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My brother, sister-in-law, niece, and grand nephew made a trip from the west side to visit for a couple days during spring break while my grand nephew was up from California. They arrived Monday afternoon and we planned an early departure Tuesday morning, 0530, to try our luck for some Roosevelt rainbows. Pretty tough to get up that early while on vacation, but everyone was up, fed, and ready to roll on time. Naps were taken on the way up and back of course! :-)

We launched at Seven Bays and ran down to the mouth of the Sanpoil to start the day. We had a nice overcast, a good wind chop as well as a rising barometer from the recent storm along with the added bonus of a six tenths/foot drop in reservoir level Sunday into Monday, so it looked like everything was in our favor. This was their first time at Roosevelt, and I really wanted to get them into some fish, so I was hopeful!

Started trolling just inside the mouth of the Sanpoil with two leaded line outfits and Frisky Jenny flies (one in perch pattern "Lenny Special" and the other "Trick or Treat" which was orange and black) and two long line mono outfits with a perch pattern #65 Rip'n Minnow. Both leaded line outfits were out 150' while the mono outfits were set 250' behind the boat. We had a strike on a leaded line outfit within 15 - 20 minutes, but it got off before we could even get out of the cabin. Not too long after that we had another strike, and this one was on, but broke off before we got the rod out of the holder - snapped the leader off just past the knot on the braid. Darn.

While I was trying to find some new leader (left sitting on my desk at home - oops!), the first leaded line outfit went down, and this time, the fish stayed on! My grand nephew got to do the honors with the first fish and got it right to the boat where it got off. A little too exuberant on the rod action, so we "tweaked" technique for the next one which happened to hit a long line mono rig. After a nice fight including some arial displays, I scooped that nice 2lb, 5oz native rainbow into the net. Big smiles and high fives all around!

We got right back into fishing, and while I was stripping some line off a spinning outfit to use as leader, another long line outfit went down! This time it was my niece's turn to boat a nice feisty rainbow, another native, running 2 plus pounds. After resetting, I managed to get the leader retied and sent the second leaded line outfit back into the water. We continued to catch fish, fairly consistently, with each taking their turn reeling them in. We had a great day, and ended up with 10 fat rainbows, about half native, 9 of which were 1lb 15oz and up and one just under a 1 1/2lbs. Largest for the day was 2lbs 15oz, with the smallest tipping the scales at 1lb 6 oz.

Surface temps were 42° - 45° with broken overcast most of the day. We did have some periods of bright sun and smooth water when the bite seemed to slow down, but with yesterday's variable conditions, those periods didn't last long. Flies and plugs were about even for fish taken, but the native 'bows definitely preferred the plugs over the flies tipped with worm. Trolling speed was 2.0 - 2.3mph, with constant changes in direction. Both flies were tipped with pieces of crawler on the treble trailer.

We saw several bald eagles and deer while fishing the Sanpoil, and a nice herd of 15 - 20 muleys at the bank just across from Lincoln. My guests had a good time and they were rewarded with some great scenery, wildlife, and almost a cooler full of chunky and fat Roosevelt rainbows! :-)

Photos show my happy guests, Jim, Austin, Donna, and Heather at the launch and my grand nephew, Austin, doing "fish watch". :-)

BentRod

4/7/2010 4:17:00 PM

Sounds awesome...great day on the water.

hewesfisher

4/7/2010 4:38:00 PM

Thanks BR, it was a great day on the water. Don't know what happened to the pics, they showed up prior to me submitting the report. If they don't show by tomorrow, I'll have Mike or Aaron check into it.

afk

4/7/2010 5:54:00 PM

Sounds like a great day on the water! It always helps when the fish cooperate. Good on you for showing them a good time.

mav186

4/7/2010 6:29:00 PM

OMG...Hewes that's AWESOME!!! The weather, fishing, family and water gods were ALL smiling on you guys that very day! It just does not get much better than that.

blufin loui

4/7/2010 10:47:00 PM

A great read hewesfisher, You were making memories for a lifetime with them. I look forward to the time we can come over and be educated in the fine art/act of fishing those waters. Thanks for sharing the report.

hewesfisher

4/8/2010 8:16:00 AM

You're right Mav, the weather held off just long enough for us to sneak in a nice day of fishing - everything just came together for us. Had some nasty wind chop from Lincoln to the launch at Seven Bays on the return, but nothing the ProV couldn't handle with ease. :-)

Blufin, you're right on too, I got an email from my SIL this morning thanking us for the visit and fishing trip. My grand nephew is already asking my brother to bring him back for some more fishing this summer. Looks like he's hooked on fishing! :-)

BTW, I emailed the photos to Mike last night, so hopefully he can get them loaded up sometime today.

charlie h.

4/8/2010 7:45:00 PM

Outstanding day for you and the family , way to go !

Charlie

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