LINGCOD FISHING IN THE SAN JUAN ISLANDS

The nicest weather of spring so far was perfect conditions for cruising around the Islands and catching some fish & chips.

My roommate’s birthday coincides with opening weekend of the short lingcod season in Washington’s inland waters, and he just happens to have a family condo and boat up at Roche Harbor in the San Juan Islands.

Naturally, we celebrate every year by putting the hurt on some of these aggressive bottomfish, and often a few spot shrimp as well.

This year was pretty standard: just barely make the ferry at Anacortes Friday afternoon, drink cheap beer and good whiskey all night, fish and shrimp all day. What wasn’t standard was the 80 degree weather. Or the fishing.

For lingcod, I use a mid-weight salmon rod, preferably with braided line on the reel for greater sensitivity and minimal stretch. Heavier halibut setups are great too, especially when fishing deep, but most of the lings in the Sound, Strait of Juan de Fuca and San Juans are manageable, and more fun, on lighter gear.

Four feet of 25 to 35 pound test mono-filament leader works great, but some anglers prefer 40 pound test line or heavier with the razor sharp teeth on these fish.

Live sand dabs (small flounder) are the most effective lingcod bait. But if you’re moving a little slow in the morning like we were, frozen herring or leadhead jigs with white, purple, black or root beer colored plastic tails are easier alternatives.

The day started quietly, fishing the morning tide in 50 – 100 feet of water at a favorite spot near the southeast tip of John’s Island, and putting only one keeper fish in the box by noon.

After a quick stop back at port to refill the beer cooler and pick up a few extra crew members, and dogs, our luck changed dramatically. It must have been the dogs.

Fishing the afternoon tide-change at another zone not two miles from Roche, we started hammering fish-after-fish in 40 to 80 feet of water.

Whole horse herring (8″ – 10″ long, thawed and brined in saltwater) on a three-way dropper setup with an 8 oz weight was the hot ticket, but we landed keeper lings on 6 to 8 oz jigs as well.

The fish of the day was a 41.5″ leviathan that could have fit a man’s head in it’s bucket mouth. Too big to keep, but we were stoked just to encounter such a monster so close to civilization. Lingcod that big can be rare on the deep ocean reefs, and we were a 15 minute run from the harbor.

In a few hours, we had seven keepers for the deep fryer, including a nice 33-incher that followed my bait nearly to the surface and put up a serious fight trying to get back to the bottom after it bit. Rockfish retention is closed in the San Juans, but they’re still a fun bycatch and we encountered about a dozen.

Shrimping wasn’t quite so hot, but we caught enough spot prawns to have fried shrimp with our beer battered fish and chips that night.

Along with halibut season, the lingcod opener is the start of summer fishing on the saltwater in the Pacific Northwest. The days are long, the rivers are rising as snow melts in the high county, and the salmon are starting to turn towards home.

This weekend couldn’t have been a better way to kick things off; unbelievable weather, good friends, mostly-cold beer, and enough fillets in my freezer to avoid buying fish at the grocery store for a long time.

For more detailed information on lingcod fishing, check out this great article on How To Catch Lingcod from RipTideFish.com.

RIDING VOLCANOES: MOUNT ST. HELENS

Riding Volcanoes: Mount St. Helens from WILD WILD NW on Vimeo.

Before a trip to splitboard up to the crater rim of Mount St. Helens last spring, I had nearly all my backcountry gear stolen in a car break-in. We had to bail, even though summit permits were sold out for the season.

April 28th of this year, we finally got her done. 6 hours and 6 miles up, 35 minutes and over 5k feet down.

GoPro HD HERO2 footage from the tour cut with a Forest Service public archives film from the May 18th, 1980 volcanic eruption.

Music: The Black Ghosts – Walking on the Moon

Photos after the jump.

Read On…

SPRING AT CRYSTAL

Spring at Crystal from WILD WILD NW on Vimeo.

March and April 2013 have brought everything from 60 degree jersey days to batten-down-the-hatches storm riding. Here’s a few runs when the GoPro made it out.

Music: Tribal Seeds – The Harvest

Much love to the Durkin Lodge (durkinlodge.com).

THROUGH SNOW, WIND, RAIN AND SUN: APRIL IN THE YAKIMA CANYON

Taking the time to learn my home waters, in all conditions and weather.

Winter just doesn’t want to quit this year in the Pacific Northwest. The last two weeks have seen well over two feet of April snow drop on the Cascades, and I’ve acted accordingly. Staying up at the Durkin Lodge on-slope at Crystal Mountain has meant first tracks and Spring faceshots, but after two weekends of storm riding, I took a break from snowboarding last Sunday and to take the drift boat down the Yakima Canyon from Umtanum to Big Pines Campground with my dad and brother.

With 8″ of snow overnight on Snoqualmie Pass, the river was coming up and the water getting darker. The weather remained temperamental throughout the float, snow, hail, rain and even some sunshine. Typical day fishing in the PNW.

With limited underwater visibility and freezing overnight temps the fish were lethargic, and the guides at Red’s Fly Shop recommended big Jimmy Legs Stonefly nymphs, easy to spot in the brown water and enough of a meal to motivate fish to make a grab. And of course they were spot on.

The fish didn’t come easy, but despite working the oars most of the float I managed to land two nice chrome Rainbows. The first pushed 16″ and took a green Jimmy Legs Stone, the second a beadhead 20″er Stonefly Nymph. We had a few missed takedowns on San Juan Worms, as well as a brief March Brown mayfly hatch around noon that yielded some 3 – 5″ minnows on dry flies, but overall it was tough and rewarding fishing.

I learned to fly fish as a kid, practicing in the front yard by casting yarn to the family cat. And since I picked it up again after college it’s been great striking out on my own to learn the waters within driving distance of Seattle. But with such an array of lakes, rivers and saltwater options available, the most useful piece of advice I’ve received is to pick a single body of water and learn it fully.

With the (lift-accessed) snowboarding season winding down, and the salmon runs still out to sea, my goal this Spring has been to know the Yakima River, and make every trip productive in either fish or knowledge. If last weekend’s success in challenging conditions is any indication, the work is paying off. I’m headed back out tomorrow to explore and wade fish the river’s upper reaches, hopefully my luck holds.

KAYAK FLY FISHING ON FISH LAKE

With the ice melted out for spring and recent hatchery plants, Fish Lake was going off last weekend.

This lake, located near the town of Plain next to even larger Lake Wenatchee, is ringed by snow-capped peaks and well known for putting out chunky rainbows year round. Easter weekend was no exception, and with unseasonably hot weather the trout and yellow perch were happy to chase my flies.

My family has a cabin close by on the Wenatchee River, and I’ve trolled Triple-Teaser spoons on Fish Lake to great success. But I’ve always wanted to take on the (often wind plagued) lake with a kayak and sink-tip loaded fly rod. After a morning digging out the fire-pit, clearing brush and putting in other spring cabin work, Saturday afternoon was the perfect opportunity to give it a shot.

Using the roadside “natural put-in” to avoid launch fees at the Cove Resort, it was quick to see that trout were feeding all over the shallow southwest side of the lake. And most of the boats seemed to be working the deeper water north of the resort. It only took about three casts before a bright hatchery rainbow brought my line tight, immediately tail-dancing across the surface in a chrome flash. After releasing this first 14″ ‘bow (there is a generous catch-and-keep limit on Fish Lake, but I already had steak marinating for dinner), I quickly hooked into another. And another.

It was a wildly successful day, hooking 21 fish and landing 12 rainbows and 2 fat perch over the next few hours, with one triploid trout pushing 17″. The beautiful mountain scenery and watching an otter try to steal goose eggs on shore nearby, to the loud dismay of the flock of geese, were great treats on the side.

Fighting and landing these acrobatic fish from a featherweight inflatable kayak was certainly a challenge, as evidenced by the high loss ratio, but on a windless day it proved to be a great tool to stealthily approach feeding trout.

Flashy green #10 Wooley Buggers with gold bead heads were the hot ticket. Though the trout seemed just as happy to attack a large brown Sculpzilla streamer, which landed the biggest fish of the day. I gave a few dry flies a shot, but after no interest it wasn’t hard to switch back to stripping streamers and immediately hook into more fish. These rainbows will go native and wise up to angler efforts by summer, though later in the year could see some hefty holdovers. Either way I’ll definitely be making it back to Fish Lake this season.

Read On…

MARCH FLY FISHING ON THE YAKIMA RIVER

An afternoon tossing dry flies on a quiet stretch of river brings three large trout to the net.

Looking to get some Eastern Washington sunshine, I made the drive over to the Quincy Lakes wildlife area north of the Gorge on Sunday. Meeting up with some buddies who had been climbing nearby at Vantage, our mission was to scout the area’s small hike-to lakes; Dot, Cup, Spirit and Crystal, each rumored to have big holdover rainbow trout.

Unfortunately, after a nice hike in through sagebrush and desert mesas, it was pretty clear that this season the choked and sterile waters were not worth more than a few tentative streamer casts. Quincy, Burke and the other big lakes looked productive (and busy with anglers) for bass and trout, but only from a boat or float tube.

With a good chunk of the afternoon remaining, I decided to stop by the Yakima on the way back west. The Yakima River is our state’s only Blue Ribbon-rated trout stream, and early spring, with several insect hatches and light angling pressure, can be the best time to fish it. Particularly as irrigation releases often blow out the water in late spring and summer. At a spot along State Route 10 just above Ellensburg, I pulled off the highway to a wild turkey and the splashes of rising trout.

Brushy banks and intermittent gusts made casting tricky, but I was happy just to be throwing a single dry fly after fishing heavy nymph rigs all winter. And on the third cast I made upriver, my olive #10 Bitterroot Skwala was sucked into a large golden head, Jaws style.

After several leaps into the air and a run with the current, I brought the wild rainbow to the net. The first on my new Orvis Access III reel, healthy and around 18″, that fish made the day. It’s slightly-smaller twin just 10 minutes up the bank made it even better. After less than 30 minutes on the river, I was celebrating two beautiful trout with a still-almost-cold can of Rainier beer.

The third, and best, fish of the day came with evening. The hatch of Skwala Stonef lies had been thick, the big bugs crawling all over my waders, and some caddis flies had appeared as well. The trout had dinner options, there was my noisy upriver wading to spook them, and a fish that struck but avoided my hook set. But two hours later as the sun fell behind the Cascades to the west, a soft splash took my drifting fly, now a tan-bodied #10.

My reel singing as the fish took steelhead-like runs, it sent me running downriver after it. Staying in the current, this heavy trout, on thin 5X tippet, took what seemed like forever to come to the net, several times swinging close only to make another rush for deeper water. It was one of the biggest and best fighting trout of my life. After some quick photos, I watched the brilliantly spotted rainbow swim from my hands, then drove home to Seattle, 90 minutes and a snowy mountain pass away, smiling the whole time.

Fly fishing, like so many other sports, is a game of inches. Location, timing, water flow, weather, presentation; there are a thousand tiny steps that go into every victory. And all it takes is to screw one up to go home skunked. But when all those subtleties come together, when the fish are feeding and you’ve got just the right fly in your box. When you’re the only angler on a perfect stretch of river and that line comes tight, it’s truly an experience that can’t be matched.

A note on catch and release: The Yakima River, from Easton Dam above Cle Elum to Roza Dam at the end of the Canyon, is managed as a year round, selective gear, catch and release fishery. Because of this program, it’s arguably the best trout river in Washington. The cutthroat and rainbows are wily, healthy and wild, a far cry from hatchery planted fish and worthy of a quick release, back to the river for another round. We could use a few more rivers managed this way.

For more information on fly fishing the Yakima, check out Red’s Fly Shop, located on the river in the stunning Yakima Canyon.

SAN JUAN ISLANDS BLACKMOUTH FISHING

Photo-blog posts and trip reports like this one are the reason I created this site (that, and I wanted to become a WordPress ninja), and I’m going to try to start posting them more frequently. Capturing and sharing sweet photos and stories of getting after it is a great creative outlet, and one that I think can immerse the reader more deeply than blogging prose alone. So if you’re reading this, check back often, or follow by email on the homepage, there’s more to come.

March is in-between seasons for salmon fishing in the Northwest. And that’s fine, because usually it’s one of the best months for riding deep storm snow in the Cascades. But with nothing going off in the mountains (and not feeling up to the four hour drive to chase steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula) my dad, girlfriend and I decided to make a day trip up to the San Juan Islands to enjoy the perfect weather and see if we could hook into a blackmouth or two.

These fish, resident Chinook salmon that spend their whole lives in the Salish Sea, aren’t as big or numerous as their ocean run kin. But they make it possible to fish for salmon on the saltwater all year long. And when you come back to the ramp with two nice hatchery blackmouth in the cooler, you’ve got some of the only fresh salmon fillets north of the Columbia until the summer runs come in.

After putting in at the Anacortes boat launch and running across to Thatcher Pass on the east side of Blakely Island, we were treated to some great views of the rising sun and the Washington State Ferries heading to Friday Harbor and Victoria, B.C.

The day’s first fish came on my rod over a rocky bottom in 100 feet of water; a feisty wild blackmouth of around six pounds that hit a black and silver Coyote spoon trailing a purple-tinted flasher. It was awesome to hook into my first salmon of the year, and just fine by me that it was a wild fish that got a quick release. It was still early, and there would be more fish for the icebox to come.

Shortly after we released the first native, we had another fish on in deeper water. This time it was a small hatchery Chinook, at 21.5″ just under the legal size limit.

With the morning tide subsiding and no keeper fish in the box by 10:00 a.m., we took advantage of the calm seas and total lack of swell to run southwest into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, stopping at a spot dead center between the San Juans, Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula, and Victoria, B.C. This underwater ridge, known as Hein Bank, produces some killer Chinook, coho and halibut fishing. But it’s several miles from land and dangerously exposed to weather, ocean swell and high seas, especially in a small, open boat like my Dad’s 18 foot Boston Whaler.

The main food source for salmon here are candlefish, named because they are so oily during the spawning season that Native Americans dried them out and burned them like candles. Smaller than herring, these thin baitfish burrow down into the sandy bottom, and fishing for their predators requires keeping your gear right off the deck, sometimes literally dragging the downrigger ball in the mud.

We weren’t trolling again for more than ten minutes before a small, silver plug spinning along the seafloor got hit hard, the rod bouncing madly enough to assure us it wasn’t a rock or piece of kelp that we had stuck. The Captain took this one, and a nice fight brought a beautiful eight pound hen blackmouth to the surface. A quick check boat-side proved it was a hatchery fish before I dropped the net and pulled her aboard. A few pictures, then with the gills cut to bleed out and ensure the best tasting meat, into the cooler she went.

With a nice fish in the box so quickly, we thought we had found the salmon jackpot. And what’s more, no other boats were anywhere nearby to poach on our success. Luckily, it was a stunning day and we had cold Rainier Beer to occupy our time, because it was nearly two hours before the next fish hit (on the silver plug again, right on the bottom). Typical blackmouth fishing.

My girlfriend Jennica is a fishing trooper. She’s held her own during our Trout-Opener “derbies” and reeled in some nice little pink salmon. But the fish on the end of her rod now was a King! It dove deep before jetting along the surface like a dolphin, then leapt airborne several times as we gasped at it’s size. This Chinook was putting up serious resistance, and when it turned and ran straight at the boat I was sure she would lose it in the slack. But Jennica handled it like a champ, and instead of risking a prolonged fight, I scooped the 10 lb hatchery buck into the net during it’s second frantic pass by the boat.

Read On…

COHO MADNESS

Two days of salmon fishing on Puget Sound.

Coho Madness from WILD WILD NW on Vimeo.

Salmon fishing on Puget Sound is in my blood. Hooking into some chrome lightning on the saltwater is just a thrill that never gets old. But the fishing is almost never this good, and neither is the weather. When the silver salmon run came in this Fall, it came in heavy. It was, COHO MADNESS.

Filmed exclusively on GoPro HERO2 + broomstick

Music: Blitzen Trapper – American Goldwing

Not for commercial use. No copyright infringement intended. Eat it if you kill it.

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