Two months have passed since I've fished Pass lake. My last outings yielded frustration, no fish, and two broken rods on snags. I ventured out today to fish the beginnings of the fall streamer fishery.
Things to note early:
**There is a toxic algae bloom on the lake (pea soup looking stuff) so please don't swim or let your pets swim/drink the water. Great, I thought. Visibility of 3ish feet, and a murky three feet at that.
For bug guys:
- There was a significant mayfly/spinner hatch in the morning, which continued until around midday when the wind picked up. Size 14-18 dries, emergers, or nymphs should imitate these guys pretty well. A majority were light tan colored, some were brown.
- I noticed a lot of brown chironomid bomber casings floating on the surface. Hook size varies on specs, but for reference a standard size 10-12 nymph hook should match these guys well. Black head, brown body/black rib.
But the hatch I was looking for was the Fathead Shiner Chubs. I swear, if you like bass fishing, if you like topwater, run-and-gun fishing, give this a shot. With a fly rod, of course (even better!) I tied a new, ridiculously simple pattern called the Cheeky Chub (Developed as I healed from a Wisdom teeth operation: hence the name. And Fathead chub kinda plays into it as well haha). Anyways, it' an unweighted streamer with a ton of action. If anyone wants to see the fly, just ask, I'll post it in the fly-tying forum upon request.
Float tube in the water, fins strapped on, and 5wt in hand with a slow-sinking line, 7ft. custom leader, 2 feet 1X tippet, and the Cheeky Chub, I embark.
It didn't take long to get things started. Within 20 minutes I had a swirl hit, and twenty minutes later I connected with my first rainbow of the day, 16". About 30 mins later, I had a large brown swirl on my fly but not hook up. This was shortly followed by another smaller brown chasing my fly twice to the boat, but never hitting hard enough to get hooked.
The lake was dead calm still by midday with cloud cover, and fish were sipping emergers near the reeds. I switched to a sz.16 flashback pheasant tail, got one take, and then the bite died as soon as it started.I swapped back to streamers.
More follows and a couple misses followed soon from rainbows, some quite large. Finally a brownie streaked to my fly on the surface, swiped, and missed. I set the hook as I saw him slash at it, but because he whiffed on the bite, I hooked him in the @$$. Which I was not happy about. I only count him because he clearly went for the fly, and was not intentionally foul-hooked. Its his fault for porpoising on the fly, but not actually biting it I guess, and bad luck the rest. He was okay and the barbless hook did no damage.
Drifting slowly down with the wind, managing distance with careful kicking, I soon got a gorgeous rainbow of 15" to take. These rainbows are the most beautiful 'bows I have seen anywhere in WA. Resident 'bows on the upper sky/snoqualmie are beautiful too, but these are freakin' models of fish. This guy's entire side was red, with purple and blue mixed in. Love, love, love it.
Approaching the end of the drift, I cast and quickly stripped over some submerged weeds, my fly a couple inches sub-surface. What happened next I've seen before, but not to this scale. A presumed giant brownie exploded on the surface, creating a massive splash as it lunged at the fly. If you've heard a beaver slap his tail, imagine that hitting your fly, from under water... if that makes sense. Huge, huge hit. Somehow he wasn't hooked, however. Very disappointing, that was a big @$$ fish. Five minutes later, I was redeemed by seeing an 18" 'bow streak to my fly just ten feet from the boat and smack it. He was landed (again, beautiful).
A couple more quick takes and follows, and I get another hit. I thought it was weeds, so I sluggishly set the hook... by which time the 20+" bow had spit it. I know he was a 20"+ bow because he leaped out of the water twenty feet from me, unfortunately without a fly in his mouth.
I reached a spot which I noted in March on a visit... "this will hold big fish in a couple months." Big weed beds, tall reeds, submerged logs, overhanging trees and brush... it has it all. I had a lazy take on the first cast, and on the second, I was schwacked. The fish practically hooked himself. Big fish! Huge headshakes, good lord. My 5wt loved it! After a three minute fight amongst the strewn underwater debris, I brought him to the surface and netted him: 23" of freakin' tank. This brownie beats all my other ones so far, crushing my Yellowstone Browns by 5 inches and a couple pounds. This fish was thick, healthy, beautiful. This is what I came for. Why I love fall streamer action. He was revived and swam off back to his haunt.
I managed a 14" 'bow, who followed the fly out from cover, and hit on the pause, and lost one more fish on the way back to the launch, had many more follows. Ended 6/7 +1 if you count a 4" 'bow. For an experienced fly guy, especially the deepwater guys, these numbers may be small. But for me, hundreds of precision casts and aggressive takes beat slow, deep stripping and trolling 10-1. For me, a record day. I had it all to myself- not even the eagles bothered me. They were around of course, but not stealing fish. Two fishermen arrived as I was leaving, hopefully to have good success.
This fishery should only get better in the coming weeks and may last for a while. As the weather cools down a bit, fish may become more aggressive: the lake is still warm. However you choose to pursue these great fish, may you have success.
