A very long day of fishing today. First stop was coal lake up near Monte Cristo. Been here many times over about a 30 year period. Fished from my float tube. My friend and I site fished with varioius dry flies, and trolled various flies. Lots of Eastern Brook trout to be had. I prob. caught 6-7 along with my friend did the same. All the fish were released. These are very small fish. 5-6"
Very pretty fish. Bright orange bellies and beautiful spotting. After Coal lake we headed up the road to do the short hike into Independance lake. Trail is all clear and dry. When we arrived at Independance we saw fish rising on the lake. These fish clearly looked bigger than the Brookies at Coal lake. I carried my tube in and floated the whole lake twice. Fly fished again. Not a single bite! Left this lake and continued along the Mt. Loop Hwy all the way to Darrington. Stopped at where Bear creek runs into the Sauk river. Fished a little in Bear creek. VERY fishy looking spot. My friend had a hit on his parachute fly.. fish sucked it in, rolled and spit it out. 12-14" fish.

So many great camping spots along the Sauk in this area. Need to come back. I called it a 3 star day, because of the time at Coal lake. That was easy fishing.

Jimbo

7/12/2010 10:29:00 AM

Great report QF. I've been wondering how the road up there was ?? I haven't seen that place in about 10 years. Took the Son there and he caught some nice little Brookie's.. How were the bugs ?? I love using a Olive Parachute, who said fish are stupid.

VooDuuChild

7/12/2010 10:58:00 AM

We spent four days up on the loop between Darrington and Barlow Pass camping on the Sauk about a week and a half ago. It was stellar......BRING MOUSE TRAPS. Trust me. It's ridiculous right now. They invaded the tent trailer one night...the next night, it was terminator time. 15 in less than an hour, over 20 for that night. They'll try and get into the rigs too. Road is fine and the Sauk was runnin hard while we were there. Sounds like y'all had a good time fly fishin!

The Quadfather

7/12/2010 11:57:00 AM

Jimbo, about 3 years ago there was a huge washout on the road going up to the lake. I thought with budgets and all, they would never fix it... but yes it was fixed and the whole road has been grated. It is in the best shape ever. any vehicle can make it. Coal is great for brookies, but after 4-5 5" fish.. it gets old. If you go to Independance, bring some bait fishing gear. don't know why they did not care about flies.
and YES.. the Sauk has great camping pull out areas, but the river is still raging.

urbanangler

7/12/2010 12:56:00 PM

I like the all-day oddessy, great way to spend a day. Thanks for the info!

MotoBoat

7/12/2010 2:26:00 PM

Good to see your finding time to get out there, considering your full schedule at home and work. A very relaxing time, I could tell.

Idstud

7/13/2010 9:50:00 AM

Great report Quad. I was wondering if they opened the road back up since the 06 flood. That was a bad one. I was wondering if your wdfw parking pass works or do you have to get a forest service pass?

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