Fall in the North Cascades: Part 2

After the amazing fishing of the previous day, we decided to shake things up a bit a try out another stream to see if we couldn't capture magic in a bottle once again. This stream had been on my hit list for years as it hosts a run of Sockeye Salmon and spawning Sockeye typically attract hungry trout and char. On top of that the area is noted for its amazing scenery, so even if the fishing didn’t live up to expectations, the scenery was bound to make it worthwhile. As such, by first light we found ourselves at the trailhead rigged up and ready to go.

A misty morning in the mountains

Upon reaching the river, we saw few signs of life and the first few bends failed to produce any fish.  That finally started to change once we finally spotted some bright red Sockeye holding a tailout. Not far upstream we found another group of Sockeye actively spawning and just downstream Dyllon caught a small Rainbow Trout on an egg imitation. 

A group of Sockeye holding in the river

While Dyllon and TJ were fishing egg imitations, I decided to bring my streamer rod. That choice ended making my day when a Sockeye surprised me and latched onto my black sculpin pattern as I stripped across a run. After a short fight, I slid the beautiful red male Sockeye into the shallows and tailed it. When it comes to catching salmon on a fly rod in the Pacific Northwest, Sockeye are by far the most challenging, with this only being the second anadromous Sockeye I have ever caught.

My fish of the day a bright red Sockeye

Not far upstream from where I caught my Sockeye, we ran into another solid spawning aggregation and it didn’t take long for Dyllon to hook into and land a beautiful Bull Trout.

Dyllon with a nice Bull Trout

As we continued working our way upstream, the river proved to be every bit as beautiful as we expected with aquamarine waters, surrounded by old growth forest and towering glaciated peaks that where cloaked in clouds giving things an ethereal feel. While both Dyllon and TJ hooked into a few more fish no additional trout were landed and as the spawning salmon appeared to be thinning out as we headed upstream, we finally made the call to make our way back downstream.

Dyllon working a beautiful piece of water

On the way downstream, luck favored me again as I got a solid grab on my streamer in a deep hole and landed my first native Rainbow of the trip. While this fish was large by any means, it was spunky and gorgeous.

A beautiful native Rainbow Trout caught on a streamer

Despite fishing our way down to the trail, we didn’t get any more attention after that Rainbow and before we knew it we were leaving the river back on the trail again.

One last look at the river

On the trail out and off to the next stream 

With how well we had done the day before, we made the call to go fish in the same area, albeit a little further upstream to explore some new water. So after a short drive and a bit of bushwhacking to reach the water we found ourselves back on the water again. As we reached the river, the smell of dead salmon was strong in the air and there active spawners digging or sitting on redds throughout the shallows. Just like the previous day, it didn't take us long to find some hungry Bull Trout either, with Dyllon catching a nice mid-teens Bull Trout within the first few minutes. The main attraction for this spot was a nice deep run that was filled with boulders and deep pockets just upstream from where we hit the river.

Dyllon and TJ working a good run

Dyllon and TJ started at the top of the run, while I started a little ways downstream and worked my way up to them. After covering a short distance, I spotted and fishy looking pocket behind a boulder and when I got a good drift in I was rewarded with my first Bull Trout of the day - a 20” pink spotted beauty.

My first Bull Trout of the day

Shortly after releasing my Bull Trout, Dyllon got into a couple of decent Bulls at the top of the run and TJ lost one as well. After covering the lower part of the hole thoroughly, I traded spots with Dyllon and TJ and my egg imitation got the attention of the Bull Trout as I pulled two more out before the fishing slowed down. 

With a treacherous river crossing upstream, we decided to head downriver next and found a spot where two fast side channels merged. While TJ and Dyllon headed to the lower part of this run, I opted to cross to the island between the side channels to hit a particularly fishy piece of water. After a few casts my indicator shot under and seconds later a nice Rainbow came shooting out of the water. While I am always over the moon to catch Bull Trout, the difference in the fight between them and this Rainbow was startling. While Bull Trout stay down and deep with slow but powerful runs, this energetic Rainbow made multiple leaps and lightning fast runs, but even that wasn’t enough and within a couple of minutes I was able to bring the chunky fish to my net.

A chunky native Coastal Rainbow Trout

I turned out that this fish wasn’t the only Rainbow in the hole either and few casts later, I caught its twin. However, after that the action died down again and it was time to catch up with Dyllon and TJ and head further downstream.

The river

When we reached the next spot, we found it thick with spawning salmon and sure enough there were plenty of hungry Bull Trout behind them.

Pink Salmon spawning

As with the previous day, once we found the Bull Trout the fishing was fast a furious, with each hole or riffle producing one or more Bull Trout. At one point we were all three fishing a run and Dyllon and TJ hooked into a double, I jokingly said let’s make it a triple and as fate would have it when I tossed my line in I almost immediately hooked into a Bull Tout. With triples on the table, the fishing over the next couple hours once again exceeded expectations with each of us landing our fair share of beautiful Bull Trout.

Another Bull Trout

While the fishing was amazing, before I knew it, it was late afternoon and time for me to hit the road if I wanted to get back home at a reasonable hour. While it was time for me to head out, Dyllon and TJ were staying for another day, so we said our goodbyes and I hit the road bound for home.

Fall colors along the river

All I can say is that this trip made me feel extremely privileged to call the Pacific Northwest home. It is easy to focus and countless challenges facing threatened populations of salmon and Bull Trout, but it is heartening to know that with quality habitat are still places where they are found in abundance. As such I can’t wait for my next opportunity to get back up north in pursuit of these beautiful char.

Fall in the North Cascades: Part 1

So far this year, the "egg hatch" in the Pacific Northwest has provided some phenomenal fishing for beautiful native trout. With this "hatch" winding down on some of my favorite rivers, my friend Dyllon and I made plans to travel a little further afield to the rivers of the North Cascades where the salmon spawning was still going strong. We got on the road by mid-morning and after battling our way through Seattle traffic, we found ourselves driving up the river valley and into the towering peaks of the North Cascades by mid-afternoon. We had selected a river were Dyllon had done well in the past and luckily when we pulled up we were the only ones there. On top of the salominds that I am used to targeting such as Coastal Rainbow and Cutthroat Trout, this stream also happened to be one of a handful of places where it is legal to target Bull Trout and the possibility of encountering one of these elusive char just added to the excitement. 

Fall colors along the steam

Anticipation was running high as we grabbed our gear and headed for the water. When we reached the stream we found a side channel packed with spawning Pink Salmon - a good indication that we were in the right spot.  

Pink Salmon spawning in a side channel

Although the few deep pockets in the side channel failed to produce anything thing, when we got to where two braids came together, I drifted and egg imitation over a drop off and watched my indicator to shoot under. When I set the hook, it was clear that this fish had some size to it and while it took some good runs, the fish stubbornly stayed down and deep. After a couple minutes of back and forth tug of war, I finally got an eye of the fish and was happy to see it was a solid Bull Trout!  Moments later I was able to slide it into the net and admire the beautiful 20” Bull Trout. Across my native trout adventures and especially in the Pacific Northwest, Bull Trout have always been one of the must elusive salmonids. These predatory char are emblematic of quality habitat and as such have become rare across much of the region. This resulted in them being listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and with so anytime I find one at the end of my line is something worth being excited about.

Off to a great start! A beautiful Bull Trout!

After I released the Bull Trout, Dyllon decided to head upstream and fish a riffle, while I kept working the drop off. The next dozen drifts along the seam failed to produce any grabs, but when I put a cast in the slower water on the inside of the seam, my indicator made it about halfway through its drift before once again plunging into the depths. While the Bull Trout had been a solid fish, it was immediately clear that this fish had a bit more size to it, but the fight was way different than the Bull Trout. While this fish also stayed down and deep, it also started doing under water cartwheels, which gave me a solid hunch as to what was on the end of my line. Sure enough after putting my trusty 6WT Scott S4 through the paces, the fish finally tired and I brought bright wild Coho hen to the net.

Second fish of the day, a wild female Coho just starting to show some spawning colors

At this point, we were less than half an hour into our trip and I had already caught two native species and when I looked up Dyllon was hooked into a decent fish as well, (which turned out to be another Bull Trout) so things were definitely off two a good start!

Dyllon working a log jam just upstream

While Dyllon continued upstream, I switched over to my streamer rod and started twitching a black sculpin through the depths. After several casts I had a massive Coho chase my streamer right up to the rod tip, but didn't take and when I lost my streamer in a tree a few casts later I decided it was time to move on and catch up with Dyllon.

On my way upstream I decided to fish the riffle Dyllon had been working and within a couple casts I hooked into a nice fish, which appeared to be another Bull Trout, but it got in the fast water and tossed the hook. After several follow up casts failed to produce any other takers, I decided it was time to catch up with Dyllon. When I caught up with Dyllon he was wrapping up working riffle pouring into the mess of logs and indicated that he had already caught three Bull Trout. While he had already worked the spot pretty thoroughly, I was fishing a slightly different looking egg than him and decided to give it a shot. After a few casts I briefly hooked up with a fish, but lost whatever it was and nobody else seemed to be interested in the riffle so I shifted my attention to the back of the hole. To do so I had to play things on the dangerous side and float my rig tight against the log jam, but right as it floated past a root wad my indicator shoot under and I hooked into and landed another Bull Trout, which was followed by yet another on the next cast.

A darkly colored Bull Trout

After releasing these fish, I moved upstream to the next run and got a surprise when I tossed my line in the shallows to set up for my next cast and a humped out Pink Salmon shot over and latched on to my egg pattern. This Pink was not particularly fresh and beyond a few quick runs didn't put up much of a fight so I was able to swing it into the shallows and remove the hook and send it back on its way.

A male Pink or "humpy" Salmon

Once I turned the Pink Salmon loose, I continued on to the next riffle. The tailout upstream of this riffle had a bunch of spawning Pink Salmon and there were 4 or 5 Chinook holding at the head of the riffle as well. With all of this spawning activity, Dyllon was able to get a decent Bull Trout just behind the Chinook and when he moved on I gave it a try. With the best holding water just downstream of the Chinook, I started by casting upstream and to the right of them and letting my rig sink and after a few casts I had a Bull Trout grab but I lost it. I decided to put in a few more casts to see if there were anymore trout around, but was surprised when one of the male Chinook broke from the group and took my egg imitation. This was not a small Chinook and it immediately took off and started peeling line, making it clear that I was severely under-gunned with my 6WT. As soon as the fight began it was over as the hook popped loose mid run. While I certainly would have loved to land a Chinook, I was also relieved when this fish popped off, as my rod was clearly outclassed.

. 

Looking upstream

Not wanting to risk another encounter with a Chinook, I kept moving upstream and caught up with Dyllon at a trench where the side channel split from the mainstem. Dyllon took the lower part of the trench, while I took the head of the trench and after just a couple casts my indicator shot under and I was hooked into a hefty fish. This fish stayed down and I had a hard time getting an eye on it to see just how big it was. However, once it finally came up Dyllon said I was going to want a hand with the net one this one and I had to agree. Luckily the fish stayed in the hole and most played a game of tug of war and after a few minutes, I guided it over to Dyllon waiting with the net. The Bull Trout in the net, was 25" battle scarred beauty that was starting to show its spawning colors with a gorgeous pale yellow tone showing along the belly and was definitely my fish of the day.

Releasing a beautiful 25" Bull Trout - my fish of the day

After releasing the big Bull Trout, Dyllon and I continued upstream, to a gorgeous run that screamed fish. This time Dyllon took point and headed for the top of the run, while I decided to fish my way upstream with a streamer. It didn't take long for Dyllon to start getting into fish and it seemed that every time I looked up he was hooked into a Bull Trout. While it wasn't lights out with the streamer, about halfway up the run, I watched a female Pink Salmon dart across the run to chase it down. 

A female Pink Salmon that took a black sculpin pattern

After releasing the Pink Salmon, I had a long gap between grabs before another fish hammered the streamer. This fish immediately began doing the underwater cartwheels characteristic of Coho Salmon and despite being a big fish, it basically just cartwheeled its way straight to the net. After snapping a quick photo I watched the Coho shoot back into the pool and decided it was time to switch back to my nymph rig again.

A beautiful rose red hook-nosed male Coho Salmon

While I had been working the streamer though the hole, Dyllon had managed to pull four Bull Trout out of the riffle at the top end run. However, despite this when I came in with a slightly different colored egg imitation, it seemed like I had first water and I proceeded to catch four nice Bull Trout out of the spot myself. As we worked our way upstream, the fishing continued to exceed anything that I would have expected, with each run, riffle or side channel producing several more solid Bull Trout, until we finally came to a particularly challenging river crossing and opted to head back downstream. With a good stretch of water between us and the car, we decided to fish our way back downstream, and while things were a bit slower each spot continued to produce another Bull Trout or two.

Dyllon hooked into another Bull Trout

This was until we came to a nice run that I had passed over, but Dyllon had caught a single Bull Trout out of. With our previous light coverage of the run we decided to work it a little more thoroughly and it didn't take long for it to produce results. With both Dyllon and I hooking into a pair of solid fish just moments from each other, resulting in a 20" Bull Trout double. 

Not bad for a double - dual 20" Bull Trout

After releasing our double, I noted several Chinook on a redd towards the back of the run and when I threw a cast next to them, sure enough my indicator shot under and I landed yet another mid-teens Bull Trout. Slightly downstream of the Chinook there were even more Bull Trout and Dyllon and I took turns working the run and landed another 4 between us including my second best of the day at 22".

Me with another big Bull Trout

Spawned out salmon along the river

By the time we reached the car, we both had long since lost count of how many fish we had encountered, but needless to say it goes down as one of the best days on the water I can remember and certainly by far the best Bull Trout fishing I have ever had. 

While the day had already far exceeded my expectations, we still had a bit of daylight left and Dyllon said he had a couple spots in mind, so we headed back to the river. Unfortunately the first two spots already had folks fishing them targeting salmon and when we finally found a piece of water to ourselves, daylight was running very short indeed. That didn't stop the Bull Trout though and as soon as we found a riffle with some spawning salmon, the Bull Trout once again started showing themselves although keeping them on provide challenging and I only went 1 for 5 on my hook up to landing ratio.

Yet another Bull Trout

Right as we were getting ready to leave, I saw a nice sized fish that looked be a Coho roll in the tailout and I was pleasantly surprised when I tossed a casted just upstream and it went for it. After a couple of minutes I brought a beautiful rosy red Coho to hand, making for a perfect time to call it a day.

A last light hook nosed Coho

All I can say is that this day will go down as one of the best I can remember having outside of Alaska and fishing behind all of the spawning salmon, it really felt more like Alaska than the Pacific Northwest. However, this wasn't the end of our North Cascades adventure, as we had planned to this to be a multi day affair with our friend TJ meeting in the evening so the three of us could be back on the river first thing in the morning.

Summer in the Olympics: Part 2

 After our last trip scouting for some new water on the Olympic Peninsula, Chris and I did some additional research a found another promising stream to check out. This one was a bit more off the beaten path and would require some serious leg work, but looked very promising. Per the norm in the Olympics, the morning we headed out dawned gray with a fresh marine layer rolling in off the Pacific. We started up the trail through towering old growth, but when we caught our first glimpse of the river, it was too much to resist and we decided to just start fishing right there. As it would turn out, this paid off and a few casts in, Chris caught a nice wild Spring Chinook jack. With our first taste of success on the river, we decide we would just use the river as our trail for the day and started our way upstream. From here things didn't slow down and the river was absolutely gorgeous and each hole and run seemed to have something in it.

Hooked into a fish

A beautiful native Coastal Cutthroat

A beautiful Bull Trout

Working a good seam

A little after lunch, Chris was working on other best runs of the day, when he hooked into something big. The fish turned out to be a bright summer run of about 7-8lbs and was not having any of it. Chris fought it for about 10 minutes until finally he was able to get it in netting range. However, the fish decided it wanted to do one more run, and unfortunately after a tail-wagging leap it spit the hook. We worked the hole a bit longer, but nothing else wanted to bite and with our excitement high, we continued upstream.

Chris working the summer run hole

Very fresh prints from a bear we could hear running off

As the day wore on, we found ourselves at the best hole we had seen all day. We got pretty focused on fishing and each hooked a couple of fish in the hole, when we started to notice that the sun was starting to get low in the sky. It was at this point that we realized that we hadn't stopped moving almost all day and had covered a bit more ground than we had expected and needed to find the trail and start heading back. Unfortunately, this was more easily said than done and ended up being a rough 1/2 hour of bush whacking until we finally found the trail. The hike out made it quite apparent just how far we had gone, with us dragging by the time we reached the trailhead at dusk after what we end up figuring out was a 14 mile day trip.

A beautiful stretch of the river

A giant spruce tree on the way out.

My next adventure was to a couple of my favorite Olympic streams with one of my neighbor Dyllon. As summer was wearing on at this point, I was hoping that the native Rainbows would be starting to think about spawning salmon and the eggs that would be right around the corner. With luck this same thing and a recent rain would also draw a few sea-run Cutthroat in from the salt water as well. The first stream of the day we hit, is usually more productive, albeit with slightly smaller fish. However, today fishing proved very slow and after covering a mile of water and only getting one small Cutthroat we decided to try the other river. 

The first few holes we fished on the next river were just as slow as the last river, but when we got down to one of the "salmon tanks" on the lower river, that changed. I had a large streamer imitating a lamprey on and started with a short perhaps 20' roll cast just to get some line out. However, I watched as a big Cutthroat quickly shot out from behind a log and charged my streamer. The fish seemed to hesitate, so I gave it a couple quick twitches before letting my fly fall and the Cutthroat crushed the fly. The fight was pretty quick as the Cutthroat was close to shore already and I really wanted to avoid spoking the hole. The fish was beautiful and looked as though it had only been out of the saltwater for a day or two at most. 

My big Cutthroat

I gave my Dyllon the next shot at the hole and after floating a few feet, his indicator went down and he hooked into a big Rainbow. This fish was hooked right in the heart of the hole and put up quite a battle before coming in, effective spooking the rest of the hole.

The Rainbow

We figured we had one more hole we could hit before the end of the day and this one also looked promising, as I could see a big Cutthroat sitting in the tail out when we approached. However, before we could get more than a couple casts in a flotilla of inner tubers came floating down the river and spooked the hole and with that we decided that since we had already gotten a couple nice fish and it was time to head back.

Summer in the Olympics: Part 1

With the challenges that 2020 presented, I remained local over the summer and decided to explore some of my old favorite spots as well as some streams in the Olympics that I had not had a chance to check out yet. One of the old spots that I visited for the season is one of my favorite rivers in the Northwest and without a doubt the stream that I have spent the most time on as I did much of my research for my Masters Thesis on it.  The upper river is full of great pocket water and lots of small native Coastal Rainbows that eagerly rise to any dry fly. 

An overcast day in the Olympics

A small native rainbow

As usual the spot didn't disappoint and a couple hours yielded over a dozen 6-12" spunky native Coastal Rainbow Trout.

Since I moved to Olympia a little over a year ago, I have been trying to learn some of the local beaches a bit better. One of these is only 5 minutes from my house, so I was able get out to it a few times in July when the tides we favorable and found a few sea-run Cutthroat that were feeding on polychaete worms.

The beach

A decent sea-run Coastal Cutthroat

The next trip out, I wanted check out a river in Olympic National Park that I suspected might have a good Rainbow Trout fishery and potentially some summer Steelhead. With that my buddy Chris joined me and we made the drive out to the Peninsula. Just before we arrived at the trailhead, a black bear darted across the road, as if to indicate that we had entered the wilderness. Based on our scouring over maps, there was a promising stretch of river through a small canyon about four miles up the trail so we got our waders on and hit the trail. The day had started of gray as so many on the Peninsula do and the hike through the old growth forest was a pleasant one, especially with a the bumper crop of huckleberries that this summer had presented. 

 A beautiful stretch of water deep in the Olympic 

When we got to the river, we geared up with big nymphs and streamers, the favored flies for big Rainbows and summer runs in the Olympics in my experience. One of the first holes that we came to, Chris spotted what looked like a nice summer run sitting the tail out. We first tried our nymphs to no avail, however a swung streamer resulted in a ferocious take for Chris. Pretty quickly by the way the fish was fighting it became apparent that it was not a summer run but a big Bull Trout, which Chris quickly landed and we sent it on its way again.

Chris' big Bull Trout

From this point on, we got a take in almost every hole, but didn't find the big Rainbows or summer runs we were looking for. Instead it seemed that Bull Trout and Whitefish were the predominant fish in the stretch of river. Once we were out of the canyon, the fishing pretty much died on us, so we hit the trail and headed back with thoughts of our next outing already on our minds.

After work outing

With things settling down a bit here in Washington after a crazy spring, I have had a bit more time to get out for some after work outings. One thing that has been nice with moving to Olympia besides being much closer to work, is that I am also much closer to a number of fishing spots ranging from beaches to mountain and coastal streams. Yesterday I had the opportunity to fish a nearby stream after work. I had a dry dropper set up to try, but there just wasn't any surface activity going on so I decided to prospect with a small streamer that has worked well for Coastal Cutthroat in the past. While I did have a few hits with the streamer while working through some likely runs, it wasn't until I got to the last hole of the day that it actually produced with a solid take. The fish has some serious power behind it, putting a good bend in my fly rod and staying deep right until the very end. Once the fish came up to the net I was pleasantly surprised to see it was a nice Bull Trout coming in at about 17". Not bad for a quick evening outing.

A nice evening Bull Trout

A summer's end backcountry trek

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 and 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

An old growth Douglas Fir

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 for the river. Luckily we didn't have to go far after our hike in to find good water, as there 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 streamer 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 Rainbows, 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 bait hook 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 evening we discussed options for the next day, which included checking out the river upstream or 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 ravine that led down to 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 anyone and was something that would definitely deter most anglers and left us feeling rather battered.

At the bottom we found a beautiful river with ice blue pools and pocket water and lined with virgin stands of massive Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar. 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" native Coastal 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 pocket water 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 pocket water 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, but even that didn't didn't seem to get any reaction. If it weren't for Colton seeing a good sized fish cruise into the hole from the tail out, we would have assumed it was empty. After a good half hour of fishing this hole, I drifted my fly over 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 the fishing to remain good, hard work but good. The river was a bit fast in this stretch and required a bit of brush whacking 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 another little Bull for Colton as well and while Colton continued to work this spot I headed upstream and found yet another little Bull Trout. I also found the end of the line for upstream progress, as the combo of a cliff and some deep fast water barred the way upstream just above. It was also starting to get 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 next pool downstream I reconnected with Colton who had just hooked into a nice sized Rainbow, that could have been the twin to the one that I caught earlier.

Another beautiful Rainbow

With Colton's big Rainbow spooking the 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 wasp nest number two of the trip. This led to us making even better time as we were both running to get away from wasps. However, as I was the one to step in the nest they pretty good and I had to jump in the river to get away from them. 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 Bull Trout that we had run into, we shouldn't have been surprised to find a fish of this size in here but Bulls are not the most common fish either. In typical Bull Trout fashion, 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" native 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.

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. 

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

Spawned out Pink

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.

Hiking 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 the wasps 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.