I am not one for the long reports but after a couple days on the Stamp, seems like a short report is impossible…any how…as dad's and my trip got cancelled in early january we had a make up trip this weekend. we headed over sunday morning on the first ferry (6:30) and headed right to the gun club on the stamp. We immediately saw murphy's boats floating down the run so after working the initial run at the gun club for 30 minutes, we decided to follow.
after 15 minutes of walking and fishing, we came to a big pool that just looked fishy. after 20 minutes of slogging it with roe, ghost shrimps, spinners and jensen eggs, I decided to put one more bug thru before moving on. On the last drift nothing eventful happened so as I started talking with my dad about the next spot to fish. As I reeled in WHAM, a steelie came up and smashed my bait. I was so startled that I really never set the hook and after a couple of good head shakes, the hook came out. Not too bad I thought, 1.5 hrs into a river I have fished once by foot and I had a fish on.
We continued down stream and fish some more excellent water. Unfortunately, I think the pools we were fishing were first light pool and were heavily accessed by the locals. At one pool there must have been 20 crayfish claws littering the bottom so it gave me faith n my bugs but unfortunately they didnt make a difference there.
After bumping into the guides again and finding them working back up river, we decided that that was enuff and we would jump up river to above the gun club. I had heard from one of the guides that the jet boats often wake fish up so I thought fishing behind them up stream may not be a bad idea so we followed in behind. My dad sounded very sceptical as he thought the fish would be spooked after a boat passed.
As we walked up stream thru the parking lot of the gun club a CO checked our licenses. as it turned out some locals had seen some out of towners below the stamp falls pool using bait and called the CO in...good to see the locals being proactive in protecting their resource! Had a good chat with a few guys kicking around the gun club and then decide to follow them up river. We walked quite a ways and found two decent long troughs with lots of room for everyone. It was a great sense of community there: a guy with his kid down from Powel river, some locals who were friendly and forthcoming with info for the outta towners, my dad and I....we all slotted in and fished away. Fishing was slow there, 30 minutes and no hits with 7-8 fishers. Then we see one of Murphy's guides coming up river. He bombed up the middle of the river and within the next 15 minutes 4 fish were hooked! Apparently the boats do stir em up. Anyhow with that action we decide to hunker down there and fish the last hour of day light. I turned one on a spinner blade and my dad officially ended his day skunked. I think the fish were primarily sitting at the back of the pool and started moving up it as darkness set in. Unfortunately we were at the top of the run so we had to sit there and watch 8 fish get hooked in total...at least we knew we were in the right area!
Day two was a float with the Murphy's. We had high expectations as we still had a bunch of nice bugs and fishing had been good over the last 3 days. With 5 boats out that day and low water, things were a little tight as we focused on an area from the confluence of the stamp/somas up to some clay banks below the gun range (relatively small area).
The morning started off a little slow then at around 9 oclock at the "mossy tree" my dad hooked a fish. I could see it was a nice chrome steelhead and I got ancious as I really wanted him to beach it. After a couple of little skips and a few good runs, a beautiful 9lb hatchery doe surrendered herself after an admirable fight! After a few pics the guide put the boat back onto that hole and I picked up a fiesty summer run buck. With the colors it was showing I figure he was a prime candidate for some C&R and after a quick snap he was gently slid back into the depths of the run from where he came. Releasing my first hatchery of the day was tough but I think it was a good decision based on the color of fish.
After that we head down toward the confluence to fish at the base of an island where a side channel rejoins the main stem. We had 2 take downs there with nothing felt so we were debating leaving. Then just as that happened a fish came up and slapped my float. the guide and I both got excited and I layed another cast in there. As it approached the zone I sais to may dad “right there is where I saw it”...I got no reply so I look back and I ask if he sees my float, he says no so I look back down stream...S**T, I cant see it either! I reel down and sure enuff, fish on! I never really get a hook set on it because as soon as I reeled the slack in it torqued outta the side channel and screamed down river. We pulled anchore and chased it down stream. Seeing the fish trash under the surface gave me butterflies as I thought back to the take and no hook set. As it neared the boat I could see it was a 12+lb hatchery doe and I really started to get nervous. After a few minutes more it was in the net...a definite keeper! Looks like the fish gods looked favorably on me for releasing that summer as that was the last fish of the day (it was about 11 at that time).
Once again I was really pleased with our guide (same guy I had last time); a large portion of the value for a trip like that is simply learning from these professionals. I have yet to have one of those stamp days where the boat hits a school of fish and you end up hooking 5-10 each but it was still a great trip all in all.
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Topic: Stamp River, Feb 12 and 13 (Read 6702 times)