Damsel Madness at Davis Lake (Winthrop)

Davis Lake north of Winthrop

The town of Winthrop is one of my favorite places in all of Washington. Casey and I had a great time there last year. And also, because of our association with the PNCC, our church is good friends with Pastor Steve, Shannon and the kids at the Methow Valley United Methodist Church. As I was in the area for this trip, I stopped in at their church and enjoyed the service, sitting with Shannon and Bob. I stuck around for treats afterwards, but by noon the fish were calling and I had to say goodbye.

I'd been wanting to get back to Davis Lake ever since Casey and I had visited there last year and had seen all those big fish on the fish finder. As I approached the lake in the mid-afternoon I was greeted by swarms and swarms of damsel flies.

Image Copyright Brian Robert Marshall. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.

Remember how my pontoon boat bladders had died on the ill-fated Dry Falls trip the previous weekend? I had since purchased (from Craigslist) an entire, still-new-in-the-box, pontoon boat and replaced my old pontoons with the new ones. I put together the resulting Frankenstein boat and fished shirtless and in sandals for four hours. I hooked fish after fish in every part of the lake at every depth.

Carey Bugger, tied for this trip

The fish were rising everywhere to the swarming damsels all day long. I observed something interesting. There were clouds of blue damsels hovering over the water. Every now and then a gray damsel would fall to the water and the blues would appear to "attack" it. I wonder if the gray was the female and the blues were the male. I can't say if that's true but the trout seemed to love the situation and would rise up and grab several damsels at once. Of the fish I caught, the largest was perhaps 14". Not a hog but big enough to make for a fun afternoon

The drive home was a long one - just under 4 hours, down through Pateros, Wenatchee, Cashmere and south to Cle Elum and then home. 650 miles in three days. Whew!

Nunally Lake, Aeneas Lake

Nunally in the morning

The Worst Summer Ever (weather-wise) in Seattle continues. I couldn't take the idea of spending a mid-July weekend under cloud-cover so I planned a long journey on the other side of the mountains. The first night I camped with some good friends at Wanumpum state park, on the Columbia River, just 3 miles south of where I-90 crosses the river. We sat in the dark and talked about the world until it was time to go to sleep in our tents.

The only way to Camp

Up at 4:30AM. Between the JetBoil and the Starbucks Via I'm caffeinated with-in minutes and driving across the bridge and then south to the Nunally trailhead. The mosquitoes were merciless, that's definitely a theme everywhere in the Northwest this year.

As I hoisted my float-tube down to the lake I could see big fish rising across the placid surface. Yippee! Out in the water was a different story; with no wind, the fish were very, very picky and I could not fool them at all. They appeared to be rising to little winged ants. I had nothing in my fly box that looked like that. I eventually broke down and switched to fishing a wet fly (a Carey special, the ultimate still-water go-to fly). I picked up a single fish.

The fishing died off as mid-day approached, as I had been warned. I had been the only angler there all morning, with only a crop duster for company. The fishing could have been epic if I'd been able to match this hatch. Maybe next time.

I used the unproductive mid-day hours to drive way north to the Okanogan region. Passed by Steamboat Rock on the east side of the Columbia, where hordes of campers were joining with the hordes of mosquitoes. Eventually I made my way to Aeneas lake, which I'd always wanted to visit.

Aeneas Lake

Aeneas is a beautiful little lake with a reputation for producing quality trout, but I'd arrived too late in the year; the water was too warm for trout. I fished it anyway but didn't get a bite. On the shore I saw a very strange site. The complete bleached skeleton of what appeared to be a fox or small dog. Eventually a thunderstorm chased me off the water and I got back in the truck to continue the trip...

Okanogan Fishing Report

A Lake in the Sinlahekin Wildlife Refuge

In years past, it was Amy who accompanied me on the fall fishing trip. But this year she had a project going that she didn't want to leave. But I wasn't about to skip what has become one of my favorite traditions! So I took Casey with me; our first Father / Son Fishing Trip. We were gone five days which speaks to how much fun we had.

On our first evening, we stopped at the Hansen Ponds in Cle Elum. Those ponds are reserved for juveniles. Casey practiced casting a 'hopper to the rising fish, some of whom were impressively sized and quite willing to rise. He couldn't quite hook one but he didn't care, for him it was all about the casting.

Lake Lenore

Since Casey is 8, I figured the key to making this a successful trip would be to keep the fishing to a minimum and the fun to a maximum; I tried to keep the fishing to just 3-5 hours per day and filling the rest of the time with fun stuff. We always stayed in motel with a pool and we swam first thing in the morning and after every dinner. Casey had his iPod Touch to keep him company on the long driving segments (the Okanogan is a long way from Snoqualmie).

Lake Lenore Caves

On our first full day, we fished for about an hour on Lake Lenore -- there were plenty of other fisherman there and I think they were catching fish, but we didn't. I think we got there too late in the day, when the sun was too high on the water. So we packed the boat back into the truck and drove across the road to the Lake Lenore Caves. I'd seen the sign a million times but had never ventured over there. The Caves were pretty cool! A short walk -- only about 10 minutes to the first cave. There were three more after that, each more impressive than the last.

From 2010 Fishing

From there, we drove three+ hours to the Blue Lake just south of Oroville near the Canadian boder. This highly alkaline lake is a favorite of mine - its full of 20+ inch Lanhontan Trout. When the fish are cooperating its a GREAT time. We were lucky because this night was one of those great nights. Casey quickly caught a beast of a fish, probably 22" and 3+ lbs. I netted it for him and took this picture. And then he unceremoniously dumped it over the side.

"Casey! We should have gotten a picture of you holding that fish!" I exclaimed.

"Nah, too greasy." he said. But later when I was trying to tell people how big the fish was he started to see the logic in having a picture, so next time he'll know.

A Brown Trout, taken on a 'hopper

The next day was the best fishing yet. We visited a favorite lake of mine in the Sinlahekin Wildlife Refuge. There were fish rising everywhere. We fished for an hour, trying to figure out how to fool them. I could tell Casey was losing interest, so I dumped him on shore where he made sand castles and just enjoyed being on a lake. In the meantime, I caught this fantastic brown trout. I was fishing a little snowcone fly underneath a big foam hopper and to my surprise, the trout took the hopper! For me this was the fish of the trip. Later, I saw a bigger brown cruising in the weeds - it was 23" at least. It looked like a salmon it was so big! My hands were shaking as I cast to it, but it was far too smart for me, it took off into deeper water almost immediately.

Roger Lake in the Distance

Next we took one of the most awesome drives in the State -- up the dirt road from Conconully and over Baldy Pass (6,515 ft). We stopped at Roger Lake to look around - all the trees for far as the eye could see were burned black but still standing. We dropped down into the town of Winthrop, where we visited a friend of mine named Tim. He's a student at Liberty Bell high and stayed in my cabin at PNCC last summer. His mom served us some apple crisp she'd made and we had a great chat.

Miniature Golf in Winthrop

We spent a good part of the next day just bumming around Winthrop. Casey liked the town with its western theme. We played a round of miniature golf and ate some ice cream and looked at books. We also tried to fish Davis Lake, but it was just too windy. The fish finder said there's a bunch of big fish in there, but we couldn't catch them. We drove back up over Baldy Pass where we saw a big, slow moving porcupine crossing the road. It looked like a small bear.

Conconully Lake

We tried our hand at Conconully Reservoir and caught a few small trout. The weather and scenery were as beautiful as I'd ever seen it up there. That night we had a long drive toward home -- we were able to get as far as Leavenworth, which turned out to be Casey's favorite part of the trip.

A lovely worker in the Bavarian Village that is Leavenworth

Casey LOVED how everything in the town was Bavarian themed, even the Subway and the 76 gas station. We tried the sausage sampler at Cristof's restaurant that night, then bought and ate some chocolate from one of the many candy stores and then stayed in an alpine-themed hotel. The next day we shopped for two hours (which is an eternity for us). We got three gifts for mom, the last at a Christmas Store where the cashier posed with Casey for this picture.

In one way we didn't want to come home, but in another way, we'd been gone for five days and we were both homesick. We tried Fish Lake on the way home that day but caught nothing except a perch. Of the actual fishing, I'd say there was only about 4 good hours of fishing the whole trip, but that's okay. We had so much fun doing everything else. Casey's casting improved each day as well. On the way home he told me he wants to go with me every year from now on, and I told him we can do that for the next 40 years!

Okanogan Fishing Report

Ready to Go

Amy and I both love the Okanogan region; its that upper-right-hand quadrant of the state right up near Canada but not quite into Idaho. We've been looking forward to this trip all summer (we knew Casey would be in Disneyland with his Grandparents). I bought a new camera and Amy got all pretty (see above), though as she points out, by the end of the trip you can't tell the two of us apart.

Calligan

Before leaving, we fished a local favorite in the tree farm, Calligan lake, just to warm up. Fishing was slow but we did manage to get a few cutthroat on dry flies. The fall sun looks golden on Amy's skin as she casts to some fish rising in a pocket.

Snake Eating a Fish

The next day we drove as far as the Methow river before we had to stop and release the fishing pressure. The river was crawling with other fly-fishermen and the water was very low. In a strange coincidence, Amy found a snake eating a fish in the river. I think this is a bull snake and a sculpin. And, unlike earlier this summer the snake looked like he could complete the deal.

Steer on the road

The Okanogan countryside reminds us of Colorado where we both grew up. But the region is definitely remote -- a town of 1000 is a metropolis. Often on these trips we'd stay in sketchy 2-star roadside motels with bad beds and funny smells. This time we decided to try to stay in cabins and resorts. Some friends recommended Eden Valley Ranch as accomodations.

Staying in a cabin

Our cabin was cute and cozy -- a great wood burning stove kept the interior toasty against the cold air coming down from Canada. We watched movies on our laptops and surfed the net on the Ranch's wireless network -- all the comforts of home, really!

2 Laptops, 1 iPhone, 2 coffees, 3 Netflix = Party Time

If you are in the area, I HIGHLY recommend that you stay there -- Robin will take care of you and tell her that David Holmes sent you.

Panorama from our door at Eden Valley Ranch

The Ranch is fairly close to the quirky little "town" of Chesaw, where our friends from church, Gordon and Kelly Kyle, have a cabin. They were nice enough to invite us up to their property (only one mile south of the Canadian border) and feed us lunch. It was so nice to see them.

Blue Lake

If you are a fisherman, by now you are thinking ENOUGH ALREADY, how was the fishing? The lowlights were Sidley Lake, Big Twin, Blue Lake and Beth Lake, where we skunked. The weather at Sidley and Big Twin was cold and very windy so we were unable to fish them long. We pounded Blue Lake for 7 hours, searching for those big Lahontan trout, but, aside from Amy landing one small 12" juvenile, we left disappointed. We also stopped by several lakes which were WAY lower than they usually are even in October, rendering them unfishable. For example, both Conconully Lakes were ridiculously dry, though the other Blue Lake in the gorgeous Sinlahekin valley looked good.

Morning on Spectacle Lake

The only bright spot as far as fishing the Okanogan region was Spectacle Lake. Terri, who runs the Spectacle Lake Resort told us that it was slow at her side of the lake but good at the other side. We had good success, finding fish all over the west side the 300-acre lake. The Cuda 242 fish finder came in very, very handy, as the fish were definitely schooling at specific depths. Amy caught 13 fish there, and she lost a big one before we could get a good look at it.

Spectacle

Speaking of Spectacle Lake Resort, we did indeed stay there for a night. We literally almost blew ourselves up working the natural gas appliances to heat pork and beans that night for dinner. This is when Amy told me that maybe this trip had gotten a little too rustic for her. The resort also appeared to have wireless, but I forgot to ask for the WEP key.

Video of Amy catching a one-eyed-jack

Even though we fished identical equipment, Amy caught the last nine fish in row on Spectacle Lake. Literally the last three hours she caught fish after fish while I had nothing. Just goes to show you, a woman can outfish a man sometimes.

The Ford

On our way back home, Amy steered us to one of her favorite fishing spots, Rocky Ford. There, she continued putting on a clinic, catching four respectable trout on dries, including a monster fish that she swears was over two feet long. I was in the truck at the time having a soda and I didn't hear her yelling for the camera. So there is no picture of the fish of the trip and for that I am to blame.

Columbia River

The most exciting part of our trip was when we stopped at the Columbia river just south of I-90 to look out over the smooth, lake-like water. It was so enticing that we launched our little 12' craft and headed north toward the freeway, paralleling the shore. There was feeling of intense anticipation because there are all kinds of crazy beasts in that water, from 3' Chinook Salmon to 8' Sturgeon. Who knew what we'd catch????

Columbia River Northern Pike Minnow

I caught three fish: all were Northern Pike Minnows. The water was alive with Salmon smolt and these ugly predators were probably gorging themselves on the poor little guys who were just trying to get 500 miles downstream to the ocean.

Look closely for the Demon Eye

As we neared a large island in the river, we spooked a couple of big fish were were hanging out at the surface. Amy thought they must be salmon. We continued North and saw a few more. We cast to them and they spooked again. But this time when they swirled about 50 other swirls happened all around us! We were frantic to figure out what the fish were. Finally we got a good look at them -- they were carp and some of them looked to be 15-20lbs. We fished to them for hours but they were very shy, fleeing at our every approach. Though we didn't catch one, pursuing them was exhilirating.

Placid Columbia

It was a five day trip which is one of our longer trips. The extremes were freezing our buns off in Sidley Lake to getting sunburned in the Columbia River. For the most part, the weather was good -- too good. You see, we usually do this trip in October, but I was getting tired of the short days and cold weather during our trips. But now I realize that you have to have those short days and cold weather in order to get the excellent fishing. If you go too early, like we did, you get the nice weather, but often the trout will still be in summer mode. We'll see we what happens next year.

2008 Marital Harmony Okanogan Trip

Blue Lake (Loomis)

This was the third annual "Marital Harmony" fishing trip to the beautiful Okanogan region of our great state. We use this time to get away, just the two of us, for four days of fishing and re-connecting with each other. It is a very special time for the two of us in an area that we both think is incredibly beautiful. Also, there are big fish there!

Fishing highlights of the trip include:

• Rocky Ford Creek - 3 big trout for David
• Blue Lake (south of Loomis) - 5 trout for Amy, 4 for David
• Blue Lake (south of Oroville) - 1 trout for each of us
• Conconully Lake - 5 trout for David, 3 for Amy
• The Yakima River in Easton - 3 trout for David, 2 for Amy

David: 14 rainbows, 1 brown, 1 Lahontan cutthroat Amy: 10 rainbows, 1 Lahontan cutthroat Ha, ha, I win. Actually it wasn't really like that (yes it was).

Not wanting to do the 6-hour drive all in one go, on day one we stopped near Ephrata to fish Rocky Ford Creek. Even though it was a Tuesday, there were 15 guys there! They were the Vancouver (WA) Fly Fishing club on an outing to Dry Falls but the wind had forced them off the water and over to Rocky Ford. They were monopolizing the downstream fishing areas but Amy and I had to upper area all to ourselves.

Fishing was generally difficult and slow. Sadly, Amy didn't hook anything except her own hair.

I caught 3 fish, including one that was 20" -- your typical Rocky Ford chubby trout, but I caught them on flies that you wouldn't think would work there: San Juan Worm, a large Royal Wulff and an Adams.

After rocking the Ford, we drove three long hours north to the town of Omak, where we stayed at the Omak Inn and had TV dinners from the Wal-Mart. Now THAT'S livin' large! Actually the Omak Inn was pretty good, I'd stay there again.

Tying on at Blue Lake

There are two lakes named "Blue" in the Okanogan area. We visited them both the next day. We arrived at the one south of the town of Loomis just as the sun was breaking over the ridge. It was cold but still and there were fish rising all over.

We fished the lake for the next four hours, regularly hooking up with the eager rainbows. The surprise of the day came when I hooked and caught this nice brown trout. I didn't even know that there WERE brown trout in this lake!

Surprise!Brown Trout from Blue Lake

In the afternoon we moved operations to the OTHER blue lake, where fishing was slow until we figured out that we needed to fish DEEP for the lahontans. When we got that figured out we were each able to get one fish before it became too cold to stay out any longer. Here's Amy's fish.

The Biggest Fish of the Trip

The next day we awoke to a fierce wind, so we headed up to the old resort town of Conconully. At Conconully Lake Resort there is a funny "Party Pooper" box -- they put it on skis and it won some crazy awards or something. Here's a picture.

Party Pooper Portapotty

Even though Conconully lake was somewhat protected by steep canyon walls it was still quite windy when we launched onto the lake. We found a quiet bay and caught several fish like this one. For every fish we caught we probably had three more strikes. That place is LOUSY with fish. I would love to go back there when its not so cold and windy!

Conconully Lake

That afternoon we went back to the Blue Lake south of Loomis for another try at the fish there. We got skunked but you know what? We had so much fun trying to catch the rising fish and just being with each other that it was the best part of the trip. It was all about reconnecting and it was so nice. Best time I've ever had getting skunked. Afterward we started the long drive south, determined to get at least part of it over with. We ended up getting as far south as Chelan where we stayed at the Apple Inn, which was pretty good actually!

Dry Falls Overlook

On the last day it was windy everywhere. We stopped at Dry Falls and waited for a calm period but didn't get one so we moved on. Eventually we ended up exploring some new water on the Yakima River on the way home where Amy caught some fish with an october Caddis on the top. Here's a picture she took; she said she always wanted to take a picture like this so here it is.

Amy's Yakima Rainbow

So for the four days, the fishing was good, but the marital maintenance was the main thing. We are good together again.

2006 October Fishing Report: Beda Lake, Blue Lake & Lake Lenore

Click here for all the pictures from this essay. Day One - Beda Lake - Nice Weather...
I've been planning this trip for a year. We had such a good time at Blue Lake last year that I knew we'd want another shot at it. I arranged for my mom and my niece to be here from Colorado so they could keep Casey company. Amy and I headed east with our new 12' jon boat hanging out the back of the truck.

Beda Babe in October

We arrived at Beda around noon and joined two other anglers on the water. Fishing was TOUGH. One of the anglers had enjoyed a few in the early morning on chironomids but that was all. Over the course of the day we tried just about every fly in our boxes. The only ones that worked were a damsel adult -- only had one of these and the fish took it with him -- and a silver and red snowcone. Olive or black chironomids had no effect. Unfortunately, Amy only caught two fish -- a couple of tiny perch which I ruthlessly dispatched. I was the king with 4 fish all between 14-17" - the last on a BWO even though there wasn't a baetis hatch to speak of. The fish seemed to be keyed into chironomids all day and weren't interested in much else.

Typical Beda Fish

Towards dark we enjoyed some fat tires and swapped stories with some of the other anglers who were there. They were going to camp it and out try again the next day. We drove north to Pateros and stayed there for the night.

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Day Two - Blue Lake, WA
In the morning we continued our northward journey and finally arrived at Blue lake in the Okanogan region around 10:30 in the morning. The wind was strong and consistent -- though probably nothing compared to what it was in the basin from what I heard.

First of many Lahontans for Amy

We headed for the far side of the lake where the wind was a less and found some spawners hanging out near some structure. Amy cast a small streamer to one of them and it chased it to our boat before it bit down on it. I think I got its mate trying to chase away another streamer. Both fish were caught and released quickly so they could get back to making more Lahontans.

That IS my smile - I need a new one

We decided to leave the spawners alone after that and we just trolled around finding fish. Black wooly buggers seemed to work best and even though we were fishing the same fly, on sinking lines, Amy seemed to catch all the fish. At one point she had 7 to my 1. SEVEN.

The Lahontans are so metallic

From 4 to 7 we had consistent action - every ten minutes or so we'd hit or land another fish. Amy ended the day with 8 and I with only three, but the third one was one of the biggest fish I'd ever caught (in a lake anyway). I didn't measure him but I think he's probably around two feet long.

My fish of the trip

Amy said she had a fantastic time catching all those big fish. The smallest was maybe 16" and the largest were over 20". She thought that they fought pretty well despite their reputation. We stayed that night at the Red Apple Inn in Tonasket, which is kind of a nice little town.

This guy was in the room next to ours

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Day Three - Lake Lenore - One Monster Fish
On the third day we awoke to overcast, drizzly skies and bad colds. We made the decision to make this the final day of our little trip and start making our way home. So instead of fishing Bonaparte Lake, as our original plan called for, we drove south down the basin. We looked at Billy Clapp lake but decided it was too big to fish without a fish finder.
We spent an hour or so at Rocky Ford, where amy hooked one of the big ones under the bridge. She said she actually had to steer the GRHE into its mouth. But it got off. I wasn't into the RF scene that day so I suggested we hit Lenore or the Yakima. She chose Lenore.

Our new 12' jon boat

Lenore was a total tease. The water was still and inviting when we arrived. there were a lot of older dudes hanging around in their waders taking a break. They all said that fishing had been very slow -- each of them having only hooked one fish which had gotten away. So about 10 seconds after we'd string up and launched the wind came out of the north and tossed us around like the Minnow in Gilligan's Island. Same old Lenore.
We fished off the small island for a while and I hooked a fish but he got off. The wind died down for a while so we got back in the boat and started trolling. Amy picked out a gigantic burgundy bugger (size 2?) and was fishing with that when she hit a big fish. She said it was a gentle take but she quickly knew that it was a big fish. He simply would not budge from his spot, even though the wind was trying to push our boat away from him. He was holding all 400lbs of the boat in place in the wind - that's how strong he was.

Amy's Big Fish

Amy fought him like a pro and I netted him for her. He TOTALLY DID NOT FIT INTO THE NET. Landing him was kind of a joke. He was face down in the net just kind of balancing there with 50% of his body sticking out. But you know, he was very cooperative once we got him up in the boat. He didn't wiggle or struggle and we got some good pictures. I estimate him at 7lbs but I could be off in either direction -- I'm not good at guessing with fish that big. Amy was shaking after she released him. She was glad to have had an audience of older dudes in pontoon boats here and there to see the battle. That turned out to be the only fish of the day, but man it was a doozy. The funny thing is I still have yet to land a fish at that lake.
On the way home we talked about how special these trips are and agreed that, in the interest of marital accord, we should continue doing these trips indefinitely. I need to start planning the next trip.