Doug Rose Flyfishing

Jeffrey Delia has lived, grown oysters, photographed and fly fished northern Hood Canal for more than 30 years. He is one of the most insightful, creative and experienced saltwater cutthroat fly fishers in the Pacific Northwest. His Delia’s Conehead Squid and White Ghost are two of the most productive cutthroat and salmon flies for Olympic Waters. Indeed, my friend Marianne Mitchell calls the Conehead Squid “that magic fly.” Earlier this spring, Jeff caught a 13 pound wild steelhead on a yellow version of the Ghost in saltwater on a 4X tippet while fishing for cutthroat.

Jeffreys flies and photos are available by contacting him at deliajeffrey@yahoo.com or at 360-765-3795.

In this interview, I asked Jeffrey how summer cutthroat fly fishing in saltwater is different from other times of year.

Question: Do you find cutthroat in different types of water and in different places in the summer?

Jeff–Over the years, it seems we’ve noticed that the fish move to the deeper part of the estuaries and the mouths of bays in warm weather. You will still see them on the surface, but it will be in deeper water. And we’ll often catch them right on the bottom. I suspect they are deeper because it’s cooler. Also, in some of the estuaries on big minus tides you can wade out to sand bars in summer and there will be fish in the deeper channels between the bars. In Quilcene Bay, I’ve caught big cutts in 30 or 40 feet of water while fishing cut-plug herring for kings. (more…)

The most fun I had writing my new book was interviewing and getting to know Dick Wenworth. A Forks native, who has fly fished the rivers, lakes and beaches of the Olympic Peninsula’s West End for more than half century, Dick is best known as a steelheader and Syd Glasso’s most well known and talented Spey fly tying protege. The Jack Datisman painting of the steelhead about to intercept a fly at the Forks Thrifway represents the 21-plus-pound fish that Dick caught on a fly he tied in tribute to his mentor, the Mr. Glasso. However, Dick fishes and ties flies for everything from surf perch to Beardslee rainbows to coho salmon. Dick was incredibly generous with me, letting me return again and again to his home, providing flies, and loaning me treasured slides of him and Glasso on the water.

Here are some excerpts from my interview. They are in slightly different form than they will appear in the book.

Dick’s Fly Tying Heritage–”My dad, Bill Wentworth caught a spring Chinook on a number 6 Royal Coachman Bucktail from the Sand Rock Hole in the Sol Duc in the 1930s. It was in June or July and the fish weighted 15 pounds. He didn’t know what it was at first. He also used to fly fish the upper Sol Duc in July during the 1950s. My uncle, Glen, ‘Mickey,’ Merchant, packed Montana Black-Spotted Cutthroat into the mountains. He fished for cutthroat in the summer. He usually used a number 4 or 5 nickle/copper spinner and bullhead meat. He called it the ‘meat axe.’ But he had a Granger fly rod and fished flies for cutthroat once in a while. He’d fish a Royal Coachman with a Mosquito dropper. He mostly fished the Calawah. It was our home river.” (more…)

When you have a question about winter steelhead fly fishing on the Olympic Peninsula, there isn’t a better person to answer it than Waters West Fly Fishing Outfitter’s proprietor Dave Steinbaugh. Dave earned his living guiding for winter steelhead on West End rivers for many years before he opened his shop. He is a gifted fly caster and regularly gives Spey casting clinics. Dave is also a superb fly tyer, and his Isabella and Purple and Peacock Shank Fly are two of my favorite steelhead dressings. Because of his long experience on winter rivers, Dave’s store has everything an Olympic Peninsula winter steelheader needs, including a complete line of single and two-handed rods, Spey fly tying materials, Waddington shanks and tubes, and nymph fishing tackle.

For this interview, I concentrated on lines for winter steelhead.

Q–If you had to choose just one full length line for winter fishing, not a multi-tip, what would it be?

Dave–Well, I guess I would choose a floating line. It’s not my cup of tea for winter–I’d really rather have a Versa-tip–but I’d recommend a good floating line like a Clouser Tip or Rio Grande. One with a short heavy head. Most of the floaters have a loop on the end these days, and you can always put a sinking tip or sinking leader on a floating line and get down. But it’s hard to dead drift with a 15 foot sink-tip.

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It is only about a 10 minute drive from Waters West Fly Fishing Outfitters in Port Angeles to the middle Elwha River. From the first day it drops into shape after the June opener until the middle and upper river close at the end of October, Curt Reed fishes it nearly every evening after he finishes his day at the shop. Curt is that rare creature–a fly fisher who ties beautiful, elegant flies and is also an excellent caster, and who knows how to fish. He routinely takes fish to 14-plus-inches on the Elwha–which is a big fish on the river–and last week he caught one that measured more than 16. (more…)

Reading the Water for Saltwater Salmon—

Ron Hirschi is a fisheries biologist and veteran Olympic Peninsula fly fisherman. He grew up in Port Gamble and fished for salmon and cutthroat from his own row boat by the time he was 10. His fisheries research has focused on the distribution and timing of juvenile salmon and forage fish in Hood Canal and Admiralty Inlet, and on the critical role drift cells play in habitat creation and maintenance for salmonids. Although he has been a fly fishermen since high school—and fishes for sea-runs and all trout exclusively with flies—he prefers to beach fish for salmon with herring. He fishes Marrowstone Point nearly nightly when the salmon season is underway.

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