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Saturday July 20, 9:00am
- 4:00pm Jon
Covich Representing: |
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Washington's Coulee Lakes 15,000 years ago a finger of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet crept south and blocked the flow of the Clark Fork River near the Montana/Idaho border. Over the next 50 years an impoundment filled with water to the depth of over 2000 feet. The surface of this lake was over 4000 feet higher than the Pacific Ocean 400 miles to the |
| west. Geologists have named this huge body of water, Lake Missoula. At its zenith it may have held over 500 cubic miles of water. Suddenly the ice dam broke with such force that the lake was emptied in 48 hours. The resulting flood, equaled 10 times the flow of all the rivers on Earth (60 times the flow of the Amazon). Much like a fire hose in a sand box, it cut across Central Washington at 40-65 miles an hour. Within hours 1600 square miles of grass covered prairie was scoured to the bed rock. In places over 200 feet of top soil was removed and washed to the sea. During the next 2000 years, 40 more of these floods rearranged the landscape. Natural faults and folds in the basalt plateau concentrated the fast flowing water to excavate the basalt bedrock by the cubic mile. When the ancient lake ran dry, the giant river shriveled leaving behind a dry canyon called a coulee. The largest and most | |
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dramatic of these ancient river beds is Grand Coulee in North Central Washington. Here successive floods carved a steep sided canyon into the bedrock 900 feet deep, up to 8 miles wide and over fifty miles long. Each vista inside the coulee is a geological masterpiece, a sculpture of water carved stone. One of the most striking features of the ancient river that |
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carved this canyon was a 15 mile long set of rapids that culminated with the 200 foot deep water plunging over a 400 foot tall, 3 1/2 mile wide falls. Inside the arid 12,000 year old plunge pool of this giant falls are 9 lakes. Several are of special interest to the fly fisher. Each Lake is unique. Some lakes are always clear, others may be turbid at times. The personality of each lake continually changes |
| with the climate cycles. Some wet years the lakes are full and during dry cycles the lakes diminish. One year a particular lake will be favored and fish populations will flourish, the next year may favor another lake. Some lakes are very alkaline. | |
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At least one lake in the chain, Soap Lake is lethal to trout. Lake Lenore is so alkaline that the only salmonid specie that can survive there are Lahontan Cutthroats. Lenore is big and open and wind blown. But some years cutthroats there can reach 15 pounds. The average is 3 to 6 pounds. Some Lakes, have |
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populations of bass and bluegills. Blue Lake, Park Lake, Vic Meyer Lake, Perch Lake and Deep Lake are annually stocked with catchable rainbow trout. Vic Meyer Lake has Eastern Brook Trout. The jewel of the bunch is Dry Falls Lake. It is managed as a trophy fly fishing lake. It has a very good population of both rainbow and brown trout that average 14" to 24". These fish can be very picky. During a very recent episode most of the rainbows rose repeatedly between and around two dozen skilled anglers |
| in float tubes & pontoon boats for a whole day.... few had fear of be impaled with a hook. I know because Patty and I were two of the anglers. We stuck around the next morning after everyone else had left and got even with these PHD trout with tiny midge pupae in the surface film. Boy it was fun.........................................................!!! | |
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Traveling from The Fly Fishing Shop in Welches, Oregon go northeast about 350 miles through the Columbia River Gorge , across the stunning landscape of the Yakima Indian |
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Reservation and up the Yakima River Valley.
Don't miss Toppenish, "City of Murals". You enter the downstream end of the Grand Coulee at the
town of Soap Lake. A great base station for all of the Coulee Lakes is Sun Lakes Park. It
is run by the State of Washington. It offers well manicured fee
camping. Sun Lakes Park Resort is where Patty and I stayed. They have a store & cabins and other amenities. It is a pleasant place to stay. 509-632-5291 |
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(continued
from 06/09
The Fly Fishing Shop Insider) How To Select Your Next Bass Rod Bass are ambush fish. Productive bass fishing demands pin-point casting accuracy. Bass often live surrounded by dense cover. Usually the angler is targeting small openings in this cover. |
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Placing the fly where it is most vulnerable or irritating to a bass is very important if you want to catch it. If the fly lands in exactly the right spot the first cast, it will often get an instant strike. A presentation that takes several casts to get the fly into play is less effective. A fly rod is the perfect weapon for bass sight fishing. It can be a rapid fire instrument rendering pin-point accuracy. Selecting a rod and line combination that performs smoothly in all your normal casting ranges is important. Few casts of over 40' are required. Super fast rods are not an asset. They give a herky-jerky presentation that destroys accuracy. Bass flies are larger than most trout flies. Casting bulky poppers and hair bugs takes practice. It also takes the right rod and line combination to enable you to perform at your best. Often loading your rod with a heavier fly line can be useful. A heavier line will slow your rod down and provide the energy needed to launch larger, bulkier flies. Bass come in a wide variety of
sizes. Most Oregon bass are 1 to 3 pounds. These
small to medium size bass seem to prefer poppers and hair bugs in the
size #6 and #8 range. A #5 to #6 fly rod is ideal for fish of
this size. It is always handy to have two
rods rigged. One rod should be equipped with a floating line and
the other should be equipped with a sinking line. That way bass
can be fished at a variety of depths without restringing your rod. |
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16-Hour On the
Water Steelhead Fly fishing School |
| Item | Description | Price | To Top |
| ST-CLASS-5 | 8-hour steelhead class with Mark Bachmann, Brian Silvey and Ron Lauzon, July 19, 2002. CLASS FULL 05/27/02. | $195 | |
| ST-CLASS-6 | 8-hour steelhead class with Mark Bachmann, Brian Silvey and Ron Lauzon, August 16, 2002. | $195 |
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4-day Spey
Rod/Steelhead PHD Class |
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| Price: $1850 per person. | Non-Refundable Deposit: $399 | Balance Due: $1451 by 07/01/03 |
| Item | Description | Deposit | To Top |
| ST-CLASS-5 | 4-day PHD steelhead class with Mark Bachmann, Brian Silvey and Simon Gawsworth, August 17, 18, 19, 20, 2003. | $399 |
| If you would like to read past "Insiders", click Archives |
| Your commentary is always welcome. Drop us a line: mailto:flyfish@teleport.com |
The Fly
Fishing Shop, Welches, OR
1(800) 266-3971
Fish long & prosper,
Mark
Bachmann & Patty Barnes
