Well, if you asked me why I went to Lake Aeneas, I could not tell you. After a week of every person I know getting me down, I knew that a solo flyfishing trip to eastern Washington may be in the mix. My intention Friday night was to fish the pinks and chums at the Skykomish (which I attempted, and am in the progress of reading more salmon fly fishing literature..). By the time I got to Sultan, I knew that I was going to Aeneas (Two hours of stop and go traffic to Sultan can make for rash decisions). What a smart move.

I stayed at a relatives house in Wentachee and hit the road by 4:30 to get to the lake by sun-up. Sun-up offers dry fly action until 9:15 or so. After that, only occasional dimpling of the water. I switched to nymphs. The secret for me was to use nymphs with an element of sparkle or flash and to use a tungsten beadhead. I picked up 5 fish this way, all were about 15-16". I tried a bunch of other nymphs like damsels, deer hair scuds, and SJ worms, by none produced a thing. On a side note, I found it interesting to view individual members slowly roaming the shallows, but not feeding. They would pause and face the sun. They seemed to be sunning themselves!

When the sun went down, I made an attempt to get a big brown. It turned out that I nor any other angler I know of got a brown that day. I in my tube and another two gentlemen quietly made our way around the lake after dark stripping different black leach patterns. I can't speak for those two gentlemen but I can speak for myself--Night fishing is all that it is cut out to be! I only stayed until 8:00, but I landed two fish, and lost a bunch of other fish. The first fish I landed I thought was a dead branch on the bottom of the lake. No, The fish was just OLD. Quite possibly dying. It pulled into my tube like dead weight. One of the bigger fish I had picked up this year this was a rainbow trout, 24-26", and it had this huge hook jaw that went back into its body appx. 4" (No it was not a brown). Compared to the younger fish I had caught, it wasn't real muscular and had a fairly soft belly. No marks of decay though, just old age.

The next fish was my best fish of the year--so far. It was 19", but that's not what makes it a good fish. What made it a good fish was the fact that it had 3 runs complete with aerials that nearly took me into my backing each time. It was a healthy rainbow trout that resembled a two dimensional football. The fight was unbelievable..

---