Day 75 - Quartz Creek

Still No Fish

Today was to be our attempt at fishing in Quartz Creek, but first we needed the right tackle. Harry hoped to be off to Cooper Landing first thing in the morning to stop at one of the outfitters there. He wanted to hunt for advice and the right flies for fishing the creek. We had to wait for Sally and Ellen to return from their morning birding first.

Eventually we all piled into Speedy and went off. The first stop was a bit of a bust. The young woman behind the counter didn't really know any more than we did and read us the rules from the state guide. But there was a shop next door with a decent cinnamon roll.

We had better luck a bit further up the road at Troutfitters where there was a local guide in the shop. He recommended the right tackle for fishing for trout and Dolly Varden, a char that feeds on salmon eggs. They use a small plastic bead, which looks like an egg, positioned just ahead of the hook. This being a form of fly fishing, there were about a dozen sizes of beads and as many different shades of orange to match what the salmom in the stream were spawning.

He also suggested trying Crescent Creek, a couple of miles further up the road from the campground. Properly armed we headed to Crescent Creek. There were lots of spawning Red salmon (not edible...except by bears) hanging out in the creek behind the Crescent Creek campground. Taking salmon was not allowed here, but at this point in their lifecycle, they are not good eating. We were looking for Dolly Varden, which are known to hang around the salmon waiting for them to spawn, then swooping in an feasting on the eggs.

Harry and Sally got out their fly rods with the beads attached. I took a slightly different tack with my Tenkara rod. I had a soft egg fly made out of fleece with the hook embedded in it. A couple of casts and I got a bite and the fly popped right off. I never saw the fish and lost yet another fly.

We fished for a while in Crescent Creek and then later in Quartz Creek with no other hits and I saw no Dolly Varden. There were lots of other people fishing, but I didn't see any catching. Harry questioned a few of them and everyone had a different opinion about his technique...wrong size bead, wrong color bead, this stream is already fished out, the salmon are all done spawning...

I didn't see anyone catching fish, though, regardless of their opinions.

All I know is that we had grilled pork loin for dinner.