Skykomish River, WA (Pink Salmon)

I finally got a drift boat and this would be the maiden voyage. The plan was to put in at Ben Howard and float down to town but we made it only a few hundred yards. Not because anything went wrong but because everything went right. Right after pushing off into the water Paul hooked up onto the first fish that he broke off under the boat. We anchored up and fished there catching several fish. We would move down river maybe 50 yds at a time until we came to a nice tree and I lost count of how many fish we caught.

Summary:
Location: Skykomish River
Time: 9am - 1pm
Rod: Medium Spinning Rods
Tackle: Corky with Yarn and a weight 6 feet up to bounce the bottom, side drifting
Fish: 20+
Species: Pink Salmon
Biggest Fish: 6lbs
Smallest Fish: 3lbs
Rating: 10/10 

Christening the boat with a shotgun of a beer

Fish On

Methow River, WA

It was hot and the river was low. We put in at the park in town with the plan to take out at the parking lot by the Riverbed RV Park. I miss judged the timing a little bit and we got off the water after dark freaking Dalton out. This was his second day on a pontoon boat and first one in a river. It was a beautiful day but we didn't have much luck catching fish. The pontoons worked great because when the river got small they were easy to get out of and drag through the shallows.

Summary:
Location: Methow River from Town to River Bend RV Park
Time: 9am - 10pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 12 rainbow warrior, 14 zebra midge, 12 copper john hybrid, 10 Rogue Stone, 8 black and brown Pat's Stone, 10 Parachute Adams, 12 Elk Hair Caddis
Fish: 2
Species: White Fish, Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 12" whitfish
Smallest Fish: 8" rainbow
Rating: 7/10 

Couger Lake, WA

My buddy Dalton and I got the idea that we would float the Methow river in some pontoon boats as much of the upper river can be hard to access. The night before we decided to check out Cougar lake as we had heard there are some fish up there. Just stripped some line out and let it troll behing the pontoon as we explored our way around the lake. Fishing for an hour or two we hooked a couple fish but retired soon after to drink some beers by the camp fire before our trip the next day.

Summary:
Location: Cougar Lake near Winthrop,WA
Time: 4pm - 7pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: Various wolly bugger patterns black/brown/olive
Fish: 3
Species: Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 13"
Smallest Fish: 12"
Rating: 7/10 

Point No Point, WA (Coho)

Wanted to try something new and had been told this was a good place to try to get a coho on the fly during the changing tides. Ventured up here with my friend Kelly. Saw some fish in the area but didnt get any to take. Good experience.

Summary:
Location: Point No Point
Time: 7am - 11am
Rod: 8wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: Size 2 and 4 pink or green shrimp or bait fish patterns
Fish: 0
Species: Coho
Biggest Fish: N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 4/10

Grande Ron River, OR/WA

So my brothers and there friends do this annual float trip over the Forth of July weekend typically. This year however my other brother decided he should get married that weekend so we pushed the float to August. Big mistake! I think we walked our raft over rocks more than floated! This is traditionally a guys weekend so the goal of the trip is to float, relax, and drink a lot of beer. I got clever and brought my rod along to see what I couldn't shake up and I was impressed. Fishing here or there I caught a few trout and I think even a bass or two. The float started in Troy and ended at Heller's Bar.

Summary:
Location: Grand Ron River from Troy to Heller's Bar
Time: Off an on all day over the weekend
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line
Tackle: Different variations of hoppers but had the most luck with a black crystal wolly bugger
Fish: 6
Species: Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 14"
Smallest Fish: 12"
Rating: 8/10

Upper Metolius River, OR

The last leg of my trip was to my stomping grounds and the upper Metolius River where I was joined by three of my good friends, Dalton, Sean, and Chris. Chris had never fly fished before in his life and yet he is another person to have caught his first trout on a fly rod on his first day fishing the Metolius. We fished all over the river but one of the more fun times on this trip was parking up at Blue Hole and wading the whole river all the way to camp at Smiling River. Everyone caught fish from in all shapes and sizes. There isn't many things bad I can say about this river.

Be sure too look through other blogs for tips on this river.

Summary:
Location: Metolius River, Camp Sherman, OR, located about 100 miles (2 hrs) east of Salem, and 20 min from Sisters, OR
Time: 9am - 7pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 18 rainbow warrior, 18 zebra midge, 18 copper john hybrid, 10 Clark Stone, 10 Rogue Stone, 8 black and brown Pat's Stone, 16 lighting bug, 18 rainbow warrior, etc.
Fish: 20+
Species: White Fish, Rainbow, Red-Band Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 14"
Smallest Fish: 4"
Rating: 9.5/10 (Didn't find a brown or a bull)

Dalton's Fish

One of my fish

Sean's fish on a golden stone

Chris Lee's fish on a small midge

Upper Deschutes, OR

The second leg of my trip was to the Upper Deschutes River. When I say upped I mean at the head waters. Locally know as the Blue Lagoon and Blue holes there are plenty of fish here ranging from a few inches to over 20". Here you can keep brook trout in hopes to protect the native rainbow, bull, and brown trout populations. I have fished here many times as a kid because you can put on any small dry fly and catch 50 fish in the 6-8" range. When you are 12 years old this is a kick in the pants. One of these trips I had conquered a 5lb brown that looked like it ate a coffee can in the lagoon when it at my stone fly I arrogantly threw. Anyways, spent some time up here trauting around looking for fish and had a lot of fun.

Location: 1/2 mile south of Lave Lake Campground Access and up river from Mile Campground day use area
Time: All day
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating
Tackle:  14 tan/brown elk hair caddis, 16 parachute adams, & 12 stone-stimulator
Fish: 20+
Species: Rainbows & Brook Trout
Biggest Fish: 10" Brook
Smallest Fish: 3" Rainbow
Rating: 7/10