When should you go to Chopaka?

As often as you can. How long should you stay? As long as you can.

Chopaka is a fly-fishing only lake in a beautiful setting at 2900 feet elevation. It will produce plenty of   16”-18” rainbows and some north of 20”. Bring lots of Callibaetis emergers and duns for dry fly fishing, damsel adults in blue, tan, and light green, wiggly damsel nymphs and Callibaetis nymphs, chironomids (in all the colors and sizes), buggers, and caddis.

Bring all your flies! Sometimes it seems like the hatches change by the minute.

Traditionally, the Club has made the trip to Chopaka, near Loomis, Washington, over Memorial Day
Weekend. We will be returning that weekend this year, with an abbreviated agenda. The Club will
provide beverages, but please bring your food and plenty of firewood for the communal campfires.
There is a well at the DNR campground, but most bring their water. (It’s a remote location, so bring
everything you need with you.)

It’s a popular weekend so plan to get to Chopaka as early in the week
as you can. The outing will start officially on Friday, but Club President Danferd Henke* and likely others will arrive the Sunday before. There is a good DNR campground with improved sites and, next door, a BLM campground with unimproved sites. We’ll double up on campsites if we need to

Members, if you can take another member in your boat to fish on Lake Chopaka, please acknowledge
this in the “I will Assist With” sign-up, so that we can organize members to fish with you.

—
* via Dan …

Some of you have asked for details on the Chopaka outing coming up. This missive is
intended for those of you who haven’t been there before. The central point is that Chopaka
is a place of surpassing beauty and big fish. If there is any way for you to make it, you won’t
regret it.

The Outing
Our May outing is at Chopaka Lake, a lovely fly-fishing only lake at about 2800’ in the
Okanogan. The Outing oIicially starts on Friday, May 23. I will be up there starting
Wednesday the 21st. It will last through Monday, Memorial Day. I likely will be up there
most of the following week. Chopaka is a place to go to as often as you can and to stay as
long as you can. It is one of my favorite places on earth.

We’ll try to have a campfire each night, where we can sit around and lie to each other and
perhaps have a beer or a wee dram. (The Club will provide beer and wine as long as it lasts,
but it’s not a bad idea to bring along some of your own favorite beverages.) On Saturday, the
Club will provide a steak for anyone who has signed up. Bring a side dish to share for
Saturday. We can scrounge firewood sometimes, not always, so if you have some extra
room in your rig throw in a bundle or three. They sell it in Okanogan and Tonasket. Musical
instruments always welcome.

Directions from Seattle (about five and a half hours from Seattle)

1. I-90 East to just beyond Cle Elum
2. Exit 85 to US 97 North toward Wenatchee (US 97 gets a little funky around
Wenatchee, just keep following the signs to stay on US 97 N.)
3. Go all the way up 97 to Tonasket (102 miles) (Sandy’s on the southern outskirts of
Tonasket is good for breakfast and lunch) (Also, gas up in Tonasket, last chance)
4. Left on 4th Street in Tonasket
5. Turn right across the bridge to the Loomis-Oroville Road, toward Loomis
6. A bit past Loomis turn left (there is a sign to Chopaka) on to Toats Coulee Road, go
1.4 miles.
7. Choice:

Turn left on to the Chopaka Mountain Road and go up the infamous Chopaka
Grade (in the old days of unreliable radiators and transmissions, guys would stop
at the top, at the viewpoint, and take a shot!). At the top of the Grade wind
around for quite a while until you come to the second major right, down the hill,
which is the road into camp. It is sometimes signed. (The first left goes down to
the local ranch.) (Watch for cows along the road.)

Continue straight on Toots Coulee Road and wind around on a longer gentler
grade up a shoulder of Chopaka Mountain (not that the road is any better) and
come down to the Chopaka access road from the other direction. (You’ll be
turning left onto the access road from this direction.)
Camping

This is a campout. There are improved camp sites and unimproved. The DNR campground
has a few sites with covered picnic tables and firepits, but most just have picnic tables and
fire pits. The adjacent BLM campground has campsites, but not tables. So, if you wish to
stay at Chopaka, you need a tent or a camper, both will work just fine. (Although I wouldn’t
bring a very large trailer in there.) A canopy to put over the picnic table is a nice luxury but
beware of the wind (don’t ask me how I know that). Bring along a camp chair or two.
If you don’t want to camp, then there is a little resort down at Spectacle Lake, about 45
minutes away.

The camp can get crowded, not always, but it is good practice to get there as early in the
week as you can. If you can’t get out until later in the week, don’t despair, we’ll double up
on sites if we need to.

Water

Most folks bring their own. There is a well there and I’ve used it in the past without mishap.
But, in some years that well produces water with a lot of sediment in it. So, I bring my own.

Food and Cooking

Bring all your food. The corner grocery store is a long, long way away (Tonasket, an hour
plus). Bring a propane or gas stove and appropriate cooking gear.

Power

None, unless you bring your own solar.

Facilities

There is a permanent and maintained toilet.

Boats

There is very limited shore fishing, but it can be done. It’s hard, though. You really need a
float tube, pontoon boat, dinghy or jon boat, something like that. If you would like to come,
but don’t have a boat, let me know. I can supply a limited number of float tubes and
pontoon boats.

Weather

Changeable. LOL! It can be glorious. By that I mean warm and overcast. Or it can be
interesting. By that I mean rain, hail, thunder, lightning. Or it can be bright and sunny. Or
all in the same day. So come prepared for changeable weather. It can be cool at night (or
sometimes during the day), so bring warm clothes, rain gear, and hot weather clothes.

Fishing

Chopaka has big, beautiful rainbow, typical catch is 14” to 24” (my personal best). Each
trip, you are likely to hook a bunch of 18s and a few 20s. There is so much bug life on that
lake that the trout get fat and happy fast. Action can be dry, nymph, chironomid, leeches.

Flies

Bring ALL of them. Seriously, hatches of different bugs come on all day and there are days when you will catch two fish on a fly and then see it ignored. You’ll change, catch a fish,
and then get ignored. That being said, what we live for there is the dry fly action on the
callibaetis hatch and sometimes adult damsels. So here is a list of the main attractions in
my box(es), not in order of priority (don’t worry about having all of these, unless you are
obsessive):

Callibaetis (emphasize emergers and cripples):
• Chopaka emerger, sz 14, coastal deer hair, natural
• Chopaka emerger, sz 14, callibaetis CDC
• Chopaka emergers, sz 16, deer hair or CDC chocolate brown
• Galloup’s Callibaetis Cripple, sz 14
• Quigley Cripple, sz 14, 16, brown or callibaetis
• Parachute Adams, sz 10 – 16 (the larger sizes are for trailing emergers
behind them)
• Chopaka Mayfly, sz 14
• Klinkhamer, sz 14, 16
• Rickards Callibaetis emerger (nymph), sz 12-16
• Callibaetis spinners (rusty spinners would do, although not
technically a callibaetis) (fishing these can be great fun at dusk)

Damsel Flies
• Adult – any relatively small and light blue adult pattern. Smaller is
better than bigger, lighter blue is better than most of the darker blue
commercial patterns
• Nymph – any skinny (abdomen) nymph pattern, olive or olive brown (if
they are on the damsels, they will be mostly on the nymphs). (I like to
tie these in different weights, to fish at different depths in the column.)

Chironomids
• Lady McConnell adult/emerger in brown maybe some tan, 14-18,
emphasizing smaller ones
• Quigley Cripple, shades of brown, 18, 20 (Yeah, I can’t see those
either)
• Blood worm, red, skinny, 12 2xl to 18
• Chromies, 12 2xl – 16
• Gunmetal chromies, 12 2xl – 16
• Other, sz 12 2xl – 18, black, black and red, brown, fluorescent green,
red, black and copper, black and silver, most with beadheads, some
without. (A selection of zebra midges in various colors and
combinations of colors would do just fine.)

Leaches
• Hale Bopp, olive, black, brown
• Mayer’s Mini-leech, brown, black, olive, white
• Buggers (olive, olive and orange, black, black and orange, brown,
brown and orange, white)
• Rickard’s Stillwater Nymph, olive and orange
• Rickard’s Stillwater Bugger, olive and orange
• John Kent’s Pumpkin Head, olive and orange
• Rabbit Hair Leech, black, large (great for night fishing)
Caddis (I’ve not had much success with caddis at Chopaka, but there is a traveling
sedge hatch that comes oI some evenings)
• Goddard Caddis, sz 8
• Elk Haid Caddis, tan, sz 8-10
• Tom Thumb, sz 8

Terrestrials
• Black flying ant pattern, sz 12-14

Tackle
• Rods 4, 5, and 6 weight rods, I like 10’ but 9’ is fine
• Lines Floating, Intermediate, Sink. If you have sink tips, don’t be afraid to use those as well
• Leaders 4x, 5x for dries and chironomids, I fish 2x or 3x subsurface, I use indicator leaders for chironomid fishing
• Tippet 3x-6x
• Quick release indicators for chironomid fishing.