Methow/Chewuck Rivers

Noah and I hit the Methow and Chewuck rivers this past weekend. We camped just above Eight Mile along the Chewuck with Noah's parents, Karen and Fischer, and Jana. The weather was great the whole time with temps around 85 degrees and mostly sunny. We hit the Chewuck Friday evening for a couple hours and caught a bunch of little guys on a P-Adams and Stimulator up to about 10 inches. We fished a section with some nice runs and a ton of pocket water, and the fish were holding in all the predictable spots. On Saturday morning, Noah and I fished hard from about 7:30 'till 1pm on a couple different sections of the Methow. The section we hit early in the morning had the most action 'till about 10:30 am or so, then the action shut down considerably. We both caught a bunch of whitefish up to 19 inches or so. I managed a 12" cutt, and had a bunch of LDRs. Noah managed a fight on a streamer, and some others on a double-nymph rig (a stone and dropper, I believe). I mostly fished a double nymph rig, with my best rig being a golden stone pattern and a Copper John in that section. The second section was a bit slower for the big fish, but I ended up fishing a rubber-legged stimulator that brought up a ton of little guys in likely spots. I believe Noah ended up with a decent sized whitefish from this section nymphing. We didn't really dial into the big cutthroat on the Methow like we were hoping, but it was fun to be on the water and get some action. Saturday evening we caught a bunch of small guys on the Chewuck on general attractor patterns up to 10" or so, and then proceeded to get attacked from a ton of mosquitoes -- we called it an evening soon after. Oh, Noah did have an encounter with what appeared to be a rogue salmon in this section that caught him off-guard when it swam right by his feet. This was the first time I fished either river and it was fun to explore a bit. The fishing was rounded out by some good food, good company, and plenty of adult beverages. And it was Fischer's first camp out -- he seemed quite content in the great outdoors. 'Till next time, -Josh