Richard Olmstead
01-02-2008, 12:49 PM
... is to become a better stillwater fly fisherman.
I moved here from Colorado a dozen years ago and my experience mostly was a diet of fast moving mountain streams and rivers with the occasional alpine lake for seasoning. Since I move to Seattle I've learned about fishing to selective trout in the Yakima and elsewhere. I've learned about fishing for anadromous fish, mostly in the S-rivers, but also on the OP and the Ronde. I've learned about fishing the salt on beaches in the Puget Sound and Hood Canal. But I've never given much effort to learning to fish stillwater. I understand it can inspire passion like moving water can, but I'm still mostly at the blank stare stage when I look at a lake - I know there's fish in there, but where?
So, with a float tube and fins that I received for Christmas and new commitment to put them to use figuring out stillwater, I resolve to become a stillwater fly fisherman in 2008.
I got off to a rather ignominious start on New Year's day at Pass Lake. The wind was blowing pretty hard and others reported slow fishing, too, so I won't dwell on the fact that I got skunked. I spent most of my time paddling around figuring out float tube navigation and trying to read the water (I found the Yak to be rather featureless at first, too, compared to Rocky Mountain freestone streams). For example, I learned that you can't exactly tack like a sailboat with the wind quartering off your stern; you simply get blown into the shore. I retreated when the waves started cresting and forming whitecaps. The ignominy came when I paddled into the shallow water at the boat launch, stepped out of the float tube and turned to walk to shore and fell flat on my face in a foot of water. At least I can say the fins fit so well, I forgot they were even there!
See you on the lakes in '08.
Dick
I moved here from Colorado a dozen years ago and my experience mostly was a diet of fast moving mountain streams and rivers with the occasional alpine lake for seasoning. Since I move to Seattle I've learned about fishing to selective trout in the Yakima and elsewhere. I've learned about fishing for anadromous fish, mostly in the S-rivers, but also on the OP and the Ronde. I've learned about fishing the salt on beaches in the Puget Sound and Hood Canal. But I've never given much effort to learning to fish stillwater. I understand it can inspire passion like moving water can, but I'm still mostly at the blank stare stage when I look at a lake - I know there's fish in there, but where?
So, with a float tube and fins that I received for Christmas and new commitment to put them to use figuring out stillwater, I resolve to become a stillwater fly fisherman in 2008.
I got off to a rather ignominious start on New Year's day at Pass Lake. The wind was blowing pretty hard and others reported slow fishing, too, so I won't dwell on the fact that I got skunked. I spent most of my time paddling around figuring out float tube navigation and trying to read the water (I found the Yak to be rather featureless at first, too, compared to Rocky Mountain freestone streams). For example, I learned that you can't exactly tack like a sailboat with the wind quartering off your stern; you simply get blown into the shore. I retreated when the waves started cresting and forming whitecaps. The ignominy came when I paddled into the shallow water at the boat launch, stepped out of the float tube and turned to walk to shore and fell flat on my face in a foot of water. At least I can say the fins fit so well, I forgot they were even there!
See you on the lakes in '08.
Dick