Fishing Report from the Winds late Jul 2016

[NJ Drew]

I just got back last weekend from a week long trip in the winds and thought I would share some experiences and pics. We hiked in through Elkhart TH up to Island lake crossing over to Wall and back down through the Cooks to Pole Creek and out. Overall the trip was good to start, but got hazzey towards the end with the wild fires in the area blowing smoke through the range. A few days in we arrived at Island lake. Although it felt like a backpackers Cancoon and everyone who was sober and fishing saying they weren’t catching, we decided to stay and try anyway. It became very obvious to us that not a lot of BPers there knew how to fish. On our way to the waterfall we came across a guy who said nothing was biting and at 3:00pm it was getting to late it the day. Brian and l looked at him with a befuddled face and carried on. Fishing a combination of sparkle hoppers, chernobyl hoppers and pretty much anything with a gold body we did pretty well. Brian caught a few smaller cuts and I caught a 20″ or so bow:

Eric decided to stay closer to camp and fish the ponds next to Island and he did pretty well as well:

The next few days we crossed over to Wall and hiked down into the cooks where we spent a few more days fishing for Goldens. Out of respect for the person to gave me the information I wont say which lake we caught the Goldens in. The Goldens where a lot harder to catch as they spent all their time eating what looked like ISOs emerging from the bottom. We presented the entire dry fly assortment to them without even a look. Finally we came to the conclusion only something with action was going to peak their interest. Black woolly bugger, muddler minnows and stripping copper johns is what got them on the hook:

The biggest golden was caught by Eric in a small pool with the Black Wolley bugger:

With a hooked jaw and measuring about 24″ it was the catch of a lifetime. We decided to let everything go on this trip. Normally we would have eaten a fat bow or two, but the bows and cuts there were for the most part pretty thin and not worth killing for such little meat.

[David Noll]

Very nice!

[Greg Mihalik]

“In his study, “Physiological Effect of Brief Air Exposure in Exhaustively Exercised Rainbow Trout: Implications for “Catch and Release” Fisheries”, Tufts studied the effect of time out of water periods of zero, 30 and 60 seconds for rainbow trout after exhaustive exercise.  In 57-degree water, after 12 hours of recovery time, the control group– fish that were held in captivity but not exercised–experienced no mortality.  The group not exposed to air immediately after exercise experienced 12% mortality.  The group exposed to air for 30 seconds after exercise experienced 38% mortality, and the group exposed to air for 60 seconds after exercise experience 72% mortality.  7 out of 10 trout died after 12 hours when exposed to air for 60 seconds.”

http://forum.skagitmaster.com/index.php?topic=330.0

When you take a fish out of the water, start holding your breath.  When you need air the fish needs water.

“On our way to the waterfall we came across a guy who said nothing was biting …”.

Yep, pretty typical.  Tenkara is good all day long, all year long.  Thanks for a great trip report.

[Jenny A]

Beautiful fish are just…beautiful.  Hope to catch some goldens someday.  Thanks for the photos.

[Francis DeRoos]

thanks for sharing NJ Drew. Just curious, did you ever feel you wanted a spinning rod during the day either because of wind, ease, ability to cover more water (inc deeper and faster retrievals)?

[John Vance]

Thanks for the trip report.  I don’t fish but have certainly seen some 24″+ in the Winds.  What was the bug pressure like?

[Leap Frog]

I carried an ultralight spinning setup in the Winds last September and loved it. Caught fish with a roostertail where my tenkara friends had no luck.

[Francis DeRoos]

thanks leap frog

[NJ Drew]

The only time I spinner fish these days, is in salt water but you certainly could use a spinning rod in the winds. Although they are called the Winds, we experienced little wind while we were there, so that wasn’t a problem. When fishing the lakes you will do better if you fish the inlets and outlets of the lake. Fish gather there because food is being washed in or pulled out of the lake. At Island lake, my brothers and I did well catching around 20 fish or so while most other hikers there said they couldn’t catch anything. Fish are more active during dawn and dusk, so If you only have a limited time to fish between legs of your trip, I would target those times.

[NJ Drew]

We didn’t experience any thick hatches, but I did see fish feeding on what looked like a really dark ISO. We didn’t have any flies that matched that pattern so we were not able to capitalize on that. We primarly used hoppers and caddis top water and copper johns, prince nymphs and buggers sub surface.

[brian H]

Great report & Great pix!

The first big fish is not a rainbow but rather a westslope cutthroat.

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