Northwest Fishing Reports

I've been to Fan, Amber (3 times), Fish (3 times), Medical (twice) and a couple lakes in North Idaho this year so far... Fishing has been great so far with the best coming from Medical and Amber. Fish lake has yielded a couple big fish (5 lbs +) for me, but not in the numbers of recent years. Fan la...

The weather doesn't stop Trout from eating..... especially in the spring. My guess is that they were feeding on a chironomid hatch of some sort and not looking for a lot of motion. On our side of the mountains the weather changes 4 or 5 times a day in the spring and the fishing will go through lulls...

I usually go to the lake with 2 complete set ups. One with floating line and a long leader. Usually 12 to 15 feet so I can fish chironomids under an indicator. I also will use this set up in shallow water fishing scuds and damsel patterns and even sometimes fish on the surface with dry files. The se...

Marc and I, along with my back yard neighbor, were supposed to go fishing at Amber Lake today. Marc canceled, so my neighbor Sean and I went to Fish Lake between Spokane and Cheney instead. I read a report that someone had a good day there using a yellow and black rooster tail, so I tied up some bu...

Gary, I've been out 4 times, but haven't posted any reports. Fish lake has been fishing very well. I've got a few Tigers over 20" and lost one that was in the 24" range. Medical has me baffled as usual. I sat on that stinking lake for 4 hours in the rain and only got 2 recent planter browns. Been ou...

Anything smaller than an 18 I can't see well enough to tie the darn things on. Tell me about it!! In my younger years, when I used to fish Silver Creek a lot, I used to tie Adams patterns on size 24 to 26 hooks and be able to tie those on to my 8X tippet. Now I don't even tie on anything smaller th...

If you are fishing stillwaters you will need the basics: Chironomids and/or "buzzers". These are small, but easy to tie pattens that work well year round and especially spring and fall Damsel nymph patterns: these are a staple over here on the East side Scud Patterns: again a staple over here. Wooly...

I was at Amber this afternoon for a quick 3 hour trip. We did very well with probably 20 fish between 3 people. We were using BSU Buzzers....A new invention of mine tied with blue flash, orange tags and coated in epoxy. I also caught a couple with bloodworms. The biggest was about 24" with most in t...

I've got a number of new or hybrid patterns I've been tying over the winter that I'm going to try. Several variants of blood worms, chironomids and scuds for the lakes. Also I have tied up some wine colored rabbit leeches and a number of different buggers. My old standbys: Stayner Ducktail and Sheep...

Marc, My friends at LOON Outdoors have a similar product.....UV Clear Fly Finish along with other UV light setting sealers, glues and fix products. Here is their product page.....I know you get down to Boise on occasion to fish the Owyhee, You should go to LOON's factory and take a tour....it's wort...

In 35 years of fly fishing I don't think I've ever seen an issue with the color of floating fly line and I've fished for some pretty spooky fish (Silver Creek). Unlike fly rods and reels where price doesn't always correlate with effectiveness fly line quality is directly related to cost in my opinio...

Yeah, Medical is socked in. Guys were ice fishing Silver this morning, just a mile away. If past years are any indication, Amber will open up about 7-10 days before Medical. Amber opens up from the launch to the south end (shallow water) first. The water warms quickly once the sun hits the rocks on...

The DaVinci has two main components...the business end if you will, where the surgery takes place and the operators (Surgeon) end. They can be in the same room, adjacent rooms or half way around the world from each other. Most of the ones that I've designed facilities for are in Africa where Surgeon...

The DaVinci and it's counterpart Zeus are amazing machines. In my capacity as an Architect I've had the opportunity to design several hospitals abroad that have installs of one or both platforms. They can perform most "routine" surgeries as well as some of the more complicated ones. Tying a fly isn'...

This product must be chemically related to what is used for windshield repair which also requires U.V. light to set. I have a tube of that stuff in the garage.....It's thick and it dries clear and hard. When I bought the kit I had to buy the U.V. light as well. I will give it a try and let everyone ...

It looks like good stuff, however it's a little expensive. I've found that using Sally Hansen's Hard as Wraps in 2 layers makes great buzzers and nymph bodies. It's thicker than the original Sally Hansen's "Hard as Nails" and dries faster as well. The best part.....it's $3.49 a bottle at Wallgreens.

I've been over the hill 3 times this winter. Haven't had a problem with the gravel road in other than its a bit rough. Not a lot of people fishing in the winter. Those big bows still bite well though. The usual scud patterns worked as well as a larger white leach or baitfish pattern. Winter time se...

First, you will need some decent equipment. I suggest looking at a decent fly rod (Temple Fork makes very good entry level rods as do several others) in the 4 to 6 weight range. I would also suggest a decent all aluminum (machined not cast) reel with an extra spool (one spool for each type of line)....

This is a great lake and has been fishing very well of late. I was there today and did very well. There were a few others up there as well as the local USFS representative and a WDFW warden. I used the upper access (down and up the hill!!). Just about everything worked today. The best fish were bein...

I would think there are a few things at play with the costs of Fly Fishing equipment in general that make it more expensive than "traditional" fishing equipment. The first would be volume of sales. R&D, materials and labor to make the fly rod may be a little more expensive than a spinning rod, howev...