Graphing It Out

River Report: Flood Update: Fishing Time?

Friday evening. The pasture filling up, ducks moving in. And frogs. They sang beautifully all night long.

Saturday afternoon. River at 15.78 feet. Flood stage is 15. The forecast keeps changing. Now the river is expected to crest at 16.8 feet by Wednesday morning.

Should wader up and see what I can gig out of there. Or--it's almost too good to resist--go fishing in the pasture. That would be a story to tell my grandkids--especially if I catch something.

Trout Lake Report: Persistence

It hasn't been easy this Spring, but you persist and manage another evening on the water. You find that the many campers on the south end have folded their tents and silently stolen away. You gladly fish there for the first time this season.

The lake is full and running over. You always feel elevated as you fish high above late season levels.

You persist with a muddler. You still enjoy fishing it, and it still gathers in some fish. This one grabs the fly as you trail it slowly behind you while you eat a sandwich.

This one dashes out of the submerged willows and jumps higher than your head. That height will be ten feet above your head at late season levels.

This one hits the fly and misses, then hits it a second time on a recast--and misses again. So you cast again, and it hits for a third time and is hooked.

Persistence. It's a quality to be admired in trout.

And in trout fishermen.

River Report: Flood Stage

On Thursday afternoon I was turning onto Main Street when I took this photo. When I came by half an hour later the sign said 102.

The river was over 14 feet by then and still rising. I walked down again to get some more shots.

On Friday morning at 9:15 the river level was 15.21 feet, over flood stage. When I went out to take a look I found water in the pasture below our house.

It was bank full down by the river, and the outlet ditch was full.

The ditch was still flowing; the water is still rising.

I found these guys jammed up against the overflow, and I remembered what Jeremiah was telling me.

He says that Jake, his friend Adrian's dad, likes to fish a certain spot on the river when it's rising. It's an outlet ditch like this one--probably bigger--and fish will back in there in high water. Jake caught a five pound smallmouth there just a few days ago. I think I could have caught these guys with my hands. If they had been smallmouth I would have tried.

I walked back the other way and found standing water for the length of the pasture.

Down there the river had come right up over the bank.

There was some good news, though. The official forecast now is for the river to crest somewhere just over 16 feet by Monday or Tuesday. That's down almost two feet from the earlier prediction.

So it looks like this Spring we'll just get our feet wet.

Cutthroat Lake Report: Getting Down To Business

I talked big when I was here last without the float tube and with limited time. Something about coming back with the tube and "getting down to business." Well, I had the tube, and I had the time, and I got down the best I could, but the cutts were not impressed. That first time, fishing from the bank for an hour or so, I got two tugs. This time I got exactly nothing.

Lake is high. This is usually a rocky island.

Lake is green. It makes me think of a swimming pool at night. I'm told it's the high alkaline content. That spider--can you find it?--rode with me for awhile until I finally fed him to the fish. Or, based on how much evidence I saw of feeding fish, until I forced him to swim to shore.

I trolled, and trolled, and trolled some more. I was hoping evening might bring some fishy activity on top. There was a heavy hatch of midges and I patrolled with a muddler for awhile, but the fish were nowhere to be seen. So I trolled some more.

I saw this family of geese each time I made my way along the shoreline. This time one of the goslings was trying to get up but seemed to have a lame leg. He flopped around until I got close, then he hunkered down until I moved on. He's in the lower right of the photo. He finally got up and joined the others, but he was still limping. Hope he makes it.

And hey, here's a magpie.

I enjoyed kicking down the far shoreline away from the road. I could hear the inlet for a long time before I got there.

All in all, I enjoyed myself. It was a beautiful afternoon and evening.

But next time I'm really going to get down to business.

River Report: Flood Warning

These photos were taken on Wednesday afternoon. The river was still going up, and the Flood Watch had been changed to a Flood Warning.

At 9:15 PM Wednesday the river was at 14.10 feet. Flood stage is 15.0 feet. It's expected to exceed that by Thursday evening. And it will keep going up, rising above 17.0 feet by Saturday evening, and cresting at 17.8 feet by Tuesday morning.

Looks like there is a chance water will be over the banks and flowing over the field. We should still be fine, but we have friends who live much closer to the river than we do. I'm starting to worry for them.

Dude, Check This Out: Jimi

HOW TO FISH

Take it from Walt and Goofy.