TR for the Bighorn Micro Clave and a Trip to Chas's

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003, Warren wrote:

We fished in this area until dark and then headed back
to the Wade Inn completely worn out from what RW and I decided
was fof (freakin' obscene fishing). RW and I were completely
in awe of this type of fishing and I think we are now hooked,
at least I am.

Pinks are plenty of fun. Often aggressive and abundant in my brief
encounters with them.

elitist, snob fly fishermen, RW and I decided to keep about 30
lbs of salmon since they were going to die after spawning
anyway.

Speaking of those salmon living in lakes... one big difference I noticed
between Great Lakes salmon and *real* west coast salmon is that the inland
variety tended to color up much more rapidly than the sea-run fish. Pink
salmon - even from the Pacific ocean - however seem to lose their
*freshness* much (I'm talking very much) sooner than the other species
once they hit the rivers. I don;t know if you'll be keeping too many more
of those fish after you've tasted the first few. There's always the
smoker.

Very informative trip report BTW. Made the Bighorn seem very attractive.
Yet another river to put on the must see list, I guess.

Mu

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003, Warren wrote:

best way I can put it was that it was like being 4 years old
again, fishing for perch using a cane rod and worms and just
hauling in fish after fish.

That's a very apt description.

It was fun as hell but it got
just down-right tiring after a while. Just when you thought
you possibly couldn't take any more, the fish would get hard
to catch and would become challenging again.

Picking off the ones at the edges of the pods can be a challenge in any
case.

Mu

"Clark Reid" wrote:

"Chas Wade" wrote
Frank,

Thanks for clarifying that, you knew exactly what I meant.

Guess my humor gets lost in translation sometimes, apologies if my
remark
was off base.

No worries mate. The humor wasn't lost to begin with. This was
clearly all in good fun.

Chas
http://home.comcast.net/~chas.wade/w...ome.html-.html

Darin Minor wrote:

No problem Chas, as I couldn't make it during the week anyways. I'd
love to
get together for some salmon but I *have* to work as much overtime as
I can
handle.

Sorry to repeat myself, but work _is_ overrated.


Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I tied some pink variations on your
green foam cutthroat fly, and tried them on the pinks Saturday. I
had
a couple follows and one strike where the fish missed (refused?) the
fly. I need to play with this idea some more. It's a great pattern.

That is a sal****er pattern but if you're able to get it to work let me
know. It's cool that you at least got a couple of follows with it.

I tried it again today on the Skagit, another couple followers, but no
strikes. When I get over some silvers I'll try it again.

Thanks

Chas
http://home.comcast.net/~chas.wade/w...ome.html-.html

Darin Minor wrote:
Chas Wade wrote:

I'm off again in the morning for the Skagit or maybe the Stilly.

I forgot to add that I just read that the Stilly was chocolate milk
yesterday. At least it's on your way to the Skagit.

It was better, but still not fishable, maybe Tuesday.


Chas
http://home.comcast.net/~chas.wade/w...ome.html-.html

Willi wrote:


rw wrote:

Maybe we can arrange a Washington Clave some day? Like maybe next
year?
The pinks won't be running like this year, but I'm sure something
else
will be happening.



I'd like to do a Steelhead chase.


I'm learning more about steelhead, chase is a good word. If you can
get to Asotin in SE Washington to fish the Snake or the Grande Ronde,
there will be fish to work on for the next couple months. I have Sept
30 through Oct 5 or so available. I caught one there last year, and I
believe I could catch more now.

Chas
http://home.comcast.net/~chas.wade/w...ome.html-.html

JR wrote:
The range of types of takes and types of fight, depending on the
freshness of the fish, sounds a bit like steelhead, though I think when
you first tie into a really hot steelhead fresh from the sea, the kind
that takes a hundred yards of backing before it even registers you've
hooked something.... well, then you'd get the PNW bug big time.... the
Anadromous Strain g...

You're right on the money here JR. The pinks aren't the fighters a
steelhead can be. About 1 in 40 will take you into the backing, but
part of that is the size of the fish, and part of it is their
freshness. Steelhead can be fresh a thousand miles and a month or two
from the salt, Pinks are rarely fresh for more than a couple weeks.

Maybe I'm fond of ugly fish? Pike and pinks are great, but what about
chums. Now that's an ugly fish with an attitude. On a good day you
have to quit after 2 or 3 hours because your hands and arms are too
tired.

I tested positive for the Anadromous Strain.

Chas
http://home.comcast.net/~chas.wade/w...ome.html-.html

"Bruiser" wrote:
Man, that was a really great trip. Thanks for writing it up and
taking all
the great photos! Fishing with Chas is great too. I'll see you up
there
one of these years, Chas!
You're welcome any time.


I won't even bother writing up a TR for my birthday fishing in the
Wild and
Scenic River section of the Rio Grande for my birthday Saturday, but
I'll
hit the high points:
Despite the modest claims, that was a trip report, and a fine one at
that!

.... snip ...

Oh yeah, my legs are sooooo sore that I can't step off a curb. My
"downhill
muscles" were completely unprepared and I'm not sure if they'll ever
be the
same.

After I did that once, I had what I called thigh splints. Try walking
backwards up the stairs, it works.

Chas
http://home.comcast.net/~chas.wade/w...ome.html-.html

Willi wrote:


Warren wrote:


Chas and RW were into fish shortly
thereafter. It seems that we had followed the storm out west
that had plagued us on the Bighorn as it began to rain and
then would clear a little only to rain a little more.

Very sorry I couldn't go along with you guys.

We are too Willi, the chums are due in a month. You could come for
them.

Chas
http://home.comcast.net/~chas.wade/w...ome.html-.html

Chas Wade wrote:

You're right on the money here JR. The pinks aren't the fighters a
steelhead can be. About 1 in 40 will take you into the backing, ...

1 in 40? Where have you been fishing? It's a rare summer fish on the
Deschutes that won't take you into the backing. I admit fish in some
other OR rivers are less train-like, but 1 in 40?

JR