more fun. As long as you don’t step on a rattlesnake, get malaria from mosquitoes, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from ticks, or lead poisoning from Sur 13, I guess you could say it’s the kind of the best!
