Original plan was to fish another tailwater on the east side but sketchy weather forecast led to the conclusion that towing the trailer, even over relatively gentle LowLow Pass, with the potential for snow/black ice probably wasn’t a great idea. Lots of moisture on this side but it’s mostly rain down low and even though the rivers are up, I know one that’ll be clean and the skwalas may be coming off (it’s not That River, btw).
It’s been a wet April; there’s a creek out there somewhere.
Mixed bag of sun/clouds on the drive over hides the low hilltops
sometimes it’s better that way
base camp established
Not a bad site.
A bit close to the road, but in a 15 minute walk around the camp I saw varied thrush, Williamson’s sapsucker, pileated woodpecker, western grebe, common mergansers, common goldeneye, loon, wooduck, yellow-headed blackbird, Wilson’s snipe.
Time to go fish. Truck is a lot lighter without all the splitshot, Thingamabobbers and weighted nymphs; this is the time for hackled flies and chewy foam things.
Upper meadow stretch is pretty, but off limits 'till general season opener (come back then and you’ll find some decent fish willing to look up, until the “crowds” clean them out or put them down for the summer).
I’ll leave 35 to the log haulers; I only have 1 spare so I keep it a bit lower
gives me a chance to spot some fauna
sporting it’s summer coat but retained the white sneakers
there’s a ruffed grouse in there somewhere; the camera doesn’t handle low light on a drive-by snap shot very well
As always, I enjoyed your report, Scott, even if every one of your pictures makes me want to shorten my own planned departure date to MT by a day per picture (I had planned to leave just over 2 weeks from now).
By the way, how many watts are your solar panel(s), and do they do a decent job keeping your battery (batteries?) charged?
A blast from the past; that [b]Rogue variation[/b] was my first attempt at an SBS. Lines kinda blur between stonefly (in this case) and hopper; seems to work as either.
