by The Troutist, July 06, 2012

These past few weeks have been very busy and yes productive I might add. I will say that surprises me a bit because it seems like I’ve been chasing my tail. Promoting my book has turned into a full time job and has taken on a life of its own. I will get my reviews sometime this week and I am hoping for the best, the preliminary reviews have been very good and book sales are doing very well thanks to all of you. Speaking of something taking on its own life, my face book page, Uncle Wes, is doing very well and I have added another feature, photos of the week, these will be of trout, salmon, & steelhead. The one kicker on this is that they will not only include photos from here in the NW but also from around the world. I think you will find them to be very interesting.

Folks that have been in my same situation have told me that they get so busy that fishing becomes something that they only dream about. Not to worry I have been a fishing bum for so long that will never happen. Even though my day starts at 3:30am and ends at 10pm I do manage a mid-morning nap and that recharges my batteries and puts me out on the water. And speaking of water I have had the opportunity to hit a few lakes and also introduced two more folks to my style of angling. Russ Rasmussen, and our own Kelly Riordin, they both did very well, caught trout and enjoyed themselves.

Summit Lake was the first of three that I got to work. Matt Williams of Tumwater was my guest angler for the day. This is the first time I have worked Summit and found it to be quite enjoyable. There is a speed limit until 11am and then I’m told after that it can become a madhouse especially on a nice weekend day, luckily we did not encounter any of this activity. We hit the lake at 7:30am and worked it until 12:30pm hooking and releasing 24 in that time period. The black/purple Smile Blade Fly was the hot fly of the day. I tried various color combinations (because that’s what I get paid to do, find the hot one) with no results.

After watching Matt have hook-up after hook-up I happily proclaimed black/purple the hot color combination. After I switched over my action picked up immensely and a few times we had doubles on. That’s a great feeling to have both of you battling at the same time. Although the trout we hooked and released were not trophy class these 10-12 inchers were healthy, fat, and scrappy. I can’t say one spot was any better than another as we picked them up all over the lake. Looking forward to hunting some hold-over’s this fall and in case your wondering are there any trophy trout to be had my answer is yes, we seen them leaping out of the water chasing hatching insects. This lake is well worth checking out.

Spencer Lake was next on the agenda with my guest angler Russ Rasmussen of Belfair. Russ was the winner of the open seat drawing held at Verles last month. We started working the lake at 8am and continued through until 11:30am when the wind blew us off the water. For me it was a most enjoyable trip as we hooked and released 15 and kept 2, one a piece. Russ was introduced to Blue Collar Flyfishing in grand style. Spencer is my old home lake and I could do this one blindfolded. It was a learning experience for Russ as he learned how to use the fly rod and reel while trolling. He was full of questions and mastered Blue Collar Flyfishing with no problem, it was fun to watch Russ land trout after trout and release them to be this Falls hold-overs.

But what made the trip even more special was the fact that he landed the largest trout he has ever had a net put on. It was beautifully colored, fat, healthy, full of fight, and measured out at a little over 16-inches. The black/purple color combination proved to be the king once again. Congratulations Russ I look forward to giving it another shot and hopefully we can raise the bar and your expectations up a few more notches.

Black Lake was to be my final outing for the week and this time my guest angler was Kelly Riordin, another new convert to the Blue Collar way. We hit the water at 11:30am and worked it until 2:30pm with the sun beating down on us the entire time. I knew that we would be able to hook-up, I was just a little concerned on what our count would be with us on the water on the brightest and warmest day of the year. I had confidence in my trolling patterns that I was using, which by the way you can find them in my book. So off we went it was just a matter of a few minutes and Kelly had his first hook-up. I knew then that we were going to have a decent time and it didn’t matter what time it was or how bright it was.

We hooked and released a total of 14 and I kept one for dinner that measured out at a little over 14-inches. The ones we released were full of fight and made you wonder just how big they really were. They all measured in at around 11-12 inches. It seems the black/purple combination was also the ticket here. What an enjoyable day it was and I converted another trout angler to the Blue Collar way. It was a busy week for me but when you do this type of stuff for a living I can’t complain, just remember how hard I worked to put myself in this position.

Join me on my facebook page Uncle Wes. So until next time may your next trout be your trophy mount. The Troutist-“Uncle Wes” Malmberg.