Doug Rose Flyfishing

I probably can’t dissuade anyone from driving out here to fish this weekend, but I think you may as well stay at home and watch the game. I’m not saying you don’t have a chance at a fish. But if you can only make a few trips to the Olympic Peninsula this winter, I’d recommend staying home until the conditions are better and there are more fish around.

The Hoh is in great shape, and a few fly fishers who know the river intimately and work the water hard are taking steelhead. The Quillayute System rivers also have some fish in them, including some nice, bright steelhead. But the Quillayute rivers are lower and colder (40 degrees on the Sol Duc the other day) than I like for swinging flies. The cedar creeks are way too low for good fishing.

I talked to two different gear/bait guides on the Sol Duc the other day and their clients only took one fish per boat for the entire day. 

By the way, the Olympic Peninsula is apparently beyond the pale as far as Puget Sound media goes, because I have heard several folks lately talk about driving out to fish the creeks that drain into the western Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Hoh in the park. Well, there is a massive slide on Highway 112 near the Twin Rivers–that is, before you get to the Pysht, Clallam or Hoko. That means you’ll have to drive out Highway 101 and then hop over Burnt Mountain back to 112 to reach any of these rivers. Similarly, the upper Hoh Road is closed at Spruce Creek, a couple of miles before the park boundary.

Things look better for next week. We’re supposed to get some modest rain over the next few days and then it looks like it’ll be drier and warmer next week. If that happens, I bet the fishing will be a lot better.  

Well, gee, it’s been more than three weeks since I last posted. Sorry. With the floods and lousy weather, there wasn’t much to write about for the first half of the month. I kept thinking I should write something pithy like “words fail”, but I never got around to it. And once the rivers began to clear, the fishing was lackluster, at best. The water was way up, making for very tough wading and swinging, and there simply weren’t that many fish around.  

In addition, I have been busy with my new book, Fly-Fishing Guide to the Olympic Peninsula, writing, and speaking to a few clubs. I had an especially nice trip down to Astoria to give a talk to the Rainland Fly Casters. They are a great club, the drive along Willapa Bay was sweet, and I finally got to meet Chuck Cameron, the tyer who did some of the winter steelhead dressings for my book, The Color of Winter.   

Just this week, the rivers have finally dropped into fine shape, even the upper ends of the glacial systems, and fly fishers are taking some nice steelhead. I spent the day with a friend on the Hoh midweek. We didn’t get anything, but it was  wonderful being on the river again after more than a month. It was in great shape but there have been major changes since the recent high water. I know of at least three fish taken on swung flies on the Hoh last week.

Actually, you can find fish just about anywhere right now, although the lower Hoh and Bogachiel were still a little creamy for my taste in the afternoons earlier in the week. I have had reports of fish taken in all of the rivers.

Incidentally, our weather on the coast this week was apparently unique in western Washington. It was bluebird clear, with scant fog or clouds. The nights have been cold but we got up into the fifties most afternoons. That’s changing now, and it was colder today. It’s supposed to get  into the teens tonight.

So the rivers will be crystal clear for the next few days. Cold and clear aren’t my favorite conditions for swinging by any means. But it’s better than the Queets at 90,000 cfs and the Calawah, for God’s sake, at 30,000.

As for my book, you can get it through Amato and the usual online companies, as well as Waters West. I am going to have my computer lady connect the link from the “publications” page of the website to Amazon this week.

I will be at the Fly Fishing Show in Bellevue on February 6 and 7. I am doing a slide show on “Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishing Opportunities” at 2 pm Friday and “Rain Shadow Cutthroat/Rain Forest Cutthroat” at 10:30 on Saturday. I will also sign books in the Author’s Theatre, although I don’t know the times yet.

I have a book signing scheduled at Peninsula Outfitters in Poulsbo on February 21, and at Waters West in Port Angeles on March 7. The Waters West event is as much of a party as a signing, because several of the folks who helped with the book–Ron Hirschi, who wrote on cutthroat beaches, and Jack Datisman, the artist who painted the cover, along with Dave and Curt and others who contributed flies–will be there.

It seems like the Winter 2008/09 winter steelhead season is finally in full swing. I’ll try to post more regularly.  

I’ve managed to get out briefly a couple times since my last post, but haven’t touched a steelhead. The high water on the Quillayute rivers, which are in the best shape, has made it difficult to fish the way I like–wading and swinging. However, anglers who nymph from boats have gotten into steelhead when they have been able to get to the rivers.  

I don’t know really what to tell those of you who want to hit the West End rivers this weekend.  Eliana and I drove down to Queets yesterday afternoon, and the Queets itself was  high and dirty, the Hoh was fairly low but far from clear, and the Bogachiel didn’t look particularly inviting. The upper Sol Duc was in pretty good shape earlier in the week, high but green, and the Calawah has been fishable off and on.

The trouble is that we keep getting these spurts of rain and snow–there was a new skiff in our yard this morning. That keeps the major rivers rising and falling, which isn’t particularly conducive to good fly fishing. Moreover, we’re supposed to have fairly significant rain Saturday and Sunday, and the temperature is predicted to get into the 40s both days. There is still a fair amount of snow, especially on the higher elevation areas like Dead Dog Flats and the stretch between Fairholm and Bear Creek, and that will eventually also find its way into the rivers.

I have always done best for saltwater cutts in winter when the weather is cold and dry. If the rainshadow beaches–which are often spared coastal precipitation–don’t pick up rain for a few days, they may be a better idea than driving all the way out here.  

My new book–Fly-Fishing Guide to the Olympic Peninsula–is finally available. I received my contract copies yesterday and it looks nice. You can get it online and from Amato Books. I’ve also got a few openings left from some of my winter clinics, which you can read about in my Winter Newsletter.

Happy New Year!