Happy summer everyone! While it feels like we've been grooving the summer scene for a few months now, the official solstice was scarcely more than a week ago. Rivers are in fine shape, not too high, not too hot and the list of desired places to wet a line is as long as the lingering daylight. I've been fortunate to squeeze in a little trip afield around solstice time most years. One of my best fishing buddies is a farmer and breaking away from the busy planting and selling season is really tough through much of the spring. Right about now the work flow settles into comfortable and we pick a place to camp and throw some flies at whatever fish might be around. Some years it's the BC Interior or lakes in the Okanagan. One year we floated the lower Yakima for smallmouth. I keep pushing for a shad/carp trip on the Columbia but nobody seems quite as enthralled with catching big scaly herring or anything with a sucker mouth as I tend to be. So this year we settled on the Methow.
A proper Methow trip always begins with a stop at the Mazama Store for a couple of baguettes. One is nearly always promptly devoured before I get to Twisp and the other is reserved for sandwiches once the initial feelings of gluttony and regret fade away after eating an entire hunk of bread, which is usually some time around nightfall. Yes, they are worth the stop every time. Some years there's still significant snow lining the highway at Washington Pass and you can see the tracks of skiers etching in one last ride before it's all gone for a while. This year the North Cascades are pretty bare. If you catch a glimpse of Ross Lake below the highway on the drive up the water is alarmingly low. August may tell a different story but for now everything is green and beautiful and when I finally descend into Winthrop, the Methow is clear and low enough to comfortably wade, but not so low that we'll have to walk our boats through the boney runs.
My friends had arrived the night before and were already floating a section of river so I opted to walk into a favorite spot for the afternoon and evening. When I got to the river there were caddis fluttering around the shoreline willows and a few yellow sally stoneflies taking flight. I could see the odd trout rising along the margins of the river and figured I'd begin with a dry fly. The little tan X-Caddis I chose seemed to do the trick and while the fish proved eager to attack it as it drifted by and I caught several cutthroat, none of them were terribly big. I decided to fish a euro rod through a deep slot a little further downstream. As is often the case, I found big whitefish after big whitefish almost immediately. At least on the Methow, the trout often seem to be where the whitefish are not. While they all share the same water, each species has its own preferred niche.
I fished a little higher in the run, which is usually trout territory when the flows are down. More whitefish. I fished a little lower. More whitefish. I ventured further into the tailout where two currents converged in a "V" shape and bingo, hooked something that didn't seem like a whitefish. And it wasn't. The first big golden flash of a hefty west slope cutthroat is an experience I look forward to every year. If there is one fish that embodies summer in stunning mountainous country that has to be it. It never jumped, it didn't run very fast or far but pulled in that impossibly stubborn way that big cutthroat have a knack for. I admired the big male cutthroat for a moment before sending him back into the current and decided to head for camp. My friends had caught some nice fish and were making dinner when I got back. We got caught up, shared stories and made plans for the next few days. We broke out some new bastardized version of cribbage that combines elements of Chutes and Ladders and quit a few hours into the game so we could get some sleep.
Time stops when you're floating a river. You get lost in the hillsides adorned with vibrant wildflowers, the mule deer slipping through the willows for a cool sip of water, the proud mother merganser parading her young ducklings around the currents and perhaps wondering what sort of strange creature you are. You babble quietly along in a river born well before your time that will continue to meander through the valley long after you've gone. Only now and again are you distracted by a fish eating your fly. Then it's right back to peace and tranquility.
We floated a few different sections below Twisp over a couple of days. Fish were caught, laughs were shared and eventually it was time to go home. It's good to be reminded of the power of rivers. They have this ineffaceable ability to rinse away the chaos and mayhem that often overrun our daily lives. That's perhaps the biggest reason we flock to them each chance we get. At least that's a huge part of why I do.
July promises to be another busy month at the shop as lots of folks are gearing up for trips and off fishing somewhere or another. I'll be hosting tarpon trip in Mexico next week but Brandon and Teo have you covered. Please note that we'll be closed Friday and Saturday, July 4th and 5th for the holiday. We still have a few openings for our July 16th Spey Night at Nugents if you want some help with your two-handed casting. Please RSVP if you'd like to register for free. We are also excited to be part of the first ever Squalicum Block Party that LFS has put together for Wednesday, July 23rd. More details will be forthcoming but we'll have some shop sales and also donated an Echo Boost 9' 4 weight fly rod for the free raffle LFS organized. Come on down, enjoy the event and you just may be the lucky winner.
Enjoy these fine summer days and we hope to see you soon!
Rivers
There's a bounty of open rivers to fish from the small foothill creeks to the mighty Skagit to east side favorites like the Methow. The upper Skagit River in BC also opened on July 1st and is one of the more exciting and scenic nearby streams to drift dry flies for larger wild rainbows. Closest to home, the Skagit River is fishing from the lower reaches in Mount Vernon all the way up past Marblemount for a variety of species. If salmon are your target, the spring chinook fishery runs through July 15th and sockeye is open through mid July as well. Check the WDFW Emergency Rules links for details. For chinook, black and blue flies like the Reverse Marabou Spider and Wombat are a couple of favorites along with Purple or Salmon Squidros fished in the early morning hours on a fast sinking tip. Sockeye are a bit of a fly rod enigma around these parts but will sometimes eat small, sparse krill imitating flies like the Sockeye Killer. Don't worry, if these two finnicky salmon species get the best of you, we'll have no shortage of aggressive pink salmon around later this summer to pursue. Chasing bull trout on a lighter trout spey has been a lot of fun lately, with Sir Sticks A Lot in gray or olive, Dali Lamas, Sculpzillas and CH Kiwi Muddlers being really effective. Just keep covering water until you find them.
The small open tributaries draining into the Nooksack and Skagit are largely in shape and can be great fun on a 2 or 3 weight rod as the trout are generally on the smaller side. We absolutely love fiberglass rods for this summer fishery and the Echo River Glass series is one of our favorites. Grab a handful dry flies like PMX's, Stimulators, Elk Hair Caddis, Para Wulffs, Royal Wulffs, Humpies or Dry Humpers and start wandering those thin blue lines in the mountains. You can often up your success by fishing a small dropper nymph like a BH Prince, Hare's Ear or Dirty Bird 12"-18" below a dry fly. The smaller Chubby Chernobyl's make a great indicator fly as they're easy to see and can support a lightweight bead head nymph without sinking.
The Methow has dropped quickly this year and is already running at pretty low flows for this point in July. Water temperatures are still favorable for trout but we recommend keeping an eye on temperatures later in July as the river gets low. The new Fishpond Riverkeeper Digital Thermometers make a great addition to your summer kit. When I fished the river last week there were lots of caddis, some yellow sallies, PMD mayflies and big golden stones on the water. Folks have done well both fishing dry flies and subsurface. On top, it's tough to beat a big Chubby, Gypsy King, Amy's Ant or other large foam monstrosity when prospecting for bigger cutthroat. If you encounter trout consistently rising to a hatch, a Purple Haze or Parachute Adams has you covered for most mayflies and the X-Caddis or Parachute Slick Water Caddis are a couple of our favorite caddis imitations. The Parachute Yellow Sally often works well throughout the day too. If nymphing, Dirty Birds, Deep 6 Pupa, Gold Lightning Bugs and small Pheasant Tails fished as a dropper with a Jiggy Pat's, Pat's Rubber Legs or Double Bead Stone under an indicator is always a good bet. If I had one nymph to fish on the Methow during July it would be Duracel Jig. This fly can seemingly do no wrong when lots of caddis are around. If you prefer to swing streamers like Sculpzillas, Sculpinators, Wounded Sculpin and Dali Lamas, you'll generally catch fewer fish, but the ones you do find tend to be large and memorable. Fish how you like and go easy on the fish.
Lakes
Most lowland lakes are now too warm to target trout. Trout seek coldwater refuge in the depths of the lake and while they'll still eat a fly, landing them drags them through the oxygen depleted warmer surface layers where they'll struggle to recover. Imagine running a marathon then being held underwater for several minutes while trying to catch your breath. We'll revisit lowland lake trout fishing in the fall as the waters cool. If trout are your focus, you can find cooler water at higher elevations during the summer. With a lower snowpack in this year in the Cascades, many alpine lakes are now becoming accessible and you can generally expect hungry trout trying to fill up on food during the relatively short summer season. Mountain lakes, particularly on the west side don't tend to be very fertile, so trout don't often experience a wide range of choices at the buffet. For dry flies, Black Gnats, Griffiths Gnats, small Parachute Adams, small Royal Wulffs and last but not least, Mosquitos are typically all you need. Impressionistic nymph patterns like Zug Bugs, Hare's Ear or Peacock Soft Hackles, small Woolly Buggers, Red or Black Ice Cream Cones and Flashback Pheasant Tails are our go to's.
If you'd like to stick closer to sea level, bass and panfish fishing is fantastic right now. If you fish Fazon, the water is mysteriously murky at the moment, but we're still catching fish. Bluegill Bullies, Luna Bream Poppers and flies with a bright bead at the head like the black Hot Head Squirrel Leech, Hot Head Woolly Bugger or Black Balanced Leech have been really effective. Whatcom smallmouth have been responding to topwater poppers in the evenings around the docks and we typically start to see the large Hexagenia mayflies hatching at dusk in July so be sure to have a few Hex Nymphs and Crystal Tail Hex Emergers in the box if you're heading that way. Largemouth are definitely focusing on topwater at Terrell and other local lakes in the mornings and evenings. Dry Rind Frogs, Mouserats, Covert Missions, Neon, Luna, Froggy and Pearly Poppers and one of our favorites, Rio's PTO Popper are all effective surface patterns. Don't be afraid to retrieve them aggressively and make a large commotion this time of year. Largemouth are very active in the warm water.
Beaches
Cutthroat are out and about along the eastside Whidbey Beaches and taking a variety of patterns. West's Imitators, Foul Free Herring, Mini-Ceivers and small Clousers all produce. As we approach the end of July, we expect to see the first big waves of pink salmon arriving in Puget Sound and it will be time to start patrolling the westside Whidbey beaches on the good tides. Pink and white or chartreuse and white Clousers are great saltwater pink flies and the Confluence Humpy Fly we've been tying at the shop for several months is as effective off the beaches as it is in the river.