Wednesday, June 27, 2018

The Post-Solstice Interim "Sprummer"

The Post-Solstice Interim "Sprummer"

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


The Post Solstice Interim "Sprummer"

Pacific Northwest Facts of Life

 You can almost set your watch by the near-perfect timing of our annual segway from spring into summer, as these last weeks of June-u-ary so reliably remind us, that for some of the year anyway, we are in the wettest part of the region. Cool cloudy days and colder nights, winds from the southern quarters, and occasional thundershowers, high water and messy beaches, small craft warnings and gales . . . you would think we were going back into winter. But with each passing day these events become less intense, more beneficial than difficult, and  before you know it you are out there on the water, enjoying some of the most refreshing weather we get all year. Between the raindrops we do pretty well here sometimes. By the 1st of July we will have a seasonal outdoors burning ban, and we will be the driest region of the entire country for two to three months. And it will be full-on summer here again. Mostly. Hopefully. 

On the saltchuck, were seeing tons of juvenile herring this year around the Olympic Peninsula beaches and nearshore areas. They have metamorphosed by now, and they are running around 2 inches long, and growing quickly. I tie my herring flies from around 1-1/2 to 3 inches long now. And very sparse. If there's a key thing in herring flies in particular, it is to feature some amount of deep, rich blue color in the topping. It doesn't have to be a lot. But it does work well. Tie them sparsely, so you can see plenty of light shining through them in the water. I don't ordinarily use much tinsel or flash on my baitfish flies. But sandlance do have a unique, colorful sparkle to them. They are brightly multicolored at times.

Some other very commonplace forage species for sea-run coastal cutthroat trout fly fishing are sculpin and stickleback. There's countless sculpin fly patterns to work with. There's dozens of distinct species in the Puget Sound region waters alone. But I have found that drably colored flies, mottled in appearance, in grays and greens and browns, sometimes in a mix of those colors, works very well. Always have a few black ones handy too. They hold near the bottom mostly, so of course you can tie them with weight;  coneheads, beads, lead wraps, pre-cast sculpin heads, etc. And you can tie them with no weight at all. I like the Muddler fly, and the cutthroat do too. Perhaps because of it's sculpin-like or "bullhead" profile. I fish deer hair sculpin on the surface, greased with floatant, with lots of action. The Matuka fly is a perfect sticklebak fly pattern, weighted and unweighted. Most of the time I am fishing with a floating line, and I use longer leaders and slower, deeper presentations, to get the weighted flies down when the fish might be deeper. This works great with bead head soft hackle flies too. And it is an easier technique in faster flowing water. Fast water has a way of ripping heavier sink tips and sinking lines around too quickly. It's a trick to get a fly to work deeply, slowly, in fast water. Employing a Poly leader can do this at times.
A mix of Baitfish Clousers.
The blue back flies emulate herring.

With July comes more consistent heat, fewer clouds, and some of the hottest days of the year will run through July and August. So you have to keep water temperatures in mind when you are trout fishing anywhere, in the saltchuck, or the fresh waters. I think that very early morning fishing in many paces will the best stewardship option. A stream thermometer is a good thing to have handy, even in the saltwaters. In the heat of the summer, the saltchuck in some locations, especially the broad, shallow flats and bays, can get too warm to hook and play and land trout. Look for the deeper, cooler water. Often that will be during an incoming tide.  Lake fishing is almost always a good summer fishing option, depending upon the lakes. The deeper lakes will often fish more consistently through the summer heat. The deeper regions of these lakes won't have much of a temperature change year-round.

You have so many fisheries open around the region now, that it will be hard to make up your mind where to go fishing. Lakes, streams, rivers, bays . . .  One thing that I try to do every summer is to find some new place to fish, somewhere on the Olympic Peninsula that I have never fished before. I have been out here for almost 20 years now, and there's still plenty of water for me to explore. I like the way Doug Rose wrote about this place, and the fishing. He had his heart in it. Seek out his words. Once it gets too hot to go fishing, you can sit in the shade and read Doug's books instead.  

My favorite Doug Rose fly fishing book.



Fly fishing for sea-run Cutthroat from a classic Swampscott Dory.
By appointment only.


Your 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 Cutthroat 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. I also offer personalized and private fly fishing and fly casting instruction for beginners through advanced casters.  I would be happy to help you plan your Olympic Peninsula fly fishing adventure, for all levels of ability. Public presentations, Naturalist Guide, rowboat picnics, tide pool and  river trail day trips. Please call, write or email for booking details. Now booking through October and beyond. Please call or write for 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
W.S.U.Beach Watcher
U.S.C.G First Aid/CPR/BLS/AED/BBP/HIV Certified

Phone: 360-385-9618

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Summer Solstice


Your Olympic Peninsula fly fishing guide.
Catch & release, fly fishing only!

Summer Solstice 

Walking the Island beach trail.

   When I talk about beach fishing with people who are unfamiliar with the Olympic Peninsula and our saltwater fishing, they always think only of summer. It is hard to convince people that we have year-round fly fishing on these beaches, even in the winter. People have a picture in their minds of sun washed sandy beaches, blue skies, and bluebird weather. And of course we all enjoy the fishing during these typically fair and sunny summer days. Especially with a light onshore breeze coming down from the northwest most of the time. Our air conditioning provided by the cooling influence of the Pacific Ocean waters. The weather gets calmer now, and we rarely see any significant winds or stormy waves. Brisk mornings, Warm, dry sunny days, cooling evenings. It will usually be like this right through September. 


Releasing a wild sea-run Cutthroat trout.

   We have had an unexpectedly mild June here this year. With only a few blasts of wind, and very little rain. This is hardly the "June-U-Ary" weather that we have grown to expect and to endure annually here. No one is complaining. With the solstice here today, and the summer conditions we are already enjoying, it's been just about full-on summer here now. The beaches are in beautiful shape. And so are our rivers. And with the first quarter waxing moon upon us, the tides are running good and cold here this coming week, and right through the end of June. And it looks like the afternoons and evenings will be really nice for flooding tides. By the end of the month the tide ranges will be deeper and stronger with the full  moon approaching. You can't beat fishing into twilight this time of year, on a rising tide, and a full moon.

Check out the 10 day forecast: 
https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/weather/10_day.cgi

The next week or two looks perfect for trout and summer steelhead fishing on the Olympic Peninsula rivers. I like using dry flies, but you can't beat a good soft hackle fly at a time like this. Early morning and later afternoon into evening fishing will be the best times. But I have to tell you, I would rather be fishing the saltchuck anytime.
  

Juvenile Herring, Photo Jack Devlin

   
   I was talking with my fishing friend, after a local sea-run cutthroat fishing day here, a few years ago. At one point on the outgoing tide we saw a large, dark mass of small fish, moving along slowly in the ebb. It took us a moment to focus on what we were seeing- many thousands of juvenile herring, from 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 inches long, all bunched up together in a "ball", right at the edges of the beach. Just down-current of the herring were some resident coho salmon, and, surprised, we caught and released a few of them right then and there. And we have been seeing plenty of "bait ball" activity, with all of the the attendant wheeling and diving birds etc., along our beaches, and well out into the open waters of north Puget Sound and Admiralty Inlet now. The marine biologists who work here locally are telling me that many of these bait balls are actually large schools of sandlance. So there's two important fly patterns for you to be using this time of year- herring and sandlance, from to 2 to 4 inches in length. Everything, including the sea-run Cutthroat, feeds on these important forage species all year. Flatwing flies will do nicely for this. Count on these forage fish to be in abundance for the next few months, many of them close to shore. 


I tie these Flatwing style herring / sandlance flies for sea-run coastal cutthroat trout.


Fly fishing for sea-run Cutthroat from a classic Swampscott Dory.
By appointment only.


Your 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 Cutthroat 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. I also offer personalized and private fly fishing and fly casting instruction for beginners through advanced casters.  I would be happy to help you plan your Olympic Peninsula fly fishing adventure, for all levels of ability. Public presentations, Naturalist Guide, rowboat picnics, tide pool and  river trail day trips. Please call, write or email for booking details. Now booking through October and beyond. Please call or write for 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
W.S.U.Beach Watcher
U.S.C.G First Aid/CPR/BLS/AED/BBP/HIV Certified

Phone: 360-385-9618


Friday, June 1, 2018

Rowing For Cutthroat


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



Fly fishing for sea-run coastal cutthroat trout with a vintage design, 

fully restored, Swampscott Dory

    I have been out in the dory all spring, rowing on the bay, scouting the local estuaries, beaches and shorelines, for sea-run coastal cutthroat trout fly fishing opportunities. There's a lot of good water and cutthroat trout habitat here, miles of it. Every month I go looking for new water, mostly on the east end of the Olympic Peninsula and Hood Canal. It seems like there's no end to it. Puget Sound alone has over 1300 miles of shoreline. This is a great way to spend the day. When I am guiding with the dory I only take one angler. That's the best opportunity. It's quiet, stealthy, no motor, no fumes. Sometimes we catch trout directly behind the dory, or within a few easy to cast yards off the sides. I can row you into shallow water, just inches of depth, and we can handle the wind and waves when we need to as well. This is the most traditional way of sea-run cutthroat trout fishing in Puget Sound.

    It's been more like summer than spring here most days lately. This turned out to be the warmest and driest may on record here. And the next 10 day regional forecast is looking very good here too. Our Olympic Peninsula rivers are running below normal in flows right now. this is not unexpected with such a long protracted dry spell. But our annual drought season usually begins in July. So maybe it's early. And maybe June will bring us some more rain to perk things up on the rivers.

    Sea-Run Cutthroat fishing has been picking up here through the month of May. There's lots of first season in the saltchuck fish showing up, at 2 to 3 years old and 8 to 10 inches. And we've seen plenty of bigger trout this spring here too. They've been taking our Chum Baby fly, Muddlers, Gurglers, Miyawaki Beach Poppers, and various baitfish flies, especially the Clouser Minnow.

    
Sea-run cutthroat flies
    "Clouser Minnow" 
  
 

    The bright sunny days we have had actually warmed up the water in our shallower bays. We found the best fishing on the colder water incoming tides, and at depths of 8 to 12 feet at times. Some people will use a sink tip line or full sinking line, to get deep. But I use  a longer leader and a floating line, and sometimes a fluorocarbon tippet, with a weighted fly like the Clousers, and I can get the fly very deep. You've got to let it sink! But this is something we ordinarily see happening in later June and into July and August. Don't  worry too much about this, because the best sea-runs we have caught were all caught in shallow water under bright sunny skies and hot days. Go figure. It does matter where you fish, and when. Our tidal flows here are coming out of the deeper areas of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet, so we get a lot of cold water coming in on the floods. The farther south you go into Puget Sound and Hood Canal this time of year, the warmer the water and the tougher the fishing can be. As is true of trout fishing anywhere, once the water gets above 60 degrees, it's getting too warm to fish without damaging the trout. That might happen earlier than expected this season. Look for the colder water! Trout season is going to be opening up just about everywhere later this month! 

 I  guide fly fishers on the Olympic Peninsula beaches, rivers, lakes and streams. We walk and wade, or row the dory, fly fishing for sea-run Coastal Cutthroat trout in freshwater and saltwater, and we fish in the rivers for trout and summer  run steelhead. This is strictly catch and release, traditional fly fishing only. Lunch, snacks, soft beverages, and use of some equipment is included. I also offer personalized and private fly fishing and fly casting instruction.  I would be happy to help you plan your Olympic Peninsula fly fishing adventures, for beginners through expert anglers. Public presentations, Naturalist guide, Rowboat picnics, Tide Pool and  River trail day trips. Please call, write or email for booking details. Now booking for April through October. Please plan ahead! 
                                 


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
W.S.U. Water Watchers and Beach Watchers Graduate
U.S.C.G First Aid/CPR/BLS/AED/BBP/HIV Certified

Phone: 360-385-9618