Charlie's Creek

William Parke's piece that was published on August 4, 2010 in the Chicago Troutbum aptly describes Charlie's Creek as a "Desert Oasis."

"My father, brother, and I had to attend a family reunion last weekend in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Rough, I know. So distraught over the proposition I immediately started researching the area and calling fly shops to explore the opportunities. My brother and I had recently watched a show where they fished a spring creek in the desert of Eastern Washington. Seeing the fish they caught, we were intrigued.
Using all the power of the internet I finally found Swede's Fly Shop and the owner put me in touch with his top guide, Charlie Cooper. He had the spring creek we were hoping for, and armed with some freshly-tied hoppers, we made the arrangements. When I think about Washington State, I imagine a temperate rainforest and old-growth trees. After meeting Charlie at about 6 am, we drove for an hour into a landscape that looked more like New Mexico. The stream finally emerged as a verdant oasis of green snaking through the brown and yellow and gold of the desert. We parked, rigged up, walked down to the stream, and promptly spooked a 20"+ brown from a shallow lie. Catching nothing after the initial excitement we moved upstream. Charlie put me on a long straight-away with a small rapid at the top. As I slowly worked up the left bank I began to see fish rolling further up the run. I kept fishing up, made a long cast, and finally tied into my first fish of the day.

I caught four more of these tall, fat Columbia River strain rainbows 13"-15" before my brother, who rolled a large brown but hadn't caught anything yet, hopped into the run and spooked out all of the bigger 'bows that I was working my way up to. He sandbagged me. Big time.

After we finished up this section Charlie had us hike for about an hour through the desert, literally, to a different section of the stream. I was secretly hoping to see a rattlesnake, as they are prevalent in the area, but was not disappointed to be bombarded by huge grasshoppers the entire hike.

After we arrived, I tied on one of the big, ugly hoppers I had dressed and hoped that it would tempt one of the monsters lurking in this section. As we got into the water, Charlie said, "Think big in here." That was enough to get my heart beating a little faster, especially after seeing the water. It was a long, wide straightaway with deep undercut banks shaded by tall grasses leaning over the sides. In short, ideal browns crushing hoppers water. My brother and I were able to fish it at the same time staying even with each other as we worked up. After fishing for about 10 minutes my brother tied on a new bug. 

He didn't have any nippers with him for the tag end so he cast the fly over to me. I made a cast tight to the bank and looked backwards to grab his fly. Right as I am about to nip the tag end I hear the sound that you dream of. "GLOMP!" Dropping everything I spin around to see the riseform and set the hook hoping that I wasn't too late. I wasn't. The fish was big, and on my 4wt on 5X I had to be a bit more deliberate than I typically like. She wanted to go back to her home deep under the bank, but fortunately there were not any hidden snags. Saving her energy until she saw the net, it took me three tries to finally breathe that deep sigh of relief. I appreciate your understanding of the goofy look on my face. This was the biggest stream trout I have caught in awhile, and it was gratifying.