east side fishing report

[johnny costanza]

I took a couple days this past week to get out and fish Crab Creek (off 
Tokio rd exit on the BLM land, the commonly known area of the creek so I 
doubt I am giving away any secrets here) and the Spokane River.  Considering 
the time of year, I had fairly decent success on both of these fisheries.  
Crab creek (when I fished it 5-6 days ago) was running pretty clear, so I 
concentrated on fishing spots where you could not see the bottom, including 
some of the long slow, flat stetches without much current (My rule of thumb 
was if I could see the bottom I would avoid fishing that section of the 
creek).  At times in these stretches you will see fish up taking what I 
suspect are midge pupa in the surface film, but I did not witness any 
riseforms indicating the fish were feeding near the surface or on top.  
There were adult midges out, but it was not a significant hatch in terms of 
numbers.  In spite of that, I did very well fishing small (18-20) midge pupa 
imitations near the bottom.  Black and grey were the most productive colors, 
though I never really tried any others as the fish were responding well to 
the patterns I was using.  I also have heard that small grey scuds (18s) 
have also been working well as of late on this creek.  As a side note, I did 
turn over a few rocks in the riffle sections of the creek and uncovered a 
ton of small baetis nymphs (20-22) and I suspect that one might encounter a 
hatch of this mayfly at some point in the near future.

Speaking of beatis mayflies, that brings me to my report on the Spokane, 
where I noticed what appeared to be a few baetis floating on the surface 
this afternoon around 1 pm.  The guy I fished with today told me that he saw 
some baetis duns on the water a few days ago when he was fishing the river.  
I notices some grey adult midges (20-22) as well, but we did not notice any 
fish rising to them.  I was out yesterday fishing as well, but I saw a 
number of fish up taking pupa subsurface which makes sense considering that 
there was a good hatch of midges coming off when I was on the water 
Saturday.  With the water running pretty high (over 7000 cfs when I last 
checked a few days ago), we focused on fishing back eddies and sections of 
the river with some type of obstruction to create some slack water where 
fish could escape the main flow.  Water temps were I guess in the upper 30s 
at best, and with the absence of noticeable surface activity, I utilized the 
same technique I did on Crab Creek.  I fished two fly rig both days on the 
Spokane using midge pupa patterns with a size B split to help get the flies 
down near the bottom.  In a couple hours fishing yesterday, I managed to 
hook six rainbows and land four, with three whitefish thrown in for good 
measure.  Today I fished for only about an hour and a half or so and took 
two nice rainbows.  With the exception of two of the fish caught, the most 
productive pupa imitation I used was a size 18 red zebra midge tied with a 
small red glass bead and silver wire for ribbing.  For whatever reason, red 
has been the most productive color for me this winter on the Spokane when 
fishing pupa patterns.  Black has also taken some fish, but red has by far 
been the color the fish have responded to best.  Conditions are far from 
ideal, but if you are itching to get out and feel the the tug of a fish on 
the end of your line, the Spokane just might surprise you.  It is probably 
not as viable of an option as Rocky Ford (see the column on Rocky Ford in 
todays Spokesman Review), but I have been out for two days and had the river 
all to myself.    Good luck.