03/07
Fished the Tucannon river from about 6:30am -3:30pm on friday. I only
fished the stretch of river that runs along 261 which runs through Starbuck.
Not being a very experienced steelhead fisherman, I can only say that to
me it seemed as if there a lot of fish in the river right now. Not all are
in real good shape, but 75-80% of the fish I saw were still in good
condition. The river is pretty small, and visibility was fairly good making
it possible to sight fish rather easily with polarized sunglasses. I spent
most of the day sight fishing since the fish were so easily seen from the
bank. All told, I finished the day with 2 steelhead landed and 1 break me
off after an extended fight. I tried a number of patterns, from egg sucking
leeches in a variety of colors and other traditional patterns like a green
butted skunk. The only patterns that caught fish for me today were egg
patterns. I tried a number of different colors, but the only color that
took fish was pink. All of the fish landed were in the 30-33 inch range. I
saw quite a large number of fish in the river which were in that range and a
few that went bigger than that. There was not a lot of people to contend
with, other than a few people fishing with spinning gear. If anyone is
unfamiliar with the area, I found the best access to be along 261 which goes
through the little town of Starbuck and along Tucannon river road which is
off Hwy 12.
03/08
Fished Amber Lake near Spokane from about 10:30-2:00pm. When I got there
there was nobody else fishing. I fished in the shallows around the weed
lines with no success the first hour or so using various Chironomids and
damsel nymphs. Tried woolley buggers as well but had not luck. Switched
from an intermediate to a type 6 sinking line and started fishing at about
20 feet or so and immediately took 2 rainbows (16-17 inches), one on the
damsel nymph and the other on a black woolley bugger. Finished the day
fishing damsels and buggers deep and slow and ended up with 2 more fish
landed while losing four others after having hooked up. Not a lot of insect
activity other than a small midge hatch in the afternoon, which the fish did
not appear to take much interest in. Water temp to the touch was very cold,
my guestimate was it was likely less than 40 degrees.
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