Rufus Woods Report, 11/24

I had planned on fishing for steelhead with a friend, today, but he bailed. (Their newborn was awake all night. ) The conditions were pretty discouraging. Lows have been near the single digits and ice is forming on the river. (The Methow tends to be colder than the surrounding area.)

Another guy I know has been raving about Rufus, so I loaded the wherry and went to check it out. From the dam, I took the south side road to Brandt's Landing. It's about 6-7 miles up from the dam.

Lots of bankies when I pulled up. They said it was slow, but the group of 4 near me caught 4-5 fish in the 10 minutes it took me to set up and launch.

The hardest part was deciding what to use- (I took 5 rods!) Ended up focusing on using minijigs on a ultralight outfit. White, green, chartreuse- it didn't seem to matter what color. The fish seem to be concentrated in the shallows, inside the weedline. The best tactic was to slowly drift along shore and cast into the shallows. I regularly saw fish rising/splashing, and lots of follows/takes. Next time I leave the spinning gear at home and focus on fly gear. I lost track of numbers caught- but kept 2 around 5#, plus a bonus walleye that popped the jig when I drifted into deeper water.

Sorry about the crappy cellphone pic- the new WP digicam is on it's way.

Nice Fish there Pisco!
Bummer you had no company, but looks like you made the Best of it!

I had so much fun on Sat., that I packed my youngest on Sunday, and went back for another dose. On her first cast she caught a 5lber! Nice way for her to break in the "Jeff Gordon #24" rod she won @ the Everett Coho Derby!

I used my 4wt, with a floating line, and slayed them. I was using a green mini crawdad pattern. Multiple instances of catching 4 in 4 casts.

Nice action from your neck of the woods Pisco.  And nice to see the little one slaying them as well.  Good going!!!

-Allen