Doug Rose Flyfishing

Just a quick not to say how much I still dislike the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s decision a couple years ago to delay the opening of the river season unti the first Saturday in June. I would be on a beaver pond this morning if we still had the old rule. There are only so many June morning in a person’s lifetime and losing essentially the entire first week of the month this year (I don’t fish on weekends unless I’m guiding) is pretty hard to swallow. I wouldn’t have bothered writing about this, but Dick Wentworth stopped by a while ago with the Oregon regulations, and coastal anglers there have been fishing more than a week already. I’ve heard the decision defended on the basis that it allows wild smolts to migrate safely. I would find that more persuasive if the Sol Duc and Hoh weren’t already open. As Dick said, they even allow bait and smolts just love bait. I think the decision most likely had more to do with pressure from some urban fishing groups that  apparently resented the fact that anglers who live in remote areas got to fish a few days before them.    

Well, I didn’t have the heart to fish the last few days on the Calawah and Bogachiel (see previous post). I have been spending most of my time the last couple weeks on my duck hunting book and working on some major changes for the newsletter and blog. I also did a couple of “All Around the Islands” saltwater cutthroat clinics. They were both a lot of fun, with really good people. Last week, I did a slide show on Olympic Peninsula summer/fall fly fishing opportunities for the Northwest Fly Anglers in Seattle. They are a great club. The best part of the evening was getting to see and talk to Les Johnson and Carol Ferrara, who attended the meeting. Les looks great and is sharper than ever. I also finally got to meet Dick Sagara, the TFO rep whom I have been talking to on the phone and via email for several years. While we’re on the subject of clubs, I want to thank Bob Triggs for filling in for my presentation at the April South Sound Fly Fishers meeting. That was when Lily first got sick, and I didn’t want to leave her alone. I heard a lot of good things about his presentation and really appreciate his willingness to do it on extremely short notice. His kind words about hunting Labs and how they “just get under your skin like nothing else can” also meant a lot to me. Thanks Bob! So did the emails and calls I got from clients and friends. Finally, I may post once or twice this week but don’t expect much until I get the Summer Newsletter up sometime the first week in June. It’ll have a couple new essays, more photos, flies, and my clinic and guiding schedule for the summer. After that, I’ll resume the Summer Steelhead Journal I started last year, as well as regular On the Water Log entries. Have a great Holiday.

Rose’s Lily Morgan of Suncloud, 1999-2010

gus am bris an la agus an teich na sgaitean

(till the day breaks and the shadows fall away)

I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while. My computer has been down, and I just got it back today. I was also busy finishing up the steelhead season. I will begin posting again regularly next week about surf perch, cutts in the salt, lakes and my last couple days on the Calawah and Bogachiel.

                  Doug Rose Spring 2010 Newsletter

Regardless of where you live, springtime is when a fly fisher’s thoughts begin to drift to new and different fishing opportunities.  On Eastern and Great Lakes rivers, it’s when the mayfly hatches–the foundation that the fly fishing traditions in this country were built upon–begin to tick off one species at a time. Up in Maine, it’s when the smelt run triggers the landlocked salmon and big squaretails. In the Keys, the flats fishing picks up as the shallows warm and the tarpon and bones and permit become more active. Even in the Rockies, where snow still blankets the higher slopes, savvy local anglers often enjoy excellent fishing during the low water before run-off.  

But I don’t think there is a region that offers anything close to the species diversity and range of settings as the Olympic Peninsula in spring.

I don’t have to say much about winter steelhead. From now through mid-April, lower flows and warmer water give anglers their best chance of the season to connect with a winter steelhead on the fly. 

However, the array of springtime fly fishing options on the peninsula extends far beyond West End rivers. I have posted a new essay “A Guide’s Day Off” on fishing for sea-run cutthroat in Hood Canal in spring. As the water temperatures rise and the insects and forage fish become more active, the action on the peninsula’s large and small lakes also kicks into high gear. Indeed, the first month of the season is often the most productive time of year on many  stillwaters. 

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The rivers that drain the western flanks of the Olympic Peninsula host, arguably, the last stronghold of large wild winter steelhead in the lower 48 states. That’s why anglers from around the nation and around the globe travel to the Hoh and Queets and Quinault, the Bogachiel, Sol Duc and Calawah each spring. Over the last year or so, I have guided folks from New York and Texas, Virginia and Montana, Massachusetts and California–not to mention Japan and Europe. A trip to these fabled rain forest rivers is a grand adventure, and taking one of their large anadromous rainbows on a fly is a heady challenge.

For my part, I live five minutes from a trail down to the Calawah. The Bogachiel is about a 10 minute drive from my house, and the lower Sol Duc is 15 minutes away. I can get to the Hoh in less than a half hour. These rivers, in other words, are my home waters. 

As hard as it may seem for someone who invests a lot of  dreams, plans and cash to visit these rivers, they aren’t necessarily the places I seek out when I want to get away. Oh sure, I fish these rivers a lot, and they are where you will usually find me on my days off. But when I  want to shake off the familiar and immerse myself in something different, I tend to head for different waters.
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Two Wentworth Versions of the Sol Duc

I focused nearly all of my fly tying this winter on Syd Glasso and Dick Wentworth Spey-style dressings. I now have a big old Perrine fly box full of their steelhead flies. It’s got Sol Ducs and Sol Duc Speys and Sol Duc Darks. It also has Orange Herons, Brown Herons, Black Herons and Courtesans. There is a row of Glasso-style Polar Shrimp, with both hackle tip and goose shoulder wings. The box also contains a row of Quillayutes and Mr. Glassos, the Glasso-inspired dressings created by Dick Wentworth, his great friend and protege.

I tied Glasso-style patterns before this winter, but this is the first time I’ve really put a sustained effort into it. I tied nearly every day, and I tied at least one Glasso or Wentworth fly each time I sat down at the vise. With all the high water and blown out rivers we’ve had, I’ve had a lot of time to work on them.

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The rivers are in decent shape and there are fish in them. If you want to catch a nice wild steelhead this year, right now is the time to do it. However, if you don’t want to look like a “touron”–think about the different parts of that word for a moment–don’t prance around the Thriftway wearing waders. Everyone knows instantly that you are from out of town and, even worse, that you think you are a really cool dude.

Fishing Report: Barlow’s Bar, Lower Hoh, Friday, March 5–see “Tragedy of the Commons.”

I did something very sensible and liberating today: I fished for something other than steelhead. I drove back to one of my old haunts on Hood Canal and fished for cutts. I had a great time and, even better, didn’t see another angler.

And, yes, the chum fry are on the move, and the cutts are on them. I will have a report on my day in the spring newsletter. It’ll be up next week.