1. $7.99 US/CAN • www.matchthehatch.com
September/October 2013
FLYFISHINGFLYFISHING
FLYFISHING
Incredible fly-fishing destinations
Northwest
Mokelumne
River
California
Steelhead
Akroyd
Page 70
ClaudelDery’sInnovative Flies
EXPOSURE
Autumn on the
Grande Ronde
Metolius
River
Oregon
Clearwater
River
Idaho
2. Cover:The Grande Ronde flows
through a spectacular semiarid can-
yon that is home to bighorn sheep,
elk, otters, eagles, and many other
wild creatures.
Photo by: Mark Lance
Volume 15, Number 5 • September/October 2013
Features
32 Mokelumne River, CA
Steelhead in the Lower Moke
By Greg Vinci
38 Pelham Lake, WY
A Trophy Yellowstone Cutthroat Fishery
By Phil Skinner
44 Clearwater River, ID
Home of the Maniacs
By Christian Nafzger
50 Metolius River, OR
It’s that Damned Old Rodeo
By Travis Vance
Departments
4 Cast a Caption
6 Fisheye
An Underwater Perspective/By Jon Luke
8 Innovative Fly Tier
Claudel Dery/By Paul Marriner
12 Fish Food
Bees/By Jene Hughes
14 Pioneers & Legends
Sheridan Andreas Mulholland Anderson, Part 1
1936–1984 /By Don Roberts
18 Around the Northwest
News, Views, and Piscatorial Pursuits
28 Exposure
Autumn on the Grande Ronde/By Mark Lance
56 Conservation
The Future of Counting Fish/By Jeff Bright
70 In the Vise
Steelhead Akroyd/By Jeff Wimer
72 Fish Tales
My Second Childhood/By Alan Liere
28
6
18
14
FLYFISHINGFLYFISHING
FLYFISHING
Incredible fly-fishing destinations
Northwest
Rainy’s Busy Bee
Page 12
6. 4 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
To cast your caption, go to
www.matchthehatch.com/cartoons
May/June 2013
1. “Ma’am, I have been here for 30 years.
They will be back when the beer runs out.”
William Hubbard, San Jose, California
2. “He can't be considered missing until
steelhead season is over.”
Peter Gulash, Reno, Nevada
3. “This is the third time this month, ma'am! You
might want to think about a tracking collar!”
Matthew Purrington, Gray, Maine
“Sam, they’re fish, not Congress!”
Ted Hasselbring, Nashville, Tennessee
E
ach issue we present a Gene Trump cartoon in need of a caption. In return, we ask that you, the readers,
submit captions online from which we choose finalists. Caption submissions for this issue’s contest must be
received online by September 15, 2013. Above are the finalists for the July/August 2013 contest; please
go online to vote for your favorite. The winner will be announced in the November/December 2013 issue and will
receive a T-shirt displaying the cartoon and the winning caption. The May/June 2013 winner appears above.
July/August 2013 Finalists:
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September/October 2013 Contest
Cast a Caption
7. 5
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8. 6 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
Westslope cutthroat
Photo by Jon Luke
An Underwater Perspective
10. 8 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
Claudel Dery/By Paul C. Marriner
Innovative Fly Tier
“I developed the PEB in 2004 because I
observed that, especially in pocket water,
nice trout in the no-kill section of the
Ausable will attack, bump, and take an
oversized fly at any time in the day.”
C
anada’s Quebec province has an almost unique
outdoor sporting culture. Outside the major cities,
even today, it’s rare to find a family without at least
one angler or hunter. Fly fishing wasn’t always particularly
popular, but that has been changing. One result is the
growth in the numbers of innovative fly tiers, of whom
Claudel Dery is an excel-
lent example.
Born in Quebec City,
Dery began fly fishing
in 1970 on the nearby
Montmorency River.
However, 14 years passed
before he found the path
to the vise. “I took a be-
ginner’s course . . . and
improved my skills watching Jack Dennis videos,” Dery
told me. After a 35-year military career, he retired in 2009
and now spends his time fly fishing and fly tying. Living
in Montreal offers easy access to such northern New York
state rivers as the Ausable, Saranac, Chateaugay, Salmon
(Malone), and Saint Regis. Dery wrote, “I like to fish the
no-kill sections of the Ausable and Saranac especially dur-
ing the spring, early summer and early fall, matching the
numerous hatches with surface flies. I also like to fish
the Saranac in Plattsburg in the fall for the landlocked
salmon and brown trout running from Lake Champlain
using soft hackle and conventional streamers.” Farther
north, he offers his designs to the trout of the Rivière
du Diable (Eastern Fly Fishing, July/August 2009), the
Jacques-Cartier River,
and the stream where
it all started, the Mont-
morency.
Dery’s fondness for
CDC patterns origi-
nated during a posting
to Lahr, Germany, from
1986 to 1990. Numer-
ous visits to nearby Stras-
bourg (France) exposed him to fly-fishing magazine articles
by French fly fishers who had been tying with CDC for
some years. His interest lay dormant until being rekindled
by René Harrop’s patterns in Judith Dunham’s The Art of
theTrout Fly. In the preliminary stages of creating his own
designs, he studied Marc Petitjean’s CDC techniques and
the use of the Swiss fly-tying entrepreneur’s Magic Tool.
Dery wrote, “One of my most productive CDC
PEB
(parachute extended body)
Series
Soft Hackle
Post Parachute Series
Soft Hackle
Dry Series
Mini Soft Hackle
Streamer
Willie Gunn
Variant
CDC
Parachute Series
Snowshoe
Emerger Series
Klink
Emerger Series
CDC Stonefly
Soft Hackle
Spinner Series
Soft Hackle
Dun Series
11. 9www.matchthehatch.com • INNOVATIVE FLY TIER
patterns is a Surface Stonefly—in
different sizes and body colors it has
drawn many big trout to the surface.
They will either take, bump or drown
it.” The idea for this fly followed a
conversation with Claude Bousquet,
another Quebec angler who haunts
northern New York rivers. Bousquet
told him about the numerous suc-
cesses chalked up by his Trottinette
pattern—inspired by Lee Wulff’s Sur-
face Stonefly creation and originally
intended for Atlantic salmon—on
Adirondack waters (my book Modern
Atlantic Salmon Flies has the complete
Trottinette story). For the abdomen
Dery uses a plastic piece cut from the
top of a small container, securing it
under the hook shank with glue and
thread. Six CDC feathers make up
the wing, and the hackle is on a post
in the thorax area. In his opinion, it’s
successful because stoneflies are habitu-
ally over the water at night, and even in
the middle of the day trout frequently
fall for such an easy, meaty meal.
Fooling trout that are rising to a
single- or multiple- species hatch is, in
my opinion, the most challenging task
facing creators of floating imitations.
I was introduced to Dery’s solutions
after receiving a selection that included
several from the PEB (parachute ex-
tended body) series. About these, he
wrote, “I developed the PEB in 2004
because I observed that, especially in
pocket water, nice trout in the no-kill
section of the Ausable will attack,
bump, and take an oversized fly at
any time in the day. The one I used to
match the Hendrickson was the most
productive. I use a Prismacolor PM-73
Flagstone Red permanent marker on
the abdomen and thorax as this color
matches the red brown color of the
many spinners on the water in late May
and June.” One can find recipes for this
series and other Dery creations in A
Compendium of Canadian Fly Patterns
by Robert H. Jones and me.
While the largest fish we capture
certainly have a place in our memo-
ries, I most vividly recall difficult fish
taken on patterns of my own design. Watch the video
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12. 10 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
When I asked Dery to
tell me some personal
stories, he wrote, “One of
my most memorable fish
was a 20-plus-inch brown
trout taken in May, 2003,
while fishing Island Run
on the no-kill section of
the West Branch of the
Ausable River near Lake
Placid, New York. The
trout took one of my de-
signs, a Hendrickson Dry
Soft Hackle, size 16. I was
using an 8.5-foot 5-weight
rod and a 3-pound-test
leader.” The Island Run
was also the scene of
Dery’s well-earned suc-
cess with another sizable
(18- to 20-inch) brown.
The trout began rising in
a gentle riffle section at the
top of the run and for the
first hour refused all of-
ferings. Not so when pre-
sented with a Soft Hackle
Spinner; as soon as the fly
landed, the brown took it
aggressively. This design
has a thorax made with
a tiny Styrofoam ball colored with a
permanent pen or covered with dub-
bing. In the original design, a wound
Hungarian partridge feather served
as a collar, but since then chukar
partridge or quail in gray has proven
more consistently successful.
Dery placed first in class in the
1999 Quebec Fly Tying Champion-
ships with a Quill Gordon, but since
then he has limited his competitions
to the Canadian National Fly Fishing
Championships. His team has done
well, finishing fourth in 2011 and
second in 2012. For the 2011 event,
he created a Mini Soft Hackle Streamer
that produced well for the whole team.
Dery’s innovation also extends to
successful modifications of proven
standards. An example is a trout-size
version of the Willie Gunn salmon
pattern, tied on a streamer hook rather
than the typical tube. About it, Dery
wrote, “For the wing top and bottom
I use mixed yellow and orange bucktail
and tiny Flashabou strands. On each
side is black bucktail with tiny strands
of Peacock Black Mirror Flash. I added
a red throat using wool and [placed]
jungle cock eyes on each side.” Dur-
ing the past four fall seasons, half his
captures have come to the pattern.
Giving back is an important part of
the experienced fly tier’s career. Dery
handles the fly-tying section of the
Quebec-Maritimes Fly Fishing Forum
and teaches fly-tying courses for the
Montreal Fly Fishers, of which he is a
director. Observing, designing, testing,
sharing: these are the hallmarks of an
innovative tier, and Dery has made
them all part of his creative process.
Paul C. Marriner is a freelance writer and
author who lives in Nova Scotia.
Claude Dery excels at designing small trout flies, which he enjoys
testing on the waters of Quebec, where he lives, as well as across
the border in New York state.
PhotocourtesyofClaudeDery
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14. 12 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
Bees: The McGinty and Its Progeny/By Jene Hughes
Fish Food
C
ontemplating a bee’s potential as fish food imme-
diately raises a couple of interesting points. First,
as trout anglers, we should celebrate a single fly
pattern, the McGinty, that along with a handful of its
“offspring” can successfully represent an insect whose
native species in the United States alone number 4,000
(compared the paltry 600-some species of mayflies).
Second, trout anglers should also ponder why replicas
of an insect as commonplace and recognizable as a bee have
been evicted from most fly boxes, especially considering
that such imitations were once included in every hardware-
store fly assortment. Bees are even ignored when anglers
recite the threadbare litany of terrestrials, which includes
flying ants but never bees. In the case of the McGinty,
when anglers on this side of the pond reflexively
discarded their Bergman-era wet flies, they threw
out the baby with the bathwater.
Joining our native bees are honeybees, originally
imported from Europe in the 17th century. Descen-
dants of the imports eat only the nectar of flowers,
while bees native to the United States live up to their
reputation for business by feeding from, and thus
pollinating, indigenous plants of all sorts, including
many found along the very streams and lakes we fish.
Likemanyanglers,Icaughtmyfirstfly-rodfishona
McGinty.Toayoungsternotyetknowledgeableenough
to outsmart himself, the yellow-and-black chenille
pattern just made sense because it looked realistic.The
bluegills agreed, and to this day I have to tie McGintys
to sell in my little fly shop or hire someone to tie them for me.
None of my wholesalers, not a one, offers them.
A serious investigation of bees didn’t occur to me
until recently, when I started wondering why the current
literature on trout fishing never mentions bees or their
imitations. Don’t trout eat bees? Fly-fishing writers inces-
santly point out what opportunistic feeders trout are, so
why shouldn’t they eat bees?
A token bit of Internet research on the McGinty’s
history showed that I wasn’t the first to ask that ques-
tion. The rest of what I read, though, surprised me:
the notion is that trout take bee patterns only after
rainstorms, particularly thunderstorms. An even big-
ger surprise was the source of that particular nugget
Photo By Jene Hughes
PhotocourtesyJohnSeverns
15. 13www.matchthehatch.com • FISH FOOD
Mihulka’s Panfish Popper Bee
of information: Gary LaFontaine, whose reputation as
an angler-entomologist is reinforced every time someone
opens a copy of Caddisflies, his classic tome on the subject.
LaFontaine,itturnsout,wroteaclever
account of fishing a McGinty (it still
appears on the Web at www.thebook-
mailer.com/Gary/AllAroundFF.html).
Like me, he caught his first fly-rod fish
on a McGinty, which in the 1950s was
ubiquitous. The particular excursion
he describes, though, was one of those
inexplicable turns of events in which
everything literally reverses. Fishing a
Leadwing Coachman and a McGinty
in tandem—downstream with continu-
ous mending to keep them sideways in
the current—LaFontaine hooked trout
only on the Coachman. After taking
refuge from a thunderstorm, he fished
back upstream, casting upstream and
dead-drifting the same pair of flies. Im-
mediately, the earlier results were reversed,
andtheMcGintybecamethetrout’schoice.
Ever the scientist, LaFontaine tested his
findings by drifting the flies downstream
as before, and the McGinty remained the
trout’s clear favorite.
And here the narrative detours into
scientific theory. Scholar that he was, La-
Fontaine researched bees and arrived at a
final theory, which is simple enough: the
critters fly around gathering nectar and,
sensingtheonsetofasummerstorm,head
backtothehive.Manysimplycan’toutrace
the storm and end up in the drink, but
LaFontaine said it more formally.That all
may well be true. It probably is.
But after reading LaFontaine’s
original account and of the origin of
his theory about thunderstorms—
which I had already heard repeated—I
reacted with one of my more common
responses to research and the ensuing
speculation: “Huh! Really?”
It clearly makes sense that thunder-
storms affect bee activity and behavior,
but the notion that an unfortunate bee that, for whatever
reason, takes a swim would routinely be shunned by
trout seemed unlikely. Why would fish wait until bees are
numerous? Bees don’t appear in hatches any more than
hoppers or crickets do. Fortunately, I was free to carry out
my own research. Having long ago surpassed my lifetime
quota of trout, I can go fishing without any particular need
to actually catch fish. Heck, sometimes I take my coffee
mug and a cigar instead of a rod. So the idea of passing
three or four hours on a creek seemed like a reasonable
investment in the cause of scientific advancement. My
one small step for trout anglers.
Testing the thunderstorm theory gave
me the perfect excuse to play a compelling
game:the“onefly.”Insteadoffollowingthe
restrictionofthefamousJacksonHoleOne
Fly competition—in which teams of two
anglers, often high-profile folks, must fish
the same fly on both days without losing
it—I allowed myself as many McGintys
as I needed. I just couldn’t use any other
pattern.Thestreamnearesttomehappens
to be a long-established catch-and-release
favoritewithnotoriouslyfinickytroutthat
key in on particular insects, often some
midge or another, to the exclusion of ev-
erything else. My experiment was further
validated by the conditions: I began in late
morning on the clearest and brightest of
summer days, a time better devoted to
naps or brews.
Casting upstream, with the chenille
body moderately soggy to put it in the
film,Idead-driftedtheMcGintyasIwould
anyterrestrialorattractor.WhenIgotback
home, I jotted down a substantial list of
the nice trout I’d caught, some of them
pretty darned nice. After logging nine
wildbrownsbetween10and15inches,I’d
landedanunexpectedrainbowthatappar-
ently had grown wild in the stream after
escaping from the nearby hatchery during
a flood four years earlier. Considering that
the little creek is typically categorized as
technical water, I felt borderline smug.
My casual experiment established,
for me at least, two facts about bees and
the McGinty. Fact number one: trout
won’t just eat bees, they’ll hammer the
hell out of them. While thunderstorms
may increase the action, just as wind
brings more hoppers into play, storms
are by no means a prerequisite. My one-
fly day—a scant five hours of fishing—
came during a summer that brought the worst drought
in decades. There hadn’t been a thunderstorm, or even
a passing rain cloud, in weeks. Yet trout of all sizes and
shapes smacked my McGinty with abandon.
Fact number two: some of those bee patterns in my
neglected panfish box have already migrated and started
a new colony next to the hoppers, ants, and beetles in my
box of terrestrial trout flies.
Rainy’s Bubble Bee
Mihulka’s Bluegill Bee
Patterns courtesy of Rainy’s Flies
Rainy’s Busy Bee
Rainy’s ’itty Bitty Bee
16. 14 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
Sheridan Andreas Mulholland Anderson, 1936–1984, Part 1
Larger-than-Life Visual Bard, Bohemian, and Boulder Rat /By Don Roberts
Pioneers & Legends
T
here’s some-
thing discon-
certing about
watching a very
big man make himself ex-
ceedingly small. Imagine
for a moment the unmis-
takable countenance of a
250-pound hulk, dressed
head to toe in black and
cloaked in a black cape, his
battered black fedora, with
brimcrumpledupwardfore
andaft,pushedslightlyback
on his brow—the dark,
bearish figure crouched
excruciatingly low to the
ground and inchworming
acrossthegreen-feltexpanse
of a highly manicured sub-
urban lawn.
A vignette misappro-
priated from Alice in Won-
derland? No—but close.
What you’re being asked to
envision here is an episode
that had its roots in 52
pages of ink-stained paper,
a bottle of decent Scotch,
and two pot roasts.
Sometime in 1976 or
’77 (the exact dates are
muddled), a large manila
envelope came over the
transom to Frank Amato’s desk in Portland. As the editor/
publisher of the burgeoning SalmonTrout Steelheader maga-
zine, Amato was on the lookout for promising material. But
nothing could have prepared him for the outlandish, hilari-
ous, yet eminently practical illustrated treatise—essentially a
comic book—that had reached him from the fog-shrouded
streets of San Francisco. There was no hesitation, no ago-
nizing. Upon first laying eyes on the Xeroxed sample pages
from The Curtis Creek Manifesto, Amato thought, “Wow,
I’ve got to call this guy immediately.”
Mere days later, Amato—in those days a self-confessed
homebody—blithely hopped a plane to San Francisco.
Upon meeting Sheridan Andreas Mulholland Anderson at
the airport and repairing
to a restaurant for break-
ing bread and broaching
business, the first thing
Amato asked was whether
Anderson had submitted
his manuscript anyplace
else. “Yeah,” replied An-
derson. “I sent it to a
couple of Eastern publish-
ers who rejected it because
it wasn’t ‘sophisticated
enough’ for them.” Per-
haps fearing the possibil-
ity of another publishing
house getting its mitts
on the manuscript—and
sans further ceremony or
hand-wringing—Amato
pushed a book contract
across the table right then
and there. And without
further ado, the two men
began hashing out the
details amid dirty plates
and rumpled napkins and
ongoing splashes of wine.
“My immediate im-
pression,” said Amato,
“was that Sheridan looked
the perfect ringer for Long
John Silver. He was tall,
6-foot-2or-3,barrelchest,
dark shaggy hair, wore all
black, and had a slightly gruff manner, a kind of challenging
air about him. But underneath he was all artist and also all
perfectionist. When we talked about doing the book, he
wanted it done precisely his way, including all the copy and
cover art, with highly stylized hand-lettering throughout.
“We hit it just right,” Amato observed. “Six months
later the book came out, and it took off like wildfire.”
Remember that through the ages fly-fishing literature
had largely been held hostage by a strong sense of propri-
ety and Eastern establishment airs, characterized, if not
literally, then at least figuratively, by button-down tweed
and leather elbow patches. Fly fishing as a subject, as op-
posed to an act—actually being out in the field and getting
Although completely at home in his guise as swashbuckler and never one to shy
away from whimsical flourishes in his art, Anderson can be credited with some
of the most sensible and insightful angling know-how ever to appear in print.
Photo Courtesy of Michael Anderson
17. 15www.matchthehatch.com • Pioneers & Legends
dirty—had been taken so seriously as to appear shackled
by Puritanism. Now here came Anderson’s Manifesto, a
lavishly, often outlandishly, illustrated primer that, yes,
preached a strict credo of angling dogma, but the credo
was aberrantly proffered with a sly wink and an overriding
glint of mischief and madness: the trout on the title page
sports a wing-shaped dorsal fin; the “Preamble and Open-
ing Salvos” on the following page point out that in most
textbooks “the beginner is assaulted with . . . text he must
translate into visual images.” Such books, he continues,
serve “only to confuse the issue.”
Appearing throughout the work,
the “hero”—bearded and wearing a
crumpled fedora—stares intently past
his long, bulbous nose at the waters
ahead as he wanders among countless
illustrations of streams, insects, tackle,
and wildlife, some overtly cartoonish,
some beautifully realistic.
The Pirate and the Pot Roast
A year or two after the work was
published (again, the dates are
hazy), Anderson made a pilgrim-
age north to Portland to meet
with his publisher. Of course, he
was invited over to Frank and
Gayle Amato’s house for dinner.
Amato described the events:
“While Gayle was preparing the
table, I suggested to Sheridan that we go up to my study
where I had stashed a bottle of aged Scotch . . . thinking
we could relax and sip a shot or two. Well, as it turned
out, Sheridan wasn’t one for just sipping.” Frank laughed,
“Before we sat down to dinner, he pretty much managed
to polish off the whole bottle.”
Dinner then proceeded apace, marked by both gusto
and civility, one large pot roast disappearing amid ani-
mated conversation. That is, up until Gayle went to clear
the serving tray upon which perched the remaining pot
roast, deemed ample for another meal. Anderson had other
designs. While barking out pirate lingo—Aaaarrrrggghhh,
matey, whar be hornswagglin’ yon booty (or something to
that effect)—he brandished his fork like a cutlass and, per
the prerogative of any starving seadog, impaled the roast
and commenced to devour it with a fixed squinty-eyed
glare and much attendant gnawing and growling.
And then, as Amato recalls, during the after-dinner
quiet, “Sheridan said to me, ‘Frank, you want me to
demonstrate some of the maneuvers in the book?’ ” Given
that Kellogg Creek ran through Amato’s oversize backyard,
Anderson’s proposal was not all that capricious. “So, Sheri-
dan borrowed a fly rod from me, and with his long black
coat dragging and his black hat low on his brow, this big
fellow starts crawling across our lawn. It was uncanny,”
said Amato. “He literally became the book.” Imagining
the scene doesn’t require a great deal of mental exertion;
indeed, all you have to do is turn to pages seven and eight
in The Curtis Creek Manifesto, where along with other
approaches Anderson depicts “The Upstream Crawl.”
The experience still resonates in the Amato house-
hold. Frank noted that his two young, almost clinically
hyper boys, Nick andTony, were riveted by the “Sheridan
sneak”—stunned into stillness. That’s saying something.
The Pirate and the Persona
Anderson’s pirate persona prob-
ably started taking shape well
before pubescence. It was clear
from an early age that Sheridan
wasn’t quite like the other kids
on the block. As his younger
brother Michael wryly observed,
“He always had to do things his
way.” Michael elaborated, “My side
of our [shared] bedroom was always
straightened up, neat as a pin. Sheri-
dan’ssidewaslitteredwithSportsAfield
and Outdoor Life, oil paintings, draw-
ings,booksonlocalfloraandfauna.He
hadhisviseoverthereandtiedflies,and
he had his creel and some other damn
things.” Taking brotherly exception, but
doubling down in the process, Sheridan
shot back, “Mike was a fastidious little
bastard.Whenhewasn’toutsidefieldinggrounders,hecould
usually be found lying on his bed staring with big calf-eyes
at Yvonne De Carlo or seated thereon rubbing some kind of
mysterious goo into his baseball mitt.”
As perhaps can be inferred from their rough-hewn lan-
guage and less-than-saccharine sentiments, the Anderson
boyswereraisedinastormyenvironment.Inamatter-of-fact
tone, Mike observed that their parents didn’t exactly emu-
late Ozzie and Harriet. While the parents got into frequent
altercations, “fueled by alcohol”—a constant dynamic in
the Anderson clan—the boys developed strategies for main-
taining an even keel, including highly honed extracurricular
interestsandactivities.Mikehadhisteamsports,baseballand
football—“everything but fishing”—while Sheridan veered
toward solitary pursuits, particularly an abiding passion for
fly fishing and a flourishing aptitude for art.
Sheridan Anderson was born in Southern California
in 1936, though he didn’t live there long enough to form
even a vague memory of the place. In the early 1940s, his
father, having completed a stint in the Army, took a job
as a used-car salesman, which entailed frequent moves
between Los Angeles and Hawaii before he finally settled
the family in Salt Lake City. Eventually he acquired the
18. 16 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
wherewithal to establish and manage his own car lot, with
a sign proudly declaring “battle fatigue anderson’s,” thus
becoming something of a local landmark. Despite the fact
that it’s hard to imagine Anderson embracing much of the
lifestyle, not to mention the theistic rigors, of the area’s
engulfing Mormonism, it’s not so hard to see the fledgling
angler being inexorably drawn to the rugged drainages of
the Wasatch and Uinta mountains. With wild backcoun-
try looming at the city’s
edge—decades before
thecarcinogenicspread
of urban sprawl—An-
derson could escape
to the forest and high-
lands at will. Michael
recalls, “We lived close
to the mountains, and
he knew these wonder-
ful places that no one else knew.
He’d bushwhack into these tiny
creeks in the canyons.”
Art was not something An-
derson dabbled in: he drenched
himself in it—a tidal disarray of
cartoons, sketches, oil paintings
,and, with the right audience in tow,
humorous, over-the-top imperson-
ations. He was fiercely unconstrained
and free-spirited, attested to by the fact that when his
parents and brother moved back to Southern California,
Anderson, still in high school, elected to stay in Salt Lake
City.Nodoubthisdecisionwasmorethanpartlyinfluenced
by Utah’s famously dry climate, an acknowledgement and
half-surrender to his chronic asthma, a condition he had
been diagnosed with at an early age.
Although as a callow teenager Anderson accepted a
scholarship to a prestigious art school, he failed to habituate
himself to its conservative atmosphere. The hallowed halls
proved too musty and far too orthodox for his unfettered,
if not anarchic, artistic leanings. He enrolled at the Uni-
versity of Utah down the road and, after again bristling at
the conventional restraints of college art classes, he dropped
out long before the need for gown, cap, and tassel.
Lest he seem heedlessly fractious and reckless, keep in
mind that, even as a mere tadpole, Anderson possessed a
stubborn and slightly pugnacious streak. Neither hostil-
ity nor rebellion had anything to do with it. Instead, his
gruff disposition acted as a kind of force field surround-
ing the core of his artistic and intellectual independence.
At the risk of being accused of understatement, Michael
observed, “He was pretty opinionated in his youth.”
One thing’s certain: Anderson’s rocky relationship
with formal education rewarded him with more time
for sauntering into the boonies—the one and only place
where The Curtis Creek Manifesto could have taken root
in his brainpan. Grant Wootton, his favorite uncle, lived
nearby in Salt Lake City, and later in Montana, and was
there to help provide care and watering for the fledgling
Anderson’s angling skills and for his creative inclinations.
“Uncle Grant was a bullshitter’s bullshitter and a great
fly fisherman,” Michael fondly recalled. What better
epistemological style for
ensnaring young Sheri-
dan’s attention?
When his uncle
Grant and aunt Sadie
moved to West Yellow-
stone to manage the Al-
pine Lodge, Anderson
took every opportunity
to visit and hang out. Un-
der Wootton’s wing, he
learned to ply the waters of
the Madison, Yellowstone,
Snake, Firehole, and a host
of other waters within a gas
tank’s reach. The tutelage
he received on these rivers
would later imbue The Manifesto with pure,
indelible, and, yes, hilarious wisdom, wisdom
thatthumbeditsnoseatpretense—withallow-
ances, of course, for a quota of pirate’s swagger.
The Pirate and the Pinnacle
One’s teenage years are often recorded in a litany of dam-
age control. During our mid- to late 20s, most of us turn
sharp corners, make the big decisions. Normally this is the
crucial period for building a stable life: a promising career,
a steady partner, a first mortgage on a fixer-upper, and a
growing array of kitchenware. In his 20s, Anderson became
a man of the mountains, finding his emotional and psychic
center in the higher elevations. He was happy with what he
could fit in his backpack. But there was a problem.
Always on the move from mountain range to moun-
tain range, from state to state, he met and fell in with
the hardest of the hardnosed rock climbers—literal rock
stars such as Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, Royal
Robbins, Roger Keckeissen, and Joe Kelsey. The vertical
walls at Yosemite emerged as the epicenter of the world
of rock climbing, and Camp 4 (the birthplace of modern
rock climbing, that is) famously served as the bivouac, the
place where spider men, scroungers, and scoundrels kicked
up their heels and laid down their heads at night. Being
accepted into the boulder-rat pack is one thing; keeping up
with them is quite another.While his cohorts were chalking
up “impossible” routes on El Capitan, Sentinel, and Half
Dome, Anderson, a decent amateur at best, was stymied by
the likes of Lurking Fear, a so-called beginner’s wall. Here’s
Courtesy of Frank Amato
19. 17
Don Roberts, a longtime freelance writer and former magazine
editor, is an angling historian who lives in central Oregon.
the rub: über-climbers are composed of pure muscle, their
skin mere ornamentation and their bones mere trusses and
struts. Endowed with a build more closely resembling a wa-
terbuffalothanthelithelizardsomatotypeofarockclimber,
Sheridan was prevented by genetics—betrayed by his own
body—from ever being an accomplished “ascensionist.”
That was all right, actually serendipitous, because
Anderson had a more important role to play. Among other
things, he was there to keep egos from overinflating and to
keep heads screwed on tight. Although Camp 4 was by turns
party hearty and blissed-out mellow, climbing itself is seri-
ous business—gravitas versus gravity. The atmosphere was
not always an arm-in-arm bro-fest. Besides being innately
competitive, climbing is ruthlessly goal oriented. Steely re-
solve—andnerve—isrequired.Thepersonalityandcharacter
traitsofthebestclimberscouldbeperceivedasself-absorbed,
ifnotdownrightself-aggrandizing.(“Peeloff?Nah,notme.”)
While his daring comrades were out scouting an
approach or attempting to execute their next slick-rock
maneuver, Anderson wandered the alpine meadows and
tarns, fishing, drinking, and drawing. As Kelsey noted,
“Unflattering caricature was one more obstacle at the end
of an arduous epic (a difficult and/or dangerous climb),
but . . . a returning Rock God could drink beer with Sheri-
dan and be himself.” On one occasion, when Chouinard
was out attempting to bag a big wall, Anderson took it
upon himself to repaint Chouinard’s trusty old van—with
nothing less than Grumbacher oils.
“At one Camp 4 party, Chuck Pratt was too drunk to
stand up, and he passed out on the ground, curled up with
my golden retriever,” recalled Kelsey. “The party went on
around him, and Sheridan grabbed his pad and sketched
them. The caption was ‘I knew there would be someone
at this party I could talk to.’ ”
Though Anderson was never hesitant to use a sharp-
ened pencil to puncture a bloated ego, his character
sketches were never hateful, mean-spirited, or tinged
with even the slightest drop of venom. His humor instead
veered more toward the gentle poke in the ribs, sometimes
coming off so droll, so classically rendered, as to seem
blue-blood British in context. Robbins became one of
the frequent targets of “Sherry’s” cartoon harpoons. As
an ardent climber of ever-increasing fame, Robbins was
a figure Anderson couldn’t resist depicting in the guise
of a glowing Superman or a Tyrolean aristocrat-cum-
mountaineer wearing his trademark glasses and English
driving cap. Many years later, Robbins wrote, “He was one
of the chief chroniclers of the vanities and pretensions of
many stars of that period. Sheridan had a double talent:
the ability to read character, and the skill to render it with
precise, satirical strokes.”
In all-too-comfortable suburban middle-class Ameri-
ca—its culture hungry for adventure, the more dangerous
the better—there was a market for climbing lore, not to
mention an athletic subculture clamoring for its own
identity. Sheridan Anderson provided one, contributing
illustrated features to a host of periodicals, including Sum-
mit, Mountain, Ascent, Mountain Gazette, and, last but not
least, TheVulgarian Digest, to which he appointed himself
artistic director (AD of V.D.) while insisting that he con-
tribute under the nom de plume E. Lovejoy Wolfinger III,
so that his publishers at Summit, the highest-circulation,
best-paying climbing journal of the lot, wouldn’t know.
Fat chance, given his rather irrepressible style.
But that was not all that he provided. Besides drawing
their images for posterity, Anderson was provisioning his
fellow tribesmen with freshly caught fish. In fact, the idea
for The Curtis Creek Manifesto first coalesced around a fry-
ing pan at Camp 4. In Anderson’s own words, he got in the
habit of “supplying a half-dozen fellow pirates with fresh
trout. . . . Lazing over Red Mountain Burgandy [sic] and
sloe-eyed maids by the crystalline pools of the Merced, I was
often admonished to harness my expertise for posterity in
order to maintain my orthodoxy in a more lavish manner.”
Fortunately for the far less athletic—but certainly no
less devoted—angling community, he took that admon-
ishment to heart—and to his drawing pad.
During his high school years in Salt Lake City, Anderson escaped the
clutches of suburban conformity by taking frequent, solitary treks into
the canyon drainages of the Uinta and Wasatch ranges.
www.matchthehatch.com • Pioneers & Legends
Photo Courtesy of Michael Anderson
20. 18 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
News, Views, and Piscatorial Pursuits
Around the Northwest
PHOTOS BY DON AND LORI THOMAS
PHOTOSBYDONANDLORITHOMAS
Harris River, AK By E. Donnall Thomas, Jr.
The sunshine overhead was contributing more than ambience to my day on the
water. It was early September, and the river was loaded with incalculable numbers
of pink salmon in various stages of senescence. Bright pinks in salt water can
be fun on a fly rod, but by the time they enter southeastern Alaska streams they
have inevitably degenerated into off-color humpies of no interest to anyone but
the bears and eagles that have gathered to dine on them. Fortunately, the light
overhead and the excellent water clarity allowed me to prospect visually for the
real object of my hunt: silver salmon fresh from the
nearby waters of Clarence Strait.
After studying a quarter mile of current in the
lower Harris River, I finally spotted a dozen pale-green
torpedoes holding just above the bottom beneath a
teeming mass of pinks. Casting as if I were presenting
a nymph to a spring-creek brown, I drifted a single
egg pattern into the zone and watched in satisfaction
as a silver drifted laterally and inhaled the tiny fly.
Humpies scattered everywhere as the fish took to the
air in a shower of spray, and the fight was on.
More like a creek than a river, the Harris rises in
the center of Prince of Wales Island and flows gently
downhill for 6 miles east toTwelvemile Arm.The only
direct access is via the bridge on the Hydaburg High-
way, just south of its intersection with the Craig-Harris
Road, which parallels the river on its north side all the
way to the salt. In most places it is less than a mile from
the road to the stream,
but that can be a brutal
hike through coastal
Alaska brush. Several
poorly marked gravel
roads allow access to
the water by vehicle or
a reasonable walk.
The season on the
Harris begins in April
with the arrival of wild
steelhead. As in most
area streams, the re-
turn is small, limited
to a couple of hundred
fish. However, clear,
shallow water usually
makes it possible to
locate them by sight,
and easy wading and
long gravel bars allow
anglers to cover lots of
ground on foot. On ambitious days,
I like to get dropped off at the bridge
and fish my way down to the tide line,
crossing the stream back and forth to
stay on the gravel bars.
While anglers can always find some
sea-run Dolly Vardens and cutts in
the Harris, the serious action picks up
21. 19www.matchthehatch.com • AROUND THE NOrTHWeST
v
again in late August with the arrival
of the silvers. At this time of year, the
Harris River flat is home to one of the
highest black bear concentrations in the
world.(Therearenobrownbearsonthe
island.) Bright silvers remain until early
October. As always with anadromous
fish, the numbers can vary from sparse
to awesome. The only way to find out
which is to head to the water.
While many other southeast Alaska
streams support stronger fish returns,
the Harris is fly-rod friendly, with easy
wading and a relaxed ambience that
makes it a personal favorite.
Cub River, ID By Hartt Wixom
The Cub River is hidden away in the
southeastern corner of Idaho. Though
gin clear and spring-born, this little
tributary of the Bear River is hardly
a typical glass-smooth spring creek.
Instead, it gushes—steep and swift—
for most of its 30 fishable miles. After
exploding out of cliffs in a violent
spray, it calms down for only a mile
or so before entering a steep canyon.
Appreciated by the sparse popu-
lation of local fly anglers, the Cub is
challenging water, requiring fly fishers
to work cutbanks, bends, and boulder-
studded runs carefully. I’ve done best on
theuppermeadowandthelower,slower
stretches, usually with streamers, which
have enticed Bonneville cutthroat as
large as 18 inches. At the downstream
end, which flows through farmland,
whitefish outnumber trout.
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Photo By Hartt Wixom
22. 20 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
I don’t worry about the current’s direction when casting a streamer. You can
cast upstream, downstream, or across the flow, as long as you use a strategically
placed split shot to get your fly deep near cutbanks, boulders, and sunken logs.
Twitch the fly alongside, but not in, the main current. Besides using streamers,
watch for caddisfly hatches in early summer. Also, grasshopper imitations can
be effective from late July to early autumn or even later.
The Cub River is so clear that wise anglers approach carefully, mindful not
to disturb overhanging willow branches and alert the trout to danger. Avoid any
hint of your shadow falling near the target water, and cast sidearm if your rod
tip casts shadows or glares in the sun. In heavy water, 4X tippet material is fine
with streamers, but smoother flows might require tippets as light as 7X for small
dry flies. However, I don’t use gossamer tippets unless absolutely necessary: my
modus operandi is to use the heaviest connection to the line that water condi-
tions allow. Stout tippets also let me give a fish an honorable release without
totally exhausting it or causing it to build up too much lactic acid to survive. I
always try to release these lovely wild cutthroat trout without touching them or
removing them from the water (a hook-removal tool is handy).
Heavy early-season runoff is unlikely on the Cub River because of its spring
source, but significant runoff can swell the flows during late spring. I like autumn
the best because the canyon cottonwoods glow a brilliant gold, the stream flow
is stable, and most anglers are somewhere else.
The Cub is generally accessible by car. Cub River Canyon has few camp-
grounds, but motels and restaurants can be found in nearby Franklin, the oldest town
intheGemState,orPreston,7milestothenorthwest.Thecanyonboastsaparticularly
fine restaurant—Deer Cliff Inn, www.deercliffinnidaho.com.The inn is aptly named
because mule deer often graze within sight of the dining tables. If you are interested
in the history of this area, an excellent museum in Franklin recalls the area’s Mormon
settlement and unfortunate U.S. Army encounters with the Shoshone Indians.
To reach the Cub River, follow US Highway 91north from Franklin (near the
Utah–Idaho border) or south from Preston to the sign indicating the Cub River
access. There is some private property, but Cache National Forest offers ample
public access. Look for the quietest stretch of water you can find and start there.
Little Prickly Pear Creek, MT By Jeff Erickson
I heard a fly reel singing loudly all the way across the broad Missouri River,
followed by whooping and hollering. I looked up and, sure enough, an angler’s
rod was throbbing with a large brown trout off the mouth of Little Prickly Pear
Creek, where bruisers sometimes stack up prior to their fall spawning run.
Few Montana streams lie more deeply in the shadow of a nearby giant than
Little Prickly Pear Creek. The only contact many anglers have with this intrigu-
ing stream is glimpses from their car windows as they whiz past on Interstate
15 toward the blizzardlike Missouri River caddisfly hatch. While the Missouri
below Holter Dam routinely surrenders 20-inch fish on size 20 dries, spending
Photo By Jeff Erickson
MINUTES FROM ROSEBURG, OREGON,
THE NORTH UMPQUA RIVER IS ONE OF
THE MOST DIVERSE AND CHALLENGING
FISHERIES IN NORTH AMERICA,
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STEELHEAD, CHINOOK SALMON AND
SMALL-MOUTH BASS. BRING YOUR BEST,
BECAUSE NONE OF THEM COME EASY.
AND BE PREPARED TO WATCH TIME FLY.
ROSEBURG, OREGON,
HEART OF THE LAND OF UMPQUA.
FOR A FREE VISITORS GUIDE TO OUR LAND
CALL 800-440-9584 OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE.
WWW.FISHING.LANDOFUMPQUA.COM
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Quality fly tackle
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saltwater also available.
20652 Big Canyon RD
Peck, ID 83545
208-486-6098
www.redshedflyshop.com
23. 21www.matchthehatch.com • AROUND THE NOrTHWeST
time exploring its pretty upper tributary is an excellent idea.
Historically,LittlePricklyPearhasbeenoneoftheMissouri’s
main spawning destinations for rainbows and browns, although
that changed in the 1990s due to whirling disease. Some of the
spawners inevitably linger on their way back to the Mo, surpris-
ing anglers with oversize specimens in a creek that is often less
than 20 feet across. Research has shown that Missouri rainbows
hatched in Little Prickly Pear reach an impressive 17 inches by
their third year. In addition to these migrants, the creek holds
more modestly sized resident browns and ’bows.
Approximately 36 miles long, Little Prickly Pear rises in
Helena National Forest on the east side of the Continental
Divide; its flow is bolstered by another trout stream—Can-
yon Creek—running off Flesher Pass to the north. The
middle reaches run mainly through private land. Along
Sieben Canyon Road, anglers can legally access the creek at
bridges. This is pleasant water, but watch for rattlesnakes.
Fartherdown,belowthemeadowwaterofSiebenFlats,Little
PricklyPearentersatightcanyon,whereitrunsbetweenI-15and
the old highway, known locally as Recreation Road. Public land
here provides two fishing access sites—Prickly Pear and Lichen
Cliff—which afford good water and primitive camping. Below
the canyon, the stream murmurs through the pleasant hamlet
of Wolf Creek, then loops through ranch bottomlands to its rendezvous with the Missouri. Through much of its length,
Little Prickly Pear is paralleled and bisected by railroad tracks, which facilitate access for those willing to walk.
To protect spawning browns and rainbows, angling on the lower reach (from the southernmost I-15 bridge to the mouth)
is restricted to the third Saturday in May through Labor Day. Once spring runoff subsides (typically in June), anglers can
PhotoByJeffErickson
24. 22 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
expect many of the same hatches they might encounter on the Missouri: Baetis,
Pale Morning Duns, Tricos, and various species of midges, caddisflies, and some
stoneflies. From July through September, hopper/dropper tandems make a good
choice. And working streamers during the late spring may catch the attention of
sizable ’bows that haven’t made it back to their Missouri lairs.
It has become increasingly important to release rainbows, since in the
mid-1990s Little Prickly Pear was severely infected with whirling disease.
Unfortunately, the stream offers good habitat for the aquatic worm that hosts
the whirling disease parasite. While Missouri River rainbow populations have
remained surprisingly healthy and stable, recruitment from Little Prickly Pear
has declined. Research by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks
(FWP) shows the number of year-old rainbows migrating from Little Prickly
Pear to the Missouri dropped from 30,000 annually to 7,000 by the late 1990s.
More positively, FWP biologist Grant Grisak says that Lyons Creek, a small
Little Prickly Pear tributary, remains clear of the affliction and attracts spawn-
ers. He believes the Missouri system has evaded doomsday predictions because
main-stem spawning areas and tributaries like Little Prickly Pear “consistently
overproduced the number of fish needed to stock the river.”
Wolf Creek offers limited supplies but has lodging, places to restock fly
boxes, and a couple of cozy café-bars (the Oasis, the Frenchman & Me, and the
upscale Izaak’s in nearby Craig).
Sprague Lake, WA By Steve Maeder
Sprague is a 1,860-acre, 6-mile-long, year-round lake on the border of Adams and
Lincoln Counties in eastern Washington. Within clear view of Interstate 90,
it is the most fertile lake in the state. “Sprague is a very productive desert
lake with incredible growth rates,” says Washington Department of Fish
and Wildlife (WDFW) biologist Chris Donley. He notes that some of the
rainbow trout stocked in the spring of 2008 grew more than 1 foot in the
first year. “Those trout will grow to 7 pounds in just two and a half years,”
Donley told The Spokesman-Review in early 2009.
A severe species imbalance necessitated a 2007 rotenone treatment, giving
the WDFW a clean slate for yet another effort at establishing a balanced warm-
water fishery in Sprague Lake. While it may seem odd to kill off a warm-water
fishery to replace it with another warm-water fishery, there is sense to the
seeming madness. The WDFW looked at angler-visit data, and the numbers
dwindled when the lake was overrun
with carp in the early 1980s. Those
carp were part of an 1890s stocking
effort. They did so well, in fact, that
a commercial fishery developed and
lasted until a market collapse.
No longer subject to harvest, the
carp population exploded. That led to
a 1985 rehab effort, which included
introducing walleye. The walleye
eventually followed in the footsteps
of the carp and simply took over the
lake. Now I, for one, will take walleye
fillet over all other freshwater fish, but
you have to catch them first. That
proved to be so difficult, in spite of
their significant numbers, that anglers
once again lost interest in Sprague
Lake. One thing WDFW knew for
sure through all this: Sprague could
certainly be a fish factory. But man-
agement was a matter of attaining
the right balance of spe-
cies so all desirable fish
could proliferate with-
out devastating popu-
lations of the others.
Hence the latest plan.
The new manage-
ment scheme is nearly
six years old now. The
WDFW expects trout
fishing to be at its peak
for the next few years.
When the trout begin
to fade, largemouth bass
and panfish fisheries
should come into their
own. By now, Sprague
can produce 10-pound
rainbows, including
triploids; WDFW also stocked La-
hontan cutthroat in the lake.
Sprague is a large lake, but online
topo maps revealing dropoffs andother
underwater features can help anglers
find prime fishing areas. The lake aver-
ages about 11 feet deep, with a maxi-
mum depth of less than 20 feet—so
nowhere in the lake are trout ever too
deep for fly tackle. Chironomids are so
prolific that they form dense clouds at
times;scud,mayfly,damselfly,andleech
patterns are also important.
Photo by Jon Luke
25. 23www.matchthehatch.com • AROUND THE NOrTHWeST
To reach the lake, take exit 245 off
I-90 and head south into the town of
Sprague. Turn right on Fourth Street,
go one block, turn right on G Street,
then turn left on First Street and
follow the road west through town.
There are two resorts on the lake, a
WDFW access area, and one private
launch. Because the lake is some dis-
tance from urban centers, you should
check the weather forecast before mak-
ing the drive: it’s wide-open country
and wind is common. Whether by
boat, pontoon, float tube, or foot,
everybody has a shot at a large trout
with plenty of elbow room on Sprague.
v
Tofino, British Columbia
By Mike Benbow
Each September for the last 45 years,
Dick Padovan has driven from his
home north of Seattle to fish for coho
salmon in Tofino on Canada’s Van-
couver Island. Although it takes him
just a few minutes to reach salmon
fishing near his home on Puget Sound,
Padovan goes to Tofino every year for
a variety of reasons. One is to recon-
nect with friends who’ve joined him
there through the years. Another is
the sheer beauty of the place. Located
on the west side of the island, Tofino
is a former logging and fishing village
that now also hosts a funky assortment
of ecotourists. Because the area has a
great sandy beach and some impressive
waves, it’s popular with surfers. Hik-
ers and kayakers, too, find their own
attractions along the rugged coastline.
While the location is a clear draw
for Padovan, the salmon—and the way
he fishes for them—are the primary
attraction. Tofino is surrounded by
tiny islands, which are surrounded
by kelp beds, which attract baitfish
and salmon. There are many ways to
fish for these salmon, but Padovan
finds Tofino particularly suitable for
“bucktailing”—essentially, trolling
slowly on the surface with a fly that
looks like a herring or a candlefish. In
addition to the edges of the kelp, he
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26. 24 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
bucktails along shoals, shallow bays, rock outcroppings, and tide rips. He keeps
the fly close to the prop wash, which attracts fish. “They think it’s a ball of bait,”
Padovan says of the bubbles stirred up by the engine’s propeller. “I’ve seen them
come up and strike the boat.”
Sometimes salmon follow the fly for a considerable distance, their dorsal
fins out of water. When he sees a follow, Padovan may lift his rod tip or feed
out more line to trigger a strike. Because the fish are usually in schools, it’s not
unusual for all of the anglers in a boat to get vicious strikes in the same instant.
“Watching them come up and take the fly is so amazing,” says Ross Miller of
Tulalip, Washington, who often fishes with Padovan in Tofino.
While fishing, Padovan usually keeps his fly 8 to 12 feet behind the boat and
trolls at 3 or 4 knots. He learned to bucktail from his good friend Bill Nelson,
a founder of the Federation of Fly Fishers and for many years the head guide
on Quadra Island, on the east side of Vancouver Island. Nelson, who died last
October in Eugene, Oregon, was a strong advocate of bucktailing for salmon
and often joined Padovan in Tofino.
Padovan’s favorite bucktailing fly is one Nelson developed for his wife
on Quadra that came to be known as the Mrs. Nelson. Joining Padovan in
2012 was John Marable of Lake Stevens, an accomplished salmon angler
with conventional gear. He took to bucktailing immediately. He states, “It’s
been one of the few times I’ve been able to fish for salmon without having
a lot of crap between me and the fish.”
The coho in Tofino typically run from 8 to 12 pounds, but during many
years 16-pounders show up, with a few even bigger. Padovan’s group uses 6- to
8-weight rods and reels with good drags spooled only with monofilament or
sinking-tip or clear intermediate fly lines. Nine-foot leaders are typical.
Padovan typically fishesTofino in early September, but the season runs from
July through mid-October. Tofino has all the usual services. You can take your
own boat, as Padovan does, or you can hire a charter. A company called Marina
West, www.marinawest.com, provides fly-fishing charters and also operates a
waterfront motel. To drive to Tofino from the States, take Interstate 5 across
the Canadian border and go to Delta, British Columbia. From there, catch the
Tsawwassen ferry to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and take Highway 19 north,
then drive west on Highway 4 for about three hours to Tofino.
North Fork Cache Creek, CA
By Don Vachini
Mention fishing in Lake County and
most aficionados assume you’re talk-
ing about Clear Lake and its world-
renowned largemouth bass. Indeed,
there is so much focus on this massive
body of warm water that a nearby trout
stream basks in relative anonymity.
The upper courses of North Fork
Cache Creek gather runoff from several
CoastalRangepeakswithinMendocino
NationalForest.Flowingnearly10miles
throughtheBartlettSpringsValleyprior
to entering Indian Valley Reservoir, this
section depends entirely on rainfall, and
because the flows diminish and warm
rapidly, the creek offers only a very
limited, early rainbow trout season.
However, in the 3.5-mile stretch below
the reservoir, the creek is reborn in man-
dated flows and slices through a steep
canyon surrounded by nearly 75,000
acres of Bureau of Land Management
and state- and county-managed land.
After crossing State Route 20, about 6
miles below Clear Lake, the North Fork
joins the main branch of Cache Creek,
the outflow of Clear Lake.
The Yolo County Flood Control
& Water Conservation District has
administered the reservoir’s water since
its creation in 1976, making it a key
factor in the lower stream’s success.This
4,000-acre impoundment not only
serves to irrigate agricultural land in the
SacramentoValley35milesdownstream,
it also provides ideal, year-round habitat
for the North Fork’s native fish.
Generally 20 to 30 feet wide, the
creek offers nice runs, riffles, and
some deeper pools as it descends over
a moderate gradient. This lovely little
tailwater is home to both rainbows
and browns. Prior to 2005, the Cali-
fornia Department of Fish and Game
(DFG) regularly planted catchable-
size Eagle Lake rainbows. According
to Rick Macedo, a fisheries biologist
with the DFG’s Region 2 office, “Al-
though stockings ceased, surviving
holdovers continued to propagate.”
Macedo recently electroshocked
most of the waterway. The resident
Photo By Mike Benbow
27. 25www.matchthehatch.com • AROUND THE NOrTHWeST
rainbows are wary, skittish, and many
generations removed from a hatchery
birth certificate, and his findings re-
vealed primarily small, 7- to 10-inch
’bows in the creek’s lower courses
near the access road, with individuals
approaching 13 inches living farther
upstream. In addition, thin densities of
wild brown trout (initial DFG plants
were made in the late 1970s), often
seeking the cooler water near the dam,
range from 6 inches up to 3 pounds.
However, as Macedo points out,
canyon conditions can be challeng-
ing: brush-infested shorelines, man-
zanita- and chaparral-choked trails,
steep terrain, and the presence of
rattlesnakes keep would-be anglers
away and allow trout to prosper.
The 1,000-yard section immediately
below the dam is closed to angling.
The North Fork’s season runs from
the last Saturday in April through mid-
November.The best window of oppor-
tunity to fish it is typically between early
spring and late July, when the flow from
the reservoir is heavy, the current is fast,
the surface temperature hovers between
55 and 59 degrees, and the depth aver-
ages knee- to thigh-high. That is also a
time to exercise caution if wading—the
current can be stronger than it appears.
The canopy of low oak, willow,
and cottonwood trees, along with the
rapid flow, generally dictates small-
water tactics. I find that a 9-foot, 3- to
4-weight rod with a 9-foot, 6X leader
is perfect for high-stick or indicator
nymphing. I attempt to strategically
place a size 14 or 16 beadhead or
weighted PheasantTail Nymph, Bird’s
Nest, or Copper John along fringes of
fast water, maintaining tension while
dredging it through pockets, seams,
PhotoByDonVachini
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28. 26 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
By Terry W. Sheely
NEWSNEWS
or eddies. Deeper pools are best ap-
proached with a size 10 yellow or
white Crystal Bugger.
As July segues into August and
midday air temperatures commonly
reach the high 90s, limited bug activ-
ity can offer fair dry-fly action along
the clear riffles and tailouts. While size
14 and 16 Adamses, Blue-Winged Ol-
ives, and Humpies are as good as any
pattern, ants and hoppers are always
wise choices. A size 16 Copper John
dropper under a size 14 Adams can
double your chances.
The North Fork is located be-
tween Ukiah (US Highway 101) and
Williams (Interstate 5), which are
connected by State Route 20. A desig-
nated parking area provides access.The
Featherbed Bed and Breakfast Resort,
(707) 274-8378, www.featherbedrail-
road.com, is a unique place to rest your
head after a day on this nearby water.
Buying the Heart
of Trout and Salmon
Three threatened waters in Or-
egon and Washington won big-
time reprieves when Western
Rivers Conservancy (WRC)
bought 2 miles of Oregon’s North
Santiam River slated to be mined
for gravel; another 648 acres of
critical spring chinook, steelhead,
and bull trout water along Wash-
ington’s Nason Creek; and 245
acres for Sandy River wild fish
recovery in Oregon.
The North Santiam River
acquisition (see page 27) is considered vital to wild chinook and steelhead. Until Western Rivers
stepped in, the habitat was to be mined. WRC describes the frontage as “the finest remnant of
natural habitat in the entire Willamette Valley.” They plan to turn it over to the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde for long-term management dedicated to fish and wildlife.
The acquisition of Nason Creek shields it from logging degradation. A Wenatchee River
tributary, Nason is considered critical for spring chinook, steelhead, and endangered bull trout.
WRC turned the property over to the National Forest Service to decommission 17 bridges and
a network of logging roads that threatened the stream with debris and sediment.
The245acresalongBoulderCreeksavesthe“anchor”ofvaluableSandyRiverspringchinook,
winter steelhead, and winter coho habitat. All three are listed as threatened. The Boulder Creek
acquisition is a final piece in WRC’s 14-year effort to preserve more than 3,000 acres, including
13 miles on the Sandy River, Little Sandy River, Salmon River, and small tributaries.
Orvis Matches Pebble Mine War Chest
The grassroots campaign bent on killing the massive
Pebble Mine open pit proposed in Alaska’s environ-
mentally sensitive Bristol Bay headwaters is now a top
conservation funding priority ofThe Orvis Company.
The legendary company has pledged to match cus-
tomer contributions dollar for dollar and raise $100,000, according to CEO Perk Perkins, to
stop the world’s largest open-pit gold and copper mine from developing dead-center in critical
and sensitive fish habitats. Perkins calls the mine “one of the worst environmental risks on
the planet.” Orvis is throwing its full weight into the campaign to convince the Environ-
mental Protection Agency, Congress, and the White
House to kill the project under the Clean Water Act
of 1972. Orvis has donated more than $14 million
to international conservation in the last 25 years.
Award Honors Wyss
and Wyss Foundation
Trout and environmental champion and philanthro-
pist Hansjörg Wyss and the Wyss Foundation have
earned Trout Unlimited’s (TU) prestigious national
Conservation Leadership Award. The foundation has
invested more than $4.2 million over 11 years in TU
projects for North America’s cold-water fisheries and
watersheds, and another $175 million to conserve 14
million acres of Western habitat. Wyss’s latest donation
will reconnect 1,000 miles of critical Atlantic salmon
spawning habitat on Maine’s Penobscot River. Much
of the conservation work involves Western trout waters
along the Rocky Mountain Front and the Wyoming
Range in the Swiss native’s adopted home state.
v
Burped, Spawned, and Released
Bred-and-dead may no longer be the
inevitable end for steelhead relieved
of eggs and milt for hatchery spawn.
Live spawn experiments with Dwor-
shak National Fish Hatchery steel-
head at Ahsahka, Idaho, and central
Washington’s Yakima River have seen
post-spawn survival and release rates
of up to 60 percent.
Hatchery steelhead hens histori-
cally have been killed when stripped
of eggs for hatchery production, but
now hatchery workers are having suc-
cess with a live technique called “air
spawning.” A needle is inserted into
the fish, inflating the body cavity with
compressed air and forcefully expel-
ling eggs. Hens are burped, revived,
and released to go back downriver as
kelts, possibly to return and spawn a
second time. The experimental burp-
and-release spawning is a project of
the Yakama and Nez Perce tribes and
Columbia River Intertribal Fish Com-
mission.The Yakamas have been work-
ing with steelhead kelt survival since
1999, with up to 60 percent success.Photo courtesy Trout Unlimited
photo by Lee Rentz
29. 27www.matchthehatch.com • AROUND THE NOrTHWeST
Western Rivers Conservancy Spearheads Protection
of Rare Salmon/Steelhead Habitat in Oregon
The hope of restoring plentiful salmon and steelhead runs to the Willamette
Valley was bolstered by a successful habitat conservation effort on the North
Santiam River, once a powerhouse of fish production in the Willamette Basin.
A partnership between Western Rivers Conservancy (WRC), the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde, Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), and Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife conserves 2 miles of the North Santiam River,
centered on perhaps the finest relic of fish and wildlife habitat in the entire Wil-
lamette Valley.The project also transfers 338 acres of land to the tribe, which will
serve as the land’s long-term conservation steward, monitoring fish and wildlife
habitat and developing a management plan for the land.
“This is the most significant tract of intact habitat along the entire lower
North Santiam River, and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde are
the perfect steward,” says WRC president Sue Doroff.
“The tribe has the natural resource expertise to care for this vital habitat and
shares WRC’s vision to protect and restore this remarkable block of riverfront,
forests and wetlands,” adds tribal chairman Reyn Leno.
Once proposed for gravel mining, the project lands include extraordi-
nary riparian features, including 130 acres of floodplain forest, winding
side channels, and 20 acres of wetlands, as well as a unique native upland
prairie. The riparian features are important to winter steelhead, spring
chinook, Pacific lamprey, Oregon chub, and other species.
Funding for the project was provided by BPA through the Willamette
Wildlife Habitat Agreement. This 15-year agreement, signed in 2010, provides
stable funding for wildlife habitat acquisitions for more than 26,000 acres in
the Willamette Valley to offset the impacts of federal dams on the Willamette
River and its tributaries. The agreement also provides seed funding for continu-
ing basic work on acquisition sites—a new practice for BPA.
Photo by Steve Terrill
May the Rivers Never Sleep
By Bill and John McMillan
(Frank Amato Publications)
The writings of the late British Columbia
author and angler Roderick Haig-Brown
have inspired generations of conservation-
ists. His classic A River Never Sleeps (1946)
moved Ralph Wahl to meld Haig-Brown’s
words with his own brilliant black-and-
white photographs of fish and fishing in
ComeWadetheRiver(1971).BillMcMillan’s
love of the same book began when he was a
youngmaninthe1950s.Itwasmeaningful
to him because his father was a fisherman,
and now Bill’s own son, John, is following
in his footsteps. Together, through their
prose and photography in this new book,
Bill and John pay homage to Haig-Brown
and“theethicofresponsibilityforriversand
anadromous fish he unwittingly birthed.”
This father-and-son team—they are
bothrespectednaturalistsandscientists—has
foundacommonbondinsalmon,steelhead,
rivers, and the Pacific Northwest.Their love
and respect for wild fish and wild rivers are
displayed in their riveting writing and grip-
ping photography. The book’s plan, like the
authors’ personal lives, follows river time,
withamonth-by-monthcalendarofchapters
shaped and informed by thousands of hours
spent angling, observing, snorkeling, and
contemplating the diversity and patterns of
river life above and below the surface.
In the spirit of Haig-Brown, the
McMillans ask, “Will Northwest rivers
continue to remain awake with perpetual
life; or will their encounters with modern
humanity increasingly narrow the life they
support with resulting sleep?” This book
is their warning to nurture and protect
the natural resilience of wild fish so that
rivers remain places of revelation for future
generations, just as they have been for the
McMillans.—JackW. Berryman
30. 28 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
EXPOSURE
Autumn on the Grande Ronde/By Mark Lance
Angler GaryThompson and guide Clayton Foster admire and release a summer-run steelhead.
A box of skating flies and swinging flies will serve
anglers well for Grande Ronde summer steelhead.
Angler and raft are dwarfed by steep basalt canyon walls.
31. 29www.matchthehatch.com • EXPOSURE
Grande Ronde summer-run steelhead seem to be fond of blue and black. Swinging flies with floating or
short sinking-tip lines is very effective on this river in the fall.
No time to waste—this shore lunch did
not quite make it to shore.
Speywater Lodge guide Mike McCune rows downriver with a keen eye on the next productive run.
32. 30 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
A raft is a fine way to float the river and to soak in the spectacular scenery along the way.
The Grande Ronde squeezes through a narrow
basalt gorge on the lower river. Though thrilling
for the passengers, this section is navigable only by
experienced oarsmen.
Camping along the river, you can envision the Native American tribes, including the Nez Perce,WallaWalla, and Shoshone,
that used the river corridor for hunting and gathering for thousands of years.
33. 31www.matchthehatch.com • EXPOSURE
Mark Lance, www.riverlightimages.com, is a freelance
photographer who lives in Colorado.
Sharon Lance plays a wild steelhead in the tailout of a fine Grande Ronde run.
Steelheader Chris Nissler wears his passion on his sleeve. Artist
Dale Faulstich created the symbol of S’Klallam tribe culture
and beliefs.
Thecooktentdoublesasthedryingroomforwadersandbootsonacoolautumnevening.
34. 32 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
A
s with most rivers on the west slope of California’s Sierra Nevada, the Mokelumne River—the
“Moke” to the locals—changes dramatically from its headwaters at the timberline to where it
dumps into the Sacramento River Delta east of the San Francisco Bay Area.
At its headwaters, access is limited and tricky because—unlike most west-slope rivers, which
are paralleled by east/west highways—the Moke is several miles removed from the nearest paved road, State
Route 4. The only routes from the highway to the stream are dirt tracks built by loggers, and the maze-like
web of these roads that permeate the west slope of the Sierra can be troublesome to decipher.
In one place, near the summit at Ebbetts Pass, the highway crosses the South Fork Mokelumne.
Fishing high up in the drainage is typical of west-slope rivers, with the stream coursing over and around large
granite boulders and careering through deep, largely inaccessible canyons. The fish are generally small but in
many places abundant.The Moke’s most interesting angling, however, is found well downstream of the alpine
origins, where it descends into the foothills and is impounded by dams, which form tailwater fisheries.
I’ll never forget my first experience on the Moke. Shortly after I first moved to Northern California
from Southern California, a new friend offered to show me where we could catch some huge rainbows
within an hour’s drive along a historic byway, State Route 49 in the gold country. Most of the Sierra
west-slope rivers run unimpeded through the mountainous sections, but once they drop below 3,000
feet in elevation, they are corralled by dams that control their flows for agricultural and urban use.
When it reaches the foothill elevation, the Moke first flows into Pardee Reservoir and continues a
short distance into Camanche Reservoir, from which it then makes its final push to the Sacramento Delta
and on to the Pacific.
Mokelumne River, CA
Steelhead in the Lower Moke
By Greg Vinci
The Moke’s larger steelhead begin their spawning run about February of each year. Oc-
casionally one of these fish can weigh more than 10 pounds (above). The headwaters of the
Moke are typical of most Sierra west-slope rivers, flowing crystal clear. Here Brian Smith
casts to rising brookies on a flat section of the river (right).
All Photos By Greg Vinci
36. 34 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
ElliottRoad
ElliottRoad
E. Peltier Road
N. M
ackville
Road
McintireRoad
Road
E. Collier Road
E. Collier
Jahant Road
ClementsRoad
Liberty Road E. Liberty Ro ad
To
Valley Springs
To
Lodi
To Galt
To Pardee
Reservoir
12
88
12
88
88
Camanche
Reservoir
M
okelum
n
e
River
Lockeford
Clements
Lockeford
Clements
Stillman
Magee
Park
Mokelumne River
Fish Hatchery
Stillman
Magee
Park
Mokelumne River
Fish Hatchery
State Route
Boat Launch
State Route
Boat Launch
49Miles
20
Area of
Detail
CALIFORNIA
Because our destination was upstream from the im-
poundments, there was a chance that we could intercept
some of the reservoir’s huge rainbows on their spawning
run.We traveled about 90 minutes southeast of Sacramento
and, after passing through the rustic little gold-rush town
of Jackson, we pulled off at a bridge over the Moke. We got
out of my 1962 VW Bug, rigged our rods, and proceeded
down the steep slope to what looked to me like one of the
most beautiful trout streams I’d ever seen. My friend seemed
to ignore the no fishing sign placed there
by the property owner, East Bay Municipal
District (EBMUD), and because I was so
stoked about the 20-inch rainbows that
my new friend had promised, I didn’t even
bother to question him.
About the time I got my night crawler
strung on a snelled Mustad hook (yes,
back in my bait-fishing days), I heard
a stern, loudly amplified voice from
above asking what we were doing there.
I looked up to the road above to see a
white EBMUD truck with lights flashing
like a Christmas tree on top and the horn
of a megaphone pointing out the window.
Without a word between us, my friend
and I snatched up our gear and scrambled
to lose ourselves in the willows that lined the bank. We
crouched low, and slowly made our way to just below where
the Bug was parked on the road above.We stayed hidden for
about 30 minutes while the EBMUD fish cop stopped and
pulled out a tablet upon which, I assumed, he wrote down
my license plate number. After he left, we gave it another 5
or 10 minutes, then quickly scampered up the slope, threw
the gear in the car, and got the hell out of there.
To this day, access to that stretch of the river remains
minimal, owing to the stinginess of EBMUD. Little has
changed in 40 years, though I’ve been told by local guide Bill
Ferrero that his contacts at EBMUD have suggested to him
thattheremaybeachangeinthewind.ButbelowCamanche
Lake, the lower of the two Moke impoundments, the river
coursesthroughprivateagriculturallandthathaspublicaccess
37. 35www.matchthehatch.com • CALIFORNIA
at intervals. It also has something that the higher-elevation
sections don’t have—an annual run of steelhead.
Through the years, I occasionally heard about some
great fishing on the river, but I’d never actually taken
the time to investigate it. For some reason, heading to
the high country always holds more appeal for me than
fishing in the valley close to home. I guess it’s like the gal
in the next town, who for some reason seems hotter than
the girl next door. At an annual open house at Kiene’s Fly
Shop in Sacramento, I met Bill Ferrero of Mokelumne
River Outfitters, and he convinced me that I wouldn’t
be disappointed if I spent a day with him on the Moke’s
tailwater section below Camanche Reservoir.
Floating the Moke
On the appointed day, I took off from Sacramento and
drove southeast through the east valley countryside,
taking in the beautiful scenery of the Lodi appellation
vineyards that carpeted the low hills. In the 6 a.m. sun,
mist rising from between
the vines was magical. If I
hadn’t been running late,
as usual, I would have
stopped and begun snap-
ping images, but I needed
to hurry. At Stillman Ma-
gee Park just north of
Clements, I met up with
Ferrero and his friend,
Captain Kevin Doran,
whose name I recognized
because he was a well-
known guide who had
worked the delta for years.
We proceeded to
the launching area a bit
downstream from the
Mokelumne River Fish
Hatchery, which is located
at the base of the dam
at Camanche Reservoir.
Doran was temporarily us-
ing a wheelchair due to hip
problems, so I knew right
thenthatgettinghimintothe13-foorFishCraftSuperCatwas
goingtomakeaninterestingstarttotheday.Workingtogether,
Ferrero and I got Doran into the cataraft and we pushed off.
The section that we were going to float that day runs
for about 8 miles. Because it’s in the lower elevation foot-
hills, the flow forms pools and deep tailouts, which are
typical of the waters at this elevation. One of the great
things about the Moke is that it runs primarily through
private agricultural land and gets little fishing pressure,
although in the summer, rafters can be a nuisance.
Ferrero explained that the river has a fair number of
fish in the 10- to 12-inch range, and most of them are
probably steelhead smolts. They are plentiful year-round,
but when the weather warms up a little in February, the
larger adult steelhead arrive on their spawning run, which
is when the fishing gets really exciting. Hooking a 6- to
8-pound fish fresh from the salt water is one of the most
thrilling experiences in the sport of freshwater fishing.
Most anglers agree that, pound for pound, steelhead are
stronger fighters than almost any other species that can
be caught in fresh water.
When Camanche Dam was built in the 1960s, miles
of spawning habitat were lost, causing a sharp decline in
indigenous steelhead. After limited success producing
these fish artificially, the hatchery imported steelhead eggs
from the Feather River, whose fish are a little larger than
the original steelhead found in the Moke.
California’s Central Valley steelhead are interesting.
The characteristic that makes a steelhead a steelhead is that
at some point during the year, it spent some time in salt
water—usually in the ocean, but in some cases, only the
brackish estuaries of the Bay Area. Unlike Pacific salmon,
which migrate to the ocean and remain there for most
of their lives until the urge to mate draws them back to
their natal streams where they spawn and die, steelhead
move in and out of the freshwater river systems. Provided
they’re able—given the distances they must travel and
the obstructions they must overcome—steelhead return
to the ocean after spawning and make annual spawning
The river’s slower runs provide great dry-fly fishing, and also hold spawning steelhead in the spring. Downstream
from the redds, fish hold in the runs waiting for a free egg breakfast (above). Brook trout abound in the higher
elevation feeder streams of the Moke. Moreover, rumors persist of huge cutthroat trout haunting some of the
deeper impoundments that feed the headwaters (left).
38. 36 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
Vinci’s Depth Charge
Rock Worm
Hook:
Beads:
Legs:
Abdomen:
Overbody:
Rib:
TMC 2302, sizes 12–14
Black 3 mm tungsten and
gold 2.5 mm tungsten
Black hackle fibers, undersized
Small olive variegated chenille
Olive scud back
3X monofilament
PHOTO BY northwest fly fishing
runs. Fish that return to the river after only a few months
in the ocean are generally referred to as half-pounders. If
such steelhead are too young to spawn, they still show up
during spawning runs and feed on the leftover eggs cast
into the river by their older relatives. As far as the locals
go, if it has the markings of a rainbow trout, it’s steelhead.
Returning steelhead start
entering the system in Janu-
ary and continue until April,
when they pair up and begin
spawning.These fish run from
20 to 25 inches and, when
they first arrive, wear a chrome
sheen if they’ve been to salt or
brackish water. This is one of
the best times to float the Moke
because the flows are usually at
a manageable 350 cubic feet
per second (cfs) and only blow
out occasionally when a heavy
storm comes in off the Pacific.
Because such storms tend to be
less frequent in the spring, you
usually have good water to fish.
I might mention, however, that
ifyouhaveaflexiblescheduleor
live close by, the number of fish
can increase dramatically right
after the flow subsides at the
end of a big storm.
As we continued our float,
Ferrero anchored the boat at
the inside of a bend and we
began casting anchor/drop-
per nymph rigs suspended
under an indicator. Because
the two most common bugs
in the Moke and most other
valley tailwaters are caddis-
flies and Blue-Winged Ol-
ives, he suggested we tie on a
size 16 EC Caddis with a size
18 beadhead Prince Nymph
at the end of a 12-inch
dropper. We each cast into
the inside seam and after a
couple of casts, Doran had
a hookup. The fish fought
like a rocket, so animated
that Doran couldn’t keep it
on the hook. And this was
one of the babies. I could
imagine what one of the
adults would be like.
After having the same experience with a few more
fish, Ferrero suggested we continue downstream to some
flat water in time for the BWO hatch that came off around
midmorning each day. We emerged from a tunnel of cot-
tonwoods and willows onto a large flat that stretched about
a hundred yards. After we anchored, we sat quietly, waiting
to see if we could spot any rises.
About the time we’d changed
our rigs from nymphs to dries, we
noticed a dimple here and there
and, occasionally, heard a splash.
Afterawhile,weprettymuchknew
wheremostof the fish were. Be-
cause there were three of us in
the raft, we had to take turns
casting to the limited rises. We
started out with size 18 BWO
parachutes presented with as
much of a downstream drift as
possible. This was slow, placid
water that required spring
creek tactics.
We provoked a few refusals
but couldn’t get a fish to com-
mit. I dug into the bowels of
my fly box and found a couple
of quill-bodied, size 18 spin-
ners that I’d copied from one
Float fishing is the best way to fish the lower Moke, as most of the adjoining land is private. Here Captain
Kevin Doran, a local guide, and Bill Ferrero squeeze through a narrow stretch of prime water (above). The
Mokelumne River headwaters can be reached from the east side of the Sierra Nevada off California State
Route 88. Several mountain lakes supply the feeder streams that run into the Moke (Notebook).
39. 37www.matchthehatch.com • CALIFORNIA
Mokelumne River
NOTEBOOK
When: January–March and June–October.
Where: Between Camanche Dam and Stillman
Magee Park. North Mackville Road crosses the river.
Headquarters: Clements, CA. Lodging: Grand Oaks
Inn, (209) 759-3453, www.grandoaksinn.com; The
Inn at Locke House Bed and Breakfast, (209) 727-5715,
www.theinnatlockehouse.com.
Appropriate gear: 4- to 6-wt. rods, personal water-
craft (float tubes not recommended).
Useful fly patterns: Elk Hair Caddis, EC Caddis, PMD
Parachute, Parachute Adams, BWO Parachute, Vinci’s
Depth Charge Rock Worm, beadhead Flashback
Pheasant Tail, Pheasant Tail Nymph, Depth Charge
Bird’s Nest (olive), Fox’s Poopah (olive), Hunchback
Infrequens, Mercer’s Micro Mayfly, Egg Sucking
Leech, Pettis Egg (orange).
Necessary accessories: Polarized sunglasses, hat with
brim, drinking water.
Nonresident license: $14.61/1 day, $22.94/ 2 days,
$45.93/10 days. Steelhead card $7.05.
Fly shops/guides: Manteca: White River Fly Shop,
(209) 825-8400, www.basspro.com. Mokelumne
River Outfitters (Bill Ferrero), (209) 608-9004, www.
mokefishing.com; Mike Costello, (209) 327-6153,
www.fishtrips.net.
Books/maps/information: Fly Fishing the Sierra Ne-
vada by Bill Sunderland and Rick E. Martin. California
Atlas & Gazetteer by DeLorme Mapping.
Greg Vinci is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in
Carmichael, California.
of Carl Jaeger’s Fall River patterns. I gave one to Doran and
he cast it masterfully just upstream from a feeding trout.
After a couple of mends, the nose of a trout poked out of
the water and consumed the fly. With the puzzle solved,
Ferrero rowed us around to rises at different spots on the flat
water, where each of us caught and long-line released a fish.
Selecting Your Gear
Flows on the Moke are low enough that you can use a
4-weight rod and floating line most of the time. I person-
ally feel that a 5-weight is perfect in the late spring, though
during the early spring spawning run, a 6-weight would be
better for handling the larger fish that occasionally reach
28 inches. Generally, nymph rigging is a two-fly setup
suspended under an indicator. The runs on the Moke
can be as deep as 5 feet or more, so a strike indicator that
can suspend three or more BB split shot should be used.
I begin with a 7-foot, 3X tapered leader and add 1 foot
of 3X fluorocarbon with a split shot above the knot. I tie
in an anchor fly and at the bend of the hook add 1 foot
of 4X fluorocarbon for my dropper fly. Because it can get
windy in the afternoon, a hard foam spherical indicator
will cast much better than an air-filled, balloon-style in-
dicator, allowing you to create a 90-degree hinge in the
leader to detect strikes more easily.
For dry flies, I use a 9-foot, 4X tapered monofilament
leader with 2 feet of 5X tippet added. To the bend of the
hook, I tie 12 inches of 5X fluorocarbon and then add a
small beadhead Prince or soft hackle.
The most important insects in the fish cuisine are
caddisflies and Pale Morning Duns in the summer and
Blue-Winged Olives in the cooler months, so patterns rep-
resenting them are a must, even during other times of the
of year.The elevation is too low for stoneflies, but crawdad
imitations aren’t a bad idea. In the winter and spring, any
two-fly setup should include an egg pattern. Ferrero rigs his
clients with an orange Pettis Egg and a beadhead Flashback
Pheasant Tail Nymph at the end of the dropper.
We stopped at a slow spot for lunch and were quickly
joined by a pair of honkers that begged like two spoiled labs.
We accommodated them and they kept us company for the
last 3 miles of our float. When we finally pulled out at Still-
man Magee Park, they kept swimming in circles, giving us a
disappointed look as we had nothing left to offer them.
The Mokelumne has many different personalities,
ranging from alpine freestone flows populated by landlocked
trouttomoderatefoothillflowswithsteelheadand,eventually,
warm-watermeanderingdeltasectionsthatharborstripedand
largemouthbass.Eachoffersadifferentfishingexperiencebut
for the majority of fly anglers, the foothill section allows the
easiest access with the biggest concentration of fish.
40. 38 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
ALL PHOTOS BY AMY SKINNER
Pelham Lake, WY
A Trophy Yellowstone Cutthroat Fishery
By Phil Skinner
T
his was it! I was seconds away from completing the Wyoming
cutt slam. I had already caught and photographed a Snake
River fine-spotted cutthroat, a Colorado River cutthroat, and
a Bonneville cutthroat. I had only been at Pelham Lake for about
40 minutes and was hooked into a healthy Yellowstone cutthroat.
As I reeled in the feisty fish, I yelled to my wife, “Get the camera!”
41. 39www.matchthehatch.com • WYOMING
Once I had the trout within reach, I grabbed my net and extended to
scoop it up. My net was about 6 inches away when the trout decided it wasn’t
going to submit just yet; it suddenly erupted and, with one final thrash, success-
fully dislodged the Woolly Bugger from its mouth. I moved my net as quickly
as I could, but the fish was already gone. I was frustrated, but not dismayed
because I still had another four hours before we needed to be on the road.
During those next four hours, a couple in a canoe and another family in
float tubes exchanged excited exclamations: “I got another one!” and “This
one is huge!” Anglers of all ages and genders hooked fish after fish. Mean-
while, I waded as deep as I could off the shore and cast my Woolly Bugger
and scud on a sinking-tip line as far into the lake as I could manage. But
this hot afternoon, it appeared that all the fish were farther out than I could
cast from shore. The only action I had, after the earlier trout that got away,
was one brief strike that loosened before I was able to set the hook.
The canoeists and the float tubers went home with fishy smelling hands.
I left skunked. It was my last day in Wyoming for the summer. I was leaving
early the next morning to head back home, but defeat fueled my persistence
and I vowed to return someday to complete the Wyoming cutt slam.
The Togwotee Trail
Pelham Lake is a 33-acre lake in the Shoshone National Forest near the upper
watershed of the Wind River Range on Togwotee Pass (pronounced toe-go-
TEE), just east of the continental divide. Today’s US Highway 26/287
closely follows the route of the Togwotee Trail and is one of the country’s
most scenic roadways. According to popular lore, the trail, which officially
became a road in 1921, was named for a subchief of Chief Washakie of the
Sheepeater Indians. A remarkable mountaineer, Togwotee led William A.
Jones, expedition leader of the Corps of Engineers, into Yellowstone National
Park in 1873 via a mountain pass known as “The Big Gap.” Jones renamed
the pass in honor of his guide, and the namesake trail is reputed to have
been Lewis and Clark’s route back across the Rockies in 1806.The fact most
easily verified is the route’s beauty.
The Wyoming Game & Fish Department has been managing Pelham Lake for trophy Yel-
lowstone cutthroat since 1991 (below). The Pinnacle Buttes form a dramatic backdrop to
the northeast of the ever-scenic and remote Pelham Lake area (left).
42. 40 September/October 2013 • www.matchthehatch.com
To
Dubois
To
Jackson
Lake
To
US Hwy 26/287
26
287
540
Lava
Pelham
Lake
Creek
Creek
WindRiver
Pelham
Lake
Miles
10
US Highway
Forest Road
US Highway
Forest Road
26
540
WYOMING
Area of
Detail
Pelham Lake is about 20 miles northwest of Dubois,
Wyoming. From Dubois, travel 14.5 miles northwest up
US Highway 26/287, then take Forest Road 540 on
your left. Following this well-maintained gravel road
for about 5 miles will bring you
close to Pelham Lake. The
last quarter mile is acces-
sible by four-wheel drive,
ATV, or on foot.
From Jackson, the
drive is about an hour and
a half.
A Trophy
Trout Fishery
Pelham Lake—managed
by the Wyoming Game &
Fish Department (WGFD)
as a trophy trout fishery—
was rehabilitated in 1991 to
remove high numbers of white
suckers, longnose suckers, and
flatheadchubs,whichwerelikely
introduced through the illegal
use of baitfish. Current regula-
tions promote the production
and growth of cutthroat trout and include a creel limit of
two 16-inch fish per day, the use of artificial lures and flies
only, and the immediate release of fish less than 16 inches.
Internal combustion engines are also prohibited on the lake.
The Pinnacle Buttes rising up against the skyline are a recognizable landmark of Togwotee Pass; US Highway 26/287 over the 9,659-foot pass
is one of the nation’s most scenic roadways.
