Outing Hosts - Peter Maunsell
The Lower Yakima Canyon, from Wilson Creek to Roza Dam, offers more than 20 miles of relatively easy floating. NFA will set up camp at the Big Pines Campground on the river. Peter Maunsell will get there early and will text you where he is. This is sagebrush country, a basalt-and-desert landscape home to Bighorn sheep, deer, and plentiful insect hatches.
Your primary catch will be trout and whitefish. Almost all of the trout are rainbows. Many in our group will be floating from any of the several launch sites downstream to the Big Pines campground, or from the Big Pines campground down to the Roza impoundment. If you don’t have a boat, there is easy access via numerous pullouts on Canyon Road, which runs alongside the river and state route WA-821. In the spring and at the end of the summer through the fall, wading is not difficult. When the river runs high during the summer due to upstream irrigation releases, wading becomes more difficult.
What to Bring for Fishing:
NOTE: Your outing fee covers meals. It does not include your campsite. Campsites are $15.00/ night, half price if you have a Golden Age Senior Pass
Food & Beverages:
THIS IS A NON-HOSTED EVENT. NFA will not be supplying meals or beverages.
Registration Fee: None
The Selway River is renowned for its pristine waters and diverse fishing opportunities. Fishing on the Selway River is characterized by stunning natural scenery and minimal fishing pressure. It is a protected river that offers a unique experience for anglers seeking both tranquility and adventure. The Selway River offers excellent fishing, particularly for westslope cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, and bull trout.
What sets the Lochsa River apart isn’t just the quality of the fishing; it’s also the wild, untamed setting. You don’t need to hike miles into the backcountry to find success, either. Pullouts along Highway 12 offer quick access to productive water, and within two steps of the road, you’re casting to wild fish in water so clear you can see the take before you feel it. The Lochsa fisheries include westslope cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, bull trout, and brook trout.
Wading is relatively easy on the Selway. The Lochsa is a bit slipperier. Boats and pontoons can be used on the Clearwater. There are many tributaries worth fishing as well.
Our campground will be in the small town of Lowell, 340 miles east of Seattle at Three Rivers Resort located right where the Lochsa and Selway Rivers converge to form the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River. Just 20 miles west is the convergence of the South and Middle Forks of the Clearwater in the town of Kooskia.
The resort has cabins, RV hookup sites, tent sites, and a group site. Attendees will need to call Three Rivers Resort to make their personal reservations for the type of lodging or site and the days they want (contact info below)
Native cutthroat and bull trout are the primary catch, taking Mayflies, Caddis or Grasshoppers. You need a well-stocked fly box to cover all of these rivers.
Three Rivers Campground has full facilities for comfortable tent camping as well as the RV sites with water, electricity, and a single community septic dump. Gas up in Kooskia before driving 23 miles to Lowell as there are no facilities available in Lowell.
What to Bring for Camping:
Directions:
Questions? Please contact Nick Sherman or Susanne Staats
Outing Host: Tom Quinn
Gather at Tom’s home on the west side of Hood Canal, just south of the Hood Canal Bridge on the Olympic Peninsula side.
From there, we’ll disperse either along the Canal for sea-run cutthroats (and coho, if you are lucky) or to any of a handful of nearby lakes for mid-sized rainbow trout.
Bring your float tube or similar craft for any of the small, peaceful, motorless lakes within about 30 minutes of the Quinn residence, including Teal, Gibbs, Silent, Leland, Tarboo, Horseshoe, and others.
Fishing for sea-run cutthroat can be good on the beaches or from small craft such as canoes or kayaks that can be launched at the Quinn residence or at a number of nearby beaches. Larger boats can be launched less than a mile away at Hicks County Park.
Directions will be sent to those registered three days before the outing. Tom has beach access for launching a kayak or canoe (including a couple available to borrow, which can be rowed).
After fishing the Canal or one or more of the nearby small lakes, we’ll return to Tom’s for a casual meal and enjoy the view from his deck.
From August onward, salmon fishing can be good at nearby Point No Point, Eglon, Shine Tidelands State Park, and in Squamish Harbor.
Food & Beverages
Tom plans to offer tea, coffee, & muffins for our arrival in the morning. For the evening meal, he has a barbecue that we can throw our burgers or dogs, etc. on and has offered to add a salad and some dessert (brownies?!), so within that framework bring whatever you'd like to eat & drink (he’ll have a few beverages) to enjoy for some stories at the end of the fishing day.
A small group of us (Wytold Lebing, Peter Maunsell, and Eric Olson) will be heading to Mexico in November to fish for juvenile tarpon. If you’ve ever wanted to try tarpon on a fly rod, this is a great opportunity. Juvenile means tarpon weighing 5-20 pounds. These fish behave like the 100-pound-plus monsters chased in places like the Florida Keys or Belize; they’re just smaller. You can use an 8-weight rod. Another big plus is that, instead of searching for days to find that big one, these fish are plentiful, and you’re likely to cast to and catch many in a
Peter and I have fished with one of the principals, Paco Jr., at Perla Negra, and he’s a great guy.
Here’s the website, which is much more informative than I can offer in this letter: https://www.flyfishingtabasco.com/fishery
If you are interested, let Wytold know.
