Great Flyfishing & Great Friends

 After several attempts to go on a quality fishing trip, including a
cancelled trip to the San Juan in March and another to the White Mountains in June, we finally were able to get out of Tucson and get a fly wet. We departed Tucson, myself (Drifli), PhysED, Jimbob, and The Rick, at about 8:00 p.m. on Oct. 12. We finally got to my cabin, the oasis, around 1:00 am. We did the only manly thing I could think of, we went to bed and set the alarm for 4:30 a.m. The snoring kept me awake for all of 5 seconds, oh wait, that was me.  Anyways, we choked down some camp coffee and off we went. We got to Railroad Cove at Big Lake around 6:30. It was already windy, but we donned our monkey suits and inflated our tubes and we set up our rods.  Within minutes the whining began, "It's cold, It's too windy, It's too shallow?"   Why can't I just suck it up and be a man!  Self-depreciating humor, ya gotta love it! We all set up a two fly rig with the top fly being different color Woolly Buggers, and the dropper fly being anything from a Zug Bug, to a Sunrise Special, to bead-headed Hare’s Ear. We started out trolling and within minutes I was landing a 14" cutthroat.  PhysEd caught a 16" rainbow about 10 minutes later. We all landed 3-4 cuts in the next 2 hours and then wind really started to rear it's ugly teeth, so we put our tails
between our legs and headed to the truck.

     We decided to go the Sunrise store to pick up our reservation permits as our plan was to fish Sunrise and another lake on the reservation, we'll call it “Lake X”. We headed to X because we had heard that it had been fishing well all year and the trout were putting on a feedbag to get ready for a long winter. We arrived and got on the water real quick. On my first cast I landed a 17" Brown, Awesome! I knew we were going to spank ‘em the rest of the day, it was only noon by now. We fished for the next 2 hours hard and nary a bite. What was going on? I was told I would catch lots of very large fish by several quality fly fishermen, was I lied to?  This fishing thing was supposed to be easy. They are only fish! We got out and made our deli style hoagies and my mood improved with each slice of pastrami, turkey, ham, and roast beef I placed on the roll. The wind just kept on howling, we waited and waited. The Rick is a meteorologist and he said the wind would continue for the rest of the day but should mellow a little later in the afternoon. So we drove over to Sunrise Lake and finished the day there. The Rick landed a chunky 20" and 17" rainbow wading by the dam in the first 10 minutes we were there. Nightfall began to descend upon us and our stomachs were doing the same. We drove into Pinetop to get something to eat. Four eateries later we finally found a place that would serve us, it was a busy night. We wanted pizza and we found a place that looked really good but they had just got an order for 50 pizzas and it was a two-hour wait. We found a Mexican food joint that turned out to be great. We headed back to the oasis and crashed after a really long day.

     The following day we got up at the crack of dawn again and headed back to Lake X.  We got there around 8:00am after stopping for coffee at the Sunrise store. We saw several elk on the way with horns, which was cool. We started fishing on the far end of lake - where we parked. Fish were rising all over the shorelines, but only in the shaded areas. I put on a Parachute Adams and started catching Apache trout immediately. I got tired of trying to keep it afloat as my High and Dry floatant was not keeping my fly high and dry, more like sinking and moist. Anyways, I put on a brown Bugger and a Sunrise Special and cast beyond the fish and stripped through. I was hooking up every time I put my fly within 2 feet of a rise. After catching about 12 apaches, I decided to go to the inlet portion of the lake and see if I could catch something with a little girth. I was seeing some fish chasing minnows in the shallows so I followed them in. I saw a large boil up against some weeds and cast on top the ring, I began stripping and bang, my fly was gone.  About 10 seconds later, I see a 20 inch brown come out of the water with a Bugger in his mouth and a Sunrise Special trailing behind him. I rigged up again, with the same two flies. I just trolled around half-heartedly until I spotted another rise, I repeated the previous cast and hooked up with a strong Rainbow.  5 minutes later I had a 21" rainbow in hand, my 3 wt. Sage gasping for air, ferrules sore from the long fight. Oh, that was probably me. That was one fat fish. Of course the camera was on the other side of the lake. I stopped fishing for a while in order to watch another talented fisherman teaching one of his little ones to fish. It was a Bald eagle. He was doing as well as I but he kept trying. He dove three or four times and missed on each occasion. It was neat to watch.
     I met up the boys and we took a lunch break. They were all were catching fish but numbers were still sketchy. After slamming down our hoagies, (awesome baby), we got back on the water for the afternoon and evening bite. I will say one thing about the fish in Lake X… they are fat and healthy and the browns have the most beautiful coloring I have ever seen.  Just that statement there will clue many of you as what lake I am talking about. We fished for the next 4 hours and we all caught 20-30 fish. We had doubles on, triples on, and we even had a quadruple hookup. The fishing in the afternoon was wild and wooly.  The fish weren't huge, largest being about 18", but they were many and they were gorgeous. I probably caught 75% browns in the afternoon.  PhysEd hooked into a 22-23 rainbow that leaped out of the water then spit the hook. That was really sweet. About 10 minutes after the sun went down they shut down for the night. We all just sat in our tubes just taking it all in. We were tired and very satisfied. It was an incredible day and one that I will not soon forget.
     We drove into Springerville to do our annual pilgrimage to Dos Molinos for some awesome Mexican food. We were even serenaded during dinner by a young man who did a wonderful Elvis impersonation. The food and company were great. PhysED, Jimbob, and The Rick, thanks for a great trip, and we will do it again very soon.


 
Paul Freeman
 
October 2001