Methow River Report: 12.12.2014

I got a call from my friend Rod, from Griff's Fly Fishing Adventure the other week. He said we should hit the river on my birthday. Sounded good to me since I had not had a chance to get out for a while. I met up with Rod at the WDFW take out below Carlton. We ran back up to a private launch about 3 miles above Carlton where Rod had already put his boat in.
The Temperature was a brisk 35 degrees under clear skies. I decided to forgo swinging till we got a idea how and where the fish were holding. Rigged up to nymph for a while. My bug of choice was one I tie that I call a "Either Or" in blue. the first half a dozen runs were a blank on players. Had a take in a small slot but it did not last long.

The next run was a slow one and about 6' in depth. Made the a cast did a mend then turned to say something to Rod. When I looked back my Indicator was going under very slowly. Thinking bottom I gave a quick mend, but instead of bottom I felt the tug of a fish.  Tightened my line but I was not getting the hard fighting you would expect from a steelhead. The cold water temperature had the fish acting sluggish. After about 5 minutes I had the fish to the net. It was a nice 9lb hatchery buck. as per the rules for the fishery I bonked the fish. I made a few more drift though the run with no results. in the next few runs a had a couple more hits with no solid hook ups.

After passing Below Carlton I hooked up again on another fish. The take and the fight were the same as what we had been experiencing all day. This time it was a nice 7lb wild hen. We kept her in the net, in the water and snapped a couple of quick pics before sending her on her way.

At one of the runs that is just up stream of our take out, I hooked up again. This fish had a little more giddy up in its fight. 10 minutes later we had a 7lb hatchery hen in the net, ending our day.

Over all it was a great day on the river. I guy couldn’t ask for a better birthday, if you ask me.

Keith