Dry Falls/Lenore Lakes

Just got back from an early season lake fishing expedition to Dry Falls and Lenore. Those lakes weren't going to be the original location, but some last minute events forced us to change our lake selection. We camped for 3 days/4 nights out at Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park, which is a convenient location for both lakes. I was able to hook up with a couple of fly-fishing veterans, Tom and Chuck, and my buddy Brian, a friend from work. Turns out that Tom and I had a connection even before we even officially met -- the Olive Willie. Talking with Tom over the campfire, he's friends with Al, the current owner of Swedes fly shop in Spokane (and the former owner of Swedes in Woodinville.) Apparently Tom was around for the invention of the Olive Willie back in the day, and Al was the guy I met at Rattlesnake quite a while back when he introduced the Olive Willie to me for the first time. Small world. Tom and Chuck are f'ing HILARIOUS guys. We partook in plenty of beer drinking (don't remember how many cases we went through), had many REALLY nice cigars that Tom brought, messed around with the local racoons, and dished out plenty of good natured ribbing. Not having fished or spent much time with those guys before, I'm happy to say I'd camp and fish with them anytime. As you might have expected, the Olive Willie played a role in our fishing, as it ended up taking the majority of the fish caught this weekend. However, the fishing wasn't lights-out. For the most part it was pretty tough. The first day we went out to Dry Falls, a strong front moved in with a ton of wind, which seemed to put the fish down. Water temps were still relatively cold, so most guys were fishing cronies, but most folks were re-iterating how slow it was. Brian was the only one in our crew that hooked up the first day, even though we threw out just about every combination in the box. A big Olive Zonker took the trout. We decided to take a stab at Lenore the second day. The front moved through overnight, so the weather was sunny in the lower 60's. Unfortunately, Lenore was in the middle of turning over. We decided to give it a shot anyway, as sometimes the fishing can be good during a turn over, but to no avail -- the fish were put down. We threw the kitchen sink at 'em but no dice. Still, it was a beautiful day to be out, and I was able to scout around a bit for my next trip out there. The last day we decided to hit Dry Falls again. With the weather looking much better this time, the catching looked a bit more promising. The water temps rose as much as 5 degrees from the last time, so the fish were moving around more. I ended up landing 3 rainbows (and missing a handful of hits), all fat and awesome fighters, between 16" and 18". All of my fish gave gave me some jumps out of the water and made multiple solid runs before they were brought to hand. Two of them were taken with the lake fly we know and love, but my favorite fish of the trip was taken on the surface. As we were moving around the lake, we noticed quite a few large, fuzzy looking beetles struggling on the surface, and we could see fish taking them every so often. I happened to find a consistent enough riser in some shallow water in one of the coves, so I threw on my only foam beetle pattern in my box. I was able to get a gauge on the trout's line with a couple of his rises, and led it with a cast. I guess I wasn't really confident the trout would take, so I was a bit miffed when I missed the dimple the trout made when it went for the fly. Damn. I fired out another cast after I saw it dimple again. This time there was no doubt that it hit the fly and I got a decent hook-set and went for a fun ride with a solid trout. It was fun to put the pieces together and get some surface action, even though the conditions weren't really conducive to any dry fly action. Nice! The moral of the story is that we got a bit unlucky with the weather, hit a lake that was turning over, and hit water temps that were still a bit on the chilly side, but were still able to get into some nice trout. Cronies were really the name of the game for most folks, but we caught most of our fish that were just starting to key into the damsels. Tom really was hoping the damsels would be a bit thicker (and that's the bug we really wanted to fish on this trip -- Tom doesn't like looking at a bobber unless he has no other option), but looks like we were probably a couple weeks too early. That being said, I might be heading back there with Tom in 2 to 3 weeks to see if we can knock 'em dead on those damsels. Oh, and, last but not least, the scenery was spectacular, especially Dry Falls -- the backdrop to the lake is almost enough to justify the trip -- Wow! Some pictures:

Campsite

Lenore

Dry Falls 'Bow

The crew in the pontoons on Dry Falls

Dry Falls from the lookout

'Till next time, -Josh