Duh-duh-duh....duh...duh...duh-duh. The percussive power chords of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water have been stuck in my head over much of the last few weeks as fires burn across the West. The past couple of days have been particularly bad and the waters of a bass lake I fish a lot reflect an orange sky and strange ominous sun that looks as though it belongs to another planet. Our hearts go out to all the folks dealing first hand with the summer wild fires and while none of us care to breathe smoke or begrudgingly cancel a trip because your favorite summer fishing grounds are ablaze, it's a minor inconvenience when compared to losing a home or being displaced from your community. The fall rains can't come soon enough. For many, this is about the part of summer where we pine for a downpour, the kind that refills our shrunken rivers and gives the forests a refreshingly cool drink of water.
While we're fortunate to have mountains nearby and cold water fisheries that persist through the summer heat, the last month has found us focused heavily on targeting interlopers like bass, sunfish and carp on a semi-regular basis. The Pacific Northwest will hopefully always remain the heart of trout, char and salmon country, but there's a whole host of introduced species that represent boundless opportunities with a fly rod. While one could argue they don't belong, they're here to stay and many of them thrive in waters that wouldn't sustain salmonids of any kind anyway. If you're new to bass fishing or could use a few tips, you can find a wealth of information on smallmouth, largemouth and panfish in the articles section on our website.
I'm a self-confessed burgeoning carp addict. It offers most everything I enjoy about tropical saltwater fishing but without the costly plane ticket to Belize or the Bahamas. It's a purely sight-fishing game, stalking and presenting your fly to a visible target, reading the fish, hoping and praying that the next one might actually eat. I am not a great carp angler. They are weird, unpredictable, moody and mostly pay my fly no mind. The more they shun me, the more fervent I grow in my pursuit and occasionally when I connect with one, I am awed by their muscular locomotive bursts into the bulrushes in an effort to get away. They are pure power and can also get pretty darn big. I got invited by some friends to go to the Schmoots Clooper on Banks Lake in mid-July. The Schmoots is a carp tournament that's been happening for years, organized by Bill Marts and a host of other pioneering and dedicated carp fly anglers. It's something I've wanted to be a part of for a while. I use the term tournament loosely. While there are prizes and superlative categories that someone or another will ultimately win, it proved to be about the least competitive competition I've ever participated in.
Carp enthusiasts from throughout Washington, Oregon and Idaho showed up in force, with various skiffs, jon boats and other watercraft with makeshift poling platforms and push poles in tow, ready to tackle the shallow flats of Banks Lake for "golden bones". There were 20 somethings, septuagenarians and several generations in between all aligned in a common purpose. What impressed me most was the willingness to share spots, patterns and tactics in the hopes that everyone would find some success. Carp were caught, bass were caught, cold beverages consumed, tacos devoured, stories shared and one outbuilding at the A La Cozy motel slightly scorched by a runaway BBQ on the last night. All in all it was an awesome weekend and I even almost landed a carp after feeding a handful of fish and failing to set the hook in the quarter of nanosecond they give you before expelling your fake fly. At least the bass were exceedingly willing and the steep rocky shorelines produced lots of big, aggressive smallmouth. I wish we had more carp opportunities closer to home, but for the moment I'll just have to dream about the next trip and continue to fine tune my carp skills little by little.
Speaking of warmwater species, we've already gotten several entries in our August Warmwater Slam contest. We designed it to be a fun way to muddle through the dog days of summer, avoid stressing trout in hot water and possibly win some cool stuff at the same time. We also just added an Echo 84-B 7 weight rod to the list of prizes for the biggest bass. The contest runs through the end of August and you can see the complete rules and list of prizes on our website.
On the cold water side of things, we've been dividing our time between the Skagit system, some high lakes and streams, and are getting ready to explore the Whidbey beaches for coho salmon this month. Numbers are looking good in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and fishing should continue to pick up around the Sound as the month progresses. Monitoring the Puget Sound Creel Reports is a helpful tool to get a sense of where coho have been most abundant in the salt. Thanks to all the folks that showed up for the North Sound Trout Unlimited Casting Olympics at Terramar Brewstillery last week. It was a wonderful time with a fantastic turnout and some excellent casting instruction compliments of the 4th Corner Fly Fishers team. We plan to do it again around the same time next year and hope you'll join us. Our final Spey Wednesday of the summer is coming up on August 19th. If you're looking for a hand (or two) with your spey casting this is a great opportunity to get some free help and cool off with us on the Nooksack after work. We still have a few spots left, but space is limited so sign up fast.
We hope you're getting the most out of your summer and spending some time on the water. If you're hard-pressed to figure out where to fish there are a ton of options and we're always happy to help with some ideas and get you set up for success. Thanks for keeping us busy and we'll see you on the water.
Scott, Brandon, Lindsay and Teo
Rivers
A lot of our rivers and streams are about as low as they'll get until we see some real rain. The larger systems like the Skagit, while also low, are still flowing nice and cold between dam releases and glacial influences. August is a time to keep a close eye on water temps as rivers throughout the west can get too hot to fish for trout. Oxygen levels are severely depleted in waters above 67 degrees and can be lethal to trout, especially when hooked and played. Bring a thermometer like the Fishpond Riverkeeper or Cling Temperature Tape and stop fishing when the temperature climbs above acceptable levels or plan a trip elsewhere. Some rivers have a temperature monitoring station to give you a sense of what's going on before you make the trek. The Methow has a gauge at Pateros, which runs a little warmer than upriver, but indicates that afternoon water temps have been hitting the mid to high 60's in the last week. It's cooled off slightly from previous weeks but warrants keeping tabs on until the nights get longer and cooler in September.
One of our favorite August retreats, the upper Skagit in BC, is unfortunately closed for the time being with a wildfire burning at Hozomeen. The road is currently closed into the Provincial Park and will likely remain that way through the rest of the season. Higher elevation creeks are one of your best bets for the rest of the month if you're looking for trout. Being stealthy tends to pay dividends this time of year, crouching behind boulders, not wading right in and moving quietly upstream as you approach likely holding water. Less gaudy patterns like Parachute Adams, Parachute Cahills, Para Ants, Stimulators and Elk Hair Caddis are in order in the reduced summer flows. High sticking a heavy nymph like a Duracell Jig, KJ Hot Ribbed Hare's Ear or Fire Starter Perdigon through the fast water at heads of runs is also a really productive tactic on the creeks. Trout love to hang beneath the oxygen-rich bubbly water in the late summer where there's plenty of food and overhead cover.
The Skagit above the Sauk continues to fish well for bulls and the odd rainbow trout. We're still swinging meat patterns on the trout speys most of the time and finding fish on a variety of patterns. The Precious Metal, Meat Sweats, Sir Sticks A Lot and Sculpzillas have been some of our favorites, but don't overlook having a few smaller patterns with you. The Mini Dalai Lama, Wounded Sculpin, Daniel's UV Polar Jig and Morrish Micro Jigged Sculpin, which will be (spoiler alert) August's fly of the month in a few weeks, have been key on those days when the larger streamers aren't getting much attention. Another really effective searching tactic is to trail a small Partridge Soft Hackle 18-24" behind your streamer or on a dropper tag above it. Rainbows are particularly fond of the Soft Hackle patterns.
Fall salmon season is just around the corner. Portions of the lower Nooksack opened August 1st. We typically don't see amazing numbers of salmon in the rivers until September or at least the first big rain but it's something to keep in the back of your mind. We should be getting a crack at coho off the beaches this month before they really begin filling up the rivers.
Lakes
Much the same as last month, we're focused on trout in the alpine lakes or bass and panfish in the lowland watersheds. August is a great month to hit the trail and catch a variety of lakes snow-free and in the prime of the fishing season. Pattern selection is pretty straightforward with ants, beetles, Adams, Mosquitos and Griffith's Gnats covering the surface action and Peacock Soft Hackles, Hare's Ears and a few small Woolly Buggers or BH Hale Bopp Leeches doing the trick when trout aren't rising. Most lakes offer at least a handful of decent spots to fish from shore, but a small packable float tube provides access to all of the water and will often up your fishing success. The Outcast Fish Cat Rise weighs 8 pounds, packs up relatively small and is a great entry level option without being overly expensive if you're looking for a tube to boost your lake fishing game.
Most of our free weekday nights have found us on the myriad of bass lakes around the North Sound. Evenings have been the most productive fishing time with the bite really coming on in the final hour before dark. The twilight bass fishing is a great outlet for those that want to squeeze in some quality time on the water but don't have the luxury of shirking their other life responsibilities. The same bugs continue to get the job done all summer long. Bream Poppers, Chernobyl Ants, Flying Foam Beetles and Madam X's have been the panfish killers on top. Bass will eat a variety of poppers including the Tigger, Pearly, Neon, Kermit, Froggy and Luna varieties. They make a lot of noise, are weedless and attract attention from a distance. Some nights you'll do well stripping them back quickly and loudly, but other times a slower "pop and stop" approach is more successful. Just play around until you find the magic combo. Sometimes, a noisy topwater presentation acts as more of a fish repellent and a subtle pattern that creates a quiet wake is going to work better. In those cases, try a Slider or Covert Mission.
As if the bass and panfish outings themselves weren't reward enough, we've upped the ante with an August Warmwater Slam Contest. Each time you catch 3 or more warmwater species in a day, email or DM us pictures and you'll be entered into a drawing for some cool prizes. We also have a prize for the biggest bass of the month. Send us a photo with length measurements or weight and you just might become the proud owner of a new Echo 84-B 7 weight generously donated by Rajeff Sports/Raging River Sales. We have numerous lakes that hold more than 3 species of warmwater fish and those tend to be great ones to focus on to achieve a grand slam. Fazon Lake alone has crappie, bluegill, pumpkinseed, largemouth bass, perch and a couple species of catfish if you're fortunate enough to trick one on a fly. Lake Sixteen is another good one. Even Lake Whatcom is a possibility with smallmouth bass, pumpkinseed and yellow perch available. If you'd like some extra tips and targeting these fish, I wrote a few articles on Whatcom smallmouth and largemouth/panfish tactics a few years back. The contest really applies to anywhere in the country, so if you find yourself fishing while attending a wedding in the Midwest, you can probably knock out a grand slam in short order any number of places. Full contest rules and the prize list can be found on our website.
Beaches
Saltwater salmon season is upon us. While we're still waiting for the bulk of ocean coho to enter Puget Sound, there have been a fair number of resident coho in the 3-5 lb. class in northern Marine Area 10 and Marine Area 9, as well as coho coming through the San Juans. The west side Whidbey beaches like Fort Casey and Bush Point should continually pick up throughout the next several weeks as more coho come in through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Fly selection for beach salmon is pretty basic. You'll want some Stinger Clousers in pink/white and chartreuse/white with a handful of more subdued olive/white. Regular Clouser Minnows work too, but we prefer the stinger style as they don't tend to foul around the hook quite as much during the relentless casting that accompanies the average day of beach fishing. It's always good to have some more imitative patterns like the Psychedelic Herring or Shock & Awe in the box for those days you encounter fish actively working a bait ball. Dust off the stripping basket, exercise your casting muscles and buckle up! The season is just getting started!