The Breach

A Great film, centering around the Elwah, is in development. More details Here.

Boy am I excited for this one.

THe Little Brown Creeks

When people come to my neck of the woods to fish, they usually busy themselves on the big rivers. The Hoh, Queets, and Quinault offer steady flows and the hatchery plants in the Humptulips, Hoh, and Wynoochee concentrate the steelheaders. I find that for stream angling this time of year, nothing beats the small water. 

I fish the Quinault for summer steelhead from June on, but I save the Queets, Clearwater, Humptulips, and Hoh for later in the year when more wild summer runs and sea-run cutthroat move in. This time of year I focus on the cedar creeks. The small independents that drain the foothills and cedar swamps. The brown, dertius filled water is much richer than the clear snowfed streams that play tributary to our larger rivers. The  brown water and tight brush offer good cover for fish and I have taken monster trout from streams small enough to jump across. 

Some of the larger of these systems actually hold great populations of resident cutthroat year round, and the smaller ones usually have a beaver pond or two that make exploring them worth while. You won’t find numbers, but the coloration of the fish more than makes up for it. The Cedar stain turns the fish a glowing golden yellow, heavily spotted and with bright crimson splashes, they are my favorite piece of natural art in my locale.

I don’t sweat technique to much on these streams. Fish wet flies down and dries up, hit cut banks and log jams, never pass up a beaver pond and above all have fun. I usually carry five flies. The Royal Coachman dry, the Elk Hair caddis, the Spruce, A small muddler minnow and the Partidge and Orange. I never have anything more than a floating line, double taper because roll casting is essential, and the smallest rod I have. 

The deadliest technique is to dead drift a muddler tied on a heavy wire hook up in a cutbank. I caught my largest cutthroat of the year this past summer with this technique. A heavy shoulder 22 incher. 

You probably noticed I haven’t named a creek. That’s because all the streams I fish regularly where ones that I found myself. These fish are much more special because I discovered them without intel or suggestions from others. I think you will enjoy your small creek more if it doesn’t have a name on the map and you never see anyone else there. Especially when we are talking about smaller fish, and few of them, discovery is half the excitement at least. 

A Good Read

Every once in a while I stumble Upon an article that takes what I want to say from the convoluted thought language in my head and puts it in breathtaking, inspiring english. This is one of them.

On Steelhead Fly Selection

When approaching a trout stream, even those clear, easily spooked chalk streams, the fly you choose is based on sound, observational logic. You select the food item most likely to take the trout. If the water is covered in mayflies, you tie on something that approximates their appearance. Even if the water is blank, a good nymph or a juicy terrestrial presented in a lifelike manner will take fish. The trout angler, often armed with a knowledge of entomology sufficient to teach it at the college level, can almost always choose a fly that is logical. The trout eats stonefly nymphs, so I will choose a fly that imitates a stonefly nymph. I will work the fly in the water to the best of my ability to further imitate that stonefly nymph. If all goes well my fly will look and move like the real thing, thus inducing a strike.

Steelhead are far less cut and dried. Why steelhead take flies is one of the great mysteries of the natural world. Convincing an animal to put something in his mouth when he no longer has any interest in feeding seems like a fools errand, however it is precisely this unlikely venture that makes steelheading the great sport that it is. This begs the questions, what fly do you choose to make a fish eat that has no interest in eating? What is appetizing to the anorexic? That is obviously a facetious and silly question, but its a question the steelheader must ask himself on each and every trip to the river. 

Steelhead Report

I've spent the last couple weeks doing my best to land an early wild fish on one of the West End rivers. I've managed to rise two in the five days I was on the water, and for wild steelhead in June, that isn't terrible. One rose to a purple soft hackle, the other to a Glasso pattern, the Gray and Orange.

The first fish came while fishing the lower reaches of the Quinault, there is a portion of tribal water that just begs to be fly-fished, and I granted it that one week ago. I have to say that I believe I would have done better had there not been so many parr present. A more responsible angler would have fished a deep fly after contending with the babies for a few swings, but I want a steelhead in the surface film rather badly. The fish rose short to the fly, never to be seen again.

The second fish came in one of my favorite runs in the world. This run is in the upper reaches of a nearby river, and out of the reach of roads. A creek meets the river and the two currents fight the merger to create an island and a dream of a steelhead run behind it. The water was still a little bit high, so I didn't expect much. I worked the pool diligently though, and towards the end of the first pass, in the glassy tailout and just behind a submerged boulder, the Steelhead took. I held him for five seconds before he made seaward in the high current and did a quick job of separating my 3x tippet.

I must say I have felt very unmatched with my 9' 5wt thus far. I really wish I still had my switch rod, the worst part is that I know whoever stole it from me probably isn't putting it to good use.

Secret Spots and why the Quinault is my Perfect River

Recently I received an email from a man I consider a role model. He cautioned me that I should be careful of giving away my spots on this blog, he was referring to steelhead spots. I do sympathize with him. He fishes the Hoh and Qillayute systems frequently and the winter crowds there make me sympathize with european management practices. I’ve never been a “secret spot” guy. I’m not a name dropper by any means, and my father would probably beat me to inch of my life if he ever read specific directions to one of our runs on this blog, but if someone I judge to be an honest fisherman, loose lips or tight, asks for fishing advice, I give it freely. 

My mentality has always been that here in the Quinault system, a little more angling interest will only increase awareness of the management needs of the watershed. When I stop using the word “interest” and start saying “pressure” that mentality will probably change. I doubt that will ever happen on the Quinault system. 

Monday Tibits

Chester Allen has a very good read on the Dechutes

RIP Harry Lemire

This Guy knows how to take a photo

Most of the time I am perfectly content to stay in the three rivers adjacent to my home and bother cutthroat and steelhead, but between Tom Chandler and Chester Allen, I'm dreaming of the Columbia and Sacramento systems today.

Even more Columbia eye candy over at Oregon Flyfishing and Ethan Nickel

This brought a tear to my eye.

Oregon groups fighting Gillnets which we should support wholeheartedly

This looks like an interesting Book

I want This movie

Taking a Break

I got robbed this Weekend. 1,000 dollars worth of belongings where stolen, including the camera that has been used to take all the pictures on this blog. Posting will be sparse this week as my internet router was also stolen. Should be back to normal by next week, with lots of new posts.

I have been absolutely knocking them dead on the Lake the last few days. The first good push of early sea-runs are in and the water is boiling with Sockeye and Coho Fry, Steven's streamers and Silver Borwns are working but I'm ashamed to say that nothing has produced like an Olive Wolly Bugger.

I'm also going to wet a line for those June Steelhead when I get a free moment. May hit the Wishkah or Wynoochee tommorow as I have business in Aberdeen.

Friday Tidbits

Great video of the Metolius River and hey, while your over at Orvis take their Trivia Challenge

Ms. Cantwell doing her Part with the Bristol Bay issue

Save WIld Salmon a cause worthy of your support.

Now that's a Pretty Fish

A great article on "Foreign" Carp

Oregon River Report

Report form the Pebble Mine Meeting. And Another over at Orvis.

Oild Spills are never any fun.

Beautiful Piece on Cutthroat Trout

On Entomology and Salmonflies

Earlier today I read a post on The Caddis Fly blog talking about Deschutes redsides and Salmonflies. This made me chuckle. While the rest of the world is scrambling over itself to imitate the big summer hatches and pouring over hatch charts while planning their trips I am casting nondescript streamers and nymphs to fish who are put off the rise with the slightest wind chop.

On memorial day me and Shayna, my Photographer/significant other, went fishing on the south shore of Lake Quinault. One of the spots we fished was the mouth of Falls Creek. Upon arrival Shayna picked something up and said “Look at the size of this bug.” I looked over to see that she had picked up a Salmonfly, the first I’ve seen this year, that was nearly three inches long. I raised my eyebrows replied “yeah, those are suppose to be an important food source for trout.” and promptly tied on a streamer. 

It’s kind of funny to watch huge hatches of Caddis and see large spent Salmonflies and move rocks to see giant stonefly nymphs, only to imitate the small fish that are a much more important food source around here. The independent drainages of the North Pacific are like that. Not even the richest chalk streams can compete with the fertility of the marine realm, and our streams are far poorer insect wise. It just makes more sense for the fish to go to the ocean. 

Thats not to say that bugs are completely unimportant, October Caddis hatches are a blast fish in the fall, and chironomids catch trout when nothing else will induce a strike, but even when you have huge hatches with residual trout, like I see every year on Matheny Creek in the Queets basin, the adult trout will still take a swung spruce fly before they will rise to the most perfectly tied Adams or Comparadun, and you hook far less parr on the former.

Despite all this, my fly-fisherman’s blood won’t allow me to let something like salmonfly hatches go untested, and I have a few adapted Dee flies, tied with turkey feathers and a pale orange aft, ready to tease the June run of steelhead that are always in the Quinault when it opens in June. 

This is one of those ghost runs Doug Rose talk about in “The Color of Winter”, its not a large run, I would speculate no more than 500 fish, but it is an unmistakably specific run. These fish aren’t the kelts of spring, silver a virile, they are little power packed footballs fresh from the sea, and they are the mark of a summer that will inevitably be filled with steelhead and trout till September brings the first fresh push of coho, and another season wanes.  

Thursday Tidbits

Great Post ont he possible affects of Pebble Mine

Fake Fly-Fishing Magazines?

whats wrong with Hat Creek?

Fish humor provided by The Chum and Mr. Bellows

Interesting Fly Box Contest

Super fiery and well written piece on hatcheries over at The Drake

Also on The Drake, read about Lionfish and learn a little about Otoliths

Also Also on the Drake, check out Will Rice's Running from the Man articles

And we'll finish up with a video on tying Carrie Stevens' Grey Ghost

Fry Patterns

As I’ve said in earlier postings, one of the most important hatches to imitate in our waters is the fry outmigration. In Puget Sound the Pink and Chum fry provide an important food source for Sea-Run cutthroat, and the King and Coho outmigrations can make for some excellent fishing in our coastal waters.

No where is this hatch as important as on Lake Quinault in spring. Always spawning in systems with a large lake, Sockeye Salmon are plankton feeders, and their plankton feeding, lake dwelling young are an important food source for adfluvial cutthroat and charr. When writing about Lake Quinault this past week it occurred to me the five things I value most in a fishery. Firstly my favorite fisheries all produce larger than average fish, that one is kind of a given. Secondly I like them to be wild fish, preferably trout or salmon. Thirdly I like to connect with some part of fly-fishing history, whether that means casting Cotton’s Green Drake on a spring creek or swinging a Glasso Spey on the Sol Duc, I just like to relive the fishing and flies of the masters and legends of our sport. In addition to these I like the fishery to be secluded, and lastly I like that fishery to provide a good deal of challenge. 

Fishing the fry hatch on Lake Quinault really hits on all five of these. There are days when I troll a grey ghost in an old row boat just like they used to in Maine. I catch wild trout, some of the charr reach 10 pounds, and some days I see more fish in hand than I do other anglers. However, it isn’t all peaches and cream. The early season on Lake Quinault often sees the lake high and dirty, and fish can be scattered, also, it takes a truly skilled oarsman to work the fly right in a 40 mile per hour headwind, which we see often on the Lake. 

Wednesday Tidbits

Midcurrent has a great video on how to tie a Moto Minnow

Take a break from all those fishing videos and check out This surfing vid

I do love a Classic Wet Fly

Sign the Petition to stop gillnetting Hawaiian Bonefish

A list of fishing movie's in which A River Runs Through It should have won and Finding Nemo is horribly disrespected.

Heres a video on my favorite stillwater fly The Zug Bug

Good film trailer on possible Patagonia Dam Projects

Sage wins Small Manufacturer of the Year

Really been working on adapting These for the fry outmigration in Lake Quinault and Ozette.

Interesting Read about Belize

Tuesday Tidbits

Tom Chandler has just written the Story of my Small Stream Life, except the being 51 part, of course.

We're gonna take a break from the Pebble Mine chatter and talk about Oregon Mining

Big Irish Brown caught in Lough Corrib

Radioactive Tuna?

Guess what, Marine Fish Preserves are a good thing. Go figure.

River Test rainbow

SwittersB has another great post up. I do love that blog.

Cool Flatwing Video

I wanna get This Film

I'm pretty much crazy about catching any fish int he east pacific and its basin. Here's an old Post about Redtails

Monday Tidbits

Little word on the Klamath Dam Removal

EPA is having a meeting to hear public omments on Pebble Mine in Seattle on the 31st. We need to show up in force.

Orvis has a new video series on thier site which is free and looks VERY interesting.

the IHN Virus has made its way to a Washington Fish Farm. Also more cropping up in Canadian Waters

Congrats to the Osprey

Peninsula local John Mcmillian is currently being showcased in a Leaping Frog Film

Its been interesting and terrifying to follow the IHN Controversy

A great article from the Seattle Times reminds us to pay attention to The Little Things

Metalheads on vacation

A piece on Landing Trout