Dad's Lake in Northeast WA state

[sagefisher]

I put together a slideshow of some of my photos from the Dad's Lake trip.

http://s661.photobucket.com/albums/u...t=f6ace7fa.pbw

Larry
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How do you spell relaxation? One way is Dad?s Lake. This is one of three privately owned lakes that Ron and Mike Matney of 3 Lakes Fly Fishing offer for a group trip.

See their website at: http://www.3lakesflyfishing.com/

Five of us from the Alpine Fly Fisher and Puget Sound Flyfisher clubs went on a 4 day fishing trip to Dad?s Lake. We arrived in Colville, WA shortly after noon on a Thursday and met Ron, and followed him up to Dad?s Lake. This is the northern most of the three lakes that they own and is only 1.5 miles from Canada. It is located in a very remote valley northeast of Colville.

We partially unloaded our rigs then grabbed our gear and headed out fishing. I decided to check the shore of the lake and headed off on foot around the southwest corner. The other guys hit the rafts and got out on the lake. Lee was the first to catch a fish. I finally headed over to the dock and took out a boat. After a short while I saw that it was going to rain and I was not dressed properly for that, plus someone had to get a dinner warmed up for the group so I headed back to the dock.

The next morning I was out on the water by 6:20 AM, the first light of dawn. I took one of the rafts out and since they had electric motors, I slowly and quietly motored my way out into the lake. The fog was heavy upon the water, and blanketed the mountains around us. I heard a flight of ducks fly over me, the wind in their wings was the only sound, then the splash as they landed on the lake. Then a flight of geese came over and they touched down. A fish splashed then another and another, yes, it sounded like a good morning to fish. By 6:35 AM I had my first fish, a nice 14 inch Brook Trout.

I slowly explored the lake, as best I could in the fog. I had left my cabin?s porch light on as a point of reference. Most of the time I could see it, but sometimes the fog moved through so thickly that the light was lost from view. I trolled around the lake, at times casting and at other times dragging a small green Woolly Bugger, searching for a productive area. Over in the northern end of the lake I found a place where the trout were actively feeding, so I dropped anchor and started casting and working my fly in at various speeds. I caught a lot of Brook Trout, ranging in size from 8 inches to 15 inches. They are beautiful in the fall, full of color and all were fat and chunky and put a great fight.

Sometime later I saw another raft coming out of the fog and I let them know that the area I was in was producing fish. The third raft appeared later on and we all worked that northern end of the lake. Bill and Howard were on one raft and Mike and Lee on another.

Let me describe these rafts. They were great fishing platforms for two people. Each raft was around 20 feet long and about 8 feet wide. There were 4 large logs and a flat surface of wooden boards. There was about 6 inches between the boards and the water, so it was easy to release the fish. Each raft had two folding chairs to sit on. The raft was powered by an electric motor mounded in the back. You always took out two batteries as each battery was good for about 3 to 4 hours of running before it would get low.

The fishing was off and on all day. At times it would be quiet then someone would catch a fish. We were catching both Brookies and large Rainbows. All the Bows were in the 17 to 20 inch range, but Lee did catch a 24 inch Bow and I believe Bill may have caught one around that size as well. The Rainbows fought like Brown trout, nose down and going for the bottom, while the Brookies hit and did a lot of jumping and splashing.

We spent 4 days fishing Dad?s Lake, sometimes in the pouring down rain and sometimes in the bright sun. We had quiet times and windy times. Unfortunately there were no hatches coming off, and the fish ignored our offerings of dry flies. We had to stick with fishing with Woolly Buggers, leeches and some Hares Ear nymphs. Most of us used sink tip lines. Lee used an intermediate line. Bill did some fishing the last two days using a floating line with a beaded streamer and caught some fish on that outfit.

I don?t know how many fish we caught, but it was a lot. My biggest was a 19 inch Rainbow and my biggest Brook Trout was a 15 incher. I do know that we all had fun and totally relaxed. We would go out when we wanted, come in for lunch when we wanted and hit the lake again for some more fun on the fly. We ate our dinners together, a great time for camaraderie, the telling of our exploits out on the water and of other trips from the past and a great time to play backgammon or cribbage or watch some VHS taped movies on the small TV.

Yes, this was a very relaxing trip. Check out the 3 Lakes Fly Fishing website. If you make it to the Fly Fishing Fair in Ellensburg this May, Ron & Mike Matney will have a booth there. They also had a booth at the Oregon Fly Tyers Expo in March of 2009, I suspect they may be back there again next year as well.

Larry ---sagefisher---