Had work in the south Seattle area today, so I thought I’d swing by a nearby stream for the first time, a place I’ve long been intending to fish. First stop was the community center. I walked down to the river and saw a spot I could feasibly wade up, and a nice pocket water right in front of me with no one in it. The kids in front of it remarked “woah, is that a fish!” And held a small trout up in a jar. I considered fishing it, but an off leash pitbull that barked at me loudly made me rethink. I have lots of experiences with dogs being antagonized by my waders and even got bit once.
This next spot looked pretty, and I saw a couple decent pockets but nothing seemed to take my sculpzillas. I considered throwing other flies but ended up tangling my streamer in the bushes so many times I scared any fish that would’ve been there by wading through.
Saw a guy washing his clothes in the river. Wasn’t too concerned but didn’t like that I was alone at this spot, on an evening like today I would’ve expected a lot more people to be out and about, and decided to head up to my car and head further upstream.
This last spot was tough to get to despite being a large park. A little bushwhacking was needed. I immediately saw a trout rise in the middle of this run when getting to the river. I casted to it, but a lack of backcast room and wading space meant casting directly downstream which made a natural presentation hard. Still, had a fish rise to my humpy! My first rise on a dry fly! That in itself was enough to count this trip a success to me.
I spent the rest of the evening wading around looking for good water, and while I found one other spot with a fish, it was very difficult to cast to, I imagine it’s doable with skilled high sticking but the slot of walking speed water is very narrow. I was getting ready to go and made my way back to where I started to be greeted by a fish rising at the most obvious trout spot in the world- Slow current, deep, tons of branches around.
I made a cast- overshot and ended up in the branches, pulled my fly down into the river, and got a rise for my effort. Stripper back, casted again, another rise! Unfortunately, my tippet and fly were nowhere to be seen. I wonder if I hooked a fish and was betrayed by the double uni, or lost it in a snag.
Some more casting didn’t seem to yield rises, and I spent several minutes untangling a particularly bad snag. At this point I decided I was being foolish for not just roll casting, and started to do just that. My second roll cast yielded me another rise, and as I began to strip my line, I was happily surprised to realize I had a fish on!
I sadly neglected to photograph this beautiful cutthroat (and my first trout out of a river) but I did take a video, here is a screenshot-
Release was harder than I would’ve liked, the hook was a little deeper and with the mouth being so small it was difficult to get out, but I managed. The fish slipped gently back into the water through the mesh of my net.
I figured it would be foolish to not try the hole again, so I did- maybe 3 casts later, I saw a rise, and once again, I obliviously stripped back before realizing I had a fish on! This was one was much larger, and was able to put a bend in my (very overkill) 6wt. It jumped spectacularly three times. I remarked loudly “it’s gorgeous!” As soon as it landed in my net. My first ever rainbow trout, and it was on a dry!
I’m excited to visit this river again. I’ve tried trout fishing in streams many times and always come home empty handed, I was really happy to finally catch trout in a stream! I realize that I have been mystifying parts of trout fishing a little too much, I was often hesitant to run a dry fly out of fear of messing up the presentation. A polyleader helped turnover immensely, as opposed to building my own with mono. Actually hooking fish in spots that looked fishy to me was a very good confidence booster.
This next spot looked pretty, and I saw a couple decent pockets but nothing seemed to take my sculpzillas. I considered throwing other flies but ended up tangling my streamer in the bushes so many times I scared any fish that would’ve been there by wading through.
Saw a guy washing his clothes in the river. Wasn’t too concerned but didn’t like that I was alone at this spot, on an evening like today I would’ve expected a lot more people to be out and about, and decided to head up to my car and head further upstream.
This last spot was tough to get to despite being a large park. A little bushwhacking was needed. I immediately saw a trout rise in the middle of this run when getting to the river. I casted to it, but a lack of backcast room and wading space meant casting directly downstream which made a natural presentation hard. Still, had a fish rise to my humpy! My first rise on a dry fly! That in itself was enough to count this trip a success to me.
I spent the rest of the evening wading around looking for good water, and while I found one other spot with a fish, it was very difficult to cast to, I imagine it’s doable with skilled high sticking but the slot of walking speed water is very narrow. I was getting ready to go and made my way back to where I started to be greeted by a fish rising at the most obvious trout spot in the world- Slow current, deep, tons of branches around.
I made a cast- overshot and ended up in the branches, pulled my fly down into the river, and got a rise for my effort. Stripper back, casted again, another rise! Unfortunately, my tippet and fly were nowhere to be seen. I wonder if I hooked a fish and was betrayed by the double uni, or lost it in a snag.
Some more casting didn’t seem to yield rises, and I spent several minutes untangling a particularly bad snag. At this point I decided I was being foolish for not just roll casting, and started to do just that. My second roll cast yielded me another rise, and as I began to strip my line, I was happily surprised to realize I had a fish on!
I sadly neglected to photograph this beautiful cutthroat (and my first trout out of a river) but I did take a video, here is a screenshot-
Release was harder than I would’ve liked, the hook was a little deeper and with the mouth being so small it was difficult to get out, but I managed. The fish slipped gently back into the water through the mesh of my net.
I figured it would be foolish to not try the hole again, so I did- maybe 3 casts later, I saw a rise, and once again, I obliviously stripped back before realizing I had a fish on! This was one was much larger, and was able to put a bend in my (very overkill) 6wt. It jumped spectacularly three times. I remarked loudly “it’s gorgeous!” As soon as it landed in my net. My first ever rainbow trout, and it was on a dry!
I’m excited to visit this river again. I’ve tried trout fishing in streams many times and always come home empty handed, I was really happy to finally catch trout in a stream! I realize that I have been mystifying parts of trout fishing a little too much, I was often hesitant to run a dry fly out of fear of messing up the presentation. A polyleader helped turnover immensely, as opposed to building my own with mono. Actually hooking fish in spots that looked fishy to me was a very good confidence booster.
