Maybe I am just lazy when it comes to titles but with four more days of fishing to cover for the week, it just feels right:
Day 1: Another trip to the Humptulips but the only news was that the bullying of small fish continues.
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| I caught a rainbow (by the tail...jerk move), a cutthroat, and a sculpin |
Day 4: The beginning of the Brewster Pool sockeye adventure got off to a strong start. The salmon swim 700 miles to reach the Okanagan River but they often find that the smaller river is too hot for travel. Tens of thousands of sockeye and chinook will concentrate in a very small area, waiting for a window to book it for Canada. To remind myself what catching salmon felt like, I started with a trip with the same guide as last year. My three sockeye limit was in the boat by 10:30 and I could start working on my Seattle tan. A few of the other clients were not so lucky but having an engineer's incessant need to tinker led to a noticeably higher bite rate on my corner of the boat. We lost about 2/3 of the fish that were initially hooked and even knowing sockeye are legendary for their soft mouths doesn't ease the pain of what might have been. I forgot to take pictures of the fish but the scenery is a little easier on the eyes anyways:
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| The clouds were appreciated for the shade but it was a bad omen for sockeye fishermen |
Kat and Oak spent their morning hiking above our campground at Alta Lake and watching the jet ski races at the Pateros apple pie festival:
In the afternoon we scouted for kayak launch points and proved that husbands should probably always listen to their wives. Thankfully Kat took pity and kept the camera in her pocket for this part. The dirt road was deeply pitted, very steep, and sandy but I had confidence in the Forester and it looked like it might save me some paddling. Kat and Oak walked to avoid rolling down the hill but I made it down without an issue, feeling pretty good about myself, though I failed to really think through the return trip. After sinking into the sand a few times, Kat bailed me out with the brilliant floor mat maneuver and a better running head start through the sagebrush finally did the trick.
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| All terrain beast! |
For the evening we tried some trout fishing in the rain. Failed to find any but my second cast landed my first bass! Never mind that I had bought a whole box of gear specifically for bass last year and struck out every time... this largemouth bass was hungry and not very picky:
Day 5: Woke up in the dark for an attempt at kayak fishing. Sadly, when we arrived at the launch point the only sounds were the flopping of thousands of sockeye racing for the border. If I had remembered my plunking gear we could have sat on the bank where the success rate would have been higher and my back would still be talking to me. Instead I paddled down to the Columbia and went in circles for 4 hours. I got one sockeye up to the side of the kayak but he slipped the hook and another fell off after a much shorter fight. The only consolation was that the guided boats were also struggling to stir up action.
With no fish on the line to distract me I was able to ponder the bigger mysteries in life. Being the only human powered craft in the Brewster fleet normally gets a pretty positive response and even some cheering when a fish is on. However, my unscientific studies have revealed that about 10% of boater people are not pleased to see me. Its unclear if they resent the lack of a proper beer gut (even though I'm working on a cider version) or are unnerved by a red boat. On the water the whispers travel pretty well. The one that stings the most came while fishing for sockeye on Lake Wenatchee when "Toys'R'Us" was used in my general direction. Had no idea what I was doing back then so maybe it was fair description.
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| The rig |
In the afternoon we toured a couple tourist locales including the site of the infamous Omak suicide horse race and tried to stir up more trout on the Methow River. The race has been shutdown for the last couple years but here is a taste of the 2012 event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY5fbHnXSFs . I think the riderless horse finished third!
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| Maybe not the race you do with your favorite horse |
Given the continued rain and cooler weather the trolling gear was swapped into kokanee mode for the lake. Kokanee are landlocked sockeye so it didnt feel like we were completely conceding but in the smaller lakes they are a pretty pale imitation of their seafaring relatives. Within the first hour I had caught my first kokanee but it didn't quite look right to me so I put it back. That would turn out to be the largest of three that I caught for the trip...
Meanwhile, Kat was slaying it on the beach with the smaller bass. These were her first North American fish of any kind. Way back in 2006 she out fished me for piranhas on the Amazon and it took me almost 10 years to get over the embarrassment and invite her back to the water.
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| Back then it seemed like a bigger fish... |
Day 6: Caught a couple more little kokanee, an even hungrier bass on a frog lure, and one trout. Kat practiced her kayak trolling in preparation for Baker Lake sockeye in two weeks. We took two kokanee and a bass home for a head to head cook off (bass won).
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| Learned you shouldn't bring a salmon net when fishing for trout, it looks ridiculous |
The End
(finally)
