Doug Rose Flyfishing

We had some rain on the West End Sunday, Wednesday and Today, but the rivers are still in good shape. In fact, they are still too low. We need a little more to bring in good numbers of salmon and cutthroat and to revive the summer steelhead.

I have been re-reading Russell Chatham’s superb book, The Angler’s Coast, this week, and that, combined with Les Johnson and Bruce Ferguson’s Fly Fishing for Pacific Salmon II, have got me thinking about Chinook. To that end, I spent a few very soggy hours swinging heavy flies and sink-tips with my Spey rod on the lower Hoh yesterday morning.

It was funny driving south from Forks. In town, it was sort of a muzzy, half mist. By the Bogachiel River bridge, I had  my wipers on, and by the time I was on the top of the ridge between the Bogachiel and the Hoh, the stretch known as Dead Dog Flats, it was raining hard. It was going gangbusters on the Hoh, the first real fall rain. 

To make a long story short, I didn’t connect with a Chinook–or anything else for that matter. I have heard good reports on the lower river lately, especially about steelhead, but I didn’t get anything that I could even pretend was a bite. Maybe it had something to do with the barometer falling like crazy.

I had a better day on a creek earlier in the week. Lily, my Lab, and I had been pigeon hunting early, and I had noticed the creek was up a little bit after the rain on Sunday. I went back later alone and got into several nice cutts from 10- 12 inches. They all hit Spruce flies and orange-bodied Reverse Spiders. Preston Singletary gave me the idea for that color combination spider when he was out here a few weeks ago. I have also caught cutts on the lower Sol Duc and upper Bogachiel the last week. There are a lot of October Caddis around now. I don’t know for sure if it is a result of their presence, but the bite is definitely better in the afternoon and evening than the morning lately.

I fished the Elwha this morning for a few hours. I didn’t get a touch with a dry fly or streamer, which I like in the morning this time of year. But I caught two nice 10-inch rainbows in short order after I switched to a Partridge and Green soft hackle. There are rhycophila caddis in the fast sections of the middle river, although they should be pretty much done hatching by now. Maybe the trout just like green. Anyway, the only decent-sized insects I saw were Slate Winged Olives, which usually hatch in the afternoon, so I imagine I just kicked them up walking through the willows.

I still have openings for my West End Weekend and the October 10 Elwha Friday.

The West End Weekend Oct-17-19, ($400) is a comprehensive seminar on summer steelhead and sea-run cutthroat fishing on the Quillayute System (Sol Duc, Calawah and Bogachiel) and Hoh rivers.  It is designed for intermediate level fly fishers and will focus on reading the water and presentations such as the riffled hitch, greased line, waking and skating. During the course of the weekend, we will fish each of these rivers, and try out the various presenations on different types of water. If you don’t know your way around the West End, this is also a good introduction to the area and its rivers. The price includes a hand-out pamphlet, Saturday night dinner, slide show and fly discussion. We had a great time at the last one, and I think you’ll be amazed at how much ground we cover from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon.

The Elwha Friday Oct. 10, ($50) is an informal group clinic that features different strategies, presentations and flies for  fishing the middle Elwha that begins in the early afternoon and runs until dark. See the Fall Newsletter for details.

My last two “My Favorite Trout Water” trips are also available between now and the end of October. I only offer these trips twice a year. The East Side trip features a saltmarsh creek, beaver pond and Hood Canal sea-run water, while the one on the West End focuses on a creek, a Quillayute System river, a spot on the Hoh, and one other river I don’t want to talk about. These trips are $350 for one or two anglers.

It will be October by the time I post my next blog. That means there are only a few weeks of dry line time left on the West End for the year. If you have been wanting to get out to either the Hood Canal beaches or, especially, the coastal rivers, this is the time to do it! 

“The golden period of sport for the angler on this portion of the Spey is from the 26th of August to the 15th of October” A.E. Knox, Autumns on the Spey, 1872.

Isn’t it interesting that those words, written more than a century ago–on a different continent and about a different species of fish–should be so apt about autumn fly fishing on the Olympic Peninsula? 

Now, here are a few words that Syd Glasso wrote about autumn fly fishing on the Hoh in his article, “The Olympic Peninsula,” published in The Creel, the magazine of the Oregon Fly Fishers, in 1970.

“I have a notation in my fishing dairy for October 15, 1966 that reminds me of two hours of fantastically good fishing–almost too good. Arriving late in the afternoon, I found the river unbelievably low and clear. The air was full of large caddis flies and young crows were darting out from the cottonwoods trying to catch the flies in their erratic flight. I had a large caddis-like fly already on the leader and had been using it a few hours before in the Sol Duc. Giving it another shot of silicone I flicked it out to see if it would float properly and was amazed to see a big trout make a pass at it, and this in a place hardly likely to hold even a minnow. The trout never rose again. I waded across knee deep river to likelier looking water. From then till dark I caught, lost and released over a dozen big searun cutthroat, and two bright steelhead released themselves in mid-air.” 

My absolute favorite time of year for fly fishing on the Olympic Peninsula is between now and early November. From the the rain forest river valleys to the East Side oyster beaches and from the Elwha to the mountain lakes, there is, frankly, too much fly fishing opportunity this time of year to sample more than a fraction of it. 

       AUTUMN GUIDING AND CLINIC SCHEDULE

In addition to my regular autumn guiding for sea-run cutthroat and steelhead on West End rivers, saltwater cuttroat in northern Hood Canal and Admiralty Inlet, and rainbows on the Elwha River, I am offering these clinics this fall.  

West End Weekend–September 26-28; $400. This seminar provides intensive instruction on summer steelhead and sea-run cutthroat fly fishing on the Olympic Peninsula’s major West End rivers. It is designed for mid-level fly fishers who want to expand and refine their skills. For anglers unfamiliar with West End rivers, it also serves as an introduction to the coastal rivers, the Hoh, Bogachiel, Calawah and Sol Duc. The seminar begins with an optional Friday evening hot dog roast and fishing near La Push. Saturday morning begins on the upper Hoh and focuses on the wet fly swing with a floating line. We move down to the lower river after lunch and cover different types of sink-tips, then end the field portion of the day on the Bogachiel. After a break, we meet Saturday evening for a dinner, slide show and discussion of flies for summer steelhead and cutthroat. Sunday morning emphasizes waking, skating and the riffled hitch on the Sol Duc, and we conclude with the greased-line on the Calawah. The seminar ends by 1 pm. The cost includes the dinner and an instructional pamphlet.   

Elwha Friday–October 10; $50. This is an informal group clinic on how to fish for the Elwha River’s resident rainbow trout. We will examine the hatches, flies and techniques that are productive on the river and will fish several types of water. The clinic is on the middle river, downstream of the national park. We begin at 1 pm and conclude at dark. Maximum of 6.

West End Weekend–October 17-19

Winter Steelhead Tune Up–This is an opportunity for those of you who are new to or frustrated with your winter steelheading skills to spend a day on the river for one-on-one instruction. Any day that I have open in November. $350. (more…)

In the days when journalism at least pretended to have a code of ethics, I would never have been assigned the job of reviewing Fly Fishing for Pacific Salmon II, the new book by Les Johnson, Bruce Ferguson and with commentary by Pat Trotter. Les is a friend of mine. I have sat next to him at fundraisers. He has been instrumental in my speaking at several fly clubs and shows. I have guided Les and his wife, Carol, and my wife and I had dinner with them afterwords. Any editor with even a trace of professionalism wouldn’t allow me anywhere near a review of a Les Johnson book.

Well, things have changed a lot in journalism since I wrote  for newspapers. The AP’s Washington bureau chiece–the person who is overseeing its coverage of the presidential campgain this year–admits that he was interviewed for a position with the McCain campaign and has a chummy relationship with Karl Rove. Yet the wire service wants us to believe he is capable of writing objectively about the election! So, what the hell, I guess I can write a review of my friend’s new book. 

Actually, a review of Fly Fishing for Pacific Salmon II is pretty much superfluous anyway. When a new book comes out and it has Les Johnson’s name on it, you can count on it that it will be not only a good, it will be great. By himself, Les has a long and unmatched career of writing seminal, well-crafted, and informative books. His Sea-Run was the classic first book on coastal cutthroat, and Tube Flies,  which he co-wrote, helped launch the current juggernaut of interest in these flies. More recently, his new cutthroat book, Fly Fishing Coastal Cutthroat Trout was a superb analysis of everything you need to know about the life histories, habits, fly fishing and flies for the native cutthroat of coastal watersheds. (more…)

         ”I like Spey type flies for winter steelheading and have used them for over twenty years. The style is over a century old, they’re easy to tie and they look seductive in the water. The fish take them solidly and that’s enough for me.”

                                                        Syd Glasso, “The Olympic Peninsula,” published in The Creel, 1970

Syd Glasso, the father of the steelhead Spey fly, died on September 6, 1983.

It is impossible to truly assess the impact that Glasso had on North American fly tying, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Before Glasso adapted the sleek, long-hackled Atlantic salmon flies of Scotland’s Spey River to the winter steelhead of the Olympic Peninsula’s rivers, few North American fly fishers outside of Vancouver Island had even heard of Spey flies. Now, a quarter century after his death, Spey flies have become the subjects of several books, dozens of magazine articles, and scores of dressings with the word “Spey” in their name have been documented in fly tying books and web sites. 

Yet more than 50 years after he took his first winter steelhead with one of his steelhead Speys, the dressings in Glasso’s Sol Duc and Heron series remain the most beautiful, most celebrated, and most effective North American Spey flies. Indeed, his Sol Duc, Sol Duc Spey and Orange Heron are the only Spey-type steelhead flies that the casual steelheader can identify by sight. (more…)

I’m still working on the Fall Newsletter, but I wanted to post something so you will know what is going on out here. The Quillayute System rivers are very low and getting warm again, but there are plenty of cutthroat around if you work for them and some pretty touchy steelhead. After a very long wait, the Hoh and Queets are in great shape. I’ve been on the upper Hoh the last two days and it’s gorgeous–limpid blue-green, cool, and clear as a shot of gin. The only thing I’ve landed so far are a few bull trout (I lost a 4 or 5 pounder) but I think I had a tug from a steelhead this morning. I’m going back again tomorrow and every day until we get some rain.

I guided on Hood Canal last week, and we had the best saltwater cutthroat fishing I have ever seen. I’ll talk more about this in the newsletter.

In addition to my regular autumn guiding, I am offering another West End Weekend September 26-28. Designed for mid-level fly fishers, this is a comprehensive introduction to summer steelhead and sea-run cutthroat fishing on the Hoh and Quillayute System rivers. We will focus on the wet fly swing with floating lines and sink-tips, waking, skating and the greased line. The seminar includes a Saturday night dinner, slide show, and fly discussion. Limited to 4 participants. $400. Contact me by email if you are interested.

I am also offering the last two “My Favorite Trout Water” trips for 2008 between now and the end of October. The first focuses on the East Side of the peninsula, where we will fish for saltwater cutthroat, creeks and a beaver pond. The other trip is based on the West End, and we will fish a glacial river, a Quillayute System river, and a creek. I only do a couple of these trips each year. You can choose the day as long as I have it open. $350. 

I’ll have the newsletter out by Monday.