Update: I went to the river as planned on Tuesday and fished for several hours. The water had only dropped about 10' as I was walking where I had been catching smallies in 8' of water a month ago. Still a lot of water but much more of it accessible. The fishing wasn't spectacular but good enough to keep me interested. I caught a few smallmouth and hooked a few trout. One trout I caught was about 18'' and gave it's best steelhead impersonation stripping line off of my 8wt as it pulsed out into the heavy current. Sweet! There was a big PMD hatch which I hadn't come prepared for as I had left my dry fly gear at home. But a lot of fun nonetheless and I was absolutely the only guy on the water.
On Wed I got up hoping the river had dropped and I could spend the day down there. I went to the landfill real early then drove down the river before coming home. Nothing had changed, still the same height as Tuesday. When I got home I learned that my new firebrick had arrived in Colville so I had to make the 80 mile round trip jog to pick that up. It took $100 to fill up my truck, went to Sears and picked out a new microwave, the Quilt Lady had to stop by the fabric store and I had to check the sporting goods store for some black marabou. No luck there. Then to Walmart to pick up another trusty Timex Indiglo as the old one died at at 7:38 on Monday evening.
On the way home there was lightning in the sky over our way and by the time we got here it was raining again. Damn! We decided to reconfigure the living room and family room for winter use so we moved all the furniture and had to clean floors, dust, etc. Then I could roll my tying station into the family room in front of the TV and tie flys, watch TV or just nap in my LaZBoy. By now it was raining even harder and any fishing for the day was just a memory. I decided to try the LaZBoy and watch a ball game. I remember the 2nd inning and when I woke up it was the 8th inning. It was still early enough that I had time to bake up a batch of ginger cookies for my trips to the river, should it ever drop as advertised.
Today is a much nicer day with some little sun breaks going on so I had a big breakfast, got into my waders and headed downstream expecting to see the original river course at last. I came around the last corner where the river came into view when what to my wondering eyes should appear? but a full sized river, if not, damned near! Still only down about 10' as of 9:00 am. It looks like it is flowing faster though and perhaps they are finally starting to draw it down. The power company that controls it is not too forthcoming with accurate information though so I have to just keep driving down there until the draw down actually takes place. Sorry that I don't have a more positive report but I am operating on the best information I can get plus my own observations. I read yesterday that once the river is lowered it might be that way for as much as 11 days. I'll drink to that as it will give me the opportunity to explore several more miles of river.
Stay tuned, I will be going back after lunch and will be fishing anyway-drawdown or not.
Ive of Little Known Ione
