Doug Rose Flyfishing

When I was a kid, I used to faithfully read the “big three” outdoor magazines. Quite a few of the things I read have stuck with me over the years. One was a line that Zack Taylor, one of the most well-known waterfowling writers in the 1950s and ’60s, wrote about being too busy to hunt because he was finishing a book. He lamented that he even lived on a lake and still didn’t have time to get out. At the time, I thought that was hard to believe–I mean, you could always make time to hunt ducks. Well, let me tell you, other than a handful of trips I have guided and a few short cutthroat forays, I haven’t done much fishing this summer. Like Taylor, my excuse is a book, and it’s also a duck hunting book. I also just wrapped up a feature on fishing the Olympic Peninsula’s coastal strip for Northwest Fly Fishing. I had a lot of fun doing it, especially the photo shoots on the coast with Steve Probasco and his wife, Cindy. But when you add a new puppy on top of all the writing, well I haven’t had a lot of free time for fly fishing. I mean, you have to get on a puppy when it’s young or you won’t have much of hunter when it’s an adult. So I have been taking Ruby out every day. She’s 15 weeks old and already has spent a lot of time on the Hoh and Calawah, not to mention in the woods. It’s a worthwhile investment of time, just as is finishing a book, but I have missed holding a rod in my hand.

Anyway, that’s all about to change. I begin my autumn guiding schedule in earnest this week. Fortunately, things look good. The Hoh is in great shape and there are good numbers of steelhead around. We also expect rain this week, and it should kick the Quillayute rivers back into life without knocking out the Hoh and Queets. I’m looking forward to it.

So this is basically a long-winded way of saying “I’m back.” Also, the fall newsletter will be out soon, but not on the first. It’ll probably be up about the middle of September.

I had a nice morning with cutthroat on a local creek yesterday. The rain we had over the weekend wasn’t substantial enough to help much on the Quillayute rivers, which are still very low, but I figured it might put some life back into my favorite “cedar creek.” I got four nice cutts, from 9- to 14 inches. They all hit a size 10 Royal Coachman streamer. Although Royal Coachman bucktails are much more popular in the West than streamers, I have found that the added motion provided by feathers is often more effective in the soft water cutts like. That is especially true in low late summer flows.

The nicest thing about those fish is that the fly that took them is from my “Lily’s Fly Box” project. Since my yellow Lab, Lily, died, I have been filling an old Perrine box with wet flies and streamers that all contain at least one material that she retrieved. I tie two of each pattern, one fly for the box, which I will keep on my desk when it’s full, and another to fish. In this case, the hackle on the Royal Coachman streamer is grouse flank feather instead of the traditional hackle. More bizarrely, Lily was also responsible found the peacock herl on the body. That’s a long story, but basically my wife, Eliana, and Lily were hiking along the Dosewallips River a few years ago, and Lily found a dead peacock. I have no idea how the peacock got into the woods, quite a ways from the nearest dwelling. But my wife has been married to a fly fisherman for a long time and, to her eternal credit (and utterly out of character for her) she brought home a few of the largest tail feathers.

Earlier in the week, David and I spent a few hours on the middle Sol Duc. I fished my 8-weight single-handed rod, thinking about steelhead, while David fished a 5-weight, more realistically looking for cutts. We ended up catching a few 10- to 12 inch sea-runs. David caught his on a Lady Caroline. Mine hit a Gray and Orange. It’s the precursor to the Orange Heron, developed by Syd Glasso in the 1950s. The only real difference is that it has a grizzly body hackle rather than heron. You can find the recipe for it by using the “search” function on the other side of my blog page.

For me, this has definitely been a “cutthroat summer” and not much of a summer steelhead season. I suspect that’s about to change. The vine maple is already turning on the river bottoms, and the Hoh dropped into really nice color this weekend. I really don’t want the summer to end–we really haven’t even had one–but if anything can make up for no tomatoes and the depressing winter pallor everyone in Forks has this summer it will be late summer/early fall dry line steelhead.

The morning after my previous post, I got one nice boil at my Lady Caroline from a steelhead on the Sol Duc. That was it. A few days later, noticing that the Queets was in nice shape, my fishing partner, David Christian, and I decided to put the saltwater beach fishing on hold and headed south. David got a 20-plus-inch bull trout on about his fourth cast. That was it. That’s pretty much how fishing has been for everything–salmon and cutts in the salt, steelhead and cutts in the rivers–out here lately. It’s worth fishing and can be a lot of fun, but it’s definitely not easy.

Incidentally, the Hoh has come into reasonable shape for fly fishing, at least the upper river. I have been spending a lot of time on it lately–not fishing, though. My wife and I take Ruby, our new Lab pup, down there every couple days. We let her play and swim around the sloughs. I have seen a few fly fishers and I did part of a clinic on it today. The Quillayute Rivers are still low and could use a nice jolt of rain. I would definitely hit the Hoh or Queets if you want to river fish.

By the way, someone asked me why I haven’t been posting about the Elwha. Well, it’s still much higher than I like. It was running around 1,300 cfs yesterday, and I don’t really fish it until its in the 900 range.

I spoke at the South Sound Fly Fishers last week. As always, it was an informed and welcoming group. It’s nice to look out and recognize so many faces.

I think this week I will finally get to the salmon and red-tail fishing in the salt. But hiking up to a lake also sounds good. It’s hard to believe, but within a month or so, we could get the first snow in the high country. I don’t want to think about it.

Boy, I’ve been terrible at posting, haven’t I? If you’re thinking of coming this way–to Forks, that is–you should be aware that the Hoh is high and cloudy, but the Quillayute rivers are at September level flows right now. That means that if you want a steelhead, you’ve got about an hour after daybreak and before dusk. Cutts are easier and they’re pretty widely distributed. However, as is the case in early autumn before the first rains, you basically have a chance at one fish per pool. You either catch it or spook them all, and then wade up or down to the next pool. It’s tough fishing but I’ve been having fun. I got a nice 16 or 17 inch cutthroat on a tributary to a Quillayute River tributary the other day. It hit a low water Muddler. I was fishing a clear intermediate leader on my new 6-weight TFO switch rod. I got it in a deep pool, while there was still a lot of shadow on the water.

I would recommend saltwater, but the cutt fishing has been slow on the East Side beaches, and I haven’t heard any good reports about salmon on the western Strait of Juan de Fuca. Despite that, there is a good tide sequence on a beach that occasionally holds salmon late next week. I plan on getting up real early one of those days. I’m also heading back down to Kalaloch for perch this week.

I’m going to hit the Sol Duc tomorrow morning. It’s time to try a Lady Caroline on greased line.

Boy, other than the Van Egan post, it’s been a while since I wrote anything here! I was out of state for a week, visiting my parents and old friends. And we picked up our Lab puppy, Ruby, the day after we got back. For anyone who has ever owned a good Lab, that’s all I need to say. I did hook into a nice, probably hatchery, steelhead on the Calawah before our trip and had it on for an honest five minutes before the hook fell out. I haven’t been on the rivers since then, but have fished for surf perch. Actually, saltwater or lakes are your best bets right now, because the Quillayute rivers are way to low and the Hoh and Queets are high and cloudy. Nonetheless, I am going to give the Sol Duc a shot tomorrow morning. I’ll begin posting again regularly on steelhead and cutts–if the dog lets me. I am also going to put in more time in the coming weeks trying to get a Chinook from the beach. I’ll keep you posted.

I spoke to the Olympic Fly Fishers in Edmonds before our trip. They are a great group, and I had a good time. I will be giving a slide show talk for the South Sound Fly Fishers in Olympia next Tuesday, the 20th. It will be on the fly fishing opportunities on the Olympic Peninsula in August and early autumn.

I still have a couple slots open for my “Introduction to Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishing” weekend clinic on July 30, 31 and August 1. We will spend time on Admiralty Inlet beaches for saltwater cutts, the Elwha and West End steelhead and cutthroat rivers. I also have openins for the August 18 “All About the Elwha” clinic. There are more detailed descriptions of the clinics in the Summer Newsletter.

I have a new article, “Cutts Both Ways,” in the current issue of American Angler. It profiles and contrasts the saltwater cutthroat fishing on the northeast side of the Olympic Peninsula and the river fisheries on the West End. It has a nice selection of saltwater and freshwater flies, including patterns tied by Jeffrey Delia, Bob Triggs, Curtis Reed and Dick Wentworth.

                                               Van Gorman Egan, 1926-2010

I spent the morning with friends fishing for red-tailed surfperch north of Kalaloch–and actually got one for a change. When I got home, I had an email from Van Egan’s niece saying that he passed away earlier today. I never met Van but I did talk to him on the phone a couple times. He was very helpful when I was trying to get information about Haig-Brown’s trips to the Olympic Peninsula in the 1950s. I really like his books, especially TYEE, Rivers of Salt and his most recent book, the superb Shadows of the Western Angler. His articles for Fly Lines, the newsletter of the British Columbia Federation of Fly Fishers, are also wonderful, and I have printed many of them and refer to them often. Having Haig-Brown for a friend and neighbor, enjoying some of the West Coast’s grandest fishing  in both fresh and salt water during its glory days, writing important and finely crafted books, and working passionately to protect the natural resources of his adopted country–it’s hard to imagine a finer life for an outdoorsman and writer. Rest in peace, Van. You will be missed.

“Steelhead and Cutthroat Journal:”

Well, I’ve fished a couple times this week but have yet to connect with a steelhead. I hiked into a spot I like on the Calawah on Tuesday. Seeing that the river was even lower than I thought, I waded upstream through a really nasty rock garden to a nice little stretch below an island. By the time I got there I was soaking wet with sweat and my legs were wobbly. I fished a Gray and Orange very deliberately down the the entire run without a touch. When I was done, I decided to climb up out of the “canyon” rather than wade back downstream. The top of the bluff was about 40 feet up, the bottom half rocks and the top vegetation. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but by kicking my boots into the clay for footholds and hanging onto ferns, I managed it without mishap. It saved me a lot of time.

Today, I spent about three hours on the Bogachiel. I started with the Gray and Orange and sinking polyleader again, and immediately got two large smolts and one of the “resident” rainbows that are increasingly common in the lower river. It was pretty feisty, even with my 8-weight switch. It was about a foot long, very bright and acrobatic. After that, I tried waking a Greased Liner for a while, with no bumps. As seems to often be the case in June, it was only of interest to juvenile fish too small to even hook themselves. I went back to wet flies and sinking leaders, fishing a Quillayute, again without a touch. I finished the day with a Black GP.

I’m going to try somewhere different tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Well, I didn’t have the heart to fish the last few days on the Calawah and Bogachiel (see previous post). I have been spending most of my time the last couple weeks on my duck hunting book and working on some major changes for the newsletter and blog. I also did a couple of “All Around the Islands” saltwater cutthroat clinics. They were both a lot of fun, with really good people. Last week, I did a slide show on Olympic Peninsula summer/fall fly fishing opportunities for the Northwest Fly Anglers in Seattle. They are a great club. The best part of the evening was getting to see and talk to Les Johnson and Carol Ferrara, who attended the meeting. Les looks great and is sharper than ever. I also finally got to meet Dick Sagara, the TFO rep whom I have been talking to on the phone and via email for several years. While we’re on the subject of clubs, I want to thank Bob Triggs for filling in for my presentation at the April South Sound Fly Fishers meeting. That was when Lily first got sick, and I didn’t want to leave her alone. I heard a lot of good things about his presentation and really appreciate his willingness to do it on extremely short notice. His kind words about hunting Labs and how they “just get under your skin like nothing else can” also meant a lot to me. Thanks Bob! So did the emails and calls I got from clients and friends. Finally, I may post once or twice this week but don’t expect much until I get the Summer Newsletter up sometime the first week in June. It’ll have a couple new essays, more photos, flies, and my clinic and guiding schedule for the summer. After that, I’ll resume the Summer Steelhead Journal I started last year, as well as regular On the Water Log entries. Have a great Holiday.

The rivers are in decent shape and there are fish in them. If you want to catch a nice wild steelhead this year, right now is the time to do it. However, if you don’t want to look like a “touron”–think about the different parts of that word for a moment–don’t prance around the Thriftway wearing waders. Everyone knows instantly that you are from out of town and, even worse, that you think you are a really cool dude.

Fishing Report: Barlow’s Bar, Lower Hoh, Friday, March 5–see “Tragedy of the Commons.”