Kalama River, WA (Winter Steelhead)

My co-worker and twin brother went halfsies on drift boat and invited me to come float with them down the Kalama. It was there second float ever in the boat so I was pretty honored and excited to go. We had heard that the steelhead were coming in well. Getting to the river there was about 5' of clarity and the flow was a little high but that was expected. Deciding to put in at red barn we began our float down the river. Our tactics were to through just about everything at them. In places we could plug we plugged. I plugged a diver with sand shrimp, and the other rod we plugged a bubble gum wiggle wart. We also bounced yarn balls where we could, slip bobber & drifted jigs, and of course even fly fished. About half a river mile down when we of course were all not paying attention the rod with a wiggle wart got hammered. In the time it took Kyle to pick the rod up and start to reel the fish had broken it's way off. Not being huge plug fisherman we only had two others to pick from. We tried both and with no prevail. It was a great opportunity to learn the river and get a feel for the boat though. We didn't manage to hook up again but had a great day on the water.

Summary:
Location: Kalama River, Exit 32 off I-5, near Kalama, WA
Time: 7am-3pm
Rod: 8 wt w/ sinking tip, spey rod, spinning rod, & bait caster
Tackle: Purple egg sucking leach, black and purple streamer with an egg bead, yarn balls, bubble gum wiggle wart, and other plugs.
Fish: 0
Species: N/A
Biggest Fish: N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 7/10

Satsop River, WA

Back in September I drove up this river with a Dalton, scouting along the way and stopping at Schafer State Park. They were actually closing up the campground for the winter when I ran into a local who was a real nice guy cleaning the fire pits out. He took me to where in the middle of the park was a nice hole and explained some of the other places to fish on the river like the "S Hole" just below Decker creek. My co-worker and I figured today we would go give it a shot. Parking at the state park we tried fish the hole there and various other ones. The river was getting higher by this time and the clarity wasn't ideal but much better than the Wynoochee we had scouted earlier today. We did spot a few fish above the bridge which is closed this time of year but none below. Will have to try again later.

Summary:
Location: Satsop River, near Elma, WA off Highway 12
Time: 3:00-5:00pm
Rod: 8 wt w/ sinking line
Tackle: Purple egg sucking leech
Fish: 0
Species: N/A
Biggest Fish: N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 6.5/10

Kalama River (Fall Steelhead)

I had scouted the river the week before and it was looking pretty good. There was a good flow and gin clarity. My buddy Dalton wanted to take a trip to Portland and so we thought it would be a good idea to try and fish for the day. Having not fished much past Red Barn in recent years I took him up to a hole I knew can often produce some fish. The river was still gin clear and it was obvious there were no fish. We stuck around and fished for maybe an hour in case any were to come through but none did. We got back in my truck and headed down the river and stopped at a few other holes to see if we could see any fish with no luck. Beautiful day though and great flow on the river.

Summary:
Location: Kalama River, Exit 32 off I-5, near Kalama, WA
Time: 2pm - 6pm
Rod: 8 wt w/ sinking tip and floating line, spinning rod with slip bobber
Tackle: size 4 or 6 egg sucking leach or woolly bugger in black, purple, and olive
Fish: 0
Species: N/A
Biggest Fish: N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 6.5/10

Westport Marina, WA (Coho & Crabbing)

Being that I had some luck catching Coho a few weeks previous and my buddy wanted to come out and see me, I thought we could go give the marina another shot. Worst case we would catch some crabs and best case we would catch both crabs and salmon. As we drove out there it rained like a mother and continued while we geared up at the truck. The second we locked up the skies open and the weather turned nice. The day was slow and we didn't see a school for a really long time. Then finally we saw a school swim by with no luck. We chased it most of the way down the marina. Another came by and the same thing. The third school swam by and I my pixie had all but cleared the fish and as I went to pull it up and try to cast again one broke away. Unfortunately I had already committed the spoon out of the water and the fish had no chance to take it. We did catch some crabs though. Also, we stopped in at the Half Moon for lunch and by gosh that place is nice for the area. The waitress was cute too.

Summary:
Location: Westport Marina, WA
Time: High Tide
Rod: Mid-Light Salmon Rod
Tackle: Green, orange, or pink pixies or flying-j
Fish:0
Species: Coho
Biggest Fish: N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 6/10

Westport Marina & South Jetty, WA (Coho & Ling Cod)

I have gotten pretty good at crabbing out here but have also seen a bunch of people fishing for sea bass or other fish. My buddy let me in on some knowledge that they actually plant hatchery coho right in the marina. When the fish return, they have no idea where to go and so they do laps waiting to be caught. Said buddy Paul and my friend Dalton came out and we decided we would give it a shot. Why not do a little crabbing while you are trying to fish as well. The lure of choice by locals is a Flying-J by Mapps but I prefer a pixie. Basically what you do is you claim a section of dock or a bridge to a pier and sit and wait for a school of coho to swim by. When you see them you cast in front of them and try to get there attentions. It's pretty cool because you can see the whole thing unfold and as your lure passes by they will ignore it or one will break off and hammer it. Which in my case I was able to do! During our time there we maybe saw three schools pass. Doing this at high tide makes it much easier because of the distance from the pier or bridge to the water and gives you good opportunity to crab. You must keep in mind that there are barnacles on all the piling and a braided line is recommended.
Eventually Dalton's brother got bored and we packed up and went to fish the jetty. Out on the jetty we drift fished a bobber with a jig for bass or put on some hearing to try to catch some ling cod off the bottom. I had no success but Kevin was able to land a pretty nice ling cod.

Summary:
Location: Westport Marina & Westhaven State Park/South Jetty, WA
Time: 9am - 5pm
Rod: Mid-Light Salmon Rod
Tackle: Green, orange, or pink pixies or flying-j for coho, jigs for sea bass, and hearing for ling cod.
Fish: 2
Species: Coho & Ling Cod
Biggest Fish: 6lbs
Smallest Fish: Legal Ling Cod, I saw it through a bag
Rating: 9/10

 

Skies out thighs out!

Wynoochee River, WA (Coho & Chum)

I've been in the area for a month now and have found a place in Montesano. So many people that I work with may not be thrilled to work out here but mostly that is because they have been DE-RURALIZED! Yes it does rain a little, 80+ inches compared to 40+ in Seattle annually. Yes, the best place to get what you need is Wal-Mart. Yes, the closest "big-city" is Olympia. However, 2 miles west from my house is one of the better hatchery steelhead fisheries in WA the Wynoochee River, 4 miles east of my house is one of the top wild steelhead fisheries in WA the Satsop River, and 1 mile south of my house is a great all-around river including sturgeon the Chehalis River. Not to mention the close proximity to all the Coastal-Olympic Peninsula rivers.
This blog actually facilitates a multitude of days where co-workers and I tried to fish the mouth of the Wynoochee River for pretty much any salmon but were mostly targeting Coho and Chums. I personally never managed to hook one but a friend hooked several and showed me picture proofs. Although I haven't caught anything I am still learning. Tried various spoons, flies, and drift rigs, but no luck. It didn't help that most days we got out to fish the nets were in the river.

Summary:
Location: Wynoochee River near Montesano, WA; Twin Bridges
Time: 6pm-9pm
Rod: 8 wt w/ floating line, 8 wt w/ sinking tip, medium spinning
Tackle: Chartruese, orange, blue, white, peach, & pink varied colored streamers and flies, green, orange, and pink pixies.
Fish: 0
Species: Coho, Chum, & Steelhead
Biggest Fish: N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 6/10

Metolius River (Upper), OR

So I am sitting at work on a Friday afternoon at 3pm and my buddy Jon text me, "Metolius? . . .  Locke style?" My response was quick and simple, "Leaving in two hours, see you there." By 11pm I was there at camp and we cracked open some beers. "Locke style" means that you leave way too late, with little planning, to go somewhere for less time then it took you to go there, and no one understand why except you.
My buddy brought a friend, planned to fish Saturday morning and then head over to Redmond to pick up a canopy for his truck. That didn't matter to me because I was at the best place on earth, could fish all Saturday, stay and extra night, and drive home Sunday. Which is exactly what I did.
I didn't catch any trout on this trip but weather was nice and it's always a pleasure to come to this river.

Read this for more info.

Summary:
Location: Metolius River, Camp Sherman, OR, located about 100 miles (2 hrs) east of Salem, and 20 min from Sisters, OR
Time: 9am - 7pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 18 rainbow warrior, 18 zebra midge, 18 copper john hybrid, 10 Clark Stone, 10 Rogue Stone, 8 black and brown Pat's Stone, 16 lighting bug, 18 rainbow warrior
Fish: 3
Species: White Fish
Biggest Fish: 14"
Smallest Fish: 11"
Rating: 8.5/10

Westport Marina, WA (Crabbing)

My work moved me out to the Grays Harbor area and I am pretty excited about that. There should be a lot of opportunity to get some good salmon, steelhead, sea-run cutthroat, surf fishing, deep sea, and trout fishing out here. Not to mention what I did this weekend and that is using my fishing rod for crab.
It was my first weekend up here and living out of a hotel I was pretty restless and at the same time excited to explore the area. Yesterday I took a drive up above Lake Quinault and checked out the upper section of the river. Ran into a guy that said there is good bull trout and sea-run cut fishing up there before the sun hits. I will have to keep that in mind. On the way back I went and cruised over to Lake Wynoochee and explored that area as well.
Anyways back to crabbing. I had gone before as a kid and with the nice weather I thought that I wouldn't mind sitting on the pier soaking in some rays. Stopped at Brady's on the way out to pick up some bait. They offer salmon carcasses, clams, oysters, and other fish. I like to put a little fish or chicken in with a ice cube size chunk of frozen oyster or clam. Using one of those box bait holders and snare contraptions I managed to land 6 keepers during the day. I gave them all away being that I am not much of a crab eater myself and was out there for pure joy. Note, if you fish off the pier towards the harbor, then you are asking to get snagged in some rocks potentially, but everything inside the marina is smooth.

Summary:
Location: Westport Marina, WA
Time: High Tide
Rod: Mid-Light Salmon Rod
Tackle: Bait Box with snares.
Crabs: 10+
Species: Red Rock & Dungeness
Biggest Crab: 6-3/4"
Smallest Crab: who knows
Rating: 8/10

Metolius River (Upper), OR

Back-to-back weekends on this river! My life sucks! The original plan was to spend the whole week in Central Oregon but work had other plans. My family was staying at Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond, OR so I couldn't resist stopping by to fish a couple hours on the way home. Hit the holes I know and see what I could do. I caught a rainbow this time so that makes a trip!

Read this for more info.

Summary:
Location: Metolius River, Camp Sherman, OR, located about 100 miles (2 hrs) east of Salem, and 20 min from Sisters, OR
Time: 9am - 7pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 18 rainbow warrior, 18 zebra midge, 18 copper john hybrid, 10 Clark Stone, 10 Rogue Stone
Fish:2
Species: White Fish & Rainbow
Biggest Fish: 12"
Smallest Fish: 11"
Rating: 9/10

Metolius River (Upper), OR

The river I fish the most. People may think I'm crazy or others just recognize the peer love I have for this place. My buddy and I needed a fixing and so down I drove meeting him in Portland. If I haven't said it before there is nothing easy about fishing this river. With time, patience, and a bit of luck you will have success though. I have fished this river since I could hold a fly rod in my hand. I've fished it when it was stocked and have continued to fish it since it became a protected river. What makes this river great is not only the reward of catching possibly one of the hardest fish to catch, but the scenery, smells, and locals that complete the experience. I know of few places you can catch a red-band rainbow trout, German brown, brown, rainbow trout, white fish, kokanee, brook trout, or dolley/bull trout all on the same river. Enfisizing the German brown and red-band rainbow. Two of the most unique and beautiful fish you will ever catch.With that said this would be one of those trips I caught only white fish!

Read this for more info.

Summary:
Location: Metolius River, Camp Sherman, OR, located about 100 miles (2 hrs) east of Salem, and 20 min from Sisters, OR
Time: 9am - 7pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 18 rainbow warrior, 18 zebra midge, 18 copper john hybrid, 10 Clark Stone, 10 Rogue Stone, 8 black and brown Pat's Stone, 16 lighting bug, 18 rainbow warrior
Fish: 4
Species: White Fish
Biggest Fish: 14"
Smallest Fish: 13"
Rating: 8/10

 No trout so you get Puppies!

Taneum Creek, WA

As where many of my trips this summer, I wanted to find new places to fish and new places to explore. On gazetteer this river had been marked as a place you could fish and I drove by it several times on my way to the Yakima or somewhere out east. It came to the point where I wanted to finally check it out. A little bit tricky to get to but well worth the trip. This has already been marked as a place to return next summer. Besides fishing, I also learned this area provides great mountain biking, hiking, and dirt biking as well. Never being here before my friend and I got to the river and just started heading up. Checked out the campground and kept it on our list as a place to come back to. It was dark mind you when we pulled in, sometime near 10pm, typical to most of the times we had showed up to camp on Fridays before. There were signs for other places and we kept treking. We ended up at Elk Meadow, there is no designated place to camp, a large field (later we discovered it was the weekend of a meteor shower), seclusion, and we were relatively close to one of the forks of the river.
The next day we discovered how small the river was, at least for that time of the year. There wasn't much opportunity to fish but the couple pockets we found had one or two little guys in each. We made are way back down river to where the two forks meet. Here a bridge crossed the road and the river doubled in size but still remained less than 20 or 30 feet across. There were however many deeper pools and much more opportunity to fish although still very limited. Fishing each one, climbing through a few log jams to get to the next, and walking down to another campground we had a fun an relatively successful day on the river. This fish were not picky and so anything that was small and floated worked well.

Summary:
Location: Taneum River, near Thorpe, WA off I-90 west of Ellensburg.
Time: All day
Rod: 5 wt floating line
Tackle: Elk hair caddis, purple and traditional parachute adams, misquitos, and multiple other little duns and caddis'
Fish: 10+
Species: Rainbow and Cutt Throat
Biggest Fish:10"
Smallest Fish: 4"
Rating: 7.5/10

 The Meadow

 Caught the biggest fish under there!

 Buddies Best Catch!

Foss River Lakes, WA

In my years at college I had heard that hiking the Alpine Lake Wilderness between Stevens and Snoqualmie Pass can produce so great Alpine Lake fishing. Also in my years of college it had been talked and talked about going back packing. I had scouted this trip out a long time ago know that in a 7.5 mile (one way) hike I would pass 5 fish-able lakes. I did my research too and confirmed that many of these lake if not all at one point had been backpack planted with fry and would have many fish in them.So then, one fine Friday afternoon a friend and I headed out after work to go see what this hike was all about. Set back after set back put us in the parking lot sometime near 8pm. Knowing that we wanted to set up base camp at the third lake (Copper) and with a reasonable climb ahead we set off. In hindsight, I would say this was terrible because the moon was bright and the weather was much cooler than the hot days. However, I would not be wise to recommend it either. Needless to say we made it otherwise I wouldn't be writing this blog!
The second day we did a quick hike over to Malachite were I fished for a half hour or so, running into a man camping alone. Then, we ventured back to Copper to fish for a little and a day hike up to Big Heart. On the way we stopped, swam, played and fished at little. Finally we moved onto Big Heart where I got in my float tube and drifted around for twenty minutes before we had to turn around and return to camp.
Trout Lake:
Great lake and 1.5 miles in offers a great day hike but I never got to fish it.
Malachite:
Often overlooked was the only lake I hooked and landed a fish. It was a spawning cutt throat, as much as I wanted to get a picture the man who was trying to take it couldn't figure my camera out, and I wanted to let it go before I disrupted her spawning. She was gorgeous though!
Copper Lake:
Best lake to camp at, was very beautiful and had lots of fish. Wish I had spent time fishing in the evening when the hatch was on and the fish were feeding. I fished only in the day with a spinner. This fish would bite my gold swivel but never the hook.
Little Heart Lake:
No sign of fish but a nice place to play in the snow.
Big Heart Lake:
Crazy beautiful but again no sign of fish.

Go here to read more about the hike.

Summary:
Location: Alpine Lake Wilderness
Time: All day
Rod: 5 wt w/ sinking tip & light weight spinner
Tackle: Brown wolley bugger, black wolley bugger, casey special and a chartreuse with black speckle dick nite.
Fish:1
Species: Cutt Throat
Biggest Fish:12"
Smallest Fish: 12"
Rating: 9/10

 Big Heart Lake

 West Fork Foss River

 Delta Lake

 Copper Lake

 Copper Lake

 West Fork Foss River

Copper Lake

Little Heart Lake

Pyramid Creek, WA

My buddy and I wanted to go shoot some guns so we headed up to the national forest land off the 410 out of Enumclaw. What we were told is to go up FR-70 and there would be plenty of places to shoot. We also packed our rods along in case we saw anywhere good to fish.Checking the regulations we were not to fish the Green River below the lakes but we could fish many of it's tributaries, one of which was relatively close to where we went shooting. The creek is very small and we didn't expect much except for maybe some small fish. That was exactly what we caught. An abundance of small fish. It was fun and the weather was great. The growth along with the small creek presented some challenging cast as well.

Summary:
Location: Pyramid Creek, tributary to Greenwater River off of FR 70 off Highway 410.
Time: 3pm - 5pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line
Tackle:  14 tan/brown elk hair caddis, 16 parachute adams, & 12 stone-stimulator
Fish:20+
Species: Rainbow & Cutts
Biggest Fish: 10"
Smallest Fish: 3"
Rating: 7/10

Cedar River, WA

A friend approached me, via email and text, asking if I would want to spend a day working with Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing. What they are about, "dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and disabled veterans through fly fishing and associated activities including education and outings." Personally as this blog suggest, I love to share my joy of fly fishing with others and if you're going to give me the opportunity to give back to the men and women who have given so much for me through what I love most, you really didn't have to ask. Needless to say I was honored and excited to spend a day on the water with some veterans and service members. What I didn't know is the life changing experience it was going to be. Below pictured with me is Randle, a veteran, with a son that served as well. I have never spent a long time teaching or fishing with a stranger before but I can tell you I enjoyed fishing with Randle more than most people I have fished with in my life. He had great stories to tell, had a great sense of humor, and loved to be on the water. The stories he told me touched my heart and I would love to share them except that I want to keep his personal and private matters that.

Anyways back to the fishing part! We had two residents of the area let us use their property. The first one where we BBQ'd had a few great holes. Unfortunately Randle and I got the short end of the stick maybe or just bad luck but we didn't catch anything. What this did lead to however was getting invited to the second property and probably the best fishing hole on the river. This is also where I was taught that although it seams like a 12" fish on this river is a lunker, you haven't caught squat unless its over 20". The gentleman who owned this property tells me the biggest he has caught was 24" and when some marine biologist swam through the spotted several of that size in the hole next to his house. He showed me a home tied 3" olive sculpin he likes to fish with.I gave it a try and had no luck. However, fishing a koffman stone and a copper john dropper I did land an "alright" fish. Randle happen to catch a fish as well.

I also learned that because much of the river bank is private the best way to fish the river is by pontoon or raft. That you fish a hole, float 50 yds down the river, get out, and fish the next, so on and so on. Overall it was a great day and a priceless one to spend with the great men and women who have protected my freedom.

Summary:
Location: Cedar River out of Maple Valley .
Time: 11am - 4pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 18 olive prince,14 sparkle elk hair caddis, 14 tan elk hair caddis, 12 parachute adams, size 1 olive sculpin
Species: Rainbows
Biggest Fish: 13"
Smallest Fish: 13"
Rating: 8/10

Cedar River, WA

One of my co-workers really wanted me to take him fly fishing and I knew about this river near our work in Federal Way. I also knew that I was going to be working with Project Healing Waters that weekend and thought this would be a good opportunity to go scout the river and see what would work and what would not. We starter at the park next to Highway 18 where the river flows under the trail and then under the highway. There were lots of people playing at the park so we waited our way up river. Upstream we found some nice holds behind rocks and a few deep cuts. Fishing each of them we were able to land a few fish but nothing of real size.
Still interested in exploring the river we got in the truck and headed up to Landsburg where I had heard of some more fishing opportunity. I felt that we were in the right spot because there were others getting off the water and still some showing up to go out. We ventured a good half mile down the trail to what seemed like a good couple holes. After hammering the first hole for sometime, having no success, we were just about to work down river, when another fisherman graciously walked through the bottom of our hole and into the one we were eying. Figuring not to make too much of a stink we instead packed up and headed out for the day. Word to the wise, be courteous when fishing around others. Ask if you are going to fish close and give as much space as you can. Heck let them fish it and come back to the hole when they are gone.

Summary:
Location: Cedar River out of Maple Valley and Landsburg.
Time: 3pm - 8pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 18 olive prince,14 sparkle elk hair caddis, 14 tan elk hair caddis, 12 parachute adams; would try pmd's, ped's, orange stones, and later in the year more nymphs.
Fish: 8
Species: Rainbows
Biggest Fish: 8"
Smallest Fish: 5"
Rating: 7/10

Yakima River (Canyon near Ellensburg), WA

So this has became an annual float trip for my buddy Jon, his Mom, and I down the Canyon of the Yakima River. This year was exceptionally fun because Jon's Mom took the time to get us not only a raft but also a tent at Red's Fly Shop and Lodge right on the river. This year we floated from Ringer to Red's. A good float that takes about 3/4 of a day stopping to fish and swim along the way. The down side was that we didn't catch any fish and I got a little hear exhaustion. There was a good stone hatch out and something I learned was that different from central Oregon, the Yakima River has a nocturnal or evening hatch of stone flies. The float was fun and the accommodations were top notch. Overall it was a great trip. I'm looking forward to next year!


Summary:
Location: Yakima River out of Ellensburg.
Time: 10am - 8pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 brown/olive/tan Pat's Stone, 8 red/purple/tan Chernobyl, 14 sparkle elk hair caddis, 14 tan elk hair caddis, 12 parachute adams, 10 San Juan worm, 18 purple zebra midge, & various other nymphs.
Fish:0
Species: Rainbow Trout & White Fish
Biggest Fish:N/A
Smallest Fish: N/A
Rating: 7/10

 The Crew

 Park and Cast

 Float and Cast

 Base Camp