Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Gettin' High and Seein' Red


A lot of folks think Tuesdays were made for sitting behind a desk.

Nope.  Tuesdays were made for wet wading high mountain creeks.

I loaded up Uprising's mobile HQ transport and headed up to one of my favorite mountain creeks.  This time of year, the creek hosts thousands of spawning kokanee salmon - as well as a late season flavilinea mayfly hatch.  And hoppers...lots of hoppers.  While the salmon are a pleasant diversion, the real allure of this creek is hungry cutthroats that rise consistently to a well-placed dry fly. 

 

I enjoyed/endured a steep and arduous hike which involved a fair amount of bushwhacking.  It was well worth the effort. 


  



I carried two rods - one with a dry fly set-up for trout and another with a nymphing rig for kokanee.  The cutthroats responded well to a flav cripple imitation and the kokanee responded to a crimson red egg pattern.



After hiking about 6 miles with a few hundred feet of elevation gain, I was pretty stoked to come back to a trailer with a fridge, bed and stove.  I had the entire campground to myself as I sat under a full moon and ate the bowl of peanut rice noodles my wife handed me on the way out the door.  I slept like the dead and had a great breakfast with a pot of black sludge coffee in the morning. 
 This is what life is all about.

3 comments:

  1. Jealous. that looks awesome.

    i'd have ignored the trout and chased the salmon. hah.

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  2. Looks like a good time Brent. It makes me want to head up that way and check things out. I haven't ever targeted the kokes but have wanted to chase them for a while now. I love the diversity/options around these parts!

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    Replies
    1. Chris, they're fun...but don't overlook the trout.

      I am looking forward to some autumn cold fronts to kick the local fishing up a few notches. Won't be long now.

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