The Methow River is a beautiful river in the Okanogan County of Washington state. This river has jumped to my favorite river fished in Washington for trout. I wish I had more time. I certainly will e spending atleast a full weekend on this river next summer.
This trip supports the reason I started blogging about my fishing. I have never been to the Methow River before in my life. I can find some information on what I should maybe fish with but no real exact details of how and where. (If I leave anything out or you have further questions, comment and I'll respond back) With that this is what I have learned. Leaving Seattle after 8:30pm I was scheduled to pull into Methow, WA sometime after midnight. Depending on where you live and what part of the river you want to go to there are multiple ways to get to the Methow River so google or bing directions before you go. Either way plan on the trip taking you between 3.5 - 4.5 hours on way from Seattle area. I wanted to see the majority of the river so I took the shortest route to Methow, WA and headed to Winthrop, WA.
After arriving in Methow, I needed to find a place to pull over and sleep. I slept at the Foggy Dew Campground which is located off of Gold Creek, a tributary of the Methow River. There are multiple campgrounds, rv sites, and motels up and down this river. Sleeping in my car I awoke around sunrise. I headed back along the Methow and started to follow the river north. Pulling into Winthrop around 8am the local fly shop was closed to kill time until it opened I went to
Big Twin Lake. Once the shop had opened I spoke with the gentleman running the shop. What I already knew is this river fishes similar to most Eastern Washington Rivers. Nymph stones with a dropper and dry-fish hoppers, stimulators, rogues, pmd's, mayflies, and caddis. What I learned is that you need to throw big bugs with bigger line than what I expected. A 5 wt. rod is a light rod for this river. You probably want to bring your 6 wt. The bugs I had predicted where correct, but you also can use a dropper under any of your bigger foam bodies. Another change I needed to make to my set up was much heavier leaders. Instead of my usual 6x or 5x, I needed atleast a 4x and likely even a 3x. As he said, "The fish don't care too much about the line size, they're big, and the water is fast enough." Lastly, I didn't know where to fish. He told me to start at the bridge just above the fly shop and work my way down river to Twisp. Where ever you can access the river is a good place to fish. Sounded easy enough. Another piece of information he gave me is the river picks up for t big hoppers and foam bodies as the weather warms up. Starting at 11am on the river was a good time oget on the water.
Off I went, but the bridge was slammed with people. I drove further down and found a good place to pull off. Crossing into the middle of the river I fished the cuts along the roadside of the river and whatever pools of water I could find. In clear running water, trout like to be hidden as not to be eaten by birds of prey. Fish cuts, and rapids that aren't white and atleast thigh high, or pools shortly after rapids and the edges of the rapids. Fishing for about two hours on a quarter mile stretch of river I managed white fish and one beautiful rainbow. I saw a lot of fish and was amazed by the river habitat and scores of big fish I could see. One of the white fish was the biggest white fish I have ever caught (guessing around 3.5#).
Anxious to try more river I got back in my car and headed south. Turns out I was a little lazy and more anxious to find out what else there was to fish in the area after a good morning at Big Twin Lake. So I started to explore again. It was also was about 100 degrees outside.
Small Recap of what I learned: This river fished like many rivers east of the Cascades only a bit bigger. Use a bigger tippet and a bigger bug. My foam bodies and stones were sz 6's, my droppers were sz 10 or 12, my tippet was 3x with a 4x and 5x leader between bugs. My 5 wt. rod Gus did well, but the fish seamed safer on the 6 wt.
Summary:
Location: Methow River, between Winthrop and Twisp, WA
Time: 12pm-2:30pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line and 6wt with sinking tip
Tackle: Used a big foam bodied stone with size 10 copper john dropper on the 5wt and a black stone nymph with a sz 12 rainbow warrior on the 6 wt.
Fish: 3
Species: Rainbow and white fish
Biggest Fish: 20" - ish (whitefish), 17" Rainbow
Smallest Fish: 16" (whitefish)
Rating: 9/10
Fish on the hook
Methow River
