In the shadow of glaciers

This past week I had sometime off and took a little bit of a mini-vacation so my cousin Derek 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 tow, 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 usual 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 to Hidden Lake 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 a stream that holds 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 of Montana

The drier side of things

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 campout 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. Another plus is that this drainage is that it is 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 it as it charged straight at a boulder, however instead of trying to use it to shake loose it decided to just jump right over it.

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 tail outs. 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 Westslopes.

A beautiful Westslope Cutthroat

The diversity of the Westslope Cutthroat in Washington always does amaze me. The fish in this drainage were all 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, life histories 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 Chinook 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 always nice to get back to camp in the evening to just relax, reflect on the day and enjoy nature.

Winging it

I am always on the lookout 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, 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 I really liked what I saw! With that I had a new plan and 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 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.

That 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 its attention and the trout 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 Rainbow Trout

The coloration of this fish immediately struck me as compared to native Coastal Rainbow Trout that I am used to, this fish was much more vibrantly colored and looked much more like McCloud River Redband, making me wonder about the stocking history of the watershed. Additionally, ever now and again I would encounter a very clear Cuttbow hybrid. After the Redband like fish, 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 the appeared to be Coastal Cutthroat or hybrids.

A Cuttbow with an appetite for a Royal PMX

After covering this pool I decided to go with a change of pace and headed to a nearby larger piece of water. This river is one of the few Washington Cascade streams that still has a full fledged 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, even with this being the case this 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 Coastal Rainbow was all that I could manage to find.

One wild Washington river

A typical silvery native Coastal Rainbow Trout

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

Between my outings 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 catching 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 casting. As such, while I was throwing a good 75 to 85 feet of line, in their typical fashion most of the Coho were feeding 100 to 120 feet off shore. Factoring this in 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, Cutthroat 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 sea-run Cutthroat habitat

So the other morning with an 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 down some of these elusive Cutthroat. Cutthroat fishing on the Sound is always a bit of a cat and mouse game and 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 it was out of the water and in short unison jumped 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

Another look at the fish...

While 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, the optimum tide window closed and the fish vanished signaling that it was time to call it a day.

Back to the Creek Again

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 the 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 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 I think 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...

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 eager to rise... What more can you ask for?

Just about all of the likely looking pools and pockets produced a few fish, all beautiful 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 access spots, the size of the fish began to increase. 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 rising Cutthroat there was really no reason to continue fishing, so we made our way back down stream already thinking of the next outing.

The Annual Trip to the Creek

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 Colton. I knew that with the unseasonably wet cool weather Washington has been experiencing, the creek would be high, but then again it also usually fishes well that way. Arriving at the creek it was definitely higher than what wanted to see, but it was fairly wadeable and the clarity was awesome.

A beautiful day on 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 I am used to. The fish in this creek have always been notorious for being keyed in on dries and with some large caddis and flying 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 match the hatch patterns, but the fish didn't like those either. Finally I fell back to a dry-dropper combo of a Royal PMX (smaller size this time) and black Copper John. 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 tail out, 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 out and check out another stream a little further east that was rumored to hold a relatively pure population of Columbia Basin Redbands and Westslope 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 that this stream was flowing much higher than would be ideal, but with a little searching we 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 made our way up the valley a ways, pine trees became more common and a thick hatch of mahogany mayflies crept 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, thick brush 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 out.

What I came for!

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

Paiute Cutthroat update - The Good and the Bad

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 Cutthroat

The bad news is that the same environmentalist groups that stopped project in the 11th hour last time have filled a lawsuit in an attempt to complete stop the project. 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 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