Doug Rose Flyfishing

This is the week for the Fall Newsletter, so there won’t be an On the Water Log. It will return next week. There are also two new essays for fall and an interview with Waters West’s Curt Reed on fly fishing the Elwha River. I hope you all have a safe and festive Labor Day and catch a few fish.

In his classic book, Caddisflies, Gary La Fontaine had this to say about the Dicosmoecus genus of caddisfly:

     “The question for fly fishermen seeking big trout is: ‘Which insects provide the best opportunity for catching such fish? My list would be: Giant Orange Sedge (Dicosmoecus sp.), Salmon fly (Pteronarcys californica, a stonefly), and the Michigan Mayfly (Hexagenia limbata). Dicosmoecus is the most important–and the contest is not even close.” (more…)

Although they return to virtually every Olympic river and creek that is accessible to saltwater, coho salmon have only been available to anglers in the larger rivers in recent years. The first Olympic Peninsula silvers, the Sol Duc’s “summer coho,” arrive in August and September, but they are hard to entice to a fly.  (more…)

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…)

Fall 2007

Ah, autumn! There are always way too many fly fishing options on the Olympic Peninsula, but the choice of where to fish and what to fish for is even more difficult when the vine maple are scarlet and the elk are bugling. Indeed, every species of salmonid native to Olympic Peninsula waters except bull trout, which are listed under the ESA, is available during September and October. This includes silvers in coastal rivers, cutthroat trout, the tail end of the mountain lake fishery, and the best summer steelhead fly fishing of the year.

Freshwater Coho–Coho salmon that have been the focus of saltwater anglers all summer begin to nose into West End rivers and creeks in October, usually after a couple of significant river-quickening rains have brought the rivers up. The exception to that is the Sol Duc, which has a rare “summer coho” population that is already in the river in good numbers. Summer coho are usually quite lock-jawed, and I’ve done best on them after a rain and right at daybreak or twilight. The fall run of silvers spawn in virtually every Olympic Peninsula creek and river, but coho numbers are weak in most rain shadow and Hood Canal systems and they aren’t open to angling. Hatchery coho attract large crowds on the Dungeness and lower Elwha rivers, but you will have a tough time finding solitude or room for a backcast. Silver stocks are much healthier in the Quillayute System rivers–the Sol Duc, Bogachiel, Calawah and Dickey–and in the Hoh, Queets and upper Quinault. Small, heavy Comet type flies in bright colors are traditional for coho in freshwater, and I use floating, sink-tip and Ghost Tip lines, depending on the depth of the water. (more…)

The Queets and the Salmon–I caught a small wild summer steelhead on the Queets the other morning. Fed by glaciers on Mount Olympus and Mount Queets and the heaviest rainfall in the lower 48 states, the Queets is more likely to be out of shape than any other Olympic Peninsula river. However, it was in fine condition earlier this week, with three-plus-feet of visibility, a touch of flinty green color, and it was 59 degrees. I only saw one other person on the river over two days, and he was a park ranger. The Queets is always most crowded during the salmon fishing season and, especially, during the big push of hatchery steelhead in early winter. But the washout at Matheny Creek, about six miles above the park boundary, prevents access to the campground at the end of the road. I think that has reduced summer time visitors even more than usual. (more…)

West End Rivers–Summer steelhead and sea-run cutthroat fishing has slowed on the Quillayute and rain forest rivers. The push of fish we received after the late July rains has  moved upriver and scattered. The lower ends of the Calawah and Bogachiel have warmed into the 60s, which is near the high end of the productive range, and the recent warm spell  may kick them above the temperature where steelhead are most active. The rain forest rivers–Hoh, Queets and Quinault–have been running at about average levels this week, but the hot weather yesterday kicked them up a little. The next few days of rain may knock the Hoh and Queets out of good shape for fly fishing. The rain could bring in some cutthroat, however, and fishing for sea-runs could improve over the weekend if the rivers stay clear enough.

The trick to finding cutts and steelhead this time of year on West End rivers is to keep moving. My good friend, Ramon Vanden Brulle, a conservation analyst with the Wild Fish Conservancy, and I spent last Saturday on a couple of the major coastal rivers. We began on the lower end of one of the Quillayute tributaries, in a hike-in spot that hardly anyone else fishes. We didn’t do much there, so we moved to the tidewater reach of another trib. We didn’t get anything. The day had begun cool, with some fog, but it had cleared up by now and was getting warm. After lunch, we moved to the upper portion of the river we had started on, to a place I’d gotten some nice sea-runs the week before. As we crossed the river, Ramon spooked a small steelhead, then I saw a much larger one, a 12- or 14-pounder. We decided to rest that spot and fish the cutthroat pool downstream.    

Ramon began on the upper pool, and I took the lower one, about 100 yards downstream. Because we were still thinking of cutthroat, Ramon fished a 4X tippet and size 10 Spruce fly on his 6-weight. I had a 5-weight and small local wet fly, the Meadow Hole. Neither of us got a bite on our first pass through the pools, so we traded places. No sooner had I got in position than I heard Ramon yell. Turning his way, I saw a steelhead jump at the frothy water at the head of the lower pool. Ramon handled it carefully and landed a 6-pound hatchery female a few minutes later.

You certainly don’t need to fish 4X tippets if you are targeting steelhead, but as the rivers drop and warm up, it is a good idea to fish lighter leaders and smaller flies. More somber dressings like the Spruce and Silver Hilton, the Lady Caroline and Muddler Minnow are not threatening to steelhead in thin water. This is also the time of year to fish the greased line and to wake and skate hair wings like Bill McMillan’s Steelhead Caddis, Harry Lemire’s Grease Liner and, of course, Haig-Brown’s Steelhead Bee.

The Elwha Report–The Elwha has been in really nice shape this week–very clear, and running about 600 cfs above Lake Mills and 700 below Glines Canyon dam. It was 56 degrees the other day. All of the insects I mentioned in last week’s blog–Yellow Sallies, golden stones and small mayflies–are still active, and I have run into my first good smaller caddis emergence. It was on the middle river, the reach that is accessible from the Olympic Hot Springs Road, and it occurred during the last hour of daylight. Before the caddis activity, fish to 10 inches or so were hitting egg-laying golden stones and the occassional Yellow Sally. Then, as the shadows began to work up the side of the Elwha Range, we began to see larger fish, some 12- to 14-inches. Every few minutes one would jump completely out of the water.

These fish weren’t delicately inhaling bugs on the surface film. In the first place, we were fishing the broken water at the end of a long riffle, a place where the river deepens and slows but still has a nice chop. The surface was too busy to see insects emerging, but none were hovering over the water. I’m pretty sure the larger fish were targeting Hydropsyche caddis, which I’ve encountered in that section of river before. The pupa of these insects rise up through the water column, and trout pursue them, occasionally clearing  the surface entirely. Hydropsyche caddis emerge in this sort of water, and during the evening. When I finally began to see adults in the air just before dark, they were the right size, about a size 14. 

When we began that night, we were thinking of the river’s larger caddis, Dicosmoecus, and tied on Bob’s ‘Possum Stone in size 8 (see August 9 blog). We ended up catching fish anyway, fishing the flies across and downstream, first dead drift, then on a swing. The rainbows usually hit as the fly tightened and began to track across the current. However, you will probably do better if you imitate the Hydropsyche  more accurately. A size 12 or 14 LaFontaine’s Emergent Sparkle Pupa (brown and yellow) or March Brown Spider are fine pupa imitations. The adults emerge rather quickly once they reach the surface and traditional dry flies are often not as productive as pupa patterns. However, Craig Mathews’ (Blue Ribbon Flies) X-Caddis and Iris Caddis are excellent emergers, and will entice fish that target insects on the surface film. Hydropsyche females dive to the bottom to lay their eggs, and a soft hackle or La Fontaine Diving Caddis (brown and yellow–size 12-14)  can be very effective on a downstream wet fly swing through riffles and choppy runs.

Saltwater Salmon–Fishing for coho has slowed recently as the first wave of fish has passed through the area. I drove over to Marrowstone Island the other day at about 6 am. There were 10 anglers, one of them a fly fisher, and they caught one silver and one pink. The fish checker at Marrowstone reported that 27 anglers caught 15 coho on July 30, but 33 fishermen only took 4 fish on August 5. Point Wilson, in Fort Worden State Park, has been lackluster all summer other than a brief flurry at daybreak from time to time, and the checker has seen no fish in most recent surveys. Boat fishermen have continued to do okay out of Sekiu, but there are currently far more pinks around than coho. Indeed, the numbers have been 10 to 1 in some surveys. Not surprisingly, coho fishing has been best at Neah Bay, where more than 1,000 silvers  and 643 pinks were taken during the most recent week for which harvest figures were available. Even there, however, the catch rate per angler for coho was less than one fish per rod. The tides won’t be particularly good for beach anglers this weekend, but they will improve next week. This year’s silver run wasn’t predicted to be very good, and it looks like pinks will provide the bulk of the sport for the next couple of weeks.

                                      THE ELWHA 

                                                    I 

Well, the Elwha finally dropped into shape and warmed up. It’s still a little high–between 700 and 800cfs above Lake Mills and around 800 (or lower) on the middle river–and it is best between 500 and 600. But it’s got a nice green color now and you can wade along the edges of most areas safely. The middle river, the portion between the dams, was 56 degrees this morning at 9:00 am.  The most prominent insects this week have been Yellow Sallies in the mornings, and there is some Golden Stonefly activity during later afternoon and evening. You also see a few small mayflies, but I have seen little caddis action, and there are not very many caddis cases in evidence in the shallows yet. Overall, the hatches have been pretty sparse so far this year. I wonder if all the big flows last winter scoured a lot of nymphs and larvae.

I’ve fished the middle river three times this week, each time for several hours, and I’ve done well on small rainbows (less than 12 inches) and lost one today I think was about 14. So far my most productive flies have been a Partridge and Peacock soft hackle, and three local patterns–Bob’s ‘Possum Stone, Hoko Hummer, and Norm Wood Special. The Norm Wood Special, available at Waters West, is a local dry fly that nicely imitates a golden stone. All of the other patterns are subsurface flies. I’ve tried fishing dry flies that imitate the Yellow Sallies but haven’t caught anything. On the other hand, the soft hackle, cast downstream, and mended as it drifts, has been my most productive fly. Most hits have occurred as the fly swings into the softer water near shore, so the (smaller) trout seem to be concentrated in the shallows. The Hoko Hummer, a local dressing by the late James Garrett, is a similar to a Woolly Bugger, and the recipe and photo are in Trey Combs’ big steelhead book.    

If you want dry fly action, your best bet is to fish right until dark. You see a lot more insects from twilight to dark, and Elwha fish tend to rise for dries much more predictably during the evening. I am a morning fisherman by nature, and it seems Elwha rainbows respond best to nymphs and wet flies early in the day. That’s fine with me, because I like swinging and dead drifting soft hackles and large nymphs. A soft hackle isn’t much different from a Spey fly when you think about. You don’t choose to live on the Olympic Peninsula if dry fly fishing is your game.

                                               II 

The middle river has some deep pools and flats, but it is primarily pocket water and long riffles. Although you see mostly stoneflies and mayflies in the air this time of year, the Elwha has always been a fine October Caddis river. In fact, local bait fishermen used to actually fish the larvae. They called them “periwinkles.” That isn’t legal today on the middle and upper river, either the park water or the water outside the park, but a good October Caddis larva pattern is often very productive between and above the dams. The insects that will hatch this fall have probably already left the riffles and moved to the shallows where they’ll hatch.  But some adults apparently emerge midstream, and they frequently become part of the drift.  

There are lots of fine Dicosmoecus larva patterns, but a pattern I have mentioned before, Bob’s ‘Possum Stone(also available at Waters West), is an excellent caddis larva imitation as well as stonefly nymph. I fish it dead drift through pocket water and riffles. But I also  fish it downstream on a mended swing. This can be especially effective in areas where the current necks down into a narrower channel, then opens up into a smooth, wider stretch. Cast into the narrow, fast current and let the fly swing through the froth into the softer water adjacent to the flow. Rainbows often lurk along these edges, and they will occassionally strike with a rattling jolt.

If you hike into the upper river, the area above Lake Mills, all of the patterns I’ve mentioned are good. But as the month progresses, keep your eyes out for grasshoppers. Elwha rainbows really like grasshoppers, and a ‘hopper pattern splashed down along a grassy bank can provide exciting  afternoon fishing. A recent stream survey also found Arctopsyche caddis around Humes Ranch. Also known as the Great Gray Spotted Sedge, they have probably hatched by now, but it’s worth carrying Gary LaFontaine’s Gray and Green Diving Caddis for egg layers and a Parkany Deer Caddis is sizes 6-10 in case you run into some late insects.

                                                  III 

The logistics on the Elwha can be a confusing, but it is easiest if you think of it in three sections. The lower river, the 5 miles below the Elwha Dam, are the anadromous reach; it isn’t open for any fishing until October. The middle river is the area between Lake Aldwell and Glines Canyon Dam; it is open through October, and it is primarily rainbow trout water. The Olympic Hot Springs Road parallels the river through most of this stretch, proving good access from turn-outs and Olympic National Park campgrounds. The section of the middle river downstream of Olympic National Park is managed by the state; it is selective fishery but you can keep 2 fish over 12 inches daily. The park regulations are catch-and-release; single, barbless artificial flies and lures; no bait. The upper Elwha, the wilderness portion above Lake Mills, is only accessible from the Elwha River Trail, which begins at Whiskey Bend. The trail hangs high above the river for about 10 miles, but spurs will take you down into Geyser Valley, which can be fished as a day hike (about 5 miles round trip) or easy overnight backpack trip. Mary’s Falls is the first place the Elwha Trail connects with the river, and from Elkhorn Ranger Station upstream to Camp Wilder, the trail and river play cat and mouse with each other. This is some of the sweetest rainbow water in western Washington.    

The middle Elwha is the easiest to reach, of course, but it is a real pain in the ass to wade. Blame it on the upper dam. You see, the dam prevents gravel and other coarse materials from drifting downstream. Over decades, the middle river has become basically barren of gravel. However, the energy from the river has continued to carry finer materials downstream. Without any replenishment of gravel and sand, the stretch between the dams is, largely, one large boulder field–both in the water and along the bank. Not only is this a bad situation for the trout and char, which can find little suitable spawning ground, it is very difficult to walk and wade in many areas. I never fish the middle river without a wading staff.

Finally, the Elwha dams were scheduled to begin coming down in 2009, but that was put back to 2012 or so earlier this year. That is disappointment to those of us who have been working on Elwha dam removal for years. But it gives a reprieve to fly fishers who like the resident rainbow fishery between and above the dams. Biologists have speculated that rainbow numbers will decline once they have to share space with anadromous fish. Moreover, the river will be closed to fishing for five years once the dams and restoration process begin.

Quillayute System Cutthroat–The big storm in late July pulled fresh cutthroat into the Quillayute System. Last Friday, a couple of my clients had virtually simultaneous hook-ups on the Calawah. One fish was about 15 inches and very bright. It hit an Elk Hair Caddis fished downstream under tension. The other fish was approximately 17 inches and had just the beginnings of an amber tint. It hit a Spruce Fly on a swing. Curtis Reed of Waters West also got a client into a few nice sea-runs on the Sol Duc. The numbers of fish  will build slowly through August, then peak in September, typically after the first good rain.  Although you can connect with cutthroat just about anywhere in the Sol Duc, Bogachiel, Calawah and Dickey this time of year, your best odds are on the lower ends of the rivers. All the rivers are within a few miles of each other once you get west of Highway 101, and Forks or Three Rivers Resort are good staging areas. The rivers are still a little above normal height for this time of year, but they’re in excellent shape and not too warm yet. I have seen Golden Stones, smaller caddis, and Yellow Sallies over the water in the afternoons, and there are more October Caddis and other large caddis larva on the Calawah than I have seen in many years. However, I don’t mess around trying to imitate insects this time of year. Rather, I fish old time wet flies like the Spruce Fly,  Bucktail Coachmen, Muddlers, black Woolly Buggers, Kalama Special and Silver Brown. Bill McMillan’s Steelhead Caddis, with orange, yellow and black bodies, is usually the only dry fly I fish in summer. Quillayute cutthroat hang out in the same types of habitats–log jams, backchannel areas and pools–as on other Northwest rivers. However, Olympic Peninsula rivers are short, steep and fast, and there is less classic cutthroat water than on rivers like the Stillaguamish or lower Skagit. So don’t overlook the deep, softer water on the insides of bends and holding lies just off the main channel. I nearly always fish a 5-weight and floating line for cutts, although I did well with Cortland’s Ghost Tip and streamers last fall in pools when the rivers were at record low water levels . My basic strategy is to work down through good areas with the dry fly under tension first, then the wet fly on a swing. The most important thing to remember when fishing sea-runs in freshwater–and in saltwater for that matter–is to keep moving. You may not touch a fish for hours, then suddenly take a half-dozen from a pool the size of a boxing ring.

HOH RIVER STEELHEAD–August is the time I begin to shift my summer steelhead focus away from the Quillayute rivers and onto the Hoh. The Calawah and Bogachiel and Sol Duc can still be productive in late summer–and will come on strong in autumn–but you can also begin to encounter warmer water than you want and logy fish. This hasn’t happened so far. The Sol Duc was high but clear on Tuesday and a cool 53 degrees. You can take fish from the Hoh in early summer if the conditions are right, but you have a much better chance in late summer, after the winter’s snow pack has melted and the river is on the way down toward fall levels. The harvest numbers, which often show the Hoh turning out more steelhead in June and July than in August, don’t reflect the usual situation for fly fishers during summer. Many of the early summer fish are taken by bait and gear anglers when the river is too high for good fly fishing. That isn’t always the case. I remember noteworthy June openers and cool Julys, when the upper river was a translucent jade. But you can’t count on it. Good conditions become more likely by mid-August, unless we  get a string of 80 degree days, which will fill the river with glacial flour. The Hoh will just keep getting better in September and early October.

Where are the Indian Island Cutts?–Someone asked me yesterday how saltwater cutthroat fishing has been on Government Cut and around Indian Island. Well, to be truthful, I have been doing as badly as I can remember. I have fished it three times lately, and I have not only not caught a fish–I haven’t even seen one roll or jump. Even worse, I have seen virtually no bait in the water. Last year at this time, I did very well with a chartreuse sand eel pattern, fishing the seams and slicks near shore. I have also always done well in July on Clousers, and Jeffrey Delia’s Conehead Squid will usually get you fish any time of year. But I fished it hard last week, beginning with a Miyawaki Beach Popper, then shifting to a sand-lance-sized flatwing, and finishing with a juvenile herring pattern. The water looked good, there was a lot of movement, and it was a good tide, but I didn’t turn a head. The same thing happened my previous two trips. If you fish saltwater cutthroat often enough, you run into spells like this. Morever, another angler may have had a terrific day as soon as I left. But it just feels kind of dead at the cut right now, and I wouldn’t make a trip to it from very far away. Indeed, with coho and the first pinks showing so well at Marrowstone and Point Wilson, I would put tidewater cutts on the back burner for a while. Incidentally, Haig-Brown used to talk about cutthroat moving back into the rivers at times during summer, apparently to feed on insects or juvenile fish, and I always think of this when they seem to vanish.

Mountain Lakes–There are literally scores of subalpine and alpine trout lakes in the Olympic Mountains. Many are solitary tarns at the base of a glacial cirque–the upper Dungeness’s Royal Lake, the Elwha Basin’s Boulder Lake and Hoh Lake. They can provide fine fishing, but if the fish aren’t biting and your time is short, you may have walked a long ways for nothing but the scenery and exercise. That’s an admirable and worthy thing in its own right, but I like to catch trout in the backcountry. So whenever I can, I hike into clusters of lakes. That way, you can simply move to a different lake if you aren’t catching anything. Different lakes in the same basin–sometimes lakes within a very short distance of each other–also often contain different species of fish and a different forage base. One lake may have scuds, for example, while a nearby one has an abundance of trout fry that larger adults to prey upon. My favorite clusters of lakes  are Seven Lakes Basin, Grand Valley, and Mildred Lakes. Located in the upper Sol Duc drainage, Seven Lakes Basin contains more than seven lakes and many contain fish, primarily brook trout and rainbow. It is more than 8 miles into the lakes, and isn’t feasible as a day hike. You need to backpack, and during summer there is a limit on the number of campers in the basin and some sites are taken by reservation. (See the trail conditions link on the blog page). There are three brookie lakes in Grand Valley–Grand, Moose and Gladys. The trailhead into them begins at the end of the Obstruction Point Road, near Hurricane Ridge, and descends four-plus-miles to the basin. The Obstruction Point Road and upper trail are often among the last areas in the park to melt out each summer, but they are now open. There are glorious flower shows at this elevation this time of year. My favorite mountain lakes are the Hamma Hamma watershed’s Mildred Lakes. These three lakes all have scuds and turn out 15-plus-inch trout fairly regularly. It is less than 5 miles from the end of the road to the lakes, but the Mildred Lakes Way Trail is tough, with rough, rocky areas and some steep, rather scary, ravines and scrambles. If you’re young, with good knees, and are backcountry savvy, it is an extraordinary place to spend three or four days.