Spring?

It seems a little early for Spring with the calendar just turning to 2013 but it seems the plants haven't heard that it is still January.  Cherry blossoms, Rhododendrons in full bloom, and spring bulbs emerging from the ground make it seem very springlike this winter.

I do not know if it was the long and dry fall or the lack of hard freezes so far this winter, but this is buy far the earliest I have seen the above two plants in bloom since 2009.

If only it actually felt like Spring outside.

2013 Improved Over 2012

The start of a new year is full of hope that the upcoming year will be better than the one that just ended.  When it comes to the saltwater salmon fisheries for Summer 2013 I think we actually might be in luck.

We will have to wait until mid to late February for the official salmon forecasts as part of the season setting process known as North of Falcon, but there has been some very preliminary talk of what is to come.

As a fly fisherman I am mostly interested in one number when it comes to the coho fishery at Neah Bay and that is the Columbia River coho forecast.  A small forecast is not a guarantee of poor fishing but a large forecast almost certainly means great fishing.

The preliminary talk is that the Columbia River coho salmon run will be "Improved over 2012."  This is good news and I am looking forward to seeing the hard numbers.

With 2013 also being a pink salmon year it looks like the summer salmon season should be a full one.  I will be taking full advantage of it.

First Trip Back

I left the Olympic Peninsula in September of 2005 after closing up my charter fishing business.  Leaving started a journey of jobs and cities I might never have discovered had I remained.  My journey back to the peninsula began in the winter of 2009.

My first trip back to the coast was in February 2009.  I had some vacation time so I decided to make the long drive out to the coast from Colorado.  What made this winter steelhead trip on the coast unique was the lack of rain for the entirety of the trip.  The upside was that the larger glacial rivers were low and fishable for my entire trip as well as the bright, sunny weather.  The bad thing was that there just were not a lot of fish around.

I fished hard for the first four days with nothing to show for it.  What I could have never anticipated was that the years away from steelheading messed up my mind a bit.  My memories gave more weight to the fish I had hooked in the past and had minimized the skunkings.  The tough fishing I had experienced vanished from my memories as the trip approached.  Of course the hyped-up fishing reports and blogs on the internet did not help.  I had this laughable notion that I could just come back and quickly start hooking fish again.  The first four days were a rude awakening.

The reality of steelhead fly fishing and my past memories couldn't have been further apart.  I was unsure of where I should fish and really started to question my fishing decisions and my skill swinging the fly.  I had entered a deep state of despair so I decided to take a break for a day and clear my head.  I decided that a walk through the rainforest would be just the ticket to calm the static in my brain.

The next morning I arrived at the trailhead and just started walking.  The hike was along a riverside trail but I was not wearing waders or carrying a fly rod.  Three hours later I was well upstream and feeling much better.  There is something calming about the simple act of walking and I sure needed it.  I arrived back at the car feeling refreshed and ready to fish the next day.

During the walk I realized that I was probably not going to hook a fish during my trip.  The low water and lack of fish were not working in my favor.  I had to find another way to make the trip great.  I came to the realization that the simple act of fishing the water well would have to do.  I had to let go of all of the expectations I had before the trip and just simply enjoy spending time on the river regardless of the fish.

This realization did not come easy for me.  It is hard to put aside expectations and push the ego aside and just fish for the simple act of fishing.  Even today it can sometimes be difficult to go against the grain and do things your own way regardless of how everyone else is doing it (often with more success).

After setting aside my expectations and just working on fishing well you can imagine what happened.  I ended up hooking a single fish about three hours of fishing "well."  The fish was only on for maybe fifteen seconds but that single fish made the entire trip worth it.

I eventually moved back to the Olympic Peninsula about a year later.  I try to remember the moment that fish grabbed the fly mid-swing whenever I am in the midst of a fish-less stretch or tempted to fish in ways I dislike just to catch a fish.  I try to remember that fishing well is its own reward.

Mushmouth

I have always been a fan of east coast striper flies.  There are so many possibilities for not only specific patterns but of techniques (such as Bob Popovics') for west coast salmon.  I recently was spending a bit of time watching tying videos online and came across the Mushmouth by Dave Skok.  It looks to be perfect for imitating herring and I liked the use of Softex within the pattern to minimize fouling.





I decided to make an attempt and while the first try was a little rough I was pleased with the second attempt.

Right now I have confidence that this fly will work well dredging for blackmouth in the upcoming months.  Of course I find that I always have confidence in the flies when they are fresh from the vise.  We'll see if that confidence lasts on the water.

Blackmouth Quest - Day 2

A decision I made towards the end of the summer will have a major impact on my fishing over the next few years.  After a poor summer of fishing and feeling like an outsider to all the great saltwater fishing opportunities I broke down and purchased a saltwater boat.  I'll probably spend the next few years blogging about fuel issues, broken motors, trailer wiring issues, and all the other crap that comes with boat ownership but right now I'm on that post-purchase high (it feels so good I may start hoarding boats).

Back to the point of this post.  I bought the boat right as the best saltwater coho fishing season in recent memory was ending.  It was a long months wait until we reopened for chinook in Area 6 and then mostly waiting for decent conditions to fish with the pretty dismal weather we've experienced over the past month.  I've made it out twice this month to dredge for chinook.  I've landed one tiny salmon (12 inch chinook) and multiple rocks.

Right now I am more pleased with the rock catching because it is the only way to tell I am reaching the bottom in 60-80 feet of water.  It is amazing how quickly thirty feet of T-17 will sink.

Another thing I am learning is that not casting the head far enough will result in tangles just like a cut plug herring will if the angle between the sinking line (mooching weight) and the fly (cut plug) is not wide enough.

The other thing I am realizing is that the weather forecasts are not to be taken seriously.  I read the NOAA marine forecasts daily and often base my decision to fish on them.  Too often I make the decision to not go and start dealing with other projects and jobs and then get a glimpse of the water in the afternoon and it is glass smooth all the way to Victoria.  Of course I see this with an hour of daylight left which would mean I would get to the fishing grounds as the sun sets.

Yesterday I was not going to make that mistake.  I needed to be out on the boat and do some fishing.  I ran into some friends at the launch who gave me a report from a few days previously so I decided to take their advice and try fishing a little closer to the ramp.  I fished the outside of the hook for around an hour or so.  It was nice to fish some varied water depths as the drift was moving the boat slowly from deeper to shallow water.  The wind was blowing a bit but I was able to use the kicker motor to keep the boat in line with the sinking flyline and get the fly near the bottom.  I did not touch a fish (and neither did the other boats fishing there) so I decided to head a little further west.

I turned the boat towards the buoy and hit the gas.  As I approached the spot I had fished before I saw a group of boats (busy holiday weekend) about a half mile away so I figured I would see what was going on.  As I approached the shelf they were fishing over I started noticing birds and started seeing bait on the sounder.  That is always a good sign.

I slowed down and idled through the boats trying to tell if there was a way to fish amongst them.  Some were trolling downriggers but it looked like a bunch were mooching and jigging.  I also saw some nets fly so there were definitely fish around.  I started fishing but tried to stay out of the other boats way since most were trolling or motor mooching and our drifts were different.  I managed to stay out of their way but I also managed to likely stay off the fish too.

The wind started kicking up a bit more so I decided to bail.  After I pulled the boat out and started to drive home I noticed the wind dying down and the seas flattening out.  Missing on the weather seems to be the story of my season so far, but I'll keep trying until I hit it right.

Smile

I've been noticing a trend recently in fish photos.  It seems as if a serious gaze is the only way to show off a fish.  I know fly fishing is a serious business but I think showing some emotion is better than looking like Zoolander with a fish in your hands.

Not Recommended

2013 WDFW Rule Proposals to Comment On 

Looks like rule proposals to reduce harvest of wild steelhead and reduce angling efficiency will not be recommended by WDFW.

Sad that a no angling from floating device seems to have divided the wild fish advocate community.  It seems that there were two types of disapproval of the "no fishing from floating device" rules.

The first was that people did not like the rule.  Most in this camp fish out of boats and did not want to change their tactics.

The second were people who felt that they went too far and might have too much of an impact on the sportfishing community or only wanted the regulations to cover a watershed with minimal boat impacts.

I have a different take about a "pick one river" approach.  I do think the rules should be approved for all of the rivers on the coast.  If only one could be picked wouldn't you want the one not consistently meeting escapement, has massive boat pressure, and the data shows that up to 75% of the escapement is caught and released some years.

Forget the idea that it may cause the most impact to guides and anglers.  Just based on the fish alone, the Hoh River should be the first with a no fishing from boats rule.  It would have a real impact as long as WDFW still refuses to even deal with wild steelhead release, or bait bans.

We have made so much progress over the past few years.  We have gotten hatcheries shut down.  We have gotten wild steelhead management zones in place.  We've won fights on planting Chambers Creek alien steelhead in the Elwha.  We still have lots of work to do and time is running out. 

Losing this is a step backwards.  To hell if WDFW doesn't think we should comment on "no fishing from floating devices."  Send them comments.  Let them know that wild steelhead come first.  They should come before the interests of those who fight every conservation idea such as most of the guides and the City of Forks.  They were wrong on wild steelhead release, Snider Creek, Wild Olympics, and they are dead wrong on these issues.

More wild fish and a quality fishing experience are long-term economic engines that will benefit all of those who now oppose these regulations.  Change is hard but it must come or the change we face is not what anyone wants to see.