Spring is coming!

Fished today from 10-1 with my dad and we found a few nice rainbows.  Most were on a shimmery green bugger, one on a black bugger.  Fish in good condition.  Weeds present, but reduced due to winter.  Surface water temp was 48 degrees.  Sunny and mostly calm. You know it will be a good day when none of the windmills surrounding Ellensburg are turning!

First rainbow of the season!

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.

Fished the pond yesterday on a cool moderately windy day. Excellent fishing from 9am to about noon and then very slow. Netted 5 large holdover fish, 1 Tiger, 1 huge brown and 3 rainbows. Sorry no pictures afraid of losing new iPhone off my float tube. Olive crystal bead head wooly buggers with intermediate sinking line and floating line with damsel fly nymphs worked best. Some success with various dry flies attracting smaller fish. No surface activity probably due to the wind.

Good news I did not see the river otter or the osprey. I did see the hawk.

Sore mouths?

Yesterday (Tuesday) the day after Memorial Day weekend my dad & I spent the morning at the FRC.  I think there may have been some sore mouths from the weekend because although weather was perfect, overcast and a light breeze, we only had action from the small guys.  We did catch one that was 15" but the rest were the recent plants.

Almost all were on a size 20 spent midge.  A couple on black bugger and olive bugger.

There is a nesting hawk in the pine tree midway along the north shore.  Maybe hawks will make it less hospitable to osprey?  Although there were two osprey present much of the morning.  Even saw one tuck and dive into the water in an attempt to get a fish--hopefully a bluegill--that was unsuccessful.  Easy to distinguish hawk from osprey--osprey has mostly white feathers in front and on its face with dark circles around the eyes.

Sibling Adventure

I came to the FRC 5/23 with one of my brothers and one of my sisters.  We fished from 5-9pm.  Winds were light. Mostly cloudy.  Somewhat chilly--the mountain passes had traction tire advisories this morning.

Kristi with  a small one

Sister Kristi discovered the little family secret--her brothers lose a lot of fish and miss strikes for even more.  Lots of little guys striking.  All of us caught fish (eventually).  Lots of surface activity--feeding on about size 28 midges.

My biggest rainbow ever at the FRC

We fished floating, intermediate, and sink-tip lines and had action on all of them.  Black bugger, green bugger were what my siblings were most effective with.  I used prince nymph, chironomid, and size 20 spent midge.  I landed this 26" rainbow on the spent midge.

Tiger trout measures 18"--photographer doesn't know how to use "zoom" but I'm happy to have the photo.

We also found a tiger.  Saw one osprey.  Saw otter briefly across the pond on the surface once.  Seeing lots of little fish eating on the surface let me know he hasn't decimated the population (yet).

If you haven't made it over yet, come on over.

Saturday, Monday

Fished Saturday 5/18 with friends and Monday 5/20 with my dad.  I was successful with chronomid Sadurday, prince nymph Monday.  Others had success with green wooly bugger and black wooly bugger.  Intermediate line and sink tip were what was used.  Wind howling Saturday, but did okay anyway.  A couple to 19" and 10 small ones.  Fished noon-2:00.  Monday fished 10-1:00 and had three 14-15" and a dozen small ones.  Very bright calm day, saw the shadow of the boat and lines spook numerous fish.  Water clarity is crystal clear and water temp was 62 degrees.
Rob