Native Trout Fly Fishing

A false start

2011-12-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

Not to long ago, my buddy Craig and I got out to the Olympic Peninsula for to try for the first of the winter steelhead returning to the area rivers. Unfortunately so did everyone else. In fact on the river that we had decided to fish, there was a rig in nearly every pull out and easily over three times the amount of anglers that I have ever seen there. Also unfortunate is that fact that it hasn't rained in any significant amount for sometime, leaving the rivers low and clear and severly limiting our options on some of the other waters that I know.

However if there is a will there is a way and hitching a ride with a logging crew we found our way into the upper part of the watershed above the reach of most other anglers. The water up here was a bit skinnier, and the river worked its way through a bit of a canyon so it looked like we were comitted to a spending a good portion of the day up here. However the water looked pretty good, with plenty of holding water so we got too it. The first few holes looked great and Craig and I took turns covering the prime lies, but didn't see any sign of fish.

Craig working a good looking pool

However before long we came to only of those spots that just screams steelhead and sure enough Craig spotted some. We worked this pod for a good while and I managed to get one fish to take before we lost sight of the ghostly steelhead that seemed to vanish from the hole.

Steelie holding water

Once we figured that the fish were either gone or spooked, we decided to move on and explore a bit more of this part of the river. However a great deal of hiking and exploring this part of the river only yielded one more decent looking spot, which in turn showed no signs of fish. At this point we were already starting to wear on the already short window of winter daylight that we had. So we decided to work our way out of the upper watershed and into some more familiar water.

Once we had worked our way into some waters that were a bit more familar for me, we made a stop at a corner where a nameless tribuatary joins the main river. The hole had treated me well in the past a low flows so we figured we would at least take a look. To say the least it didn't take overly long to spot some fish, as their was a good pod of around 10-15 steelhead holding in the tailout. Craig decided to act as the spotter and I made my way to the far side of the river where I would have a better approach. My first drift went right through the fish with no reaction whatsoever. My second drift got a bit more attention. While I remained out of sight and started it well upstream of the fish as soon as my fly got in range it looked as though a bomb had gone off with the affect of steelhead scattering in every direction. We wondered a the spookiness of these fish until we left the hole and found the remains of several fish in the next run downstream.

Working the pod of steelhead before the bomb went off.

At this point we had one more shot at try to find some sort of fish and found another promising spot downstream a ways. I a little long jam that had newly formed this season, I finally got a solid take from a sizeable fish, but after one initial tug the fish tossed the fly and I was out of luck.

Or so I though, however just downstream I got another take and this time actually got a good hookset on the fish. Right away I could tell that this wasn't a steelhead as my switch rod quickly over power it. However a beautiful native cutthroat fresh from the saltwater was just as good to me at this point and was a great note to end the day on.

As steelheading goes I would have to consider this trip a success, as anytime you can spot some fish and a least get a take or two you are doing something right. Plus it doesn't get much better than exploring some great water with a good friend.

Redbanded Metalheads

2011-12-01T22:58:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago now, my buddy Jonathan and I made a long day trip east of the Cascade Mountains to search for some redband steelhead. With fall rapidly progressing towards winter the morning started off rather brisk and a bit drizzly, but the river was in perfect shape so we were on the water shortly after sun up. Our first spot was a run that had treated Jonathan well over the past few seasons, however after a few hours of fishing I hadn't had a bump and Jonathan had found a few whitefish, but no steelhead so we decided to relocate.

The river

The second spot that we fished had a nice deep slot on the far bank and we decided to start out swinging flies. I started with an intermediate tip and little size 6 October caddis toned fly that I came up on an and within a handful of casts I got subtle take, but couldn't get the fish to come back. After that things slowed for a bit until we got to the tailout, when I got another but much more viscous strike, however once again it didn't result in an actual hook up. We covered the water for perhaps another hour, switching flies and sink tips but had no more interest.

Even though we had already cover the slot for several hours without any fish to hand, we knew there were fish there and decided to try something a bit more effective. With that we switched to nymphing rigs and what would you know within three or four casts I got a take and a solid hook up. The fish immediately came up and did a bit of thrashing and put on a nice aerial display before deciding to take off. Luckily for me the river was fairly free of obstructions for the fish to hang me up on and although I had to chase steelhead a good hundred yards downstream we finally managed to bring it to hand.

Me with a beautiful native Columbia Basin redband steelhead

Another look at the fish

After a couple of quick photos, we watch as the fish sped off into the current again. Although I love to swing flies, this was just another example at the shear effectiveness in nymphing in comparison - 4 casts vs. several hours... A fact that was more evident when about a half hour later I got another take down. Although it was evident right away that this was a fish due to a couple good head shakes, it didn't seem to want to budge for the first minute or so and I was really starting to think it was a Chinook salmon or possibly a big bull trout. However finally the fish discovered that he was hooked and finally decided to show himself as another steelhead. After a couple of leaps, it was straight into the backing for this steelhead and once again I had hurry in pursuit and finally caught up just downstream of where we landed the first fish. After several more minutes of battling the fish, we brought another beautiful native steelhead to hand.

Another beautiful steelhead

We gave the spot a little more time, with Jonathan getting another whitefish, before we decided to try another spot a little further down stream. When we arrived at our next spot things looked great as there were maybe a couple dozen salmon holding and/ or spawning, which usually means a few steelhead are likely to be around. However after putting in a good amount of time we had only managed to donate a several flies to the boulder strewn bottom.

A salmon on its redd

Jonathan checking out a huge spawned-out Chinook, this fish was well over 40".

Even though the salmon were entertaining to watch, the lack of steelhead lead us to once again relocate. Although we were starting to view daylight as a commodity at this time, there were fish around at this spot and Jonathan and I managed to have a double screw up, where we both hooked and lost steelhead shortly after arriving.

The last spot of the day

After losing a decent steelhead, I got a sort of consolation prize in the form of a good sized whitefish that decided that it wanted a stripped egg imitation. This whitefish even thought it was a steelhead and jumped several times before coming to hand.

My only whitefish of the day

I hooked one more whitefish, that popped loose before the lack of daylight finally made us start to think about the long drive home and we decided to call it a day.

Belated creek post

2011-11-27T18:19:00.000-08:00

Although this post should be a month old by now, I finally have found some time to get back to the blog. Per my usual fishing traditions for the end of the general Washington stream season I did a bit of searching for sea-run cutthroat fresh from the salt water in my home creek.

The creek

With the first hard rains of the fall drawing coho and chum salmon in to even the smallest coastal creeks, the cutthroat are never far behind. This seasonal migration of salmon and cutthroat provides some amazing Alaska style fishing close to home fishing. However it is surprising under appreciated and it is rare if ever that one would run into another angler... A fact that you won't find me complaining about.

A wild coho salmon (under the log)

This year although the creek was a bit lower than usual, it had some of the better coho returns I have seen in years and I literally had to tip toe around salmon redds. With a 6mm or 8mm egg imitation though the cutthroat proved rather willing.

A native cutthroat

Due to the small waters short leaders are the norm and as with typical sea-run cutthroat a slightly unnatural presentation tends to get results. So swinging or twitching an egg imitation often leads to better results than dead drifting. However as usual the end of the season comes too fast and as fishing is just getting into its stride the season is over and it is time to think of salmon and steelhead.

Another look at an egg eating cutthroat

A little eastern brook fishing

2011-11-11T11:41:00.000-08:00

Although I have done a bit of travelling around the west coast I had until this last week never been east of the Rocky Mountain states, so when the chance arose to join my Dad and sister on a trip to the east coast at the end of October, I jumped on it. The trip would see us heading to several states and while it wasn't a fishing trip per-say, I did make sure that I would at least get a little time in on the water while there.

As fishing went I planned on checking out some smaller streams in Vermont where we would be staying for some native brook trout. So after flying into JFK in New York and driving across a few states we found ourselves in Northern Vermont on the edge of the Green Mountains. As this area was completely foreign to me I made one of my first stops the local fly shop. However it was a slightly depressing visit as, I don't think I have ever been in a shop were they were less excited about the fishing. The main reason was Hurricane Irene which had swept through the area over a month prior, but combined with the fall rains had still left the rivers high and swollen waters. Luckily the smaller waters sounded to be at least slightly fishable even if the staff didn't sound so interested in them, so I picked up a few flies and headed on my way.

The next morning I got up early and headed on my way to check out some of the local waters. The first stream that I fished was a beautiful freestone river, but was still so chalky from run-off that I didn't spend much time there before moving on to something smaller. Although the next stream that I picked had picked was more of a random choice than anything, with I stumbled on one of the more beautiful places on the trip.

Fall colors on the road to the creek

With the fall colors in full effect the road with was a tunnel brightly colored leaves and the short hike into the creek was a different experience from any in the rain socked Pacific Northwest. The stream was a still high, but definitely fishable so I rigged up my 1wt with a nymph and soft hackle dropper and started working my way upstream.

The stream

The fishing was definitely not lights out and after working my way upstream I had only caught one small brook trout that I failed to get a picture of and have missed a handful of others. However the experience was more important than the fishing and the stream had a unique character compared to those I am used too. The land also had an older more settled feel a about it, a fact made more apparent by the random rock walls that had been built a long the stream in days past.

One of the walls along the creek

After cover a mile or two of stream I started my way back downstream and while drifting a nymph through a pocket spotted a decent brookie inspecting my fly. Although the fish didn't take on the first cast, I made another allowing the soft hackle trailer to swing across the pool and hooked the fish. Which ended up being a beautiful brook trout of perhaps 8".

A native brook trout

Another look at the stream

With that fish I called it an end my day on the water and figured I might as well call it a successful and enjoyable outing. I didn't get another chance to hit the water on the the trip, but had an enjoyable week taking in the sights and history on the other side other country.

Annual trip to Yellowstone

2011-10-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

Each year I try to make it over to Yellowstone at least once, so this year as the fall was already underway I finally made the trip over to the park, even if that meant that I only had one day there. With snow dusting the upper elevations and the leaves turning colors everything definitely had an end of season feel. I started out at Mammoth Hotsprings where I got my fishing license, lunch and took in some of the sights.

Mammoth Hotsprings

Minerva Terrace at Mammoth

After my brief stop at Mammoth I headed out east towards the Lamar Valley and into Yellowstone cutthroat country. Unlike in the summer when it is hard to find a place to fish due to the amount of anglers, this time it was more of a problem of too many bison hanging out along the river.

Typical scene along the river

The Lamar Valley

Before long I did find a nice stretch of the river that was clear of wildlife and rigged up and headed to the water. With air temperatures in the lower 50's and a strong breeze blowing the air had a wintery feel to it and I decided to start out nymphing.

The river

It would be hard to say that fishing was fast paced, there was no sign of any rising fish even with a decent hatch of blue winged olives and midges coming off and my nymphing rig of a San Juan worm and BWO nymph wasn't getting much attention either. However persistence pays of and when my indicator went down I am not sure whether me or the fish was more surprised about the hook up. With the cooler water temperatures the battle seemed a bit sluggish, but the fish did have some size to him and still put a good bend in my 4wt. Before long though, I slid the beautiful 15" Yellowstone cutthroat into the net.

A beautiful 15" Yellowstone cutthroat

Another shot of the same fish

I finished fishing through the run after getting the one cutthroat and had one more brief hook up but with the cold temperatures I decided to call it a successful outing and do a bit more sight seeing before leaving the park.

The sight seeing was actually rather impressive as among the wildlife spotted there as a grizzly bear, some bighorn sheep, antelope and a couple of wolves.

A Yellowstone grizzly making his way across a small stream.

Panhandle Westslopes

2011-10-20T18:41:00.000-07:00

Right after my trip down to the Sawtooths to do a bit of fishing, I was right back to Idaho again for the weekend, but this time up north to the Panhandle region with my buddy Bob to search for some westslope cutthroat. On Saturday we didn't get to the river till late afternoon, but upon arriving we had the place to ourselves and with fish rising things were looking up.

The river

Knowing that the fish were feeding it was just a matter of figuring out what they would be keying in on. My first guess for a fly was a hopper as they seemed to be jumping around everywhere in along the river. However upon presenting this pattern to several visable cutthroat, there was no sign of interest whatsoever so I decided to switch things up a bit. After a few changes, I finally noticed some blue winged olives coming off and switch to some 6x and a size 18 bwo dry. As Bob seemed to be getting a few fish already downstream a bit it appeared that had figured out what they wanted, so I hoped that choice would work. Luckily it did and within a couple casts I spotted a riser and although I missed the take, I at least got him to rise to my fly.

BWO time

With the next fish my timing was a bit better and when he rose to the fly I got a good hook set and had a nice fish on. Give the size of this cutthroat and the 6x tippet, I set the drag a bit loose to protect the tippet and allowed the fish to do his thing a bit more. Within a couple minutes this worked out and I eased a beautiful 16" westslope into the net.

A beautiful westslope cutthroat

Another shot of the westsloper

Although severe headache made sure that this was the only cutthroat that I got that evening, I did hook a few others before even the temptation of rising fish wasn't enough to keep me on the water. Plus after catching my largest westslope cutthroat to date it would be hard to complain about the fishing. Bob did a bit better overall, landing a total of seven cutthroat on a combination of caddis larvae and bwo patterns.

The upper river

With a good nights sleep I was rearing to go the next day and as we had a bit more time to spend on the river and with some summery weather we decided to head a bit further upstream. We found a spot where a small tributary added its flow and with the advantage of some high ground we quickly spotted some fish. Knowing that there were fish in the area we hit the water again and trying the hopper over again I found it to be a bit more successful, especially when fished with a dropper.

Hopper time

While the hopper and dropper seemed to each get a pretty even split in their catch rate at two a piece, the hopper got the larger fish a beautiful 14"er that refused to be photographed. However as the day progressed the bwo's started hatching again and the fish keyed in on them and so I rigged with my 1wt with a size 18 cdc emerger and immediately started getting into more consistent fishing although everything seemed to be in the 6" to 10" range.

Light gear and native trout = lots of fun

For the rest of the day we experienced some of the better match the hatch fishing that the west has to offer and although none of the fish were overly huge they were all beautiful natives. However all good things must come to an end and before long the road was calling us for the long drive back home.

Beaver Pond Brookies

2011-10-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the week I had to make a trip to Boise, ID and while I didn't have a ton of time to fish, I made a point of getting up to the Sawtooths for a bit. For this outing I decided to head up a random creek to see what I could find and before long a series of beaver ponds caught my attention.

Looking out over the valley

Before fishing I went down to scout things out and after seeing several fish rise in a couple of minutes I decided this spot would do. I rigged up with a tandem rig, using a couple of my favorite beaver pond patterns, a zug bug and Apache special (named after a certain type of trout that love it). Within a couple of casts this set up yielded some results and a beautiful brook trout came to hand.

A beaver pond brookie

The brookies were extremely spooky, but each would produce a few fish before they would catch on to things.

A beautiful male brook trout starting to show his spawning colors

On the ponds

Although I didn't have too much time to spend here, the fast paced action and beautiful surroundings were hard to beat and made for a great few hours of fishing.

Sunset sea-runs

2011-10-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

With my recent success on the Sound, it was hard not to get out again, so when Colton called asking me join him at the local beach, I was all in. When I got there the outgoing tide was underway Colton was already fishing.

Sunset at the beach

As with my prior outing, the fish seemed to be in and Colton had already gotten into a couple and within a few minutes found another nice 10" cutthroat. While it wasn't lights out fishing, every ten minutes or so one of us would either get a hit or lock into a fish. Colton seemed to be having a bit better luck then me with the cutthroat and was up three cutthroat to my one flounder before long.

My little flounder

However as the light faded we both decided to put some larger flies on and the change up seemed to make a difference for me as I got a strong take and a solid hook up. This fish had some size to it and made my 6wt rod work for it. As several minutes of battling though I brought the beautiful 16" sea-run to hand. After this fish we had a couple more hits, but the light was fading fast and we had to call an end to the day.

A great way to end the day.

Salter cutthroat again

2011-09-30T14:36:00.000-07:00

So in between trips, I got in a couple of outings on the Puget Sound for some sea-run cutthroat. On the first of these trips I met up with a fellow native trout enthusiast Steve from Texas to try to help him out with his first coastal cutthroat. With a promising outgoing tide we headed down to my home beach to try out luck.

Morning on the Sound

It definitely didn't take too long to see signs of fish as there were cutthroat busting on schools of perch and sandlance. However these fish seemed to be a bit finicky and for the amount of fish around, things seemed a bit slow. We each did manage to hook a few fish but they all managed to pop off right at the net. As the tide started to slow I made the call to head down the beach a ways to try a point that generally treats me well. This was the ticket as the cutthroat seemed to be much more willing biters here.

Steve's first coastal cutthroat

Steve was fishing a surface fly and it didn't take to long to start getting some action and to land his first sea-run. There were a few larger fish around as well and I managed to get a few in the 12-14" range.

A nice sea-run

As is usual with cutthroat fishing on the Sound though, the tide slacked off and so did the fishing, so we headed to another beach. We did get into a few nice fish at the other spot but it definitely took a bit more searching and after fishing through almost the entire incoming we had only brought a few more cutthroat to hand. Without a whole lot of beach left, we headed down to another point with a good tide rip and I got a short lived surprise by a coho. I was retreiving my fly at my standard speed and decided to pick up the pace a bit and within two strips; bam! I set the hook only to have nothing there and when I brought my line in I saw why... No fly and no tippet left. Just as I was thinking that this wasn't the work of a cutthroat, the dirty culprit a 7 or 8lb coho with a some line hanging out of his mouth jumped and confirmed my suspicions. No complaints, but as with last year it appears that my coho curse continues... After my incident with the coho, Steve picked up a smaller resident coho, another first for him before the tide forced us to call it a day.

Steve's resident coho

Colorado Quicky

2011-09-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

Last week I had a quick couple day trip to Colorado, while this trip definitely wasn't fishing centered I made sure to sneak up into the Rockies for at least one quick outing. Being one of the rarer and more beautiful salmonids, I set my sights on going after some greenback cutthroat and ran up to Rocky Mountain National Park for half a day. As this trip was a bit spurt of the moment, I decided to return to a stream that I had fished back in 2006.

The Rockies

Being the end of summer, the leaves were just beginning to change in the higher altitudes and there was plenty of wildlife out and about.

Elk

The hike into the stream was short and beautiful with glimpses of the surrounding peaks through groves of aspen, spruce and fir.

The trail in

Even being the late season, the flows were still higher then expected showing signs of the heavy snow pack that the west had this year. These conditions also seemed to treat the cutthroat well, as it didn't take long to spot some.

The stream

However spotting fish and catching them were two different things as a whole summer of fishing pressure seemed to put them on their guard. None of the fish were willing to rise recklessly to a dry fly like cutthroat are known for, but instead would track with it and inspect it for anything wrong. Luckily I had a couple patterns in my arsenal that they seemed to like and once I figured out that a little more stealth then usual was going to be required I started to get a few fish.

A dry fly eating Colorado Greenback

Given that I was on tight schedule, it wasn't long after I had figured the fish and really started getting into them that I had to start thinking of the trail back out. However one more beautiful greenback that fell for my old standby tellico nymph dropper made leaving a bit easier.

Last greenback of the day

A summer's end backcountry trek

2011-09-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

Last week with summer coming to a rapid close and fall sneaking into the air, Colton and I made for the mountains for a backcountry trout excursion. While I had fished the lower reaches of this particular watershed several times and always been treated fairly well by the fishery, I had never made it into the upper reaches of the watershed. With a fair trek to get to the upper river and being that this area is hemmed in by canyons and rough and tumble rapids Colton and I opted for a multi-day backpacking trip.

We arrived at the trailhead early and had a nice even hike for the first bit through some second growth forest with scattered views of the surrounding peaks before the trail descended into the river valley and massive old growth cedars and firs dominated the landscape.

The uplands on the way in

We made good timing into the river but as a trail crew had pretty much taken over the camping area we had been planning on using we had to do a little hunting for our own spot. After putting in a bit of extra leg work past our original destination, we noticed a side trail down to a flat along the river and decided to look for a spot to camp.

Looking down on the river from above the flat

The trail into the flat was relatively steep, and unfortunately for me it was also guarded by some rather agitated wasps that decided to put their nest smack dab in the middle of the trail. Somehow Colton escaped unscathed, while I got a pretty nasty sting that started swelling almost right away. Apparently sometimes you have to pay your dues for fishing... Needless to say we found our campsite at the bottom, along with some nice water.

Our fishin' camp

Some old growth

Upon arriving we set up camp and made a quick lunch, but our minds were on fishing so before long we each had a couple rods rigged up and made a V-line for the river. Luckily we didn't have to go far after our hike in, to find good water as their was an awesome corner pool right next to our camp, however these fish seemed to want to play hard to get. Colton started out with dries and couldn't get any to even look at them, while I started out with a stream and got one strike from a 6-8" trout. After hiking several miles into the river then scrambling a few hundred feet down into the flat this was not a very good sign. I wish I could say things improved that day, but they didn't. After covering the first hole, we worked our way further downstream and I got a decent rainbow on a dry out of a pocket not to far below camp but the river seemed oddly fished out in the section. We probably fished downstream a good mile and got one more rainbow, but things didn't look promising. Given that it is supposed to be a catch and release fishery this was not something I would have expected. My original thought was that given that the pink salmon were running, maybe the fish all were keying in on eggs where the pinks were at. However after finding an empty packet of bait hooks and about a 6" juvenile bull trout stuck in a snag pile (alive luckily) with a baithook still in its jaw we had a pretty good idea what the problem was. The bull trout was cut loose and released from its poacher inflicted torture, but we needed a new game plan. At camp that even we discussed options for the next day, which included checking out the river upstream and hiking out and going somewhere else but decided to sleep on things.

With the light of the new day we decided to stick it out and try to get into a more remote part of the watershed, so we made for the trail upstream. This section of the river was hemmed in by cliff walls on our side of the river, but after a bit of hiking we found a bit of a ravine that led down into the river. This route was not for the faint of heart and it was several hundred feet of very steep terrain overgrown with nettles and devils club before we reach the bottom of the valley. This route was not something I would wish on my worst enemies and was something that would definitely deter most anglers and left us feeling rather battered.

At the bottom we found a beautiful river riddled ice blue pools and pocket water and lined with virgin stands of massive Douglas Firs and Western Red Cedars. Apparently this untouched canyon offered the trout some refuge as it didn't take long before we found some willing 6-10" rainbows in the pocket water. While the smaller fish seemed willing enough, we still had to work pretty hard for the fish we got and Colton was the first one to find a fish of some size and managed to rise a beautiful 14" rainbow in a side channel pool.

Colton's rainbow

This fish put up a great battle on his 2wt, taking line and getting a fair bit of air time as well. In the next stretch of pocketwater upstream Colton also got the first surprise from a bull trout, a little juvenile that couldn't say no to a dry fly.

Dry fly bull trout

The river in the canyon

While the fish in the pocketwater seemed willing enough to rise to dries, most of the deeper pools were a different story and at first glance seemed devoid of life. On the first on of these pools that we came upon we put decided to put our efforts into streamers however even that didn't didn't seem to get any reaction and if it weren't for Colton seeing a good sized fish cruise into the hole from the tailout, we would have assumed it was empty. After a good half hour of fishing this hole, I drifted my fly into a drop off behind a boulder and as soon as I started retrieving I felt a good resistance. My first assumption was that this was the boulder so I didn't set hard on it however a sizeable flash made me realize my mistake, but it was already to late.

We worked the hole for another twenty minutes or so and I had just told Colton that we should head upstream and rest it for later when I got my second chance as another sizable fish grabbed my fly. This fish had some size to it and put the hurt on my 4wt, but before long I was able to get the upper hand and slide a beautiful 16" native rainbow into my net.

My big streamer eating rainbow

After my big fish we headed upstream again and found fishing to remain good, hard work but good. The river was a bit fast in this stretch and required a bit of brushwacking and climbing over log jams to get between the decent stretches of water. It was in one of these log jams that I ran into a problem, as I jumped off of the last log and onto the bank, my net got wedged between my back and the log and didn't fair well from the event.

End of the line for an old friend...

I have had this net for over ten years and it has been with me every step of the way on my native trout quest and seeing it shattered was quite the blow. However I wasn't willing to abandon this old fishing buddy and will Colton fished the next hole I used some 40lb test line to make some repairs. I will say the net is no longer pretty, but it is functional again and served its purpose for the rest of the trip. About a half mile above where I got my rainbow we found a string of deep pools and I got a surprise by a little bull trout that took a soft hackle in the first pool.

A post release shot of my little bull trout

The next hole up yielded a little bull for Colton as well and while Colton continued to work this spot I headed upstream and found a little bull trout as well that I got on a dry out of a pocket. I also found the end of the line as the combo of a cliff and some deep fast water barred the way upstream just above. It was getting late at this point, so we needed to be heading back anyways so this just gave me the sign that it was time to turn around. As I got back to the pool where Colton hooked into a nice sized rainbow, that could have been the twin to the one that I caught earlier in turns of size and the battle.

Another beautiful rainbow

With Colton's big rainbow spooking that hole, we decided to head back to the hole that I had gotten my fish out of as quickly as possible to see if we could find anything else in there. To cover ground more quickly we took to a game trail and were making good time until I found bee's nest number two of the trip. This led to us making even better time as we were both running to get away from bee's however the still got me pretty good. I added another 6 or 7 bee stings my already swollen leg, which now felt like it was on fire, while Colton got away scott free again. Finally we made it to the hole that I had gotten my big rainbow out of and after just a few casts Colton found one of the other residents of the spot...

Colton's surprise 18" bull trout

Given all of the juvenile bulls that we had run into, we shouldn't have been find a fish this size in here but bulls are not the most common fish either. In typical bull trout still this fish stayed deep and made several good runs before coming in. By the time that the bull trout was swimming back into the depths, daylight was fading fast so we figured we just had time for one more hole each. Colton took the spot that he got his 14"er out of, while I opted for a hole right where we had dropped into the canyon. On my first cast it became apparent that my choice had been a good one as another good sized fish slammed my fly. This fish put up a pretty good aerial display and made me work pretty hard even with my 4wt, before coming to the net.

Another 16" rainbow

While the canyon had been hard to get down into earlier in the day, climbing out with next to no light, a few more bee strings and after fishing several miles of the stream was flat out grueling. However we battled our way out and made it back to camp just as the very last vestiges of light faded away.

Pink salmon spawning grounds... Several pinks can be seen in the middle of the picture

Spawned out pink

The next day we had our hike out to look forward to, but we decided to check out the river further downstream and got lucky and found where the pinks were spawning. With the pinks in the area, we switched to egg imitations and fished the river Alaska style. Colton fished a deep hole while I went upstream to the next run and got a few of the smaller rainbows. When I got down to where Colton was he had hooked one larger fish but lost it, I decided to take to a seam at the upper part of the pool above where he was and was instantly rewarded with a hook up. This sizable fish turned out to be a beautifully colored 18" bull trout that couldn't say no to an egg imitation.

My bull trout

A couple casts later I hooked a larger bull, which I lost trying to keep out of some fast water but I was able to get another about 10" rainbow a few casts after that and Colton got a smaller bull. We tried another stretch above to rest the hole, but didn't have much luck so we head back to the first hole. With the hole rested the fish seemed to want to bite again and I got yet another 18" bull trout before the fish seemed to catch onto us again and we called it quits.

Hikin' out

Given all of the canyon climbing and fishing that we had done the hike out of the valley was a bit of work, but not as bad as I would have expected. While this trip was not for the faint of heart given killer bees that had it in for me and the all out rugged terrain, the fishing was unforgettable. This fishery definitely isn't water one would expect of western Washington, but it a sign of what things can be like when you native trout in a pristine environment that requires more effort to fish then the average Joe would want to put in.

Olympics Top to Bottom

2011-09-11T08:45:00.000-07:00

This past Thursday my buddies Colton, Jonathan and I along with Jonathan's father-in-law Gene headed over to the Olympic Peninsula to try out luck for some coho salmon. With a good coho run forecasted this year we were hoping that we might be able to find a few hatchery fish to remove from the gene pool and relocate to our BBQ's. So with high hopes we planned our dawn patrol out and by first light we were hiking out to the mouth of the river to try our luck with these silver bullets. We all started out fishing the tidewater with 8wt and intermediate lines and it didn't take long to spot some fish. Now the problem with coho is typically not finding them it is finding what they want to bite. As these fish stop feeding in fresh water, sometimes that is much easier said than done.

The mouth of the stream

Persistence generally pays off in cases like this, but this day the coho just didn't seem to want to cooperate. After numerous fly changes I had a couple grabs during the outgoing tide, but Colton was the only one to actually catch anything. Just it wasn't a coho, instead was a much rarer summer run chum.

Colton's first chum on the fly

As the tide started pushing in we had a few more grabs from coho and even a couple of short hook ups but couldn't put it all together. Finally we moved upstream to where the stream was flowing a bit and found a corner that was holding some fish. At this point I had switched over to a nymphing setup and it didn't take long to find a fish that wanted to grab. The only surprise was that it wasn't a coho, but a pink. Another rarity for this part of the state.

An Olympic pink salmon

These pinks seemed to have a thing for egg patterns and while there were also coho and chum in this spot, the pinks seemed much more grabby. However this is not to say that the coho and chum weren't biting either, just once again we couldn't put things together with to coho. This seems like the revival of my old curse from last year where I landed the last one out of the 13 or so coho I hooked. At this point of the outing I was probably at around 0 for 5 coho hook this season. As it would be the next fish I hooked was a chum...

My first chum of the year

At this point Jonathan and Gene who had been fishing another area caught up with us and we turned the hole over to them. Within a half hour everybody had caught and released a pink salmon for the day and the skunk was off.

A nice buck pink salmon

Gene with the big pink of the day

After catching their fish for the day Jonathan and Gene decided to call it quits, while Colton and I just decided it was time for a venue change. So we changed from salmon to trout and headed in to the mountains to fish the headwaters of one of the Olympic streams. The stream was high gradient, rough and tumble, and flowed through a beautiful old growth canyon making any fish a bonus.

Olympic native trout waters

However the would be plenty of bonus's as there were plenty of trout to go around. After the lock-jawed salmon these small but willing trout were a nice change and every little pocket had at least a few of the dry fly loving feisty little natives.

An average rainbow

We worked our way upstream catch plenty of trout until the canyon became to tight and we decided to head back to the car.

Ever the diehards though we decided to give one more try at the coho thing. This time we fished the river itself instead of the estuary. While there were some fish in the river, the numbers were not as impressive as at the mouth, so we decided to head downstream to some better holding water that I had found a few year back. The were a few fish down here and while Colton didn't have any luck I had a several minute encounter with another chum that used a log across the river to get out of a photo op. I also got my shot at that coho, which gave my a good run followed by a fair-well jump before throwing the fly bringing my total up to 0 for 6. Oh well next time. All and all I would call it a great day!

Back home - August in review part 2

2011-09-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

The last couple weeks of August were a rash of fishing trip after fishing trip. The first thing on the agenda was a trip for pink salmon. The smallest of the Pacific salmon, pinks are only around in Washington during odd years, so I always try to at least get out a few times for them when they are running. So the night before my first outing for them Colton and I did a little fly tying challenge, with only a handful of materials at our disposal, we had to invent a fly and then try to catch something on it and whoever caught the most on their fly won. Won what exactly, I still have no idea but still I wanted to win.

My fly tying concoction

So in the morning we meant up with another buddy of mine (Eric) at the dock and headed out for some pink fishing. While the run was predicted to be around 6 million fish for the Sound this year, the numbers have been a little less then what I am used to. Due to that it took us a bit of hunting to find some fish, but finally we got into some. For about an hour we had some decent fishing and my fly fished on a fast sinking line got the first pink of the day.

My first pink of 2011

However the fish just didn't seem to be overly thick or in much of a bitting mood so before long we had to go hunting for more. We found some good numbers after about a half hour of searching and while the fish still required some work we managed to pick up a few more. Unfortunately for Colton his fish popped loose after a solid battle and while he hooked a fish on the next cast and landed it, the competition only applied to salmon and not flounders.

Colton's flounder

While it wasn't lights out pink fishing like I have seen in the past, it was still a great day on the water.

After the pink salmon outing, my buddy Wayne invited me out to Sekiu on the Olympic Peninsula for another salmon trip. While I tried hard to get something on the fly, the fish just weren't up top and with only a brief hook up for a day's effort I finally switch to conventional gear and started getting results. Fact of the matter was this was a meat hunting mission and the conventional gear could get the results with the fish at 50' to 75'.

Morning on the water

Wayne with a nice fish (pink)

Some BBQ and smoker guests

End of a beautiful day on the water

A little bit of everything - August in review part 1

2011-09-06T22:14:00.000-07:00

August was a bit of a busy month for me, the first half was spent on the road for work while the second half saw me back home, but somehow ended up being just as busy after so much time on the road. With the first half of the month my fishing time was pretty much spent exploring a couple small streams in Eastern Washington. I sampled these watersheds from top to bottom and found a variety of fishing options.

With day time temperatures in the mid to upper 90's the mid and lower reaches of the streams that I was fishing were home to warm-water species, bass, carp, perch, pikeminnow and such. Although a few steelhead were likely to be passing through these areas, none showed up in my catch.

The mid-watershed

This section of the river was hard work fishing, the river wasn't overly swift, but was slick and just didn't seemed to hold many fish. Dries produced no interest and nymphing only resulted in a few hook-ups. However throwing streamers did produce some results with the less desirable species and I had fun with some nice sized pikeminnow on my 4wt.

Northern Pikeminnow

While the mid-river didn't seem to have a ton of fish in it the lower river was another story. This area was literally teeming with bass and carp and I spent a good amount of time testing out this fishery, which was quiet new to me.

The lower river

The lower river was slow and slough like as it finally made its way to the Snake River and being that I had never fished for smallmouth bass before I simply approached it like I would fishing for sea-run cutthroat in estuaries back home. A 6wt, intermediate line and Clousers got quick results.

My first smallmouth bass

Like I said I had never fished smallmouth bass before and it was definitely a kick. The bass which ranged from 10-16" jumped, took line and just generally fought hard. They also seemed to have very different reactions to different colors. Black and red was a knock out fished slow, while yellow and white was killer stripped fast. A salmon smolt imitation seemed to get their attention on short twitches. Being that this fishery was within a few minutes of work I became a bit of an evening hangout, while it wasn't trout fishing, it was a fun change up.

Before long though I got the desire to fish trout and again and while the drive was a bit long and out of the way for after work, I made a few forays into the colder waters of the Blue Mountains. My first trip I made the mistake of going to high up and found that the term "river" can tend to be thrown around pretty lightly. While I checked things out and even caught a couple small redbands, fishing a brushy 2' wide stream just wasn't doing it for me and I went downstream till the "river" got a bit more river like.

The upper river trout country

I hit things right in this stretch as the river absolutely packed with trout. I started with a dry and dropper setup, but with the amount of fish I switch to a larger hopper to keep the smaller trout off. The trout ran any size from about 6" to 14" and were quite willing risers and although I only had about an hour to fish before dark I gave the 1wt a good workout.

A upper river rainbow

To be continued...

Eastslope Westslopes

2011-08-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the drive over the Cascade Mountains was too much to take without a quick stop for a little fishing. As I hadn't caught any Westslope cutthroat yet this season, I decided to try a small stream on the eastslope of the mountains that I have been meaning to visit for some time. The stream was only about 10 to 15 feet across in most spots, but had a nice amount of holding water so it looked promising. With that I rigged but with a dry-dropper set-up and headed down to the water.

Good looking water at the first pool

Good looking water doesn't always mean there will be fish around, but in this case it didn't take long to find the cutthroat as within a couple of casts I had my first small westslope to hand.

My first westslope of the summer

From there the pace remained fairly quick as easy good looking pool of pocket would yield two or three of these beautiful trout. The fish were quite eager to rise to a dry fly too and before long I took the dropper off due to their willingness to rise. While the stream was beautiful, it looked like about 15 years ago there were some very poor logging practices in effect and much of the watershed had been clear-cut up to the stream banks and at one time. Luckily the area appeared to be recovering nicely, but when compared with other streams in the area the water temps were noticeably warmer. This warmer water also seemed to have the effect of making the stream slightly more fertile than other mountain streams in the area and all of the cutthroat seemed to be exceptionally chunky for their size.

A stream-side visitor

In an exceptionally nice looking pool for the creek I rose a fish that was slightly larger than most and and after a quick battle I brought what is likely the most beautiful trout I have caught all year in. I must have said "wow" to myself at least ten times as I admired this gorgeous trout and watched it swim back into the depths.

Pictures don't do justice for this one

After covering about a mile of the stream and catching more than my fair share of trout my desire to get home after a week away finally won out and I reluctantly left this gem of a stream.

A great place to spend any evening!

After work wanderings

2011-08-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

My last work assignment had me back down in South-Central Washington tagging a few coho salmon. However it working with fish all day, sometimes just isn't enough so after my shift I made a point of exploring some new waters. My first place to explore was a beautiful little meandering meadow stream that I had driven by day in and day out when I was down here tagging Chinook salmon, but it had been closed then. Now I finally had my chance to check it out.

The meadow stream

It didn't take long to hook into something but the first fish, which was a brook trout by the looks of him threw the hook mid jump. However shortly after I hooked into a decent sized trout and brought a rainbow to the net.

A chunky hatchery rainbow

Apparently this stream is managed as a put and take fishery and all of the fish that I encountered were cookie-cutter rainbows, that oddly enough my 1wt seemed to quite easily out match. These fish were a bit reluctant to rise to a dry fly, but were suckers for a sunken dry stripped back in at the end of a the drift. The beautiful surroundings kept me fishing for a while, but before long the lack luster rainbows lost their appeal and a long day of work finally caught up with me.

The next day I decided to explore some bigger water and headed for the local river, which is well noted for its rubust summer-run steelhead. I picked a canyon stretch that I had been eye-balling on my last trip over and found a few decent pieces of water to try.

The road into the canyon

I did a combination of nymphing and swinging, but the water was still a bit high and off color and all that I was able to coax out of the first spot were a few smolts. However on the way out a I got a bit more excitement then the smolts had to offer, in the form of a rattlesnake that decided to cruise right past me on my way up the trail.

A stream-side visitor

As is more common then not when fishing for steelhead, I wasn't able to find any fish but fishing beautiful water was plenty for me.

Vacant steelhead water

I fished my last spot of the trip on the way home. This smaller piece of water is known to have a healthy population of native redbands as well as a few westslope cutthroat in its upper reaches. Time didn't allow for a visit to the headwaters of the stream, but it didn't take long to find some nice redbands in the stretch that I picked.

A spunky redband

This was one of those streams where every fishy looking spot seemed to house several decent trout, all of which appeared to be keen on the dry fly that I was offering them.

Redband waters

I worked my way upstream wet-wading and casting dries into every likely pocket. While their size was nothing special, being between 6-8" on average, all of the fish were brilliantly colored and hard fighting, with some of the larger ones actually managing to take a little bit of line.

A beautiful and vividly colored native Columbia Basin redband

Given that I had a long drive ahead of me and had already spent most of the day at work though, I had to limit my exploration of this stream to about a mile of great water before I was forced to head back to my car and hit the road.

Summer time sea-runs

2011-07-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

If I had the rank my top ten favorite places to fish, I am really not sure what all I would put on the list, however I am sure that one of my sea-run cutthroat haunts in particular would make it. This fishery is not going to be listed among any "famous" waters, but that is the beauty of it, as it offers solitude, beautiful surroundings and native fish. Like other saltwater cutthroat fisheries, things are driven by the tides and a such it requires time to figure the fishery out. Luckily over the years I have paid some dues at this spot and have learned a few of its secrets. As the general rule with this and other estuaries goes, the fish are most active once the tide starts moving and the bulk of the fish tend to follow the incoming tide in, then ride the outgoing tide back out again.

Low water

With tides ideal at this spot for the day, my buddy Jonathan and I arrived at the estuary about an hour and a half after low tide and started looking for fish. With the low water, this didn't take too long and I spotted a few smaller cutthroat and one really nice one that was having fun harassing some spawning shiner perch. With the fish spotted I moved into position and on my second cast over a bit of deep water I felt a bit of a tug, set and fish on. The cutthroat put his all into the battle, jumping five or six times and even brought spectator along that seemed set on following his buddy right up to the net.

Not bad for two casts into the day

Next it was Jonathan's turn and a few casts later he got a good tug, but no hook up before things slowed a bit. Before long I went to some high ground and tried sighting the fish for him. It didn't take long to find a school of 8" to 14" cutthroat to have him cast to, but they didn't seem to like his offering all that much and spooked before long, he switched flies and we headed to another spot.

Calm water at high tide

We spotted some fish here and but they were a bit spooky and it wasn't till the tide really started flowing in that they let their guard down. Jonathan was the next one to to hook into a fish and got a scrappy little cutthroat that was probably only about 12" it still but up a fair fight and a bend in the rod. Fishing never really got super productive, as the cutthroat seemed to be a bit finicky, showing selectivity and spooking rather easy.

A beautiful native sea-run

We did get a few more cutthroat as we worked our way up the estuary with the tide. However as the tide slacked off we fishing slowed to a halt and as we both had places to be in the evening we decided to call an end to a beautiful day on the water.

A great day on the water

Back to the beach

2011-07-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

So I have to say that for about the last year I have been at odds with the Puget Sound fishery a bit. Yes I have had some good outings, but I haven't had any of those days where you feel like the stars had lined up or anything. In fact the last time that I fished the saltwater I did pick up a few sea-run cutthroat, but thanks to the persistent wind and a bad cast I also picked up a nice inch long slit in my nearly brand new waders... All complements of a wayward clouser minnow. I can definitely say that I have needed a good day on the water for far to long.

So between some unusually nice weather and catching a whiff of salty sea air on my way home from a long day at work I just had to get out. I got a hold of my buddy Colton and we decided to hit the beach for the last bit of an incoming tide before dark. When we got to the beach the first signs of a beautiful sunset were already underway over the glassy calm water. My mind was set on intercepting one of the 2-5lb adult resident coho, which frequent the beaches of the South Sound this time of the year. So as such I started things off with a larger herring pattern, whereas Colton went with a smaller attractor pattern to tends to be deadly for just about anything with fins. For the first 20 minutes or so the only signs of life were a lone seal and some small baitfish breaking the surface, however before long Colton found a nice 12" resident coho.

Colton with a resident coho

A few casts later he got a second one and since I had yet to see an adult jump yet, my resolve crumbled and I switched over to a prawn pattern. This choice was immediately rewarded with one of the little resident salmon as well. This spunky little fish chased to fly literally up the rod tip, before getting hooked and then going for a few good runs.

A resident coho for me

I seemed like a school had moved in and fishing stayed good like this for a while, with enough activity between casts to keep things interesting. However as the evening wore on, the rising tide forced us to leave our a spot and look for somewhere with a more favorable back cast. We relocated to a point that is generally rather productive, but the fish definitely seemed to be much more scattered then our previous spot so we had to work a bit hard for them. However persistence pays off...

Yet another coho

With the tide slowing down and the last rays of light casting a pink glow to the horizon, it was time to go and while the big fish didn't show this evening had been just what I had been looking for!

Twilight over the Puget Sound

June on the Olympic Peninsula - Part 2

2011-06-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

My second leg of my work trip put me on the other side of the Peninsula and limited my fishing options by a fair bit. While the flows on the west-end streams had ranged from ideal to low, the stream in this part of the Peninsula were still swollen with snow and some major spring run-off. However the draw of the mountains was to great for me to ignore and even though I figured I would probably just be going on a hiking trip I made for one of my favorite streams. The flows on the stream were double what they should be this time of the year, even with run-off but sometimes nymphing the soft spots can produce a fish or two even in these conditions.

The snow swollen river

I rigged up my rod at the trailhead with a heavy soft hackled stonefly and a sink tip and started my search for fishable water. The river was definitely higher than I had ever seen it was carrying a heavy load of silt, however I found a couple nice pockets at the first spot that I came to. Dead drifting didn't seem to get a lot of results, however as soon as I tried swinging my fly I got some results. The fish hit hard and with the aid of the current put up a hard fight, although it seemed quite unwilling to jump. When I got it in I saw that I had a char and not trout on my fly, in fact likely the rarest of char in the lower 48 a stream resident Southern Dolly Varden.

No bull about it, a beautiful native Dolly Varden

From fisheries reports I know that this stream holds Dolly Varden and no bull trout due to a barrier fall, external differences do make it possible to discern the two similar species. The Dollies heads tend to be less predatory looking and their mouths are much smaller for instance.

Dolly water

I let my next cast drift downstream into another good pocket and surprisingly enough my my fly was nabbed by another dolly. With the gray hew to the silty water it these little char seem perfectly adapted to this stream, the way that native trout often seem to perfectly blend into their surroundings.

Another beautiful dolly

With my early success, I decided to hit the trail and head downstream in search of some more water. However after covering a solid mile and a half of river and fishing every slow spot I could find, there was no sign of fish anywhere. However the fish I got right off the bat were more than I expected in the first place and the fresh mountain air and a good hike were as good as fishing.

The woods of the Olympic Mountains

The forest in the part of the Peninsula are much less luxuriant than those of the coastal rainforests, however that they are still very beautiful. Add the the blooming rhododendron, salmonberries and trillium and views of the mountains and it is a great place for an evening hike.

Trillium

While it was peaceful wandering to woods and searching the river for slow pockets, daylight only lasts so long and light fades fast in the forest so I found myself racing back to the trailhead before I would have. Catching a few rare native char and hiking a few miles in some of the finest forest after work is about as good of a way to spend an evening as I can imagine. Although I didn't manage to sneak out again during the week, the two char and the stunning views of the mountains on the drive out were enough to keep me happy till next time.

Sunset over the Olympic Mountains

June on the Olympic Peninsula - Part 1

2011-06-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

My last job assignment was a three week stint on the Olympic Peninsula and with that I was able to find a bit of time to get out after work and do a bit of exploring and fishing. My first two weeks of this assignment were spent out in Forks, WA, a place that I have spent plenty of time in the winter, but seldom make it too in the summer. My first place to explore was a small and exceptionally beautiful coastal stream that I have fished several times for winter steelhead but have never gotten to try once the weather warms and the flows drop. Although as fishing goes my timing was off by a fair bit as most cutthroat are out to sea during summer and don't return till the first fall rains. However being able to see the stream at low water will pay dividends once the winter storms roll in and the steelhead with them.

The stream

Just because my timing wasn't ideal, didn't mean that the stream was vacant of fish, it just meant that those that were there were a bit on the small side. Most of these were native coastal cutthroat, but there were a few steelhead smolts hanging around too. Dries and nymphs got the attention of the trout, but it seemed like these fish really wanted something that was moving and a basic soft hackle fly fit that bill. Each pool or log jam would produce a cutthroat or two for a couple of hours before the sun started falling towards the Pacific. Although I wasn't able to find anything over 8", the fish were all beautiful, native and very feisty making for a great first outing of the trip.

A small native coastal cutthroat

My next venture to the river was for something slightly larger, with summer-run steelhead in mind. Armed with my switch rod and a spey-style fly that I came up with I headed one of the many rivers in the Fork, Wa area. With the heavy snow pack in the mountains the flows were still a bit high, but the clarity was good however as is typical with steelhead and especially with swinging flies for steelhead the stars often need to align get one.

Great swinging water

The stars almost aligned for me as about half-way down the run an unseen force intercepted my fly and attempted to rip my rod out of my hand before vanishing into nothingness. This incident resulted in several more fruitless outings on the same stretch of river before I finally decided to trying something different.

For my last fishing outing on the west-end of the Peninsula, I headed down the rainforest to swing some flies. So armed with my switch rod and an articulated leech I headed for one of the wettest places on the west coast.

The Olympic rainforest

While this place receives over 80" of rain a year, I caught it on of those rare sunny beautiful evenings and stunning surrounds made it difficult to pay much attention to fishing.

The river

The flows were great, the clarity was great, the weather was great, and the scenery was amazing, but the fish just didn't seem to be overly cooperative. I wandered a good mile of river and fished several extremely fishy looking runs, but I the end only came away with one bump. In other words it couldn't have been time better spent! However when you only have a couple of hours to spend in such a beautiful place time seems to like to pick up the pace a bit to much and before I knew it I was enjoying a beautiful sunset and the end of the first leg of my work trip.

A great way to end any day

Home stream startup

2011-06-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

Being home for the stream opener weekend this year, I decided to kick things off at a local cutthroat stream. While this stream is close to home, it is it is very small and the last couple of winters have not been kind to what was once my favorite stretch. Last year blow-downs were the big issue, this year I found that the high flows of winter had all but eliminated the all of the holding water in the section.

Brushy but beautiful

While this stream is a lot of work without a ton of reward, the fish beautiful and will rise to dries at times and an ten minute drive and an hour of fishing resulted in a handful ofbeautiful small native cutthroat.

Native trout 10 min from home... Doesn't get much better...

This time of the year is always tough on this little creek in the fall the anadromous cutthroat will be returning and if things go as the usually do I will be ending my stream season where I started it.

A spot to look forward to for fall...

Central Oregon Escape - Salmonflies Part 3 of 3

2011-06-20T20:25:00.000-07:00

This post has definitely gotten held up a bit by a busy life *3 weeks on the Olympic Peninsula for work...) and a fair bit of fishing. However here it finally is.

With fishing on the Metolius River a little slow and the Deschutes finally starting to drop, catching the salmon fly hatch was on our priority list. We arrived at the river in the late afternoon and found that the wind was howling and from talking to other anglers it sounded like the weather had really slowed the hatch and fishing down, so we decided to just hangout at our campsite, enjoy dinner and maybe do a little hiking up the river before dark to scout things out for the next day.

The mighty Deschutes

After dinner we headed up the river (without our rods) to do a little scouting after walking about a mile upstream we came to a descent looking spot and upon walking to the water's edge it was clear that the hatch was in progress as the grass along the bank was filled with adult salmonflies. Unsurprisingly Colton couldn't help himself and tossed one of the big bugs in the river.

A salmonfly

It drifted maybe fifteen feet before disappearing with a swirl of water. Seeing a trout eat a big bug on the surface that is exciting, but after we witnessed this phenomena repeat itself several more times with different fish we couldn't resist the draw of fishing anymore. Unfortunately for us it was almost sunset already and we left the rods back at the campsite. So by the time that we got back with just ended up fishing at camp, however for just a few minutes of fishing we each got one on top, with Colton getting a smallish fish and me getting a nice about 15" redband. This was enough to get us psyched for the coming day and we made a plan to be up at the crack of dawn to have our choice of water in the morning.

As planned we were up at first light and headed straight to the stretch that we had found the night before. With the chilly morning temperatures the hatch typically doesn't kick in till around 10am or 11am, so we started out fishing nymphs and attractor dries and managed to get a few small fish. However we found that the way that the water flowed in this stretch made it extremely difficult to fish so we kept moving on in search of a better stretch.

About another mile upstream stream we found what we were looking for, with a run that had a nice riffle at the top, great structure along the bank and salmonflies everywhere. While the salmonflies were definitely abundant in this stretch of river it was still early and the hatch really hadn't fully kicked into gear yet.

Salmonflies everywhere

As with the night before Colton tried the swimming salmonfly trick and flung one in the water and pretty much right away a fish rose and gulped it. Next we tried the same thing with an artificial and once again the fish rose to the fly, however after a short battle the fish came loose. Seeing the results of this and given that I the salmonflies were starting the land on us left and right I picked one off my neck and tossed it in. This one didn't get grabbed right away and just as I was about to give up on watching it a trout finally nailed it. The only problem was that the fish was in a pretty darn tough spot being under a tree with a couple of branches hanging down that made present a fly drag-free quite difficult. After a few tries though I got a good drift and hooked up with the trout. This fish put up a heck of a battle, but after a few runs the fish tired and I slid it into the net.

Me with a beautiful redband

Next it was Colton's turn and after working a feeding trout for awhile the fish finally rose to his fly and took it. This was a hot fish and made Colton work for it, but he had a good hook-set and after a few minutes we netted a beautiful 16" redband.

Colton with his big redband

Fishing was good in this stretch, but after a few fish and with most of the day still ahead of us we decided to do a bit more exploring. Even though we found a few nice fish this ended up being more leg work then fishing and it seems that the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence.

Great scenery upstream, not as good of fishing

After our little bit of exploring upstream, we headed back to the stretch that we had been working. By the time that we got back the hatch was in full swing, with salmonflies literally everywhere and plenty of egglaying adults in the air.

Trout's eye view

I started upstream at some water we had passed over in the morning and quickly found a pond of feeding fish. I got one nice on off the bat, but the rest of the fish seemed to be a bit picky and were keying in on fluttering salmonflies.

A nice Deschutes redband

With the fish being a bit finicky I switch to a PMX that would ride a little lower in the water, but also pulled the deer hair for the wing off to the sides so it looked like a fluttering adult. This did the trick after singling out a nice fish the rose just upstream against the bank I got a rise and hooked into a nice fish. This fish immediately took off downstream and stopped a couple of times, but kept turning and heading downstream. However after chasing it several hundred feet downstream it finally tired out I managed to land a beautiful about 17" fat redband.

My big trout for the day.

While we fished for a little longer and picked up a few more fish, before long the driftboat armada started to show up and while we had this stretch to ourselves pretty much all day now we were finding ourselves getting low-holed. This was our sign to call an end to a great fishing trip and a great weekend.

While were ready to go the excitement wasn't over as nothing gets my heart racing quite like surprise visit by a rattlesnake in the middle of the trail.

Central Oregon Escape Part 2 of 3 - Metolius

2011-06-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

The Metolius River has to be one of the more famous stream in Oregon and one that somehow I had never managed to make it over to for any fishing. However when Colton and I planned our trip out that was something that I had hoped to change. With high flows and rough weather on the first stream we had fished we hoped that the Metolius would be a little more accommodating. Being in essence a bit spring creek the flows definitely were not an issue, in fact the Metolius in a bit unique in that comes out of the ground as a full fledged river.

The source of the Metolius

Although there was some wild weather with a bit of a nasty hail storm before we got the river, We were able to wait it out with a stop at the local fly shop and an awesome bbq joint in Sisters' Or. and by the time we got to the river the weather didn't look half bad. The crowds however seemed to be the bigger concern as we got one of the last two camp spots left where we stayed. Without a whole lot of daylight on our side, we decided that we would just hang around camp wait for the morning to fish the river.

The River

With the rising sun we set out upstream and before long we found a decent looking stretch of water. However after literally covering it top to bottom by doing everything from swinging streamers for bull trout, nymphing a fishing dries we were unable to find anything in the area so we headed further upstream. After hiking for about a mile or so we came upon some promising water and once again started covering it as throughly as possible. Hoping for a bull trout I started off swinging a big rainbow trout imitation, while Colton tried his luck nymphing. Not surprisingly Colton's luck seemed to be a bit better nymphing and although he didn't land any, he did manage to hook into three decent fish, while the bull's seemed to make a complete no show. While I love nymphing, I would rather fish dries if it is worth it and with some good hatches that were "supposed" to be happening this time of the year it looked like a good possibility. It seemed that the other fisherman also preferred dries and most didn't even consider nymphing an option as the favored strategy was sitting on the bank waiting for the the hatch to happen. However after hours of fishing and not seeing a single rising fish and no greendrakes and just a few pmd's nymphing seemed like a much better option than sitting on the bank. After covering our section of the river I gave up on the bulls and started nymphing like Colton and within a few castsI have a good take and got a nice solid hook set.

Hooked up

Although the fish felt decent sized, it wasn't fighting like a trout and before long I had a beautifully colored whitefish in the net.

My whitefish

And underwater

After landing the whitey we gave the river another hour for things to pick up, but when the didn't we decided to head out on the road again, this time making for the Deschutes River. Next Part 3 - Salmonfly time....

Central Oregon Escape Part 1 of 3

2011-06-05T18:21:00.000-07:00

With water conditions less then ideal in Eastern Wa. where I was working I talked to my buddy Colton and we made a plan for him to come down for Memorial Day weekend for a little fishing escape to Central Oregon. Even down in Oregon the flows were still high, but at least fishable, so we made for one of my favorite redband streams. We didn't get to the river until about 10pm and by the time that we set up camp it was time to crash for the night. When we awoke in the morning, we found a river that was flowing about double what I am used too for this time of the year, but the clarity was there so we got to fishing.

High water

We started at a side channel that I had done well at a couple of years ago and it didn't take long to see result as on my first cast a decent fish grabbed my sz 18 copper john but popped off after a short battle. A few casts later Colton had a similar experience, but with a nicer sized fish. The next fish that I hooked into I got a bit of a better hook set on and after a little game of tug of war I slid a nice sized mountain whitefish into the net.

Whitefish time

I have never understood why whitefish have so little respect among anglers, as they aren't a half bad looking fish and being native to the watershed's they are found in definitely gains them some bonus points in my book. We will put it this way I was glad to get the whitefish as it got the skunk off for the trip, however after the one whitey we couldn't manage to find any ofter fish in the stretch.

With that we decided to relocate, so we hoped in the car and drove a few miles downstream till we spotted a likely looking run with a few boulders breaking the current. At this point it was about mid-day and the weather which had been grey in the morning was now sunny and starting to warm up. Once we got on the water there were some size 14 and 16 tan caddisflies coming off, but the trout didn't seem to be keying into them on top yet so we started out nymphing. We got a few takes and another whitefish doing that before the rises started in earnest and we decided to switch to dries.

Colton hooked up with a redband

Once the hatch kicked into gear fishing was fast and furious for a couple of hours with the little redbands greedily feasting on caddisflies.

Colton's beautiful redband

During the early part of the hatch the fish didn't seem overly picky, but as it progressed the weather started getting grey and threatened to rain and the takes also started getting fewer and further between. To try to counteract the slowly fishing I switched to a lower ridding egg-laying caddis and the fish seemed to respond a bit better to that.

Another caddis eating redband

While the switch in flies made a difference for a while the changing weather was something that it couldn't fight and once the wind and the rain picked up that hatch died like somebody had flipped a switch and dry fly time was at an end. We went back to nymphing for a while and I got another ~16" whitefish before we decided to call it quites and head back to camp.

My big whitey

A sign that it's time to leave

We got back to time just in time to save our tent from blowing away and with worse weather on the horizon we decided to make to for the Metolius River with hopes of better weather and some good fishing in the morning. Coming soon Part II - Metolius

Eastside wanderings

2011-06-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

My recent drought of blog posts has to say the least also been accompanied with an equal drought of fishing for me. Oddly enough this is despite being stationed on one of Washington's better steelhead and salmon streams. However during the month of May the only open water on this particular river was the lower two miles and it was only open two days a week while I was there. So between gale force winds, high flows and working late I only managed to fish the lower river once during my time there. However that one time will go down as one of the most memorable outings of my life. With only a few hours of daylight left after work I made the hour drive down to the river only to find that of the two miles of open water only about a 1/4 mile was actually accessible due to the rugged terrain.

However that 1/4 mile was some pretty enticing water, being situated between a rapid and a series of falls, it was clearly a place that migratory fish would keg up. There a couple fisherman working the upper part of the run, who said that fishing had been decent and a few salmon and steelhead had been caught earlier in the day. With that I headed downstream to the tailout. It didn't take long once I started fishing to see signs of fish. These included rising trout, a school of suckers holding on the bottom and every now and again the tell tail roll of a spring Chinook.

The lower river

With steelhead around and I rigged up my nymph rod and started working the near seam. Within a few casts I started to see results too as I had a few good takes and a brief hook up, before solidly locking into a fish. While it wasn't a steelhead like I was hoping for it was a nice sized sucker fish and I was just happy to catch something.

The sucker fish

I hooked into a few more sucker fish, before deciding to head downstream to try out the next run down. The water was quite a bit faster in this section of river, but the fastest water was on the far side and the near water looked like great traveling water and the type of place that I would expect an anadromous fish to hold. My fish cast was in a little too close and it resulted in my indicator going down me snagging up with the bottom. I put the next cast a few feet further out and once again my indicator went down in just about the same spot, however the take down was followed by a couple good head shakes, the line peeling off my reel. I didn't realize how big the fish was at first, but as my line got into the backing a huge spring Chinook breached on the opposite side of the river. This was easily the biggest fish that I have ever hooked and my conservative estimate was 30lbs. The fish held in the run for a couple of minutes, with me doing my best to try to control it. During this time it jumped a few more times giving me a rather good look at it. However before long it started to work its way into the rapid below me and I knew that I was in trouble. I held the fish on the edge of a back eddy for a short bit before I could tell that he was going to make a run for it. To counter this I gave just a couple more turns to my drag in hopes of tiring him quick, however this turned out to be my undoing. As the fish turned downstream he came up and did on more slash on the surface and in so doing snapped my 20lb tippet like it was nothing, leaving shaken and in awe of what had just happened.

The springer run

After a few minutes to collect my wits again I went back to fishing the run again and although I spotted a few rolling fish I wasn't able to hook into another monster. I left as the sunset with hopes of returning on the next open day, however with the wetter than average spring the flows just didn't allow it again.

Mt. Adams

However there was plenty to explore in the area and hiking around and scouting out the watershed kept me pretty occupied in the evenings...

Plenty of water to explore next time

New piece of art work above the tying desk, a reminder and an event

2011-04-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

As a parting gift from my previous job at the Gig Harbor Fly Shop to my new job as a Fisheries Biologist with WDFW, my good friend and the shop owner Blake got me an awesome replica of an Alvord cutthroat that I caught back in 2008. This extraordinary piece of art work was created by another friend of my Luke Filmer who runs Blackwater Fish Replicas and has never ceased to amaze me with the beautiful work that he turns out. I have to say that this is a very welcomed addition above the tying desk!

My new piece of artwork!

Also a reminder if you haven't already written a letter to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in regards to the remaining Alvord Cutthroat, please do so. For more information please follow this link.

Also the Wild Steelhead Coalition is holding an event on May 4th on the implications of hatchery steelhead on the native steelhead of the Skagit River watershed.

This event is bound to be a great experience for anyone interested in the plight of wild steelhead in the Skagit drainage will be held at the UW Arboretum in Seattle WA at 6pm.

Steelhead again... Yes I am addicted...

2011-04-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

I have to admit it while I was slow to catch on, I have been seriously bitten by the steelhead bug. Everything about steelheading calls to me, beautiful fish, especially the remaining natives, beautiful and truly wild country and if you are willing to look for it solitude. So not to long ago I introduced my friend Colton to the addicting form of fly fishing. For our destination we headed to one of my favorite smaller rivers on the coast. One of my traditions with this river is to always fish at least one new stretch every time that I come so that I am always expanding my knowledge on the watershed. So after covering one of my favorite holes in the morning and only spotting a kelt and seeing another fish surface but no strikes we decided to do some serious exploring. We decided to put a little leg work in and check out the upper watershed and by doing so avoided seeing anyone else through out the day.

The upper river

The upper river had ton of beautiful water and within the first couple of corners we had spotted a couple of steelhead redds, but were amazed to not run into any fish.

Colton fishing a prime spot

With steelheading just because you are on great water, that doesn't mean you are always going to get a fish. However after the first few vacant holes I found great looking run and right behind a boulder where I would expect a steelhead to sit, the was one that seemed that to want to play and after a quick yet still heated battle I managed land a fish and did my duty to remove another hatchery steelhead from the gene pool.

Bbq guest...

Steelhead water... Anyone home...

Not far downstream I also found a beautiful little coastal cutthroat that proved to be a sucker for egg imitations and proved to have all of the spunk that I have come to expect from wild native fish.

Egg eating cutthroat

After covering 3-4 miles of new water, we found one of those spots that any steelhead in its right mind going to stop at. The only problem was the best spot was on the other side of the river and required a knarly ford. However no risk no reward and first cast into the hole I hooked into a nice native steelhead that absolutely went nuts before tossing the fly and giving me a good note to end the day on.

A great spot to end the day

Call for Support! Alvord Cutthroat

2011-03-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

The Alvord cutthroat has been declared extinct for most of the past century, however in one small creek in Southern Oregon there is still a remnant of these fish left. Although it is unclear how genetically pure the fish in this creek are, some are phenotypically correct representations of the Alvord cutthroat trout and this may be the last chance to save these fish from extinction. The problem is that closely related Lahontan cutthroat have also been stocked in the creek and the greatly out number the Alvord type fish and seem to be slowly but surely replacing the Alvord type fish. For more information of these fish, please visit http://kortumofdiscovery.wordpress.com/ or http://www.nativetroutflyfishing.com/alvordcutthroat.htm.

Now is the time for action and I urge any of my readers to write letters in support of a restoration project. Such a letter should include the following information:

1. Conducting a transplant of the most "Alvord-like" fish to a stream with suitable habitat. Such a stream should have good riparian habitat and water quality so that a self sustaining population can be created.

2. The stream currently holding these fish should to made catch and release only and no bait to help protect the remain "Alvord-type" fish found there.

3. The restoration of these fish should not hinge on waiting for genetic testing as such testing is timely and this population is too fragile to await such delays. Also this testing is going to be difficult to conduct as the Alvord cutthroat is lacking in quality genetic samples to compare with.

Please submit letters of support for an Alvord phenotype rescue and restoration project to: Shannon Hurn, ODFW District Office, 237 Highway 20 South/PO Box 8, Hines, OR 97738 or via email to shannon.m.hurn@state.or.us

Beyond Expectations

2011-03-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when you think you have things planned out, a spurt of the movement change of plans can be a great thing. That was the case for me over the weekend. My original plan was to take things easy and catch up a bit on things, however a phone call from my buddy Jonathan quickly changed that. It seemed he was in a bit of a bind, he had planned a guided trip on the Olympic Peninsula for steelhead with a friend of his from Colorado, but his friend got the flu the day before the trip. So he had a seat for the trip that needed filling a it just happened the my schedule became clear rather quickly.

So Friday night I got home from work tossed my gear in the car and we headed for the coast. As is common with Forks, WA it rained most of the night, however we woke to clear skies in the morning and met up with our guide Jim Kerr (http://www.raincoastguides.com/) just as the sun was peaking over the horizon. With the rains overnight the rivers had bumped up a bit and the clarity was marginal, but things were dropping and with any luck some fresh fish would be pushing in on the high water. As it would turn out luck was with us...

The river

With steelheading I always set my expectations very low, if I hook a fish it is a great day, it is typically more about just being out there. Therefore when Jonathan got things started out nice sea-run cutthroat and a beautiful 4-5lb native rebright hen, the day had already treated us better that I would hope. However it just kept getting better, as I followed suit with a similar sized wild hen that was still working her way up stream to spawn. As always with steelhead fishing not every piece of choice looking water is going to hold a fish however persistence typically pays off and not to mention it helps having someone as knowledgeable as Jim at the oars. Jim put us on a great looking run with some down timber that he said typical holds a fish or two. He was right and just where you would expect a steelhead to sit, there were two of them and Jonathan and I had a double going. It was quickly clear that Jonathan's fish was the bigger over the two, however it didn't end up stay on long enough for us to see just how big. However my fish decided to hang around a little longer and I ended up landing a beautiful about 8lb chrome buck.

Native steelhead, it doesn't get a whole lot better.

The fishing remained good throughout the day with Jonathan and I each picking up another steelhead. However on of my highlights for the day was still waiting as downriver a ways I got into my biggest fish of the day and this season so far. A wild hen that I hooked part way down a rapid and that decided that it wanted to go up that rapid. This left me being pulled on from both ends, the raft going down the rapid and the fish up and by time we got to the bottom, there were maybe five to ten wraps of backing left on the reel. With that I hoped out of the raft and chased the fish on foot, finally gaining the fly line back by the time it decided to go down the rapid. This worked to our advantage though as we were able to land it in a side channel at the bottom and I briefly admired the 13lb hen before sending her on her way again.

My big fish

In the next hole down Jonathan hooked into a nice fish, however after a couple of minutes the steelhead won out and continued on its way. However a few casts later Jonathan got a consolation prize with a small jack steelhead and then while demonstrating a couple useful small stream steelheading techniques that apparently work wonders Jim got a nice hatchery steelhead.

Jonathan working some prime water.

Jim with his "quick and easy" steelhead

At this point I really would have thought that the day couldn't get any better but it wasn't over yet and Jim still had a couple of tricks up his sleeve. Although we had missed our shot at a double earlier in the day, take two went a little bit better and this time Jonathan got his big fish with about a 13lb hen, while I got another buck that looked about 8 or 9lbs.

Double!!!

All that I can say is that this was one of the most memorable days I have ever had on the water with one of the best guides out there. I really can't image a more knowledgeable guide or more pleasurable person to fish with then Jim and the information and knowledge that Jim passed along would have been well worth the price of admission alone. Add the fishing to the day and things went well above and beyond any expectations as it will be a trips that I will be talking about for along time to come!

The sunset over the Olympics and Lake Crescent, a great end to a great day

Behind the Bubble Curtain: Awesome video...

2011-03-05T22:38:00.000-08:00

Behind the bubble curtain: The Underwater World of Coastal Cutthroat Trout from David Saiget on Vimeo.

Amazing video of Coastal cutthroat in their environment!!!

Evergreen State Anadromous Challenge Complete!

2011-01-05T22:55:00.000-08:00

First off this is an unofficial challenge that I set out to complete a couple of years ago, to catch (on a fly) and photograph the anadromous form of every salmonid in the State of Washington. While this challenge should have been completed back in October, however all of the coastal variety of steelhead that I had caught had been slightly too crafty for me to get a picture. A couple of weeks ago that changed and I finally finished this mini-quest off.

Steelhead - Coastal Rainbow Trout - Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus

Steelhead - Columbia Basin Redband - Oncorhynchus mykiss gairdneri

Coastal Cutthroat Trout - Oncorhynchus clarki clarki

Bull Trout - Salvelinus confluentus

Chinook Salmon - Oncorhynchus tshawytscha

Coho Salmon - Oncorhynchus kisutch

Chum Salmon - Oncorhynchus keta

Pink Salmon - Oncorhynchus gorbuscha

Sockeye Salmon - Oncorhynchus nerka

It is possible that sea-run Dolly Varden may also exist in Washington State, but I have not found any evidence yet to show that the anadromous char found in our waters are anything but bull trout. Plus the fact that it is nearly impossible to tell the two species apart without a genetic test would make it near impossible to prove that a fish is a Dolly and not a Bull, so I consider the quest complete!

Starting things off right

2010-12-11T07:38:00.000-08:00

It is that time of the year again, when the first winter storms start rolling in off of the Pacific and the nearly gravitational pull of winter steelhead finally becomes to strong to ignore. With those rains come the steelhead, but also higher flows on the streams and this typically means that any idea of planning a trip ahead of time is going to lead to disappointment. However high flows on the big famous waters often mean ideal conditions for the smaller and more out of the way streams. With that in mind and despite the fact several inches of rain had put just about all of the rivers along the coast of Washington out of shape, Chris and I headed out for our first winter steelheading trip of the new season.

With the rain still falling and rivers still on the rise, we made plans to check out a few streams on the way out, but with water looking more like chocolate milk we knew we would have our work cut out for us. With most options not available, we headed out to one of my favorite spots, a little cedar stain stream that is usually the last to blow out and the first to come back into shape. This is where the curve ball from left field hit us. With just a few miles to go to reach the water we ran into a brand new logging company gate and a lovely sign indicating that unauthorized motorized vehicles were no longer permitted. The only glimmer of hope for the day was running into a logging company security worker that apparently felt our pain with losing a favorite fishing spot and gave us a spot to go and check out.

With a new bit of intel, we headed back out on the road to do a bit of exploring. With a little help from out friendly gazetteer, we started our quest for steelhead over again on a small piece of water that this time did not have a gate blocking the road. With the other streams out of shape, we were worried that this one might be too, but upon arriving there seemed to be a good two feet of visibility and before even setting foot in the water we spotted a few coho and some cutthroat hanging out behind them.

As if that was a sign over the next few hours we proceeded to have one of the best days of stream fishing for sea-run cutthroat that I have experienced. The fish weren't huge, averaging 12-14", but they were feisty and plentiful making for fast paced action.

An average sea-run cutthroat

This isn't to say that we didn't run into any other fish either as in the first second hole upstream, Chris got a good hook up. However the fish whether salmon or steelhead pulled right into a log jam and broke him off. This hole also was home to a handful of steelhead smolts and cutthroat, but before long the water upstream was calling our names.

As we worked upstream the river became a tangled mess of log jams and side channels, making the going slow, but it was perfect cutthroat habitat all the same. Every likely looking spot seemed to have some sort of fish in it and in a nice dredged out corner hole I had a brief encounter with a nice about 17" cutthroat that jumped a couple of time before tossing the hook. However the best spot we ran into was a little side channel no more than 10 feet across, where on my first cast five cutthroat charged my fly and even after one managed to nab the yarnie I was fishing the rest of the group continued to try to eat the dropper as I fought him.

While at first it seemed like it was just cutthroat holding in this spot, before long we spotted a few coho and something the looked a lot like a steelhead. Both the coho and the steelhead also seemed interested in what we were offering, with Chris and I each hooking a couple coho a piece and Chris briefly hooked the steelhead before the fish seemed to be on to us.

Chris with a healthy sea-run cutthroat

Fishing remained good on the way downstream and we managed to pick up a few more cutthroat before before deciding it was time to head to another spot.

Our next stop, going off of the tip that we had received, was a tributary to one of the larger rivers in the area and right where the two met there were definitely some fish and fishing was good enough to keep us interested until the light started to fade and we had to hike back out.

The next morning with flows dropping, we regrouped and made the hike into one of my favorite spots. The water had a perfect steelhead green tone to it and a couple of feet of visibility, so we figured things might be good. However with the flows so much higher then when I have fished it before it seemed like I was relearning the water all day and many of the typical spots were moving to fast to hold to many fish.

The river

The first few spots we tried didn't seem to have anyone home, however before long we got our sign of where the fish were. With steelhead being such difficult fish to catch, some people tend to get superstitious about things and I would be included in that bunch. This mostly came after Chris revealed the power of redbull to me last year as a steelhead attracting tool and since I have seen an uncanny increase in my catch rate under the influence of this beverage. So when I see a random redbull can laying next to a random trail to the river, lets just say that I have to check things out.

The water at this spot didn't look ideal as the river was moving a little fast, but it was one a corner and seemed to have some depth so it was definitely worth trying. Chris started off downstream a little ways on a little more likely looking seam along a log jam, while I took the corner. We will just say the corner was the place to be. After enough drifts to figure out where the snags on the bottom where, my indicator shot down, I set and a silver bullet steelhead came shooting out of the water. The steelhead wasn't huge, maybe running five or six pounds, but none the less he was a powerful fish and put up quite a battle. However I got a good set and before long I eased him into the shallows. The buck steelhead was a beautiful early component native that was just starting to show signs of his rainbow trout colors. In the wake of hatchery plantings, these early natives have become quite rare in Washington rivers and while this most definitely wasn't my largest steelhead I would rank it as one of the coolest I have caught.

A true wonder of nature a native winter-run steelhead.

Another look at the fish just before release

As I had just got a fish, I turned the spot over to Chris and within just a few minutes he hooked into a nice steelhead as well. The fish gave in a few good runs and jumps and he had it on just long enough for us to see it was another native before it spit the hook. We fished through the "redbull hole" as it was now dubbed for a while and got a few more grabs but weren't able to get anymore solid hook ups.

Continuing downstream we checked out one last corner hole that my buddy Johanthan had hooked a good steelhead out of last year. We weren't able to find any steelhead, but I did have a short encounter with my ninth hooked and lost (in a row) coho of the year. This was a big fish going 15lbs or bigger that gave me several good jumps and effectively spooked the hole before throwing the hook and saying adiós. Without a lot of good fishable water below us, we decided that we might as well move on down the road again and check out another spot. This next spot also required a bit of a hike to get into, if you could call it that, as it really was more of an effort to thrash our way through the bushes to the water.

This was new water to us but the first hole looked pretty good, so we figured that we would start there. It didn't take long to start things off either as on my third cast a nice 7 or 8lb hatchery steelhead grabbed my fly and took off downstream. The fish put up a good fight, but before long he admitted defeat and accepted his fate as my honored guest for an upcoming bbq.

Doing my part to keep hatchery fish out of the gene pool

The next hole down looked just about as good as the first one, so I gave Chris first water again and the events of the "redbull hole" repeated themselves. After only of couple casts he hooked another steelhead, but this fish ran downstream into a boulder garden and pulled the fly loose after a few minutes of heated battle.

Chris working a good hole on the river

However in the very next hole down it was finally Chris' turn to land one and after just a few casts he got a beautiful little chrome hen.

Chris' fish

With three holes fished and three fish hooked, we decided to push our luck a little further headed to to next good looking pool downstream before we lost what was left of the daylight. This pool proved to be most useful in removing the block that I have been fighting all year when it comes to coho. Towards the tailout, my indicator went down and for the fourth time in the day my fly called the "UVA Bomber" proved its value as a big coho started tearing up the water below me. This was a powerful fish and he put up a great fight before finally coming to hand.

10th time's the charm!

My estimated 15lb native coho

By the time that I got the coho in, it was already nearly dark and there didn't seem to be enough light left to continue our streak to five holes in a role. So with that we called it a very successful day and first trip for winter steelhead. I can only hope that this is sign of a good season ahead of us and that all of my last year's exploring is going to start paying off. However at this point it looks like the biggest factor for the season may be the rain. Especially since as of writing this all of the rivers and even the smaller ones are far to high to fish and will be for the foreseeable future.

Fall Chumin'

2010-11-19T13:48:00.000-08:00

Fall is a great time to fish in Washington, especially if you are not too averse to fishing in inclement weather. The biggest problem is that there are too many options, however one my favorites is chasing after chum salmon that flood into the countless small streams draining to the Puget Sound. While chum salmon are often looked down upon by many anglers due to their poorer quality as table fair, they certainly offer everything that one could ask for out of a game fish and more than some of the more respected species can claim. These salmon are brutish battlers, being the both the second largest and second most abundant Pacific salmon. Chum arrive in good numbers and go nuts when hooked. They are great jumpers with my personal record being one that jumped 9 times before coming to hand. As if their jumping ability wasn't enough, these fish can peel some serious line off of a reel and as the fastest swimming of the Pacific salmon seeing backing is a regular occurrence. So while some continue to hold prejudices against these amazing fish, I like to enjoy what I view as a world class fishery in my back yard. (Literally... a chum stream flows through the woods behind my house!)

Chum time

This year has been a bit of strange chum year, with an unusually high number of torrential rain storms throughout October, the fish have been early and in many cases have not paused long enough to be targeted in the estuaries. However with countless streams hosting these fish there is always somewhere to look.

Spot A... No chum...

My first few trips for chum where a bit of false starts, with several hook ups and even a brief run in with coho number 7 (7th hooked and lost this year...) but nothing landed. This is even with the factor of covering some serious ground, from my home streams to the Olympic Peninsula.

Spot B... No chum.... Breath taking views....

Spot C... Chum in the creeks (find the chum; hint under the tree) Big boy hooked and lost and coho lost ... Nothing to hand

However these false starts have since not been an indicator of success as the season goes and by directing my attention to the later timed runs a little closer to home things started working out a bit better. Chum will respond to a variety of tactics from stripping flies to dead drifted indicator fishing and it is always fun to sample a variety of tactics throughout the season. So the other day while fishing with Colton and Jonathan did a bit of everything, although the dead drift seemed to be the favorite on the high tide. In fact within the first half hour it resulted in two fish landed for me and two more lost.

Chum #1 a beautiful hen

Stripping flies is a bit more complicated though, as like other salmon species chum do not eat out of hunger once they get near fresh water, but instead it is more about aggression. With certain colors triggering that response better than others some times the stars just have to align right for a fish that doesn't want to eat any to get up and chase down and eat a fly. Chartreuse, blue, purple, cerise and other bright tones all seem to work well, but when one fails to get a response you can't be afraid to change things up. In the morning apparently blue was the ticket...

A release for me (#2) and a jumping chum for Jonathan (a bit of blurring to protect a sensitive run)

Chum #3 of the day for me...

Blue may have been the ticket, but chum being the battlers that they are thinned out our fly boxes a bit quicker than planned after a few break offs and several backing runs and it was back to the drawing board. When I did finally find the fly again, a chartreuse and orange prawn fished with a slow retrieve it resulted in two loooong-distance releases within 10 casts before a third fish finally broke it off.

However stripped flies have their place and once the chum pack into an area to thick, accidentally snagging fish become a serious consideration and a dead drifted fly is a better choice. As the tide started to drop again, the chum packed in and both Jonathan and I went back to indicators and for him the stars aligned and his first fly caught chum became a reality!

Jonathan's first chum!

With another three weeks on the season in the salt water it is definitely looking like its gonna be a fun fishery this year!

A Great Eastside Escape

2010-11-13T22:43:00.000-08:00

November is a great time to fish my home waters of the Puget Sound. Chum salmon come back in droves and sea-run cutthroat are right on their tails add the to that fact that fishing for resident salmon is just kicking into gear and there are a lot of great options. However November as marks the start of the nearly endless rainy season and with wet and wintry weather already setting in over the region an escape to the rainshadow region east of the Cascade Mountains is always nice. With that in mind my buddies Chris, Jonathan and I made the trek over to the dry side of the mountains to search of some ever elusive redband steelhead.

Coming over the Cascades there was a fresh coat of snow and a 26 degree temperature making it evident that winter is definitely on its way. However on the river there was much more a fall feel in the air, which was further accented by the golden tints on the hills and the salmon spawning in the riffles. With a great looking right were we started the day, it was hard not to at least break out the switch rod for a few minutes and swing some flies. However when Chris walked up to where I was fishing and in the matter of a few casts picked a small steelhead on an egg imitation behind some spawning kings, I figured that matching the "hatch" might be a better choice.

Chris starting the day out right!

After that first fish we started our float down the river and within short order were finding fish, just not the fish we were necessarily looking for.

Jonathan with a nice whitefish

For all of the smack that people talk about whitefish, I certainly can't understand what the complaints are about. They may not have quite the looks and fighting ability of trout, but they are native, aggressively eat flies and really don't fight that bad. Granted they aren't steelhead, but when you start getting to whitefish that are pushing 20" it makes for some fun fishing and breaks up a slow day of steelheading.

A little whitey for me

However we were here for steelhead and not far from where we started out drift we came upon a stretch of water that absolutely screamed steelhead. The deep slot between a couple of rapids also had a number of spawning kings holding in it and sure enough before long I hooked into a good steelhead amongst the salmon. It was a good sized fish and although I seemed like I had a good hook set on it after a five minute tussle the hook popped out and the fish victorious drifted back down into the depths.

Tight line just before a long distance release

With the score now a 1 to 1, we covered the water a bit more but it seemed like the thrashing had put the other fish down, so we continued downstream again. However we didn't get far before I hooked into another fish. At the first sight of a big white belly flashing I was thinking it was a big whitefish, but once the fish started peeling line off of the reel I had a feeling that I had been wrong about that assumption. This fish broke the water a few times, then it was straight into the backing before he decided to change gears and charge back upstream. However I had a good hook set on this one and after several more minutes of heated battle and several last minute runs, I finally was able to bring him into the shallows and land him.

Success!

The fish was a beautiful 6 or 7lb native buck that was still strong despite the approximately 500 mile journey he had made from the ocean. A true wonder of nature!

After watching the fish kick off and bolt back into the river, it was back to fishing. After just a few casts, what would you know another fish grabbed my fly. This fish was smaller and although it put up a great fight, it still didn't quite have the spunk that the previous fish had and we had a bit of an easier time landing it.

A beautiful wild redbanded buck.

After releasing this fish, the steelhead didn't seem to interested in biting, although the whitefish still managed the keep things interesting. Although it didn't seem like it either, with the short days before long the light started to fade away, however Jonathan was still due for a fish and it almost seemed like the steelhead knew it.

Jonathan hooked up, while Chris stands by with the net

Jonathan's fish put up a great battle, but was hooked well and before long he won out and slid the fish into the net. Once again it was another beautiful wild fish, this time a hen on her way upstream to her spawning grounds.

Jonathan with his fish just before release

Jonathan's fish meant the last action of the day, as the sun was setting and with winter right around the corner the temperature was dropping like a rock. However with four steelhead landed, one lost and countless whitefish it was an amazing day. For now it is back to the saltwater for me, although winter steelhead will be just around the corner now!

A Chinook wearing its "fur" coat in preparation for winter

A great end to great day!

Till next season

2010-11-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

The are a couple of things that I have learned while fly fishing, the first thing I have learned is that October in Washington is a very special time to be fishing. The biggest problem is settling on the options, salmon in the rivers, salmon in the saltwater, last blast of lake fishing, dries for trout in the rivers, sea-runs in the Sound... The list goes on and on, to complicate matters, just about everyone of these fisheries is at its prime during this "golden" month. So when that month starts winding down and the fall colors are in full swing, what do I do? I look to one of the least popular of these options, which takes me to my second revelation.

This would be that I am an absolute sucker for small streams. I probably spend more time fishing the vast expanses of the Puget Sound, but the little out of the way waters that nobody wants to trouble with always seem to draw me back and that I is where I wind up fishing when there are too many options available to wrap my head around. Generally speaking small streams aren't going to gain you much of any bragging rights when it comes to big fish, but I have never been one to get held up on big fish as it is. Plus the smallish trout that do typically inhabit these waters also tend to be some of the more gorgeous fish around anyways.

The creek

So with an unusually beautiful end of October afternoon and several free hours on my hands out of the blue, I made the spurt of the moment decision to head to my usual end of the stream season haunt. Timing is everything on little streams like this and with my outing occurring the day after a good rain and right at I high tide, there was at least a decent chance that some sea-run cutthroat would be following the salmon into the creek. So I got a hold of my buddy Colton and we met up at the creek to do some Alaska style egg/ bead fishing, just on a smaller scale. Due to the brush nature of the stream, my 6' 1wt was my weapon of choice, while Colton opted for a little heavier 2wt.

As always with this particular stream the effort to reward ratio was pretty evenly matched, with just enough fish around to keep us from thinking about complaining about the tight brush and tangled log jam messes to climb over and lose flies in. However with my first drift along a great looking undercut bank, the rewards spoke for themselves and in terms of beauty some of these fish are hard to beat.

A native juvenile steel-throat hybrid (naturally occurring steelhead x sea run cutthroat)

This first fish that I caught for the day really caught me off guard as it had cutthroat slashes and spotting, but many of its other traits suggested rainbow trout, especially the smoking gun orange tip on the dorsal fin. Apparently this creek's native steelhead run still hasn't quite gone the way of the Do-Do. I would have said that this was a fluke, but my next three fish were also hybrids providing me with a few explanations on some cutthroat that I had caught over that past few years at the nearest beach that just didn't look right. After that some of the stream's more pure strained cutthroat finally made there presence known and these fish apparently had a health obsession with salmon eggs.

As if I needed more proof that there were a few steelhead calling these waters home, on my last cast of the day I caught a fish that I never expected to encounter, a beautiful 10" rainbow, likely a steelhead smolt that will be heading out to sea before long.

My catch of the day a beautiful rainbow

However I didn't have long to marvel at this fish as Colton on his first cast into the hole hooked into a fish as well and that fish had a bit more size to. The 2wt rod was easily out matched by this fish which decided to run down stream nearly into the backing before turning around and heading back up the other way. Colton got lucky because there were plenty of snags for it to choose from to dislodge the hook, but instead it head more to the main channel and after a few minutes we finally led it into the net. All I have to say is that Colton picked a heck of a fish to end the day and stream season with!

Colton's sea-run

Another look at the 17" cutthroat fresh out of the saltwater

With the stream trout season closed again till next year, it is time to turn my focus back to the salt water and before long winter run steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula.

Got worms?

2010-10-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

Polychaete Worms from Chris Ringlee on Vimeo.

A video that my buddy Chris put together after a recent excursion out on the Puget Sound...

Issac's Ranch

2010-10-15T23:56:00.000-07:00

I love fishing for native salmonids and living in Washington State I am lucky to have some many waters nearby were native fish still manage to maintain a hold. However the flat out truth of the matter is not everywhere you fish is going to have native trout and some of the most phenomenal fisheries hold nonnatives. On such place is a group of private lakes in Eastern Washington called Issac's Ranch the fish are stocked in these lakes, but might as well be wild as they are put in small and absolutely thrive in the fertile waters. In fact these lakes are so fertile that I swear the trout need to be there just in order to control the excess levels of scuds and other aquatic organisms in the lakes. Between bouts of steelheading, Blake and I led a group of anglers on an expedition to these lakes and we will just say it was amazing!!!

Got scuds??? Yes those are all scuds....

The upper lake

While weed growth presented a bit of an obstacle, the fish were feisty, well fed, yet eager to eat more. With the abundance of scuds that would coat anyone's legs that waded in to the lake, it wasn't surprising that the fish were pretty well keyed into the little critters. However buggers worked wonders throughout the day. I think these photos will say everything....

Me with an average to smallish sized rainbow to get things going

My big fish at 24"

A fat 23" bow the fell for my bugger

Blake with a rainstorm rainbow...

Ryan with the big fish of the day at 26"

Although as with any day of fishing there were the slow periods here or there during the day, for the most part the action was fast and our smallest fish landed was a respectable 17"er with the biggest landed being a fat 26"er. Not to mention the 30" torpedo of a fish that Keith hooked into and did battle with for several minutes before being broken off.

Yes I love native trout, but everyone now and again there is something about just going fishing and especially something to getting that big fish fix!

High Desert Steel

2010-10-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

Over the last few decades the decline of anadromous fish throughout the Columbia River drainage has been a major cause for concern. Some stocks are doing better than others, but no doubt all have experienced declines. While the 1990's saw many of these stocks at their breaking point, today some have started to recover and in some instances even stabilize. Over the past weekend Blake and I made our way east of the Cascade Mountains to visit one such high desert fishery.

We made our way out of town on Thursday, but got a bit of a later start than we were hoping for, yet still managed to make it to the river with an hour to spare before dark. So naturally we strung up the rods and hit the water as soon as possible. We decided that with time running short on the day we would just swing flies, so I put on an October Caddis pattern and started fishing. After about 20 minutes of casting and swinging flies my peaceful evening was interrupted by a strong tug on the end of my line nearly ripping my rod out of my hand. I instinctively set on the resistance and was fast into a strong fish. The fish gave me a bit of a dogged fight, doing a bit of the thrashing on the surface, but mostly holding to deeper water and doing its best to test the drag on my reel. However this strategy didn't payoff for this fish and within a few minutes I was sliding her up into the shallows.

My first redband steelhead and my first landed steelhead on the swing

October Caddis.... Yummy...

For the rest of the night we didn't have as much as another bump, but with a steelhead under my belt already things were off to a good start and any pressure there was to catch a fish was long gone.

The next morning we were on the water just as the sun was breaking over the horizon and figured that with conditions right for swinging flies we would start with that. However after a couple of hours of swinging with only a few subtle taps, we decided to switch gears and go with some dead drifted nymphs. Blake went with his switch rod while I went with my 9'6" 6wt and a double stonefly set up.

It didn't take to long for Blake to break the morning skunk, with a little Chinook salmon the decided a small stone fly was looking mighty tasty.

Blake's little Chinook

My turn was next, but this time it was a steelhead on the end of my line. On thing with indicator nymph fishing is that you never quite know what you are going to hook into and I just remember that my first thought upon seeing this 10+lb bruiser jump was "oh great what am I going to do with this!" The fish was more than happy to give me a run for my money too, spending as much time tail walking as in the water and heading straight into my backing. However he also led me straight into Blake's line quicker than he could get it out of the water and using that as ammo broke both of us off. However it was a heck of a ride while it lasted....

After re-rigging I went back up to where I had hooked into the fish, a subtle little seam several feet off of a boulder and within a few casts I had another take and got a solid hook set and it was game on again! When this fish shot out of the water I could have sworn it was the first one's twin and once again I was in for a battle. 10 minutes later and several hundred feet down the bank I finally got the better of the brute, which ended up being a beautiful double redband 30" 10lb hatchery buck.

A good fish to start the day with!

After this fish, Blake decided to head upstream and within a few minutes it was his turn first with another smaller jack Chinook salmon, finally a steelhead found its way to his fly. With the advantage of the switch rod, his battle was much quicker and within a few minutes he brought a beautiful wild buck that was just a hair smaller than my hatchery fish to shore.

Blake's wild fish

We had a good long lull in the fishing after Blake got his fish, but with fish pushing up stream a productive lie isn't going to stay vacant for long, my seam proved its worth again when another steelhead decided my stonefly nymph passed inspection and came rocketing out of the water. This fish was a bit smaller than the first few and my six weight was a bit more evenly match so after a quick battle a bought a beautiful little wild steelhead into the shallows.

My first true wild native Columbia Basin redband steelhead

Shortly after this Blake had a good take and miss, which was followed by good fishless hour leading us to decide it was time for a lunch break and a look at some new water. After a great lunch at a local bakery, we decided that we should see what the water upstream had in store and headed up to a spot that had treated Blake well in the past.

The river

It didn't take long for us to find a fish at this spot and within about 20 minutes Blake, who was twitching a flesh fly across a run good a good grab and a couple minutes later brought a beautiful bull trout to shore. I don't know what it is about bull trout; their rarity, aggressive nature, unique appearance or all of the above, but they have to one of my favorite salmonids and it was an a treat to see Blake catch one of these beautiful char.

Blake's bull

With a bull trout in the neighborhood, we had high hopes for this stretch of river, but after covering nearly a mile of river without as much as a bump it was once again time to move on. With the knowledge that the lower part of the river had been producing in the morning, we head back downstream where we met up with a Mike, a customer from the fly shop that would be doing some lake fishing with us on Saturday. Mike was completely new to steelheading, so we started him out with swinging and showed him the ropes before breaking hitting the water. Blake and Mike took the run where I had gotten the fish on Thursday, while I went upstream where Blake got his wild buck in the morning. For the next 45 minutes things were crazy for me as this spot was apparently thick with fish but after five good hook ups I still hadn't landed a single on. I was also preoccupied with trying to get Blake and Mikes attention so we could try to get him into a fish since they were definitely in here but I also didn't want to give the spot up since there was some anglers upstream eyeballing it very closely. After the fifth failed hookup the finally noticed and Mike made his way to the spot. I started to work my way back to shore to me him, dragging my line behind me when fish number 6 decided to grab. This fish set the hook on itself and I traded Mike spots as I chased the fish downstream. A few minutes later I brought the gorgeous 30" wild hen into the shallows and tailed it.

My flawless bright wild hen steelie

As the day wound down, I got myself one more beautiful wild fish, but unfortunately Mike would have to wait to tangle with his first steelie....

Saturday was to be an epic day of lake fishing and a story for another day (post coming soon!), however Sunday we were back on the river once again.

This time we had a bit more company as three of our customers from the shop, Mike, Devin and Ryan joined us on the water for their first steelhead experiences. After a bit of a crash course on steelheading tactics, everyone hit the water and I got things going with another wild steelhead right of the bat on a small stonefly nymph. Ryan ended up having the hot stick for the day and hooked into 6, but as steelhead are all of them ended up getting the better of him... After that first fish I had three others within feet of shore when they popped off, before I finally had one that decided to stick with me. However this fish had a bit of a different fighting style than a typical steelhead and when I got it into the shallows it turned out that the reason was that it was a Chinook. I was easily as excited to catch the hen Chinook as I was a steelhead at that point and to make things better just as I slid it into the shallows I saw Mike land his first steelhead on the fly 100 yards downstream of me.

My Chinook salmon in her somber spawning tones

An underwater shot of the Chinook

With a long drive home and things slowing down not to long after my Chinook experience, we decided that it would best to get on the road after an amazing few days on the river.

Bull Trout

2010-10-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

Bull Trout from Graham Styler on Vimeo.

An awesome video of bull trout....

Skinny water rainbows

2010-09-25T17:45:00.000-07:00

This summer more than just about any other I can remember was all about the small water for me. A number of factors have influenced this ranging from a love affair with my new 6' 1wt Scott fiberglass rod to an ever shrinking Washington stream season and just an overall drive to be in the outdoors and explore some new water. A few days back, I returned to one of my favorite south Cascades streams to see what was happening since I had last been there a few years ago. The weather for the day couldn't have been better and the flows although a bit low overall were perfect for wading.

The creek

This creek has always had a special appeal for me, the combination of feisty native rainbows and a nearly pristine stretch of old growth forest just make it hard not to like though. I started out by first putting in a bit of leg work and hiked into a canyon that has always seemed to hold the best water on the stream and what would you know within a few casts I was into fish. Like usual the fish were very excepting of dry flies and once hooked would absolutely go nuts. On more that one occasion I was dealing with 8" to 12" rainbows tail-walking across the entire creek and putting my little 1wt to the test. An occurrence that continued to remind me what makes out of the way places like this so special.

A beautiful little native rainbow

I as evening came on some caddis started to come off and the fish got even more aggressive, but the sun goes down quickly in old growth canyon like this one and the fading light was my warning that it was time to hang up the rod for the day and make for home again.

The half light of the canyon

A Yellowstone Quicky

2010-09-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

This past week I was invited to tag along on a quick trip over to the Yellowstone area with my sister and brother-in-law and as my schedule allowed for this to happen a few days later I was on the road. I got off work at five on Monday and next day about the same time after some red eye driving, we were in Jackson Wyoming and on the doorstep of some of the greatest trout streams in North America. Like my last trip to the Rockies, this officially wasn't a fishing trip, but once again what self respecting fly fisherman can go to the Yellowstone area and not at least wet a line.

I originally planned to sneak off and fish some of the waters around Jackson on the first day, but our arrival was greeted by a massive thunderstorm so I decided to hold off for the next day. On Wednesday the second day of the trip, we had a full day to spend in the park, but most of it was to be spent seeing the sights and doing touristy stuff. Of course anyone doing this has to stop at Old Faithful, however our timing was off so with an hour or so to blow we decide to grab some lunch first. I always find that cafeteria at Old Faithful has great food, especially the baked beans which are well worth the stop and putting up with the crowds alone. After an enjoyable lunch the geyser was ready to blow and while this was probably my tenth time seeing Old Faithful go off, it still remains an amazing thing to behold.

Old Faithful

From Old Faithful we worked our way north into Yellowstone cutthroat country where I was hoping to get a chance to pursue some of these beautiful native trout.

The wide open expanses of Northern Yellowstone

However the cutthroat weren't the only reason that we were working our way to this part of the park either. Wildlife viewing was a little slim in the rest of the park this time and in my experience the Lamar Valley has more animals than any other part of the park, so for my brother-in-law who hadn't been to the park since he was a kid this was the perfect place to go. There were some skeptics in the car about this though and so I wagered a pizza for dinner that we would see at least two herds of bison in the valley. Of course this was a bet that took me less then five minutes to win...

When we finally got to the stream that I was hoping to fish, I was amazed to see that my favorite spot was free and better yet there were no cars pulled off to fish for at least a mile above or below it! I rigged up my 4wt with hopper dropper set up and headed down to the water. Unfortunately for me my favorite spot had also changed around a bit since last time I had been there so it took me a while to find some fishy water.

The stream

While searching for the perfect pool I managed to rise a couple of fish to the hopper and had some take downs on the dropper, but didn't feel that it was quite getting their attention enough. This meant a change was in order so I re-rigged with an ever dependable royal pmx, my favorite dry and a size 18 lightning bug as a dropper. Shortly after I finally located that perfect spot on a side channel with a great deep cut bank on one side and figured that it was as good of a spot as any for a cutthroat to hang out in. Sure enough two casts in my dry went down and a good sized cutthroat had grabbed my dropper. The fish had some size to him, but Yellowstone cutthroat aren't known for being the world's best fighting trout and after a bit of thrashing and running I was able to bring the beautiful 16" native cutthroat to hand.

A native Yellowstone cutthroat

After a quick photo the fish darted back into his home pool and I head back up the top of the pool again. Two casts later another fish gulped my dry fly and within a a couple minutes I had another beautiful Yellowstone cutthroat to hand.

Another beautiful Yellowstone cutthroat

With that fish, the light started falling and it was time to make our way out of the park, fighting our way through the bison jams along the way.

The next day my fishing time was even more limited so I head to an old standby spot down in the Tetons to try for some Snake River finespotted cutthroat. Along the way the views were outstanding and we even found a few more bison as well.

The Tetons

The creek with Grand Teton in the background

The stream was as low as I have ever seen it, but the fishing was fast paced as ever. The only problem was the size of the fish was much smaller than what I am typically used to at this spot. I have never been one to get to worried about catching small fish though and these cutthroat were all beautiful and better yet native.

A beautiful albeit small finespotted cutthroat

That being said, bigger fish definitely are nice, so I continued to cover the wate through a pocket water stretch hoping for something a little larger. I did get a couple of lookers and one larger fish to flash at my nymph, but before long my time was up. Even so I got some beautiful trout in some of the most beautiful country in North America so it was great outing by my standards.

A small finespotted cutthroat in his habitat

That stream was my last chance to fish on the trip, but that was fine by me as it isn't everyday I get to hangout in the Rockies. I am now back home again with my sights set on coho and coastal cutthroat in the saltwater.

Putting together the pieces and picking them up again

2010-09-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

Fall on the Puget Sound is a special time, with cutthroat at their grabbiest, migratory salmon returning and the best saltwater dry fly fishing of the year. This dry fly action all revolves around the annual emergence of termites from the driftwood that liters the Puget Sound's shoreline.

The forgotten hatch

The fly

When things come together with this hatch you can get both sea-run cutthroat and resident salmon just going nuts feeding on these big insects on the surface. The dead drift works great, but twitching or skating flies also works and will get some great extremely aggressive takes. Some of the key ingredients to this hatch though include timing, weather and tide.

The other day I made it out in hopes that I could put the pieces together and the cutthroat would be looking up. I got the timing factor right, it was about two hours before dark when the termites start to fly and flying they were. I got half of the weather right, termites are most likely to emerge from the driftwood on sunny evenings, but a slight breeze helps to knock a few of the weak fliers into the water for the waiting trout. This evening though the water was glass.

Termites were a flying

The other factor, probably the most important one out of the bunch was the tide and that was the one that didn't line up. High slack water... Not so ideal and as such it just ended up being a beautiful evening to practice some casting on the beach.

A great time to be on the water

This is not the end of the story though, with the stars not aligning for me during the evening I decided to give things another go in the morning with my buddy Colton. The tides were much more ideal then, even if it wasn't dry fly time. So I put on my favorite subsurface attractor pattern and gave things a go. The first hour was especially slow, then I noticed a couple of fish jump just down the beach from me and things began to change. Within a few casts I hooked a fish that came in quickly and ended up being a little 8" resident coho. This fish was by far outclassed by my 6wt rod but makes for a great sign for this next season's salmon fishery.

The very next cast I hooked another fish, but this time the odds flipped around on me and it was my 6wt that was outclassed. After a few nips the fish slammed my fly and I was locked into battle with a 7lb coho. However good things rarely last long and this was one battle I wasn't going to win. The fish immediately did an under the water roll then charged me, ending the battle with a leap out of the water 10 feet off of my rod tip and launching my fly right back at me.

To say the least I was a bit disappointed after this loss, this is the fifth coho I have locked into this year on the salt and lost and was by far the largest. However this is just the beginning of the season and hopefully this is just a sign that things are picking up. That was at least what I had to keep telling myself as I tried to keep my head on straight and kept casting. And what do you know I this thinking was rewarded! It wasn't another big coho, but instead the fish that I had come here to target a beautiful 14" heavily spotted cutthroat. After that fish though, things once again slowed down and it was time to get of the beach.

A beautiful consolation prize cutthroat

I just arrived in Wyoming today so the next report will be from Yellowstone and the Tetons. Hopefully the cutthroat over here will be willing to bite and help keep my mind off those big coho till I get back!

Olympic trout round two

2010-09-06T17:45:00.000-07:00

August 31st marked the end of the season on three of my favorite trout streams on the Olympic Peninsula and so last week I made a point to make one last trip out there before the close. For further incentive buddy Colton was already camping out at the river so it was an easy call to make the hour and a half trek to the mountains. In this particular river, while the trout are not known for their size, they are known to be very willing risers and that it always a good thing in my book. Also being that this stream was made catch and release only last season, the population started to rebound making it a great little stream.

Colton fishing a tailout

We started our fishing on the lower part of the river and within a few casts we were getting into fish. With an average of about 7" they weren't going to win any awards for size, but what they lacked in that department they made up for in beauty.

The average dry fly eating rainbow

This stretch represented water that I had already fished on a previous trip and I was anxious to try things out a little higher up in the drainage on this trip. This was in part due to my desire to see some new water, but also largely because of rumors of some bigger fish higher up so after covering about a 1/4 mile of river and catching more than our fair share of rainbows it was time to relocate.

The "river" a bit further upstream

Upstream the river was much more "creek-like" in size but the fishing was if possible much faster paced than below. Each likely pocket was good for a trout or two and some of the pools and runs were just packed with fish. The size was a little bit bigger on average with a few more 8-9" fish popping up here and there, but nothing like the rumors I had heard of fish to 16" or so. That was until we got to a hole just above a bit log jam, where some evidence of some bigger trout finally surface. After only a couple of drifts, a thick about 15" fish came up and did a head to tail rise on my fly. Unfortunately I was a bit to slow on the trigger and I missed him. To make matters worst I got two more shots at him and blew those too.

After missing the big guy, we continued upstream where I got another surprise, this time in the form of a brook trout that no doubt dropped down from one of the alpine lakes that feed into the upper reaches.

A brookie surprise

We fished upstream just a bit more, but after a few more holes figured that we would save some water for the next trip. Of course I was also anxious to try my luck at the big guy again on our way back down. However only his smaller next door neighbors were home. Oh well maybe next time....

Back to the Olympics

2010-09-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

Although I made several trips out to the Olympic Peninsula for trout early in the season this year, I haven't done nearly as I would have liked. Pretty much what happened is that this year the already short season for these streams was made even shorter by unusually high flows during June and July. In fact in has only been within the last few weeks that some of the streams have even become considerable options.

Unfishable conditions not so long ago on one of the Olympic streams

However that was then and this is now and with the streams lower, clearer and readily wadeable, things have became a bit more predictable. With the season winding down and conditions right my buddy Colton and I headed out with my favorite underrated Olympic streams.

The river... Slightly more fishable...

We hiked into my favorite run and found the river in perfect condition. Although this stream no longer supports viable steelhead runs, the fish still have steelie genes in them and as such similar tactics can be used. I started out swinging soft hackle nymphs with my 2wt and it didn't take long to get some results. In fact my first cast resulted in a spunky 10" rainbow that slammed the fly as I was stripping back in. A few casts later it was Colton's turn.

Colton hooked up

We worked our way down the run the same way I would if I were steelheading, placing a cast, letting the fly swing across the current, then taking a couple steps down stream and repeating the process. Once we got to the end of the tailout, we repeated he process, this time using dead drifted dries and picking up the fish that we had missed swinging. The fish weren't huge, with most being in the 6" to 8" range, but all of them were well fed and scrappy fighters. Not to say that there weren't bigger ones too and the prospect of catching something over 12" was enough to keep us going.

An average rainbow

We worked a string of about four runs that are close together by either swinging or casting dries until we were satisfied that we had divvied out enough sore lips for one day.

In the shadow of glaciers

2010-08-31T21:48:00.000-07:00

This past week I had sometime off for a little bit of a mini-vacation so my cousin Derek and I decided to make a quick trip over to the Rockies. Officially this trip was more of a vacation/ camping trip than fishing trip, but really what fly fisherman can stand traveling to Montana and not wetting a line.

On the third day of the trip we decided to make a little jaunt into Glacier National Park to do a bit of sight seeing, hiking and of course fishing. What we didn't plan on was that this would also be a day with free admission to the park, resulting in the masses descending upon this alpine wonderland. With plenty of company in toe, we made the winding drive up the Going to the Sun Road first and did the hike into Hidden Lake at the top of Logan Pass. Like usually there was plenty of company on the trail, but not all of them were people...

Some high country locals enjoying the meadows

As with the previous time I made the trip to Glacier I didn't bring fly with me on the hike in and ended up kicking myself all of the way back down the trail.

Hidden Lake... Maybe I will fish it next time.

On the way back out of the park we found a nice stretch of stream that is known to hold native westslope cutthroat and figured that it was as good of a place as any to do a bit of fishing. We rigged up with some bushy attractor dry flies and once on the water we were almost instantly into fish. Most of these fish were on the smallish size, but all of them were beautiful and lots of fun on the little 1wt that I have become accustomed to fishing in such places.

A small but native Westslope cutthroat

Of course this was one of those places were the fishing was less about catching fish and more just about being on the water in one of the most dramatic landscapes on the planet. Needless to say the it was hard to keep my eyes on my dry fly at all times as this was one of those places where you can't forget to look up from the water once and a while and just marvel at your surroundings. This meant more than a few missed fish...

Breath taking comes to mind...

Still there were plenty of fish around including a few nice, albeit photo-shy ones...

A beautiful but not so photogenic cutthroat...

After a few hours on the water and with the light fading it was time to cruise on out of the park and continue traveling across "big sky" country.

One last look at the rugged Northern Rockies

The drier side of things

2010-08-05T17:33:00.000-07:00

One thing that can be said about living in Western Washington is that the weather can be a bit trying. We really don't get the extremes like other places, but the wet and dreary winter weather often refuses to give up its grip even when "summer" arrives. While it hasn't been all that rainy this summer, it has been cool and cloudy and there comes a point when some warmer weather starts to sound really good. With that being said a camp out on the drier side of the state was long over due for me.

The stream

The stream that I chose to camp on drains the Cascades a bit further east than most of the other nearby watersheds and as such tends to be a bit more productive than most of its neighboring streams. Another plus is that this drainage is also inhabited primarily with native species, including redbands, westslope cutthroat, bull trout, as well as anadromous species such as Chinook and coho salmon and diversity like that is always welcomed. It didn't take long for the creek to prove that it is more productive than most of the other nearby streams either, as just about every spot that looked fishy would hold several trout. As with my previous visits to this creek my catch was made up completely of the native redbands. Most of these fish weren't overly large but they had a real thing for dry flies and were scrappy fighters on a 1wt. With one of these fish in particular I thought I would lose hims as he charged straight at a boulder, however instead of trying to use it to shake loose he decided to just jump over it and surprisingly enough he did just that.

A spunky little redband

As evening came on I decided to try my luck a bit further downstream then where I have been before and finally found some of the cutthroat. It seemed that while the redbands preferred the faster water toward to upper parts of the runs, the cutthroat were hanging out in the slower water from mid-run down to the tailouts. Still the ratio of redbands to cutthroat remained about 15 to 1, but with how fast the action was I still started seeing a good few cutties.

A beautiful cutthroat

It aways does amaze me with the diversity of the westslope cutthroat in Washington. The fish in this drainage all were fairly silvery with spotting typical of what you would expect in Montana or Idaho, where as in the higher altitude streams they tend to be more brilliantly colored and more heavily spot. Likely this variation is a product of their environment and isolation, with this drainage being larger and more open to migration and most of the higher streams being small and fragmented.

As the light began to fade I headed back upstream fishing the best water on the way and picking up a few more trout with each stop. I also got a little surprise on my way up when a wild and native Chinook salmon parr grabbed my fly. It was good to see this chunky little guy as Chinook have suffered major declines throughout the Columbia Basin.

A healthy little salmon

A great way to end the day

It was a great day on the water, with a healthy dose of summer weather thrown in and plenty of fish to be had, however it is aways nice to get back to camp in the evening to just relax, reflect on the day and enjoy nature.

Winging it

2010-08-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

I am always on the look out for that perfect mountain stream. No matter how nice of a stream I find in know that there has to be another one out there waiting for me. A few days ago I made the run up to the Cascades with the full intention of checking out a stream that had been on my ever growing "to fish" list. However as has been known to happen with me I over shot my destination by a few miles and ended up somewhere entirely different. My first thought was to just turn around go with the original plan that I had laid out in the first place, but it just happened that my first opportunity to turn around was at a creek crossing. Of course I had to take a look at this random creek before turning around and we will just say that I really liked what I saw! With that I grabbed my 1wt and headed down to the water.

The creek

It seems that about 50-75% of the creeks in the Washington Cascades that look good and have such easy access end up being hardly worth the effort. This was not one of those. On my first cast the shadow of a trout rose from the depths of the small pool I was fishing and slammed my dry. Being my first cast and with me doubting the fishiness of the creek, this rise caught me totally off guard and I missed the fish. However on the next cast I was a bit more prepared and ended up bringing a beautiful little rainbow to hand. This pool produced five or six more smallish trout, before I decided that it was time to go investigate some of the upstream pools.

The ended up being a much more difficult prospect than I originally thought, as the creek got hemmed in by a canyon pretty quickly. However with a bit of cliff climbing I found a beautiful deep pool that screamed trout. My first few casts came up blank, before I noticed a nice sized trout working a foam line along the cliff a few feet in front of me. It took a couple of casts, but I finally caught his attention and he came up and gulped my dry. This trout had a lot of spirit and put up a good battle on the 1wt before finally coming to hand.

A beautifully colored native rainbow

The coloration of this fish immediately struck me as it was very similar to some of the isolated redband subspecies that I have chased down in Oregon and California, and was likely a product of isolation in this small stream. I managed to get one more similarly size fish out of the same spot, this time on my dropper, but that was all that this hole would give up so I decided to move on. The terrain made in impossible to head upstream, so instead I went back down and found another very fishy pool.

The pool

Where I had to work for the fish in the pool upstream, this pool was packed with willing trout and provided me with a good half an hour of fun before the bite went off. The vast majority of these fish were rainbows, although a handful of coastal cutthroat we also inhabiting the pool.

A rainbow with an appetite for a royal PMX

After covering this pool I decided to go with a change of pace and headed a nearby larger piece of water.

One wild Washington river

This river is one of the few Washington Cascade streams that still has a full fledge old growth forest along its banks and is truly wild still. No dams, no development, no clear cuts, everything is just as it is supposed to be. However every with this being the case this particular river in not known for particularly strong trout populations and is touted as a tough fishery. In the hour and a half that I fish this stream, it proved that point as one silver bullet of a rainbow was all that I could manage to find.

A silvery river rainbow

On the way home from the trip I decided to make a quick visit to one of Washington's more notable landmarks for a quick stroll in the high country before finishing my drive.

Mighty Mt. Rainier

A little salty

2010-07-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

Between my bouts on the mountain streams around Washington, I have also been getting out on the Puget Sound a fair bit trying to chase down some coho salmon. This past week the coho finally started to really push into the Sound and with the early morning marine layer a good number of salmon have been up around the surface slashing on bait. However seeing fish and catch fish are two very different things. Coho are notorious for making anglers wish that they could coax a few more feet out of their casting, no matter how far the angler is cast. I was throwing a good 75 to 85 feet of line, but in their typical fashion most of the coho were feeding 100 to 120 feet off shore. As such after a couple early mornings on the water, three hook ups and zero coho landed was all that I had to show for my time.

So what do I do when the coho bite is off, especially once that marine layer burns off? Hunt down some sea-run cutthroat of course!

Sea-runs are kind of the odd ball of the anadromous world. First they are homebodies, instead of travelling thousands of miles out to sea like steelhead or salmon , they are quite content to remain within 5 or 6 miles of their home stream. Cutthroat in the salt water tend to seek out places that remind them of a river, highly diverse structure and a walking pace current and you are typically looking at good cutthroat habitat. They are also rather near shore oriented, generally cruising in two foot to twelve foot deep water. All of these factors make them a perfect target for fly anglers.

Fishing some ideal cutthroat habitat

So the other morning with a all too rare blue bird morning in on the sound and with the salmon off the bite, me and a couple of friends decided to go try and hunt some of these elusive cutthroat down. Cutthroat fishing on the Sound is always a bit of a cat and mouse game and as things go, there wasn't any sign of a cutthroat at the first spot that we tried. However we continued to search and at the next spot that we went to, we finally found them. I was fishing an attractor pattern called that sea-run bugger, that really doesn't look like anything that a right minded cutthroat would want to eat, but yet just about every cutthroat seems hell bent on trying to destroy. Within a handful of casts a beefy 17" cutthroat came across it and tried to do just that. As soon as I set the hook on this fish he was out of the water and in short unison repeated the process three more times. I thought that I finally had him on the ropes after the last jump, but right as I went to bring him to the net the hook popped out, saving me the trouble of taking it out myself.

On my very next cast I only had a chance to make a couple of strips before another cutthroat pummeled my fly. I apparently had a better hookset on this one and after quick but spirited fight I brought the beautiful 15" cutthroat to hand.

Beautiful native sea-run cutthroat in prime condition

Just another look at the fish...

While I we didn't find fish on every cast after that, fishing did stay good for the next hour or so with each of us picking up a could of smaller cutthroat in 10 to 13" range. Then as is typical got the optimum tide window closed and the fish vanished signaling that it was time to call it a day.

Back to the Creek Again

2010-07-25T14:49:00.000-07:00

I don't know exactly what it is about small streams and the trout that inhabit them, but once you catch the bug it is hard not to keep coming back for more. Sure there is always a bigger more famous river or stream down th road and sure the trout are likely to be larger as well, but when I have a day free I find myself heading for the smaller waters. Part of the appeal of these waters is simply the fact that they aren't famous, meaning that once on the water you are unlikely to see another angler. Then there is also the fact that many of these waters flow through some of the most stunning country around. The trout, while generally small, tend to be willing, wild, often times even native and almost always about as beautiful as their surroundings. Simply put things on these smaller waters tend to be just as they are supposed to be and it is this that keeps me coming back.

All of the reasons listed above are what led me back to my favorite little mountain creek a few days ago. This time my buddy Gus joined me and with a little more summer-like weather flows had dropped considerably, putting the creek in prime condition.

Gotta love the smaller things in life...

In fact within about fifty feet of where we started I had landed six fish and risen several others, within a hundred feet I had just flat out lost track already, making for a good start to what would be a very good day.

Native and willing... What more can you ask for?

Just about all of the likely looking pools and pockets produced a few fish, all native westslope cutthroat. In the standard cutthroat fashion, the fish in the creek had eyes for the sky and a sweet tooth for bigger attractor dries and flying ant patterns.

Gus admiring a beautiful little cutthroat

As is typical with these types of streams, as we worked high up into the drainage and further from the "easy" to get to spots, the size of the fish began to increase on average. In the very last section of the creek that we hit, I got my fish of the day a beautiful 12" cutthroat, which put my 2wt to work before finally coming to the net.

A great fish to end the day with

With that fish and our flies tattered from the relentless attacks of the rising cutthroat there was really no reason to continue fishing so we made our way back down stream, refreshed and ready for the next outing.

The Annual Trip to the Creek

2010-06-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

With a day off and some favorable weather for a change, I decided to make my annual pilgrimage to my favorite Cascade Mountain westslope cutthroat stream with a friend of mine Colton. I knew that with the unseasonably wet cool weather that Washington has been experiencing, the creek would be high, but then again it also usually fishes well that way anyways. Arriving at the creek it was definitely higher than what wanted to see, but it was fairly wadeable and the clarity was awesome.

The Creek

With the extra water most of the pockets that I am used to fishing were frothy torrents and the fish were holding in completely different areas than what I am typically used to. The fish in this creek have always been notorious for being keyed in on dries and with some large caddis and fly ants in the air, I decided to start out with the old stand by the royal pmx. Dead drifting the dry through the first pool didn't produce anything, but as soon as I tried skating it, it was fish on. Most of the pockets would hold a cutthroat or two and the dry seemed to be producing good results, but not quite as well as I am used too. Finally I came to a slower run, where the fish started to flat out refuse the dry, so I tried some small and more precise patterns, but the fish didn't like those either. Finally I fell back to my old standby of a royal pmx (smaller size this time) and black copper john dropper. First cast, bam fish!

Copper John...Yummy!

I pulled a few more trout out of this spot before Colton came down and told me I better get up to the next pool because he could see some nice fish in it. Sure enough when I got up there I could see two or three trout hanging out in the tailout, but I was curious to see how many more were there...

The scene above the water

What was under the surface....

A couple of these fish proved to be willing including one of the more beautiful westslopes that I have ever laid eyes on.

What truly keeps me coming back!

Being around lunch time now we decided to hike back out and check out another stream a little further east that was rumored to hold some relatively pure redbands and more cutthroat in the upper reaches. The map that I had showed a road heading up the creek valley, but what it didn't show was the gate that barred access to that road. However when you are served lemons you make lemonade, so we decided to put in a little bit of leg work and check out the lower creek.

The hike into the creek.

Upon arriving at the water it was clear hat this stream was flowing much faster than would be ideal, but with a little searching we quickly wound up on some good looking holding water. We quickly picked up a few small redbands, before being surprised by a small brook trout.

My buddy Colton with a beautiful, but nonnative brook trout

As we got up the valley a little ways, pine trees became a bit more common and a thick hatch of mahogany mayflies keeped in, keeping the fish's eyes on the surface. The creek kept a good ratio of about 3 redbands to 1 brook trout. So it appeared that while the brookies were established here, the redbands were still the dominating force in the stream.

Up the valley

We fished the creek for quite a while, but as we got further up the valley the combination of the high flows and rugged terrain made it impossible to continue upstream so we were forced to head back down. We covered one more side channel that we had passed up on the way down and picked up a few more fish before completing the hike back about.

What I came for!

While conditions have been tough lately, things are setting up nicely for a great late season fishery this year.

Rise Forms: Fly Fishing's Literary Voice

2010-06-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

So there is a new online fly fishing magazine coming to town called Rise Forms. Here's some info.

Launching a new digital fly fishing magazine these days is nothing new—it seems every couple of months one goes online. Many cover the “how to,” “where to” or “what to buy” of the sport. Others are for the eyes: slick images of fantastical locations and gorgeous fish.

While some magazines are for the angling libido, we are pleased to announce a magazine that stimulates the heart and mind of the angler. Rise Forms: Fly fishing’s literary voice, seeks to publish work that conveys both the passion and contemplative nature of fly fishing through high quality, literary articles.

Our website is under development but you can get a flavor of it from the About Us page (http://riseforms.com/about/) and learn about the editorial board and more on both the general philosophy of the magazine as well as the specific topics we hope to cover.

We are in the process of soliciting articles from a wide range of authors covering an array of topics. If you would like to be considered for publication, please read the Submission Guidelines (http://riseforms.com/guidelines/).

If you have any questions or comments about Rise Forms, please use the contact page (http://riseforms.com/contact).

We anticipate launching in the fall of 2010. We look forward to reading your submissions.

The Editorial Board
Rise Forms: Fly fishing's literary voice

Paiute cutthroat update - The Good and the Bad

2010-06-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

So last month I posted about the plight of the Paiute cutthroat, which is a rare trout only native to one small stream in the Sierras of California. The original post (here) was to rally support of the restoration of these fish to their entire native range and there is some good news on that front. A couple weeks ago the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced that they have decided to go ahead with their plan to restore the Paiute to their native range. For the full announcement click here

A California Paiute

The bad news is that the same environmentalist groups that stopped project in the 11th hour last time have filled a law suit again this time. This is even in light of the Environmental Impact Statement put together by the USFWS showing that any impacts would be minimal and that the benefits to ecosystem from eliminating the nonnative trout would by far outweigh any potential impacts. With any luck the courts will see through the baseless lawsuit that this group has brought up and let the facts speak for themselves.

For the news article on the lawsuit click the link below

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/06/17/28157.htm

Too much water...

2010-06-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

The past two months here in Western Washington have seen some of the lousiest weather that I can remember for May and June, with only a handful of days without rain and not a single day with temperatures reaching 80 yet. This has led to a very prolonged spring runoff and streams are much higher than usual for this time of the year. A few days ago I made my way up to the Olympics and tried my luck on one of the smaller drainages, in hopes that things would be a bit more manageable there.

Lots of water....

What I found was a stream that was fishable, but I don't know if I would call it manageable by any means. Clarity was as good as ever, but the stream was about a foot and a half higher than I normally expect, meaning that wading was down right difficult and fording the stream which is required to be successful was near impossible. However when fishing in an old growth forest in the midst of some of the most beautiful and rugged peaks in the lower 48 states any fish are just a bonus.

As is normal with early season Olympic Mountain trout, I started out with a deep tandem nymph rig, consisting of a golden stone imitation up top and a smaller yellow sally imitation below. I found a likely looking slower pocket behind a rock and tossed my rig in. I allowed everything to sink to the bottom and as soon as my flies started to swing at the end of the drift one of the many small rainbows in the stream materialized from the frothy current and grabbed my fly. Although the fish weren't large, with most being 6" to 10" they were beautiful showing abnormally pale sides for rainbows with an extremely prominent red band along the lateral line.

Not the largest rainbow in the stream, but one of the more beautiful ones

Each sizable pocket would invariably give up two or three fish with most grabbing the nymphs on the swing or even while retrieve the flies at the end of the drift. After a while I decided to try some dries out, but the fish stubbornly refused to rise to anything and that type of fishing will have to wait for later in the season when the flows drop and summer actually decides to show up. I fished the stream till the shadows began to lengthen signaling me that it was time to get on the road again. Although it wasn't an ideal day on the water due to the stream conditions anytime I can wet a line on the Peninsula is a good day to me!

Small stream fishing in an old growth forest, life doesn't get much better.

Someone forgot about Mother's Day

2010-05-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

Somebody forgot Mother's Day, but at least it wasn't me. The guilty party would happen to be the Yakima River, but you know what they say better late than never. Each year for the past eight years I make the trip to the Yakima River in early May in hopes of catching the Mother's Day caddis hatch just right. The past two years in a row I got the hatch timed right, but run-off kicked in just a bit too early and the river blew out. This year with a lower than usual snow pack in the Cascades I got lucky and the river levels were low when I planned to hit the river. The lower river levels didn't mean that the caddis were going to show though.

I made my first trip to the river just before after Mother's Day, weather front had shut down the hatch and made fishing a bit of a battle with the elements. Bad weather and a lack of caddis flies coming off wasn't going to stop me though so I set up a couple of nymphs and hit the water.

Wind, rain, thunder and lighting... Perfect time to fish!

If found a piece of water where a side channel met up with the main river forming a great seam and decided that it was as good of a place as any to find a trout. Half way down the seamline my indicator went down and I was tied into a monster. Now I have caught my share of nice trout on the Yakima including a few over 20" and let me just say that they had nothing on this trout. Once he was hook this fish went straight into my backing with me chasing after him. I recovered my fly line once before he decided that he wasn't having anything do with that and took off again. It was on this run that I could feel my leader bouncing along the rocks and before long my 5x tippet and lighting bug dropper gave way, only to leave me scratching my head and wondering what just happened. This encounter with a monster of the deep was enough to keep me on the water for another couple hours, but all that I had to show for it was a couple more hook ups and a 15" trout lost at the net.

Fast forward a week and I was back on the river again and this time the caddis decided to show up too. In fact it was the thickest caddis hatch that I have ever seen on the river with the air looking like a highway of bugs all flying upstream. Not only were the caddis present but the weather was beautiful with sunny skies and a gentle 80 degree breezy; the type of fishing I have been dreaming about all winter!

Beautiful weather on the river note all of the specs in the picture are caddis flies

Flipping rocks is great by spider's webs are better during the hatch... 16 Grannom Caddis?

With the amazing weather I decided to wet wade and rigged up my 4wt with a size 16 hot butt caddis and lighting bug dropper. I started by search the seam that had held the monster last week and while I didn't find him I did find a friend of his...

Not the monster, but a 19"er isn't bad either

As the hatch progressed an evening started coming on I moved to a stretch of river with a nice deep cut bank and some over hanging brush for cover. For this task I armed myself with my new 6' 1wt Scott Fibertouch rod and before long I was able to sneak up on a very active riser. With the low hanging vegetation along the banks the little 6' rod was the perfect tool and within a few casts I got a cast right into the fish's feeding lane and he rose to my dry. With a 1wt you definitely have to finesse things a little more once you get a fish on, but after a quick battle I was still able to bring the 17" trout to the net.

Umm caddis...

A beautiful Yakima Rainbow

After releasing this fish I decided I had done well enough for one day and head back to camp to relax and reflect on a great day on the river.

An Alaskan Adventure: Part 2 Game On

2010-05-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday things didn't quite go as planned however on Thursday we were able to get on our plane and even though it was delayed by an hour for "technical" issues we finally made it to our destination. So we got off the plane at around 1:00pm, got reunited with our waders and flies, got our rental van that would double as our tent for our stay and headed down to the river. On the way to the river we got an Alaskan welcome by a brown bear that was working his way across a meadow.

An Alaska greeting...

The river

After the bear sighting, we made our way to the river, rigged up our rods and started hiking in search of the money water. After putting a few miles behind us on the trail we made our way down to the river where we could see a few steelies holding. Definitely a good sign!! Blake got things kicked off for us and within the first half hour landed a beautiful chrome steelhead on a nymph.

Blake getting things going!

After this we hit a bit of a slow spell. The fish were there, but they just weren't being overly grabby. However Chris was about to change that as he threw on a big Dolly Llama (big streamer) and stated stripping it across the pool. It didn't take long for this to piss one of the fish off, about three strips as a matter of fact and Chris was tied into a big albeit a little dark steelhead. The fish did give him a bit of a run for his money, but Chris won out and brought the brute to hand.

Chris' fish

Although Chris did manage to get a few more fish to chase his fly and Blake hooked up with one other fish things really slowed down so we decided to head upstream to do a bit of exploring. However the rest of the day remained much the same, with me hooking and losing one and Chris getting another dark fish and before long it was time to head back to "camp," for dinner and some sleep.

Back on the trail

A great end to a great day... Oh yeah this was taken at 10:00pm...

So with the end of the day upon us, we re-rigged our rods organized our gear and set our alarm for 4AM to ensure that we would get our pick of spots on the river. As it always does, 4AM rolled around very quickly and within short order we were on the trail and on our way to the river. While I hadn't landed a fish on Thursday, I was hoping that Friday would treat me a bit better especially being that we were the first ones on the river and there had been a good early morning tide for the fish to push in on. It didn't take all of that long before Chris hooked into a fish, however it was a chrome rocket and wasn't didn't want anything to do with him and tossed the hook after a short battle. As Chris recovered from his tussle, I moved into position and after a handful of casts my indicator shot under and I had a fish on! This fish was also a chromer and acted to part displaying all of the aerial acrobatics that you would expect from these fish. However I had a good hookset and before long my switch rod over powered him and I brought the fish in.

My first taste of Alaskan chrome!

This same process played out again shortly after releasing this fish, with Chris tying into and losing another fish and me being fortunate enough to hook into another fish and have it stay buttoned long enough to being it in. Things didn't stop here either, as the wave of fresh fish continued to push into we continued to hook up and be 7:00AM we had already hooked seven fish between us and I had personally brought three in and lost one other right at shore. As the tidal push thinned out, we spread out a bit with Chris moving upstream and getting chromer and another dark buck on the Dolly Llama and earning the nickname the "red dragon" slayer. Blake and I took turns fishing the honey hole for a while and he pulled a nice chrome fish out for we regrouped for lunch.

Blake's chromer

I have to say that "lunch" was more of an excuse to rest the hole than anything else and of course it paid off with one of us hooking up within a few casts, but losing the fish. There was a definite mid-day lull in the action and as such Blake and Chris decided to head downstream to try the pool below us. This move was apparently well timed as within a half hour the next albeit small tidal push of fish worked its way in. While the numbers may have been smaller for this push the size of the fish was not and Chris managed to pull a beautiful 15lb hen still carrying sea lice out of the hole.

Chris with a slab of freshly salted chrome!

Although I had and idea that either Chris or Blake had just gotten a fish as I could here all of the commotion, I didn't have enough time to figure out for sure as I quickly found myself tied into my own fish. I knew that this fish had a bit of size on the others that I had gotten right away, as I quickly tore through most of my fly line and finally came shooting out of the water. Have just released his a couple of minutes ago Chris came running upstream to help me land mine. When we got it in he had to do a bit of a double take because this fish was very nearly the twin of the fish he had just gotten. We snapped a few pictures of this beauty, then sent her back into the current and to continue her journey to start the next generation.

My big fish - note the sea lice by the anal fin

Although we did hook into a few more fish after this one, this would be the last on landed before we had to grab the trail at 3pm to make our way back to the airport for our flight home. However with over 20 fish hooked throughout the day and somewhere around 10 to hand I would have a very hard time complaining!

Gotta love Alaska!

Our ride home... The salmon thirty salmon!

An Alaskan Adventure: Part 1 Juneau

2010-05-04T06:55:00.000-07:00

This trip came into being about a month ago when I got a call out of the blue from my buddy Chris asking if I would be interested in going up to Alaska for a three day steelhead excursion. The answer to that question was a no-brainer and as we got closer to the date Blake also decided to join us for our steelheading adventure. Once it was decided that we were going, we started gathering supplies and for the last month I have spent far more time than I like to admit at my fly vise. However time always has a way of creeping up on you and before we knew it the trip was right in front of us.

The original plan was to fly out of SeaTac Airport on Wednesday make a quick stop in Juneau, then continue on to our final destination giving us about two full days of steelheading. The only problem though was that we were flying stand-by and our original flight filled up so we were forced to take a later flight into Juneau and miss our connecting flight to the steelhead stream. This meant that we were stranded in Juneau for a day, which wouldn't be that bad of a thing as there are steelhead there too, except that all of our check baggage including our waders and most of our flies continued onto to our final destination without us.

Juneau Alaska

With no waders and only a handful of flies, we decided to head to the local fly shop (Juneau Fly Fishing Goods), to weigh out our options and see if there might be anything for us to do. They suggested the mouth of a local stream which gets a decent early push of sea-run Dolly Varden feeding on salmon fry that we might have a chance to hook from shore and without waders. So we grabbed a few local flies from the shop and headed out to the creek mouth. Here we had a bit of a lucky break. As a last minute impulse move I had tossed about a dozen sea-run cutthroat flies into my carry-on bag including a number of fry imitations. The most important of which was the chum baby.

The creek mouth

The tide was falling when we arrived at the mouth of the creek, but the only activity from feeding fish that we saw in the bay was a good distance off shore. To complicate matters the rocks on the beach were like a slip and slide and ones near the water tended to be a barnacle covered making casting a chore due to the line getting stuck. However the bay wasn't the only place to fish here as there was also a saltchuck lake that floods with sea water at high tide and we could see schools of Dolly Varden going nuts feeding on salmon fry. The only problem was once again that they were off shore and we had no waders. However that problem was quickly solved when Blake spotted a canoe at a cabin and got permission to use it.

Getting ready to launch at the saltchuck lake

With the combination of the canoe and chum fry patterns it was game time and once on the water it didn't take long to get into our first Dolly.

A salter Dolly Varden

There were plenty of Dollies in the lake, the only problem was that they were very aggressive and our steelhead worth 8 weight rods couldn't quite detect the strikes quick enough. We did manage to catch a few smallish fish, although I did have one on for a while that was likely 20" or better and even gave my 8wt a run for its money. We fished till the rain started getting a little to steady, then decided to change gears a bit and go do a bit of sight seeing.

The Glacier

From fishing we headed up to the Mendenhall Glacier to check out the impressive hulk of ice, then it was dinner, sleep and in the morning our plane was waiting for us! To be continued...

SAVE THE PAIUTE!! LAST CHANCE!!!!

2010-05-02T00:04:00.000-07:00

The Paiute cutthroat is one of the rarest and most beautiful trout in the world and needs your support! Paiutes are unique in that they are the only North American trout completely lacking body spots. The fish are currently extinct in all of their native stream habitat, which includes roughly 10 miles of Silver King Creek in California below Llewellyn Falls and the US Fish and Wildlife Service and California Department of Fish and Game are proposing to reintroduce them. Last year I had the privilege to fish for these cutthroat and all that I can say is that they are truly amazing fish.

A Paiute cutthroat

For more information on these fish click the following link: Paiute cutthroat

There is an open public comment period for the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed restoration of the Paiute cutthroat into Silver King Creek below Llewellyn Falls until May 10th 2010. I strongly encourage all of my readers to write in support of the plan to reintroduce these fish, as this will be the LAST chance to get your voice heard before the final decision comes down! If you consider yourself a conservation minded angler please take the time to write!

Please write your letters in favor of option # 2 which entails eradicating the non-native trout below Llewellyn Falls using rotenone.

For more information and to see the EIS

http://www.fws.gov/nevada/protected_species/fish/species/pct.html

You can address your comments to:

Robert D. Williams, State Supervisor,

by US mail @

Nevada Fish and Wildlife Office

1340 Financial Boulevard

Suite 234

Reno, NV 89502

Or call: (775) 861-6300

Or fax: (775) 861-6301

First Fish on the Dry 2010 and Updates

2010-04-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

So it has been a bit since I have posted much on the blog, but that will be changing here. I leave Wednesday morning for a few days steelheading and I am sure that there will be plenty to write about when I get back. I will also be looking to do some updates to the website in the near future here as well. Now onto the fishing report...

The other day I headed out to my local "super secret" cutthroat pond with my friend and coworker Justin. Upon arriving there were plenty of midges coming off and a few chum salmon fry swimming in the shallows, so I went with a callibaetis dry and chirony dropper and Justin started out with a little baitfish imitation. This was only my second outing with my new 6' 1wt Scott Fibertouch rod and I was quite curious to see how it dealt with the dry dropper step-up. I picked up a few fish on the dropper and Justin had a few grabs with the fry imitations when the wind kicked up and the fish started actively rising on the far side of the pond. I made my way over and on the first cast was rewarded with a beautiful native coastal cutthroat and my first fish on a dry for 2010!

Dry caught cutty!