So the adventure starts out at UBC during my last lecture of the day. Physics demo day, means no notes. So obviously my mind wanders to what the weekend will bring. No word on any big parties. Should I head back home to Coquitlam? No big parties there either. Weather is supposed to be good this weekend. I could go fish the Vedder. No rain and still a little early. I could fish for sturgeon, which has been picking up lately. I haven’t picked up a fly rod in a while. Where could I go with one? The Skagit? Does it close Sept. 30th or Oct. 31st? Call the shop. No reg book out here. Talk to Aaron, it’s open till the 31st of October. “You working this weekend?” “Yup, Sunday.” “Can you get it off?”
“Not likely.”
O well, I’m goin’ anyway. I still have a programming lab to go to first. Rush through the lab with ease, and head back to the apartment. Pack up a few clothes and a few snacks. Pick up a friend from school and get into the HOV lane on the freeway home. Get home and pack up the truck. All the camping equipment is brand new. Graduation presents from June. Definitely a good haul for gifts. Get the pontoon loaded up, pack the rods, load the fly boxes into the vest. We’re ready to go. 7pm and I’m on the road.
First stop, “the Shop”. Say hi, to Jordan, and pick up a few flies for the trip. I expected little green and brown damsels to be the ticket but I pick up a variety of flies. Finish up with the BS and I’m back on the road. 7:45. Getting late.
Next stop is for food, gas, and some more BS. I take the Watcom Rd. exit. Get gas, pick up some more snacks and get a few drugs for the head cold that has been haunting me for the past few days. Go to the Tim Ho’s and get dinner and some caffeine. Then to Reaction F&T. Talk to Daryl, he had some advice to give and I buy some bug floatant as a thanks.
Back on the road again. Tune into 92.9 KISM. Start kruzzin’ to “Kashmir”, feelin’ “Comfortably Numb” by the time I hit the gravel road. The tunes keep comin’ and I keep rollin’. Arrive at the Ross Lake campground. Get the lantern burning, pitch the tent, and unroll the sleeping bag. In bed by midnight.
Time to fish. Wake up by the crack of 9. Put the pontoon boat together and pump it up. Get the rods together, tie up the leaders, select the flies, load the boat and launch it. Start the paddle out to the mouth of the Skagit. Troll a caddis pattern and within seconds have a hit. Looks like it’s gonna be a good day on the water. Spot lots of fish in the 4-8ft deep crystal clear water. Even spot a huge school of dollies, one of them pushing 10lbs with a spaghetti tag on its back. Any attempt to cast to them spooks them. Fish till 2pm with no other hits and nearly every fly in the box tried. Still its nice to be back on the water in a beautiful setting.
I go in for lunch and realize how bad the mosquitoes are. Dig through the bag of goodies and realize I didn’t pack any bug repellent. Lucky for my a fellow driving by in a truck notices my rods, and stops to ask how the fishing was. I tell him of my sub-par results and he contemplates turning around and heading to Knouff. But before he decides I manage to ask if he has bug spray he could let me douse myself in. He just gives me a bottle and says thanks for the info. Wow, he just saved me a lot of suffering.
So I set up my 5wt for the dollies I plan to target on the river. Get it all set up with a ghost tip and a bunny leach. Get to my spot under the suspension bridge and realize its no longer what it used to be. No fish holding that I can see. So I head down anyways and switch the ghost tip to a floating tip and toss on a sz12 parachute adams. I start to wade up river and walk into a beautiful deep pool that I know has fish in it. Within minutes a fair size bow jumps and I launch a cast to him. Nothin’. Then I realize on the far side at the top of the pool there are fish sipping dries. So I move up river and make the cast placing the fly 10ft upstream of the rising fish. It’s a long cast and I’m happy I have my 5wt rather than my 3wt. Nothing in the first few casts. Splash. I turn my head and I see the rings of a biggish fish that surfaced in the middle of the pool. Strip some line and shoot my fly to the rings. 3….2….1… slurp. Raise my rod tip like my float just took a dip. Luckily it was a decent fish. A frisky battle and a beautiful 14-15” rainbow is in my hand. The fly is a little mangled but a bit of floatant was all it needed. Few casts later and another fish in hand. This one a fair bit smaller. I continue fishing the pool and land a total of 6 beautiful Skagit rainbows. Gets too dark to fish, so I head back to camp and get to bed by 8pm.
Up earlier the next morning (6:30am). On the water quick and into a fish before I even start to row, lose it before I get the rod tip up. They’re teasing me again. Get out to a nice spot and cast out the dry fly from the previous night, and start to rig up my second rod. Splash. Grab the rod and set the hook. A brief battle and my leader snaps. Maybe 3lb is a little light. So I tie both rods up with 4lb leader. A couple minutes later I’m into another fish. This one I land. Another beautiful rainbow.
(This one's for Carlo
)
I see more dollies cruising around but I have given up hope on hooking one of them. I continue to hook and land more of the Skagit valley’s finest rainbows. And on my way back to shore I hook the biggest fish of the trip. Although a dark fish, it still put up a great fight.
I had hoped to pack up early and fish the river on the way out, but the fishing in the lake was hot that I wasn’t about to leave early. When I finally get in and packed up it’s 1pm. I’m on the road and listening to the tunes again. Back by 3:45. Unpack and stick around for dinner. Back on the road again, and in Vancouver by 8. Just enough time to meet up with the girlfriend and end an already amazing weekend.
Author
Topic: Ross Lake/Skagit Report (Read 1535 times)