Doug Rose Flyfishing

The other day, for the first time in a long time, I got to fish for something besides winter steelhead. I understand that most of you live a lot farther from good steelhead water than I do, and that you can’t imagine targeting anything else if they are around and the season’s open. But the Calawah’s five minutes from my house, and I can be on the Bogachiel and Sol Duc in about 10 minutes and the Hoh in less than a half hour. I fish them all the time and guide on them nearly year round. It’s also been a long winter steelhead season, one that few of us who fish for steelhead on the swing will remember fondly. 

So I was more than ready to exchange the Spey rod for a single-handed 5-weight.

I drove over to the western Strait of Juan de Fuca and fished for sea-run cutthroat. Nearly all of my experience with cutthroat in saltwater is on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula, specifically Admiralty Inlet and northern Hood Canal. That’s where I guide and conduct my clinics. But I wanted to see if I could figure out some new water, and I also had a new TRO Professional Series 5-weight to put through the paces. The estuary I chose is fed by a creek that has a decent population of cutthroat, and a small run of chum. I hoped to find cutts working chum fry. I fished hard for a few hours, but didn’t get a tug. Nor did I see any evidence of fish or bait. As I said, I don’t know much about fishing cutts in the western strait, and I think it’ll take me a while to figure it out. That’s a nice prospect.

Despite the lack of action, I had a great time. It was a fine spring day, and I fished in shirt sleeves. There was a thick band of fog on the strait, as well as spectral whisps along the shore. I could hear the fog horns and engines of ships out in the shipping lane, but the only thing visible was the snow-capped tops of the mountains on Vancouver Island.

I do want to actually catch a cutthroat in the salt, however, and to that end I’m heading over to Hood Canal tomorrow. I’ve had some good reports from friends. I’ll let you know how I do.

After that, I’ll return to steelhead and springers. A few hatchery summer runs have already been taken in the lower sections of the Quillayute System.

Finally, be sure your licenses and gear are legal if you head this way. I was checked by a game warden one time in the first 26 years I lived on the peninsula, but have been checked three time in the last month. In addition to looking at licenses, they have all inspected my client’s or my fly to see it had a barb.     

Winter steelhead season is winding down on the West End of the Olympic Peninsula. The out-of-town guides are pulling up stakes, and the rivers have begun to take on the relaxed and homey feel they have when it’s mostly locals on the water. I saw Waters West’s proprietor, Dave Steinbaugh’s, truck on the Hoh the other day, and JD Love and his clients floated by me last week on the lower Sol Duc. For the first time in weeks, you have a chance to fish some of the lower river drifts without encountering a flotilla of boats or a picket line of Spey rods.

I have two more trips scheduled, then I’ll switch over to guiding for cutthroat in saltwater, fishing the rivers on my own, and scouting out new water for this summer. I’m also going to try to get out a first draft of a collection of duck hunting essays, “The Ducks at Sylopash Point,” by the first of June.

After such a miserable early spring, it has been nice to witness some of the hallmarks of a West End April–trillium on the Bogachiel and Hoh, young grouse in the alder flats, big daytime low tides. Dick Wentworth gave me a handful of gorgeous saltwater cutthroat dressing a while back, and I’m going to try them out on a bay not far from here.   

The rivers were very low until today, Easter Sunday, but it’s been pouring all night and through the day today. That may, in affect, finish things for the Hoh and Queets, which close on the 15th. But the Quillayute rivers remain open through the month, and bright fish will continue to trickle into the lower rivers. You also have a shot at a spring Chinook in the Sol Duc. Don Kaas’s Lab Rat, which you can see in my new book, has taken a number of nice Sol Duc springers. 

I’ll post my ”season in review” observations about the 2008/09 winter steelhead season in a couple weeks. 

                     CUTTHROAT ON THE BEACHES 

I still have openings for my saltwater cutthroat clinics, All Around the Islands, on April 18 and April 21. They take place around Indian and Marrowstone islands, near Port Townsend. We will spend the day fishing a variety of beaches, lines, flies and presentations. See the spring newsletter for details.

                        CONGATULATIONS PETER! 

I posted an essay in the blog last fall about the Northwest Watershed Institute’s efforts to preserve and restore the Tarboo Creek watershed in the Olympic Peninsula’s northeast corner. Well, I have great news. Peter Bahls, NWI’s executive director–not to mention a good friend and fishing buddy–has won the 2009 National Wetlands Award for Wetlands Conservation and Restoration. Sponsored by the Environmental Law Institute and supported by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service, EPA, NOAA and other federal agencies, the award honors ”individuals who have shown extraordinary commitement to wetland  conservation and restoration.” The awards ceremony will take place in Washington DC on May 12. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island will give the keynote address, and Washington’s Jay Inslee is a congressional co-sponsor.  

                             A GUIDE’S DAY OFF 

I spent about four hours on the upper Hoh yesterday, in the park. It was my last chance to fish the “fly only” water before the season closes on the 15th, and I probably won’t fish it again until August, at the earliest. It is usually late summer–or later–before the Hoh comes back into shape after run-off and the subsequent warm weather glacial melt. In fall, I fish up there a lot for summer steelhead.

I didn’t get anything yesterday. I fished two good places, a long run that, shockingly, was actually improved by the January high water, and a stretch of pocket water below a  shallow riffle. It was fantastic being up in the park, all alone, with clear skies and warm sun, hatching mayflies and little dark stoneflies. I had spectacular views of High Divide and Mount Tom. The water was utterly clear, 48 degrees, and my thermometer, which I think is right, said 74 degrees when it was facing the sun.

A fish would have been nice, but I got what I really needed.

I haven’t been fishing or guiding this weekend, but my wife and I have been hiking along a few of the local rivers. They are low but in really nice shape. I have Monday and Tuesday off, and for the first time in a long time I am going to be able to fish myself. I’ll tell you how I do.

Meanwhile, I have a few slots left for my spring clinics.

All Around the Islands–April 18 and 21; May 19.

Spend the day with me fishing the saltwater cutthroat beaches around Indian and Marrowstone islands, near Port Townsend. During the course of the day, we will visit a number of different types of beaches at various tide phases. We will also fish a variety of fly patterns–including chum fry, sand lance and crustaceans–and use a number of different lines and presentations. Each date is a separate class. Limited to 6. $60.

West End Cutthroat and Summer Steelhead–May 23-24. This is an intensive weekend seminar on fishing for sea-run cutthroat and summer steelhead on West End rivers. It is designed for mid-level fly fishers who want to polish their skills and learn more about coastal rivers. We will begin with a slide show and fly tackle discussion, then spend the rest of our ttime on the Sol Duc, Quillayute and Hoh rivers. These rivers are open in May, and they will give participants a chance to refine their water reading, fly selection, and presentation skills in advance of the regular June opener. Limited to 6. $250.

After all the tough fishing and nasty weather lately, I had a great moment with a client the other day. An accomplished and experienced Spey angler, he is also very enthusiastic about Spey flies, especially Glasso Speys. We had spent the morning on the Hoh, without so much as a bump–which has, unfortunately, been all too common lately. Then, after lunch, we moved over to the Bogachiel. As I do with all clients, I had given him a Sol Duc Spey. He decided to fish it on the Bogachiel’s clearer water. He worked carefully down the run and near the bottom, where there is a slight little bowl, he said calmly, “There she is.” It was a very strong, wild, bright hen, about 12 pounds. She didn’t want to come into the shallows at all, but I finally slipped the little fly from its jaw and she swam off strongly.

For me, that was the true essence of Olympic Peninsula winter steelhead fly fishing–lovely wild fish, beautiful local flies, solitude in a gorgeous setting, and patient, skillfull presentations. I was as happy as my client.