Doug Rose Flyfishing

I imagine some of you are wondering if the West End rivers will be fishable this weekend. Forget about it–at least with a fly rod. Earlier in the week, it looked like the Sol Duc or Calawah might drop into shape after Thanksgiving. I took a trip down to Amanda Park on Tuesday, and the Hoh, Queets, and Quinault were terrible, but the Bogachiel was beginning to get some color back. It was the same story on the Sol Duc and Calawah, and my favorite creek was actually in pretty good shape. But we had about three more inches of rain on Wednesday. It’ll be early next week before any of the big rivers are worth trying with a fly rod. My creek may be fishable by Sunday.

With this colder weather, I would try for a sea-run in the salt on the East Side of the Olympic Peninsula if you want to fish. The nearshore waters clear up a day or so after the rain ends, and cutthroat fishing usually picks up. Jeffrey Delia’s Conehead Squid is a fantastic winter fly. You can see it in the blog archives under Olympic Peninsula Flies.

The newsletter will be up on Wednesday. After that, I’ll begin posting regularly about winter steelhead.  

A couple of my friends mentioned that I haven’t posted anything for a while. Sorry. But it’s not that I have been fishing a lot and not writing about it. November and December are my most productive writing months, and I have been spending most of my time at my desk. I’m trying to finish my duck hunting book before winter guiding gets going, and I’m pulling together the Winter/Christmas newsletter.

I think you’ll like the newsletter this year. It will feature original essays by Preston Singletary, Ron Hirschi, Leland Miyawaki, Bob Triggs and me. I will also post some Spey flies. And, best of all, I will reprint Les Johnson’s fantastic essay from last year’s newsletter, “The Christmas Coho.” The newsletter will be about around the first of December.  

There are some early winter steelhead and old silvers around, and a few intrepid souls took them in the windows when the rivers have been fishable. But we really got hit this weekend–a classic Pineapple Express. The Queets went from less than 6,000 Saturday morning to nearly 50,000 today. The Calawah is pushing 14,000–I like it around 1,200 in winter–and the Hoh was close to 25,000.

I’ll post later in the week, with an update on the river conditions. I’m hoping to get out to a creek or two with my switch rod by Friday. After Thanksgiving, I’ll be posting three or four times a week on winter steelhead.