Friday, August 22, 2014

Go With The Flow



Your Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishing Guide,
Catch & Release, Fly Fishing Only!

To Go With The Flow


Friday August 22nd through Thursday August 28th.
It's still summer out there! And the tides are setting up nicely too.
    
Labor Day is creeping up on us again. And for most people this signals the beginning of the end to their summer days. But for we fly fishers in the Pacific Northwest, we know that this is just the beginning of a whole new cycle of opportunity, adventure and exploration. The nights are getting just a bit longer now, and even on the hottest days we get refreshing cool evenings. By now the late summer hatches of termites, ants, hoppers, moths etc., are in full blossom, and dry fly fishing is just getting better with each passing week- if you have the water for it. The Olympic Peninsula rivers are at typically low, late summer flows now. We need rain. A lot of rain. Most of us are fishing in the saltchuck now, and we will be for some weeks to come. That's where the flows are, and that's where the fish are.

   

 

   For the beach fishers, in search of the sea run Cutthroat trout, this is a time of expectancy, frustration and reward. In some places the Cutthroat will remain in the salt waters until later fall, as late as November, and in other places they will already be inching back up into the streams. Riddling out where and when is the game. In our area the best sea run Cutthroat fishing of the year is going to be in September and October on the beaches. And when November has not been too blustery we have had great fishing through Thanksgiving. For now though, despite the bright sun, and sunny clear skies, and hot day time temperatures, we will catch many of these wild trout within just a few feet of water, at the edges of the beach, in tidal current. The secret is the flows. You can use a sink tip or sinking line, like a clear intermediate line, when it gets so sunny and bright, thinking that the fish may be holding in deeper, colder and darker waters, and they may be at times. But there is nothing like skating a big fluffy Muddler or Popper on the surface, and getting those feisty trout to smash at the fly as it "V" wakes across the surface on the swing. "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing"! You need flow for that, current, moving water. And our tidewaters are famous for providing river-like flows on almost every tide. We're heading back toward a new moon cycle, so the tides through the end of the month and into early September are looking good. It is nice when we can get dawn or dusk high tides. Even better when we can have both sometimes.



Sea run Cutthroat taken on a 4 inch bait fish style Clouser fly.


   "Big flies, big fish" This would be the time of year to test this theory. The forage fish have gotten bigger by now. Herring can be well over 8 inches long. So do not be afraid to tie some bigger herring looking Clousers, long, flatwing Sandlance etc. Just keep the hooks smaller, like not over #4 or #6, medium to short in shank length. I use streamers as long as four to six inches this time of year, even for Cutthroat in saltwater. They still take these prey by the head. If you have ever seen Leland Miyawaki's Beach Poppers, after a few fish have attacked them, you will see that the foam popper heads are well torn up by the trout's sharp teeth. These fish ain't nibbling at things like some kind of anal retentive brown trout. Here too, the combination of moving water and a swung fly can be the trigger for aggressive takes by these wild trout. Let the fly work though. Don't be stripping it in so fast that you lose half of the presentation by taking it away from them too soon. Many of the best fish that we have caught were at the very end of the swing. Let the currents work your fly. If you are fishing on the swing you can impart action to the fly in a number of ways. Pulsing the rod tip, which gives the fly an upstream darting action, allowing the tension to set up in the line again as it swings, and pulsing it again etc. This Is just one of many ways to use the full swing, without stripping in the fly, and giving your presentation some life. Your fly will be fishing longer this way.



Fish Stories.

  The salmon are coming home! And everything seems poised toward this migration. On some tides we see bait fish everywhere, teeming schools of sandlance and herring, breaking out of the roiling currents, with the salmon, cutthroat, seals, otters and birds chasing them, and feasting on the bounty. And with the fattest, meanest cutthroat trout of the year chasing our flies, all of our attention is on the saltchuck now. Soon enough though, we will be getting a little rain in the mountains, usually at night, and the river flows will begin to revive. By late September we will see the beginnings of the October Caddis hatch, which will usually last through the first hard frost. And as the rivers freshen with the autumn rains there will be some of the best cutthroat trout and summer steelhead dry fly fishing on our coastal rivers and streams. This is truly a season of new beginnings.

   To learn more about Puget Sound and Olympic Peninsula fly fishing call or write for more details. I would be happy to help you plan your Olympic Peninsula adventure.


Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishing Guide and Instructor

  I am guiding fly fishers on the Olympic Peninsula beaches, rivers and streams. We walk and wade, fly fishing for sea-run Coastal Cutthroat trout in freshwater and saltwater, and in the rivers for trout and summer steelhead. This is strictly catch and release, traditional fly fishing only. Lunch, snacks, soft beverages, and use of some equipment is included. Personalized and private fly fishing and fly casting instruction, and guided trips are available, for beginners through expert anglers. Public presentations, Naturalist guide for rowboat picnics, Tide Pool and river trail day trips. Please call, write or email for booking details.
  

Bob Triggs
Little Stone Flyfisher
P.O. Box 261
Port Townsend, WA
98368

Licensed Washington State Guide 
Certified Fly Casting Instructor
Trout Unlimited Aquatic Educator Award
U.S.C.G First Aid/CPR/BLS/AED/BBP/HIV Certified

Phone: 360-385-9618








   

Friday, August 15, 2014

Autumn In August!


Your Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishing Guide,
Catch & Release, Fly Fishing Only!

Autumn In August!


''To everything there is a season . . ."

    Western Washington fishing has been delightfully enjoyable this week, as we have been getting cool cloudy days, a little rain, and some freshets in the rivers. This has really stimulated some things around the Olympic Peninsula. And with warm dry weather in the forecast ahead, I expect to see even more of these cycles continue. There are more bugs hatching now, lots more. And we are not even into the fall weather yet. Last night I went out in the dory for a row around the bay. I pulled down along the waterfront, and I met some friends down at the pub for a pint as the sun was setting. It was cool and cloudy, with a heavy wet mist settling in upon us as the night came on and the stars began to twinkle through. Rowing back up town toward the ramp, the sky was filled with swirling mist and fog, and low lying wisps of clouds. 


"Night rowing." 
photo credit Crystal Craig photography
    I ended up staying out late, rowing along, several seals following me, drifting on the tides in the darkness. The water was a soft black, velvety flat plain.The air was so refreshingly cool that I almost stayed out all night. When I got back to the ramp it was midnight. I then found myself rowing through countless thousands of sandlance, swarming in mass along the beach in the shallows, writhing and cavorting in an impossible jumble of undulating bright flashes and darting leaps. Rowing along several hundred feet of beach, I could feel them bouncing wildly off of my oar blades, they were impossible to avoid. I don't recall ever seeing this happen so early in the year. And so I am wondering if fall will come early this year. At any rate, we needed the rain. And that freshening influence in the rivers might help to move some summer steelhead out of their usual low water malaise. That's a lucky thing for August on the Olympic Peninsula.


Summer Steelhead fishing.

    The beach fishing has been running just about as hot and cold as the weather around here lately.  Most of the salmon fishermen on the beaches are only now beginning to report a smattering of coho catches on each tide. They have always done better around here in September and October. Sea run Cutthroat are our primary game, as we walk and wade, fly fishing from the beaches, and they have not been disappointing. And we will still have at least several good months of this saltwater fly fishing ahead of us. We always look forward to our autumn fishing. By now the sea-run Cutthroat trout that we are catching are much stronger and more robust, fatter, and aggressive. What a difference a few months of feeding in the saltwater since spring makes for them. I just wish we could have a few cool and cloudy, softly misting rainy days every week of summer. I was surprised to learn that our little corner of the country gets less rain than anywhere else for these months each year.

"Evening tide"
    One thing that fly fishing can do is to help you to cultivate a sense of gratitude. It's pretty hard to hang onto your ordinary daily stresses and concerns when you are enveloped in the alchemy of bright waters and open air. Breathing in the heavy, sweet scent of salt and tide, and hanging all of your hopes on one cast at a time. Sometimes we forget ourselves, worldly goals and comparisons become meaningless, and our ordinary lives grow dim in our awareness as we open ourselves to the rhythm and pulse of the waters. At some point we are engrossed in the tempo of the cast, the swing of the line across the water, the wind and flows and dappling light will enchant us. Time disappears. One cast at a time we "practice to be quiet."  It is no wonder that we get home late sometimes.


To learn more about Puget Sound and Olympic Peninsula fly fishing call or write for more details. I would be happy to help you plan your Olympic Peninsula adventure.


Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishing Guide and Instructor

  I am guiding fly fishers on the Olympic Peninsula beaches, rivers and streams. We walk and wade, fly fishing for sea-run Coastal Cutthroat trout in freshwater and saltwater, and in the rivers for trout and summer steelhead. And we catch and release salmon on the beaches. This is strictly catch and release, traditional fly fishing only. Lunch, snacks, soft beverages, and use of some equipment is included. Personalized and private fly fishing and fly casting instruction, and guided trips are available, for beginners through expert anglers. Public presentations, Naturalist guide for rowboat picnics, Tide Pool and river trail day trips. Please call, write or email for booking details.
  

Bob Triggs
Little Stone Flyfisher
P.O. Box 261
Port Townsend, WA
98368

Licensed Washington State Guide 
Certified Fly Casting Instructor
Trout Unlimited Aquatic Educator Award
U.S.C.G First Aid/CPR/BLS/AED/BBP/HIV Certified

Phone: 360-385-9618







Sunday, August 3, 2014

The Waxing Gibbous Moon



Your Olympic Peninsula fly fishing Guide,
Catch & release, Fly fishing only!

The Waxing Gibbous Moon


Beach Dory

  We are smack-dab in the middle of another beautiful, sunny summer beach season.  And the conditions here have been perfect for our sea-run Cutthroat trout fishing. The days have been sunny, with a refreshing ocean breeze, and the nights have been cooling us off. There have been some significant numbers of moths showing up lately too. And aside form the cornucopia of bait and other critters that the trout feed on, they will take moths, termites, winged ants, bees and beetles etc., anytime that they can. Yes, even in saltwater. And there has been a huge moth "hatch" going on here too. So now you can use big fluffy dry flies like Elk Hair Caddis, Stimulators, Steelhead Caddis, Muddlers etc. There's a lot of bugs on the water. 



Gypsy Moth (photo ecy.wa.gov)

    I especially like dry fly and surface fishing on the saltwater beaches. Sometimes when there are cutthroat around, and they are obviously feeding, but they are not taking our streamers and bait fish patterns, I will switch over to something that will imitate the bug life. Ants, winged ants, and termites can be very effective sometimes. Even hoppers will work now. 



My Steelhead Caddis


"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds . . ." Emerson.

So I am offering you this observation: Sea run Coastal Cutthroat trout will eat all of the same bugs in saltwater that they do in freshwater. And it does not have to be perfectly matched to the time of a hatch to work. But sometimes that will help. And we are in a time of year now when it could make your day. So don't be afraid to try this.

Plying the moon tides . . .
Most dry fly trout fishermen will have developed a drag free drift on the fly before they come here. And they are always a little surprised when I encourage them to splat the fly down onto the water hard, and let it drag on the swing, drowning it at times, and shaking and twitching it on the retrieve, rudely disturbing the water all of the way. These fish want to eat something that looks alive!

Andy fools another one!
   But once again you have to remember that some trout can be kind of picky sometimes. So when they are actively feeding, and you have switched to dry flies, and you are skating them around out there in front of their noses for all that you are worth, and they are not falling for it- then you just might have to remember how to get a drag free drift again. I have caught a lot of sea runs this way, on a #12 Royal Wulff. I know, it isn't very "salty", but it often works. Bronze wire dry fly and trout hooks stand up to saltwater just fine. Just rinse them well after use and let them dry before putting them back into your fly box. You should do that with all of your saltwater flies and tackle anyway.

Dry fly sea run Cutthroat!
    
   It's salmon season around here again!

My neighbor Frank's hatchery coho for dinner!

  And here on Admiralty Inlet it has been a slow start. I don't know why people are surprised at this. We are in an El Nino cycle again, with huge amounts of bait congregating in the warm currents that are now very close to the coast, and we are in one of the warmest summers on record, and the rivers are very low too. Why would a salmon come back to a river here right now? Well, okay, a few kings and coho have slipped by here already. But ordinarily we wouldn't expect to see the coho run in earnest right here until mid August anyway. So with this new full moon coming on August 10th, another "Super Moon" at that, we will be having some very strong and deep tides. And I am willing to bet that we will see some good salmon fishing as this moon waxes in, and even as it wanes, over the next two weeks. Sometimes a full moon like that can make all of the difference.There has been a lot of bait around here lately, sea run Cutthroat, birds, seals, porpoises and otters all getting in on the feast. And yes, a few salmon chasing away at them too. It is time to hit the beaches. Now.

To learn more about Puget Sound and Olympic Peninsula fly fishing call or write for more details. I would be happy to help you plan your Olympic Peninsula adventure.

Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishing Guide and Instructor

  I am guiding fly fishers on the Olympic Peninsula beaches, rivers and streams. We walk and wade, fly fishing for sea-run Coastal Cutthroat trout in freshwater and saltwater, and in the rivers for trout and summer steelhead. And we catch and release salmon on the beaches. This is strictly catch and release, traditional fly fishing only. Lunch, snacks, soft beverages, and use of some equipment is included. Personalized and private fly fishing and fly casting instruction, and guided trips are available, for beginners through expert anglers. Public presentations, Naturalist guide for rowboat picnics, and tide pool and river trail day trips. Please call, write or email for booking details.
  

Bob Triggs
Little Stone Flyfisher
P.O. Box 261
Port Townsend, WA
98368

Licensed Washington State Guide 
Certified Fly Casting Instructor
Trout Unlimited Aquatic Educator Award
U.S.C.G First Aid/CPR/BLS/AED/BBP/HIV Certified

Phone: 360-385-9618