Doug Rose Flyfishing

Summer Steelhead and Cutthroat Journal–6/30/09:

Still no steelhead. But I got a fiesty bull trout on the Hoh yesterday. It was about three pounds and actually spulled line a couple of times. It surprised me, because I catch the bulk of my native char on the Hoh in spring or autumn, which is when, apparently, the anadromous fish are on the move. But there are also reportedly resident bull trout in the system. Besides, Olympic National Park’s Sam Brenkman has published research on Hoh char that suggests they move around a lot, from basin to basin even, and that the fish are perhaps even more individualistic than cutthroat. Anyway, it was a beautiful wild fish, and it was a real pleasure connecting with it.

The high point of my day, however, came a few minutes later. Glancing downstream, I noticed two cow elk breaking through the willows along the far bank. They were on the high side, about 50 yards below me. They looked at me very intently for several moments. I figured they probably had calves with them and were checking me out. Sure enough, they presently waded into the river, followed by three calves and two more cows. The lead cows were clearly uneasy about my presence, so I made some fake casting motions. In my experience, most wild animals don’t like you staring at them, but are usually more relaxed if it looks like you’re doing something. Whether that is the case or not, they crossed the river together, with the calves in the middle. I wondered how the calves would do, but they high- stepped straight across, purposefully and kicking up a lot of spray. It looked like they were actually having fun.

I fished for about an hour on the Calawah this morning. It was so low I spent two-thirds of my time wading between places I could set up a swing. I would then make a few casts and wade farther downstream. The Quillayute System really needs some rain. 

Summer Steelhead and Cutthroat Journal–6/29/09:

Fishing remains slow. I guided two parties late last week, and they got no steelhead and few trout. The rivers are still unseasonably low, despite Thursday’s good rain. There are steelhead in the lower Sol Duc and, especially, the Calawah and Bogachiel, but they have been tough to get, and you have a lot of competition from gear and bait anglers. If you’re heading this way soon, I would think about Lake Crescent, the rain forest rivers, which came back in shape quickly after Thursday’s rain, or trout in the upper reaches of the Quillayute tributaries.

I’m still thinking steelhead, though, and am heading out right now.   

Summer Steelhead and Cutthroat Journal–6/24/09:

Well, I still haven’t gotten my hands on a summer steelhead. But one did all it could to provide me the opportunity yesterday. I was fishing the lower Bogachiel, swinging a purple and white wet fly on a floating line. I had been having a lot of little tugs from smolts and parr, then, suddenly, I felt the yank of big fish. It was strong and insistent, like a dog trying to pull a chicken through a picket fence. But that was it, no head shake, no heavy weight on the line, nothing, just slack. Suspecting what had happened, I reeled in. And, sure enough, the bend and barb of the hook were gone. I had broken them off on the rocks behind me on a low back cast. The really frustrating part was that I had checked the hook a few minutes earlier, and it was fine then. That meant that I had broken it in the last few minutes. Naturally, I was irritated with myself. After all, good bites from summer steelhead don’t come easy. But it isn’t practical to check you fly after each swing either. It’s just part of the sport, I guess.

It’s raining in Forks this morning. That should help fishing. because the rivers have been extremely low for a long time. I’m going out this afternoon and will report on how it goes.  

Summer Steelhead and Cutthroat Journal–6/20/09:

I fished for steelhead on the Calawah and Sol Duc on Tuesday and Wednesday briefly and didn’t raise a steelhead. I did catch a few 10- to 14 inch cutthroat.Don’t  be discouraged by my lack of steelhead, because some folks have been getting them on both rivers. I simply haven’t put in much time on the water this week. I had an article due, the car was in the garage for a tune-up one day, and school got out on Monday in Forks, and my wife and I have been hiking and taking the dog swimming a lot. 

The rivers are ridiculously low. The Calawah was hovering in the 100 to 200 cfs range this week, and the Queets, for some reason, is running lower than the Hoh. It’s been raining a little off and on the last couple days, but not enough to change anything. In fact, I was actually able to fish the upper Hoh yesterday, something you can’t often do with flies in June. I could easily see my wading boots in knee-deep water. I didn’t get anything, but it was nice being in the rain forest in summer. I began the day trying for surfperch near Kalaloch, but the waves were pretty bad and very unpredictable.  

I have the entire first part of next week to fish. I’ll report on summer steelhead, as well as lake fishing and saltwater.

Summer Steelhead and Cutthroat Journal–6/15/09

Well, I actually fished Friday but didn’t have time to post until now. I hooked my first summer steelhead, a bright, large, firecracker of a fish, Friday morning on the middle Sol Duc. It was a good-sized fish, over 10 pounds, so I suspect it was a hatchery steelhead. It hit a slimmed-down variation of a Green-Butt Skunk tied on a low water hook. I had it on for quite a while and actually got to the stage of the struggle where I was pretty sure I was going to land it. I was even thinking about how I would cook it if it turned out to be a hatchery fish. Then it suddenly was gone. One moment, there was the electric pulsing of a big fish on the rod, the next the line was slack. Maybe the hook simply worked its way free.

I didn’t fish today, but did take a ride down the coast and got a look at all the major rivers. The Hoh and Queets are low but still have too much color for good fly fishing. Interestingly, the Quinault looked pretty good from the road. Unfortunately, it gets very few summer fish. I would stick with the Quillayute rivers for now, specifically the lower Calawah and Bogachiel, and the Sol Duc all the way up to the hatchery.

Summer Steelhead and Cutthroat Journal-p6/11/09:

I only fished for two hours this morning, but I got my nicest fish of the week, a 14 inch sea-run. I got it on the Quillayute River estuary. It was the only fish I caught. I got it on a low water Royal Coachman Bucktail. It was a minus tide, and I got it from a soft patch of water off the main flow–in other words, classic sea-run habitat. Incidentally, there were more bandtailed pigeons flying around while I fished than I’ve seen in a long time. I’ve got to finish an article tomorrow morning , but I may get out to the Sol Duc before noon. If I do, I’ll tell you how I did. If not, I’ll post again Monday. 

Summer Steelhead and Cutthroat Journal–6/10/09:

I got a few 8- to 10 inch cutts today and had a nicer one on briefly. I fished a tributaty to a tributary of the Quillayute System. All of the fish hit a size 8 Hoko Hummer. Designed by the late James Garrett, who created a number of fine patterns for Olympic Peninsula steelhead and salmon, the Hoko Hummer is a Woolly-Bugger-type wet fly, with a Hungarian partridge hackle, orange chenille body, black marabou case back and tail, and black ostrich head. You can see it and other Garrett patterns in Combs’ Steelhead Fly Fishing. Steelhead fishing remains slow, but I know of at least one taken on the fly on opening day. I don’t know what I’ll fish for tomorrow yet, cutts or steelhead. Whatever I do I’ll have a good time, because it’s just great being on the rivers again. Today, the Sitka columbine were in flower along the bank, and I saw fresh cow/calf tracks in the sand next to the river. They probably came down at dawn for a drink.

Summer Steelhead and Cutthroat Journal–6/9/09:

No soap on the Sol Duc. I fished the lower Sol Duc today and didn’t get anything. I had a couple bites that weren’t steelhead but could have been decent cutthroat. The water was 54 degrees, as clear as it gets, and still very low. I fished my Deer Creek switch rod, an AFS line with a floating tip, and my friend, Curtis Reed, of Waters West’s, Curt’s Chameleon. It’s in my new book. The high point of the morning was when a river otter gave me holy hell. I kept hearing this shreaky scolding sound and looked around in the trees, thinking it was a bird. Finally, my gaze lowered to the bank on the opposite shore, and it was an otter. It was looking right at me. When it saw that I saw it, it began swimming upstream away from me. I imagine it was a mother with young, and that it wanted to get my attention and then lead me away from it pups or whatever they’re called. It was cool. I’m going trout fishing tomorrow, up high somewhere.

Summer Steelhead and Cutthroat Journal–6/8/09:

I didn’t catch a fish today. I skipped the opening weekend, not wanting to participate in the WDFW’s new First- Saturday-in-June-River-Derby. This morning I hiked (50 minutes each way) into a reach of the Calawah (not “the ponds) and fished a long patch of broken water below a split. After that, I tried for cutthroat on a big tank hole. I didn’t get a bite either place. The water was very low, clear, and in the 50s. I waked a Steelhead Bee in the run–one with forward wings and stiff hackle, not Haig-Brown style–and swung a black Woolly Bugger in the pool.  I had that sense you get on the water sometimes that there just weren’t any steelhead in that section yet. As for the cutts, at this time of year it’s just a matter of luck. You run into fluvial fish or early sea-runs some years, some years you don’t. Tomorrow, I’m fishing the Sol Duc.

A friend emailed me and said that a couple paragraphs in my Waking, Skating and the Greased Line essay in the Summer Newsletter didn’t make sense. The passages were in the copy block on ”Skating on the Calawah,” and they not only didn’t make sense–they were wrong. Sorry. I was in a rush at the end of putting the newsletter and essays together and got sloppy with the “cut and paste.” The offending paragraphs incorrectly juxtaposed several sentences from different parts of the piece that weren’t meant to go together. I’ve fixed that section of the essay now. There is a reason we have editors at publishers and magazines!

I am skipping fishing this weekend but will begin to post about summer steelhead on Monday.