E. Washington Lakes

[raffensg64]

You E. Washington fly guys are killing me! Every day, day after day, I check WALakes.com for fishing reports on 3 of my all-time favorites......Amber, Medical, and Coffeepot. But NO, 20 days of nothing since March 1st. I have to wait until mid-May or possibly later up here in AK to toss a line, so I would REALLY appreciate it if you guys would go to these lakes, catch some fish, and tell me about it! You're tug is my drug.....help a brother out.

Not you, Marc......I know you're a fair weather guy!!! You can get started in June.

[Xwisconyfisherman]

hahaha... I'll see what i can do in the weekends to follow!

[Mike Carey]

Hope to see more E Wash reports in the weeks to come!

[raffensg64]

Slackers.

[dbk]

Gary..... I will throw you a bone Fished Dry Falls with my Dad for a couple of days this past week. Heard and read great reports of 30+ fish days from guys fishing chiros, bloodworms, etc. under and indicator in anywhere from 2-12ft of water. Just my kind of fishing! However, these reports were from a week earlier, but I was hopeful to find both the bugs and trout in the shallows..... and for frazier to go down with some regularity. After three days of fishing, it did not happen quite as I had planned it. Over the three days, there was a 50/50 mix of guys fishing indicators shallow vs guys fishing the deep water (trolling, sinline chiros, etc). That being said, those of us fishing indicators had to work pretty hard to get bit. I hit a couple of brief "spurts" where frazier went down more than once, but those were all too brief. Hatches were strong and the bugs were there in the shallows, but the fishing or catching under and indicator was tough. Spoke to a guy as he was getting off the water who was frustrated because he only caught 5 fish for the entire day when last week he said he had three straight days of 30+fish under and indicator in 7-8 feet of water the week before. "What I am doing wrong!" he exclaimed- sentiments I must admit I shared with him after an 8 fish and 4 fish day respectively

Though I am not an expert, I am not blind and the guys fishing chiros straight down in 20-25ft of water were doing well, which is an understatement. The more they were slaying them, the more I was determined to find the players in the shallows because the bugs were there as well. That turned out to be a poor choice, though I still cannot figure out why the shallow water bite was so tough and sporadic, while the deep water chiro bite was silly good and it stayed that way for extended periods of time. I stubbornly persisted though in the back of my mind I knew I was have to go deep and fish "dirty" with the sinkline technique, which I finally did on the third day.

So with my dad anchored up next to me, we hit them pretty good for a couple of hours before calling it quits and having to head home though the bite was still one. While it was fun to hook them, after a while it felt a bit like cheating. A few throat samples revealed size 16 chromies were on the menu and they were feeding within 1-5 ft from the bottom in 22ft of water. When you get bit, hook up or land a fish in ten out of ten "casts" the excitement wanes a bit for me fishing this way. It was great to see my dad hook up though repeatedly using this technique which he used for the first time. He had a blast. Though we both left wanting to see Frazier go down with a bit more regularity.

To that end, after a report from Den and a phone call, I fished Amber on Friday with him. Anchored up in your old spot near the bank by that house on the south end, my first cast drew a take, where I stung him, but did not hook up with him. Next cast though, Frazier went down hard and I was into a nice 15inch bow taken on a blood worm about 6 ft below my indicator. This was good! Fishing stayed pretty decent for everyone over the new few hours with lots of takes on lots of different patterns- siz 14 black/red snow cones and 18 black zebra midges were producing well for Zen and another guy anchored up near us on that end. A fourth guy joined the party and he started taking fish as well on the snow cone. I ended up hooking and landing fish on 6 different patterns. The interesting thing was that throat samples revealed almost exclusive feeding on the 24-28 pale olive chiros that were coming off throughout the afternoon. I actually had a couple of patterns that were a good match but they brought no love from the fish. They were feeding selectively yet opportunistically at the same time (at least the trout we we taking on flies that were not even close to matching the actual hatch). Biggest trout I caught came in 3ft of water- 21inch bow that took a grey/red ribbed chiro (size 16) in the south end. Also took some nice fish on a pumpkinhead leech suspended under the indicator when the chiro bit slowed down.

All in all a decent day/afternoon on the water as frazier went down with decent regularity. Good ol' Amber...

Hope you are able to get out soon. You were missed on the water but it was nice to hook some fish in "Gary's hole".

Peace.

[Jigking Fishhead]

Sorry Gary,,
I have moved on now. I am fishing two tournament trails, so no time for the trout. . Plus catching a trout doesn't allow me to cash a check,, LOL

[raffensg64]

Thanks, Dave!

Bummer on the indicator fishing.....I know how much you love it! Like we've discussed before, I believe fish feel more secure in 20-30' of water and will feed there instead of the shallows, if there is a food source present deep. Glad to hear you and your father got into them, even if it wasn't the preferred technique. Oh, how I would love to work a chironomid deep near the rocks on Medical's north end, hitting those big rainbows that shoot straight up in front of the boat, getting 3'4' of air!!! I'll be trying that technique on Quartz Lake here this summer. It's a 1.5 hour drive but has the largest rainbows in the immediate area, in the 19-23" range, much like Medical.

We're about two weeks out from open water on the local sloughs and grayling moving in, and about four weeks from "ice off" on the lakes. We've had good temps in the 50s all week with steady winds that are helping to break things up. The snow is rapidly melting but 40-45" of ice will take a bit longer! I didn't see open water on the lakes last year until the 15-16th of May.

I'm heading to Sacramento, CA tomorrow for a week. I'm attending a Quality Assurance Evaluator/Contract Monitor class that my boss wants me to have under my belt. It will help to keep my mind off my lack of fishing for another week! The first thing I'm gonna do upon return is check the ice/grayling situation on Piledriver Slough. With this much snow melting off it will run high and muddy initially, but will hopefully clear up in a couple days like it did last year. These fish are only 10-15" long but there's lots of em, and they're a blast on a 4-weight!

[dbk]

Gary, you will be out there in no time getting after the bows and grayling as it sounds like the weather is moving solidly towards spring. Out of deference to you, I may have to anchor up on the rocks and sinkline for some of those bows since you are not able to get after them. Have a safe trip to Sacramento and remember that May is right around the corner!

[Rooscooter]

I've been to Fan, Amber (3 times), Fish (3 times), Medical (twice) and a couple lakes in North Idaho this year so far... Fishing has been great so far with the best coming from Medical and Amber. Fish lake has yielded a couple big fish (5 lbs +) for me, but not in the numbers of recent years. Fan lake is always great early in the year for a few holdovers and this seasons plants.

I don't get out to Coffeepot that often however I did have a great day at Badger last week using a unique blue and orange chironomid pattern that I've been working on.... It's been working in great in Medical and Amber as well.

Hope all is well up in the great white north and hold tight.... another month and you'll be out there......