Heading up with the family to do some good ol fashion car camping at Pearrygin Lake State Park. Never fished up there, but I see a bunch of nice looking creeks in the area. I've heard they stock the lake, but hoping to wade around some small water and find some 3wt dry fly action. Any advice (including the lake - I'm bringing along my float tube) would be much appreciated. ybs
I'll be there this coming weekend (June 14 & 15). I have some info on local lakes but no news on the creeks. Shoot me a PM if you want some lake info. Disclaimer: it isn't any great secret info, just what a friend past on to me from his latest trip a week ago.
The creeks are very high and fast because of snowmelt. You might find a few pockets of soft water here and there but it will take a lot of exploring to find them. Lakes are a safer bet right now.
Flows notwithstanding, (since I don't know anything about current conditions) the Methow is the big show in that area.
Looks like it's major peak >10K cfs was during the early half of May. There was a local peak a week ago >5000, followed by a nice downward trend to <3500 today. Anyone know what cfs the fishing gets reasonable? Likely will be about 3000 by the time we get up there this weekend.
Under 1000cfs is good, under 500 is my favorite. That said, like any river, the fish are there but finding them in extremely high water is the challenge. The soft insides will be your friend if you can find them as a lot of the normal places will be under water at 3000. You might try above Winthrop as the flows will be lower if this cool weather continues. That said, I hit it briefly the other day below Carlton at 5500cfs and landed 8 in 30 minutes, 7 on skated foam bugs, one on a PT. In higher flows, try to entice them by skating a dry or stripping a streamer. Wading will be difficult at 3000cfs so be very careful - I never waded deeper than mid-calf as a swim at these flows would not be fun.
A small stream that might be fish able with small brookies and small Cutts checkout Boulder creek. Kelly Michelsen
Last Sunday the Methow above the confluence with the Chewuch looked nice and clear. Haven't fished it yet but plan to next week. The float from Weeman down is a nice one and accesses water rarely fished. Off the Lost River Road is Robinson Creek. The farther you hike up it the better the fishing gets for small feisty cutts that are just gorgeous! Cougar usually gets good about now as some of the other lakes warm up and get too much weed growth. Rick
Hey, I would try Big Twin or Patterson lake. They are close by and have decent amounts of fish, the river might be in shape by then but if you are bringing a float tube you might as well use it, right?
Hey i would just try to fish the lake i went there a year ago with my ultra light with a egg and couldnt keep rainbows off i got board pretty quick sadly. but the lake should produce some good fly fishing action.
Thanks all for your helpful thoughts. Just to report back, I only really got one morning to explore the rivers, the rest was keeping the rug rats from getting sun burned and bite by rattle snakes. We ended up finding a beautiful spot on the Methow, downstream from Winthrop. The main stem was raging, unfishable. This spot was the thin side of a large island that held half a dozen snags with great looking holes. My buddy fished streamers with no luck. I ended up with one white fish and one rainbow, both very nice size, and both on the stonefly rubber leg nymph. Saw a few other rises to our flies, but all in all, a pretty quiet morning over beautiful water. Didn't get to fish the Chewuch, but that looked a bit more manageable, but didn't see obvious access between town and the turnoff to the park. BTW, if you do ever camp at Pearrygin, opt for the second camp ground. It's much nicer, more space, newer amenities and quieter. We did fish the lake and brought a few in from both the dock and on float tube, but it was a bit frustrating. The fish were rising for hours, and folks fishing powerbait were bringing them in chilly willy style. I tried every fly in my box, but could only fool a random few. It was great for the kids though, as we ended up throwing PB so the kids didn't think we were just bluffing. All in all, a great family camping trip, but didn't have the fly fishing mojo this time.
Just got back from a week in Winthrop. We originally planned to go on a guided float of the Methow but changed to the Yakima because the water was too high. Had a great day on the Yakima including my first trout on a fly and a Cutt that the guide said was the largest he had seen for years. When I get the pictures back I will post a fishing report on that trip. We did three days of skinning water fishing with mixed results. The first day we drove to the end of Falls Creek Road and then boondocked to the stream. Tough fishing but lots of small native cuts. The next day we all got skunked on the Twisp. That evening we tried the confluence of the Cheewuch and Boulder Creek. No fish to hand but several hits on some really exciting water. The last day we drove up Boulder Creek. Found one nice spot and brought a 10" Cutt to hand. We kept going up and up and up and eventually found Twentymile Creek and had some luck.
