Three Fish Doctors

Last Thursday I fished FRC in morning with bright sun and caught a few fish.  The next day met my daughter and oldest grandchild there for a bright afternoon of fishing.  (See previous post.)

Today DrRobFish, DrDadFish, and DrDon visited the FRC in the morning.  Though clouds were dark and rain was threatening we decided to brave the elements.  It was a short wait for action.  Before we hit the corner for the first time Don & Dad hooked fish almost simultaneously--a double!!  Great way to start.  Both got them in.  (Floating lines--black bugger and green wooly worm with red tail).

Not long after and I had my chance and boated a 16" rainbow.  (Intermediate line with green damselfly nymph)  Another one a short time later.  (trailing prince nymph).

Down the back shore and Don found another (pictured).

Smiling Dr. Don with a smiling rainbow

Then we kept trolling and he caught a nice 18" rainbow that we measured in the net.  Action was pretty consistent all morning.  We fished from 9:00-noon.  Wind was blowing a bit so it was a little adventure there.

Then came the rain.  If it was a shower it was more like the kind of shower you take when you have to get up for an early flight and you are standing under the showerhead for  10 . . . 15 . . . 20 minutes? Don & Dad had their thinking caps on this morning and actually brought coats, me--not so thinking this morning and more anxious to get fishing so only had flannel shirt with sweatshirt over it. When you're catching fish, who's counting time anyway?  (Finally dried out and warmed up about the time we hit Wenatchee.)

As we were trolling up the far end there was lots of action.  At one point I had hooked a small bluegill on my prince dropper and was hauling it in when a Tiger Trout came up and swatted it.  I quickly let it back down and he swatted again and missed.  And again.  And again.  Finally he got it and made one quick run and was off.  I think he got the bluegill, but the hook tore from the bluegill's soft mouth so the tiger had a tasty treat.  I guess that lets us know that at least one tiger survives to feast yet another year on the bluegill.  (I was the only one who caught bluegill--I know Tom & Rick, each bluegill I catch counts as a deduction on trout so I was probably negative today in fish count, but it was worth it to have the brief tiger encounter!)

Liking the FRC this year!

First Grandchild @ FRC

Ready to go

Today was Leroy's inauguration into the art of flyfishing.  As Wilford Woodruff said, "“the artificial fly is far the best thing now known to fish trout with.”  Michelle met me at the FRC and within about the first 2 minutes we landed our first rainbow.  Due to technical difficulties we didn't get a photo, but Leroy got interested.

Michelle with a feisty rainbow

We were able to get a photo of the next one, but couldn't get Leroy to look at the camera with that big fish there.

Bluegill are scary!

Imagine our surprise when he reacted strongly to the bluegill I brought in later.  Not sure if he was upset that we'd caught the wrong species or it somehow looked ferocious to an almost two-year old.

Throwing rocks is fun!

Best success was on a prince nymph fished on an intermediate line.  We fished from 3:30 to 5:00 on a bright sunny day.  We were pleasantly surprised to have action fairly consistently during that time.