Mayhem on the Methow
Introduction
A bud of mine, Ryan, has a cabin up in Okanogan National Forest near Winthrop WA. It is an utterly serene spot right on the banks of the Chewuch River, a beautiful mountain stream that feeds into the might Methow River. The Chewuch itself is a marvel, with deep pools fed by a narrow winding flow of clear mountain water. The Chewuch is a little to small to float with a conventional drift boat, but I have had the chance to float it in a stealthy two person boat before. This river feeds into the Methow River, a tributary of the Columbia and a truly phenomenal fishing river. It boasts healthy winter (and summer) steelhead runs, and is home to some truly beefy Westslope cutthroat. The following story is retelling of a surreal day on the Methow with my buds, with 7 fish caught across three species!
(A condensed report can be found here)
June 22, 2024
Five sets of hands gripped the rope threaded around the D rings of my trusty green Aire drift boat and heaved the boat into the shallows of the Methow River. The boat was loaded with 7 rods (two of which were spin rods), three tackle bags, and a cooler filled to the brim with ice, Coors Light, and premade sandwiches. The five sets of hands that helped launch the boat belonged to some of my best buds: Gareth, Teagan, Ethan, and Ryan. Gareth and I have had many fishing adventures together, the most memorable of which was catching my first ever wild steelhead on the Sauk River in late December. Whenever the two of us get out on the water, something crazy usually ends up happening…
In the boat would be myself (on the sticks), Gareth in the front seat, and Ethan in the back. We would be the three anglers in our party of five, with Ryan and Teagan each piloting inflatable kayaks. We put in at the big red barn in Winthrop on a beautiful 80+ degree day, protected by a thin layer of overcast. The float we had planned was about 10 miles down to the town of Twisp. Based on some conversations with Kevin of North Cascades Fly Fishing (thank you Kevin!!) and some others in town, the float would be simple and smooth.
Soon enough, the five of us were well on our way downstream. The first stretch carried us by the town of Winthrop in steady water, just above walking pace. The banks traded deeper sections with each otheras the river wound its way out of town. I tried to position the boat at a nice distance from the deeper pockets of the run so that Ethan and G could cast into them with their fly setups. G was throwing a small beadhead pheasant tail nymph on a sinking line while Ethan was running a dry dropper. No luck was had.
The overcast was beginning to burn off, ushering in warmer temps and thus, pushing the fish further into the deeper holes. After about 30 minutes on the river, we arrived at a big eddy with a deep, swirling pool that rested right above a riffle. It looked far too good to pass up and we eddied out along the left bank, anchoring up the raft and beaching the IK’s. Having seen no bites on both Ethan and G’s setups, I opted for the spin rod. I won’t dive too deep into the whole spin vs. fly discussion here (I will likely dedicate an entire post to this later on), but suffice it to say I like to catch fish, and in certain situations spin fishing will outperform fly fishing. I love salmon and steelhead fishing and have thus become a better spin fisherman than fly angler as of yet. I have caught all of my nicest and most memorable fish on spin rods and I truly enjoy the rigs, lures, beads, bobbers and tactics that come with spin fishing. When we arrived at this hole that almost looked too good to be true, I knew the spin rod would work nicely here, as the heavy spinner on it would allow me to get my presentation deep to where the fish were presumably holding. The sunnier it is, the more these fish tend to congregate in the deeper sections of the system.
The above two images show the hole from left to right. With the main flow of the river passing river right and hugging the far bank, there was plenty of room for fish to hold in the deep pool. My first few casts were straight over the fast water, but was unable to temp anyone into taking the green blue fox spinner I had rigged up to my 4 foot flourocarbon leader. I should have retied my leader with a longer piece, ideally 8 feet or so. I moved right and threw a few casts upriver, and due to the nature of the swirling eddy flow, got nice action on my spinner. Usually casting a spinner upstream is suboptimal as you need to reel fast to get the right action on the blade of the spinner, but the current was a bit wonky here so it worked out fine. Still, no takers though…
I shifted back a bit to the left, cast inside of the fast water to the softwater closer to me, let the spinner sink for a few seconds before retrieving and BOOM. The spinner was hammered by something aggressive. The bite reminded me of the steelhead I had caught on a spinner 6 months earlier. My buds were nearby and I called for someone to help with the net job. I worked the fish closer to the bank, making damn sure to keep tension until G was able to make his way out into the water to finish what I started. The energy was palpable as Ethan, Ryan and Teagan looked on while I tried to tire out the silver flash shaking my line back and forth. This fish has some serious head shakes and runs that made it clear it would turn it out to be a really nice fish. After a few more visicious headshakes and one more run to the depths, I was able to coax the fish into the net G had extended over the drop off. The fish flopped clumisly into the net that was clearly too small for him.
The fish was a bull trout, and a nicely sized one with bright orange spots. It was likely around 18-20 inches.
I made sure to wet my hands before attempting to remove the hook, but given the size of the hook it was very easy to remove. The fish was headed back off to the depths of the pool shortly after finding itself in our net. I was frankly surprised to hook that fish, with that rig. We knew this is the type of fish we were dreaming about catching and within an hour or so we had one in the net. After the frenzy of the moment had subsided, the fishing was back on. After leaving the hole to open it up to G and Ethan, I explored some water downstream to no avail. I eventually found myself back at almost the same spot I caught the bull trout and felt another massive take. I was on again. Instead of describing it, see the video below to get a sense of what it was like:
This fish turned out to be even bigger than the bull and identifying it was difficult. I thought initially it could be a cutty, but the spot pattern and lack of the signature red markings under the gills scratched that theory. It wasn’t a bow or brown, and it wasn’t a bull or steelhead. That left chinook as the only real option, except it was fairly small for a chinook, and lacked the black gums and unforked tail I am used to seeing on them. After some asking around however, it was in fact a chinnook. This fella made quite the journey to get back up to these parts.
This fish was larger than the first and was likely around 20-21 inches.
The day was shaping up to be truly and insane day of fishing. I had not caught a chinnook in many years and had never caught a bull trout before. Catching both of these on the spinner too was exceptionally fun. After this catch, the boys on the fly rods gave that hole some more casts, but ultimately we had to keep making progress on our 10 mile day. We ended up stopping at a few more spots, with G getting a bite on the same setup that caught the first two fish. He handed the rod to Teagan to let him feel the tug, but the fish ended up getting off. G felt this was a nice fish and further cemented the spin setup as our most valuable of the day.
Another nice hole we spent a considerable amount of time at. G hooked a beefy fish here.
The day was flying by, but seeing as it was the day after the summer equinox, we had plenty of time to work with. Ryan and Teagan were beginning to get a bit chilly in their IKs, but whenever the sun poked out from behind a cloud they were reinvigorated. As we winded our way downriver, G and Ethan got in hundreds of casts from the boat, throwing everything from streamers to mosquito dries. The fly rods were getting skunked. All of the action on the day was on the spin rod and this trend would only continue. We stopped off at another beautiful hole where the main flow of the river ate into a small rock face that seemed to erect straight out of the water. This looked like an excellent spot so we beached above the hole and began to throw our gear at different parts of the deep hole.
This hole yielded the biggest catch of the day, a ~23 inch Westslope Cutthroat
Naturally, I grabbed the spin rod. With the same lure as before, I cast over the main flow, let it sink and began to retrieve when I felt the biggest hit of the day. I thought this could have been a steely at first. The low light and the deepness of the hole made the silver flash even more pronounced when the fish rose high enough in the water column to flaunt its silver broadside. The boys were all nearby and watching as the green blue fox spinner impressed yet again. This was the biggest fish of the day and it fought as one would expect. Deep runs away from the drop off, many headshakes and a determination to avoid the net at all costs. Ethan was on net duty this time around (I prefer to have a fishing buddy on the net if feasible as it is generally smoother for the fish than a solo net job) and executed to perfection as I guided the beautiful beast towards him. The fish flopped in to a net that was way too small for him and began to recover as we kept him in contact with the clear emerald water.
This fish was a huge Westslope Cutthroat. It was the king of that pool and truly a shocking catch. The size 5 green blue fox was having an incredible day of success. As we relocated after yet another huge catch, we headed straight for the take out (a take out that would elude two of our party and be the source of other funny stories to be told another time). On the way, G hooked four fish and netted three of them. All beautiful Cutties and all on the spin rod. It was a rough day for fly fishing!
That day was one of the best days of fishing I’ve ever had. Three different species, excellent weather, a quaint float and a great group of friends. It was also an excellent reminder to bring a bunch of different setups and be willing to experiment until you find what works.
