photo Dr. Zail Khalsa

For fly fishers, Richard and Beth Chesmore’s Brightwater Bed and Breakfast was about as close to paradise as you can imagine. Located about 12 miles west of Forks on the lower Sol Duc River, its 3,500 feet of river frontage saw seasonal migrations of summer and winter steelhead, Chinook, coho and sockeye salmon, and sea-run cutthroat trout.

But there was a lot more to Brightwater than its fishing. Richard and Beth were warm, interesting, and gracious hosts. The rooms and cabins managed somehow to be both elegant and rustic at the same time. And its setting on 60 acres of pasture and forest, at the end of a long dirt road, ensured that quality that is even more rare than a sockeye on a fly–peace and quiet. (more…)

My friend, Preston Singletary, caught this 21-inch cutthroat on the lower Stillaguamish in late September. He was fishing a 4-weight rod, floating line, and a “fairly pale, orange pink Reverse Spider.

When I first began fly fishing for sea-run cutthroat in saltwater in the early 1980s, a 14 inch fish was a pretty big deal. I mostly caught 10- to 12 inchers, and some were smaller than that. This isn’t to say that  there weren’t some big trout around back then. One of the slides I show in my saltwater cutthroat presentation is of a 21-inch, four-pounder that my friend, Ron Hirschi, helped a guy catch in Hood Canal in 1984. And Joe Uhlman tells of hooking into a cutthroat on lower Hood Canal that he originally thought was a salmon. (more…)

Remembering Marty Peckman

Marty Peckman was kind. You could see that immediately in his twinkling eyes that always held a warm smile. He was quick to laugh too, especially at himself, as when his generous nature was called into question. That generosity could be seen pretty much every day at Creek Printing, his business in Hadlock.

He had this gift, or maybe it was his greater sense of community, that allowed him to assess each customer’s ability to pay for services rendered. I saw him charge one dollar many times for what should have been a five, or maybe ten dollar order. I can imagine if he had been a grocer instead of artist and printer, no one in East Jefferson County would have ever gone hungry. He would have divided loaves for sure, even in these recent times when his own income from the business made life a struggle.

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Like most of the other writers I know–and following in the footsteps of my WWII 82nd Airborne veteran father–I have a pretty foul mouth when it comes to speaking conversationally. But I have tried to avoid it in my blog, on the assumption that people with sensibilities not quite as coarse as mine may read what I write.

However, the actions of the delegates to the UN climate change conference in Qatar–and especially the wretched assemblage of people that represented this country–deserve a lot more than foul language. There were brave and insightful and truthful speakers, of course, but they certainly weren’t speaking for the United States government.

I think a couple lines from Roderick Haig-Brown captures this situation best of all.

“Conservation means fair and honest dealing with the future, usually at some cost to the present. It is a simple morality, with little to offset the glamorous and quick material rewards of the North American deity, Progress.”

He did it without swearing, too.

I am currently working on my Christmas Newsletter and finishing editing a book, so blogging will be sporadic for a while. I hope to post the newsletter on 12/15. In addition to the usual newsletter rundown on wintertime fly fishing opportunities on the Olympic Peninsul and my clinic and guiding schedule, it will feature the recipe and photo of Jerry Banburg’s Jetty Sand Lance, one of last summer’s best cutthroat and coho flies. I am posting two separate essays with the newsletter–a remembrance of Richard and Beth Chesmore and Brightwater, their wonderful Sol Duc River getaway, and a photo-essay on “The Big Cutthroat of 2012.” As in past years, the Christmas Newsletter will also have contributions from some of my friends, including Preston Singletary, Chester Allen, Leland Miyawaki, Ron Hirschi, Jeffrey Delia and many others. I think you will enjoy it.