Dave Graybill: The Fishin' Magician

Something good must be going on at Lake Roosevelt. Peggy Nevismal, who lives overlooking Spring Canyon, tells me that there were a whole bunch of boats trolling this area last weekend.

Wednesday, January 28

Something good must be going on at Lake Roosevelt. Peggy Nevismal, who lives overlooking Spring Canyon, tells me that there were a whole bunch of boats trolling this area last weekend. This is the time of year when the rainbow and kokanee that inhabit the big reservoir are cruising near the surface. I'll remind everyone that there are a 700,000 triploid rainbow released into Roosevelt every year, and the largest kokanee in the state are caught here. Last year I did a video of fishing up here with Shane Magnuson and Eric Granstrom. We didn't get any kokanee but we caught a bunch of rainbow. Conditions were poor. It was snowing and blowing, but we still had a blast. If you want to watch this video just go to my web site at FishingMagician.com and click on the Fishing TV Page. You will find this show and other on winter fishing in our region. It will give you some good information on how to fish Spring Canyon on Lake Roosevelt. Before I can get to Roosevelt I am planning to trip to Rocky Ford Creek near Ephrata for big rainbow on my fly rod. I'll let you know how I do.

Friday, January 30

I really needed to spend at least some time fishing as I have been on the road some much lately. This is really prime time for fly fishing at Rocky Ford Creek, near Ephrata, and I had only been able to get down there once this year. I made a quick stop at the Desert Fly Angler to pick up a couple of things and then headed for the stream. I got off to a slow start, fishing the bead head white Bunny Leeches that had worked so well for me the last time I was there. After over an hour of this I decided to go back to my tried and true mini leech and Ultra Scud combo. On my second cast I got a fish that barely fit in my net, which has a 20-inch opening. On the next cast I got a fish that really gave me a tussle. I used my net as a measuring stick, and the fish was longer than the opening on my net and stretched half way up the handle! It was at least 26 inches and very hefty. I was beautiful, too, with a perfect dorsal and tail fin. I got some others but this fish made my day.