A taste of things to come

While I love summertime in the Pacific Northwest, my favorite time to be out fishing is as summer is coming to an end as this marks the start of the salmon spawning season. For those who know where to look the fishing in western Washington streams begins to resemble that in Alaska for the brief window when the trout are focused on eggs. While that season is still off on the horizon, the trout that key in on eggs in September and October are still around even if they are much hard to find. With that in mind, I was recently able to make a couple of outings on one of these special streams to see if I couldn't find any early takers.

Dyllon was able to join me on the first outing and given how early it was in the season, Dyllon opted to fish a streamer, while I brought two rods, also using a streamer as well as a double nymph rig with a cased caddis and egg dropper. My reasoning on the egg imitation was that the first salmon should be starting to enter the river and while they wouldn't be spawning yet, it should at least get the trout interested in eggs again. We only had a few hours to fish, but lucked out on our weather as it was a classic blue bird summer day perfect for wet wading. 

Upon hitting the river, we started working our way upstream fishing any likely looking water as we went. A couple runs upstream we saw our first signs of as Dyllon briefly hooked up with a 12" to 14" Cutthroat that had been holding in a trench next to a log, but unfortunately it popped off. The next corner upstream, which was a deep pool that slowly passed along the cliff face proved even more lively as shortly after we arrived are salmon rolled, signaling that yes indeed the season is upon us. Being slow and deep, Dyllon and I both opted for streams and within just a couple casts I spotted a nice Cutthroat in the 18" range chasing my streamer across the hole, but it was unwilling to commit. This ended up being the story of this spot, as we each had a few grabs, but mostly just saw Cutthroat inspecting our flies, with one even chasing my streamer right up to the rod tip. After putting in a solid 45 minutes on the hole with no hookups, we admitted defeat continued on. 

Dyllon working a streamer through a great piece of holding water

One thing about Pacific Northwest rivers, is that they are dynamic and each season requires relearning where all the best holding water is. As we worked our way upstream there had been subtle changes, with a run looking better here and a trench filled in there, but it wasn't until we were on the water for a couple hours that we saw the first major change. Luckily for us this was a serious improvement, as a couple channels that had previously be separate combined to create an amazing riffle and pool. I made one prospecting cast when we reached the pool, but it looked best fished from the opposite shore, so I decided to cross and flipped my nymph rig in as I went. I had almost reached the opposite bank and my indicator was perhaps a quarter of the way down the riffle, when it was sharply yanked under. Moments later, a massive Rainbow that was well over 20" came shooting out of the water, and I was hooked into a nice fish. For a minute or so, the fish stayed deep in the run, but then after a couple more leaps took off downstream like a freight train. I was able to get the fish to turn as it reached the tailout, but it kept working it way towards a braid at the end of the pool with a log in it. Dyllon was on the net and headed downstream to try and keep the fish from going down the channel. However, with Dyllon still working his way into position and the fish moving closer to the log, I put just a little too much pressure on it and the hook came flying back at me. Dyllon had a chance to get a good eye on the fish beforehand and estimated it at around 24".  Over a week later as I am writing this and that fish continues to haunt me, as I think of all of the things I could have done differently, but you just can't get them all.

After I lost the big one, Dyllon started working the pool with his streamer and after settling my heart rate down a bit I finally got back in with my nymph rig again. On the first cast, my indicator bobbed under again, but there was nobody there when I set, but on the very next cast when it went under again I got a solid hookset.  This fish wasn't nearly as big as the first one, but still put up a good fight, taking line and thrashing on the surface. However, after a couple minutes I was able to regain all of my line and Dyllon netted a beautiful bright 16" native Rainbow for me.

Not quite the big one, but still a nice native Rainbow at 16"

We worked the hole for a while longer, but there didn't seem to be any additional takers, and while we were nearing the end of our allotted time on the water we decided to try a couple more bends to see how the river had changed. Along the way we spooked on smallish Chinook and I found myself noting how all of the downed trees in the river would make for some great fun with a mouse pattern, before we came to a great looking run. Dyllon took point on this one and almost immediately had a Cutthroat dart out from under a downed tree to great his streamer, but he wasn't able to hook up. After one more grab, the Cutthroat refused to come back so I stepped in with my nymph rig but could find any willing takers. However, as I was fishing I started to notice shapes moving on the bottom and after a moment of observation noticed about a dozen Chinook tucked under a downed alder in the run. Dyllon and I watched the salmon for a few minutes, before realizing that we had gone over our time on the water and had beat feet back to the car.

Chinook Salmon holding water

After the great outing the Dyllon and I had, my buddy Chris let me know that he was free to for a quick morning outing and as our schedules lined up, I jumped at the opportunity to return the the river again. There were a couple differences with this outing right off the bat. The first was that unlike the last outing that was bright and sunny, this morning was starting off overcast and second was that this time in addition to the nymph and streamer rod I also brought along a 5 WT with a mouse pattern on it. The next thing we changed was starting out further upstream and working our way down to where Dyllon and I had ended our day.

The first pool that we came to had a massive log jam and looked like great streamer water and sure enough, Chris had a fish grab on his first cast, while I watched a 16"+ trout chase my streamer across the hole, but after that the fish refused to come back and we kept moving. We had similar results at the next couple holes, with Chris catching one small Coastal Cutthroat, before we got back to the water Dyllon and I had ended on. 

After finding a small hole with a lot of downed trees, I pulled out the mouse rig and started twitching it across the surface. About half way down the hole, I landed a cast an inch or two off the downed tree and just as I started skittering the mouse away a Cutthroat pull out from cover and inhaled it. I got a decent hook set but had to work hard to keep the 14" to 15" Cutthroat out of the trees. I succeed at keeping trout out of the wood, but just as I was bring it to the net, the hook popped loose and the Cutthroat darted back to its cover.

Mousing water

After my encounter with the mouse eating Cutthroat, we continued downstream and verified that the Chinook were all still tucked under their alder, but couldn't find any willing trout in the hole this time. Next we found ourselves back at the pools that had held the big trout on the last outing, but this trip wasn't the same as last time and after running multiple drifts through I didn't get any takes. However, when Chris threw his nymph rig in it didn't take long for him to get a grab and after a short fight he brought a small heavily spotted Rainbow to the net.

Chris' Rainbow

Shortly after Chris released his fish, the sun finally broke through the morning marine layer and the day started to warm up. Unfortunately, the fishing went icy cold and despite us cover another 1/2 mile of river we only saw a few more salmon as the trout appeared to disappear. However, it was still a gorgeous day on the water and I had fun twitching my mouse pattern along any structure I could find and we even had a couple Deer cross the river just downstream of us.

Mousing along a log jam

Deer crossing the river

Despite, not having many fish to hand, it appears that the season is off to a good start and while I am reluctant to see summer slip away especially with a couple trips for native Cutthroat on the horizon, I also now find myself longing for the cool crisp September days just around the corner.