Okanogan River Report 6.26.16
Luke and I sneaked away from the shop yesterday to see if we could chase down some bass on the Okanogan River. We launched the boat north of Tonasket and ran up river about 5 miles. The first bad omen of the day was when Luke made his first false cast on his Sage rod and the top section, at about the eight inch make, snapped off. No problems, he broke out his new Winston 6wt and got to work.
We noticed that the water seemed a bit dirtier then normal, but it was the Okanogan River and it does that sometimes. We started working in close to shore and under trees where the smallies normally hold. About an hour into our efforts, the second bad omen happened. Luke hooked up with what seemed to be a nice fish, but then we got a look at it. It was a northern pike minnow. Not exactly what we were looking for. We continued to work down river with no results. At last, a glimmer of hope happened when I hooked up on a modest sized smallie. It made a couple of jumps and was gone. I had switched to a smolt pattern streamer since they are moving down the river heading to the salt.
Close to the end of our float, I hooked up on another smallmouth that was a twin to the first one. It took me by surprise, so I did not get a real good hook set on it and like the first one, it made a couple of jumps and was gone.
When we got back to the shop, a check of the river's flow chart showed that it had come up 900cfs in the last 24 hours. This would explain why the fishing was not the best. It should come down into shape in a few days.