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Fall steelhead fishing on the olympic peninsula



Professional Steelhead camp mover

Fished everywhere again this week, and yes, caught steelhead.  There are some spots I would love to get back too right now, and some spots I would love to be all day. Maybe I will offer a little discount this week for Wednesday, maybe a fish-a-long?



A nice spot on the river


Summer steelhead flat on the lower Hoh

The big rivers are perfect for spey fishing or nymphing right now, although the best biters are in very odd places, the small water is sight fishing trout style.


Tilt your screen just right and count the steelhead, no, its really not where you think.



Jim with a 30 inch hatchery buck

The Hoh river graph showed the effects of the warm weather earlier last week, we had a few tougher days as a result, but the Sol Duc Bogachiel and Calawah stayed low and clear.
The fishing pressure has shifted down south, but is still light enough to be negligible. Coho? I don't know.  Other than the summer fish in the Sol duc we haven't seen much for early salmon, no one is complaining with the steelhead fishing being so good, but it would be nice to see a few around, especially in the Quilayute just to split the angler effort.

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Really good summer steelhead fishing




Hey, you know when you told me to call when the fishing was really really good.  Consider this your phone call.  No B.S.  Its F'in ON!



Suprise! Not a steelhead


Small hatchery summer steelhead, getting in the boat


I have August 21, and the 24th through the 28th open.  I can't promise things will hold up, but they should actually get better, which is a little hard to believe.
We are catching fish in the Sol Duc, the Hoh, the Bogachiel, the Queets, you name it.


Don, watching Larry get ready to lose one on the spey rod

Jim Kerr
Rain Coast Guides

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Solid summer steelhead fishing

Well,
Its the best steelhead fishing I have seen in August in a very long time. The trout fishing has tapered off a bit but no one is complaining.
All the rivers around Forks are fishing well, the Sol Duc, Bogachiel and Calawah are all low and gin clear, but if you are careful you will find good biters.  The Sol Duc now has summer Coho all the way to the hatchery as well as steelhead throughout.  The Glacial rivers have strong numbers of summer steelhead and good numbers of Kings.
No Complaints.
I might do a recon run on early fall sea run cutthroat tonight.  We will see how that goes.

Here is Mike with one of the 5 he hooked on his first day out steelheading
Jim Kerr
Rain Coast Guides

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Hmmm, its really time.


Returned from vacation last week and had two tough trips, nice weather, some trout a few steelhead hooked, none landed.  Things turned around this week pretty well.  The Glacial rivers have dropped enough to provide access to some exxxtremly hot summer steelhead.  Fish numbers are good and for better or worse things seem to be slipping into that fall fishing pattern that fly fishers dream about all year.

The main show is still definitely a summer steelhead gig, and it should keep getting better, but there are already enough Coho and king salmon around to make me think about heading in that direction. 

Now I am not expecting any all out slaughter days in the next week or two, but I am expecting some quintessential summer steelhead fishing with Zero angler pressure, great weather, and a neat mix of salmon steelhead and trout.

You don’t need to book a trip, but you should REALLY try to sneak out to go fishing in the next few weeks.  Bring a trout rod, a light spey rod, a sleeping bag and some chow.   Fish Friday evening, Saturday morning and then get home to mow the lawn on Sunday, it will be a trip you remember all year.

Dimitri, and his second steelhead

Jim

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Olympic Peninsula Summer Steel head


Seems like there are plenty of steelhead, sockeye, and trout to go around.  Because of larger than usual returns of steel head the usual spots are a bit crowded, luckily larger returns mean fish get into many more places.  There are still tons of spots that have good fish and are receiving little or no pressure.

On the Quilayute system the steel head are in that awkward phase right now, not quite fresh enough o be stone cold stupid, not quite hungry enough to be looking for bugs.  This makes them tough to catch except for early or late in the day, in three or four weeks the caddis hatch will kick in and these fish will start to stupid up fast.

Right now you have to be content with a morning bite, or, a trip down south.  The glacial rivers south of Forks also seem to have good numbers, although the water is still a bit high and cold the fish will come well to a swung fly at any point of the day.  Don’t expect big numbers, but a fish or two to swing anglers has been the norm and the rivers have been down right lonely. 

Trout fishing has been good in a casual sort of way, enough medium size fish on top to make for a fun evening almost anywhere.

Summer Coho are right around the bend; we should have fishable numbers any day now.

All in all its summer, if you get up early and fish carefully a bright summer steel head and a handful of trout seem to be about what you can expect.



Joe casts at a huge summer steelhead, it does not bite.



20 fish later, he finds one that will


A full day of sight casting to summer steelhead yields three eats, one hook up, one  landed, a bucket full of trout and no other anglers

Jim Kerr
raincoast guides

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Really Strong Summer Run Steelhead


Well I am back home after a week spent on the Kalama, the original modern steel head laboratory.

Hot, sweaty, tough, amazingly rewarding.  About like bone fishing for big hyper chromers, no, more like permit fishing, well, depends on the day.

Really?  Start off the day with a big hatchery steelhead in front of a waterfall?

This river has so much to offer, and changes so radically from day to day, It can test you skills like no place I have ever fished before, but offers you so many damn chances.  There are days it fishes text book, and days that a change up is a must.

Yep, That's a guy in shorts and a T-shirt holding a bruiser chrome hatchery steelhead, that's just how it is.


As for the fishing the cop out would be to say we averaged more than two fish per day.  This would help to cover up the fact that on two days we completely banked out.  One day it pretty much seemed like there were no fish at all, on the other they were crawling all over the place but we could not make a biter.  I feel comfortable saying that if you want to nail a brand new super tough show me some backing right now style steelhead, its always a gamble. 

I plan to head down again next year, I am going to try the week earlier, June 26th through the 2nd of July.  I would like to make arrangements with guests to maybe break up the day a bit, a crazy early swing morning, a break, and then sight fishing in the afternoon.

Kalama base camp


Fish like this can take some time, are they worth it?
 
Right now in Forks I am planning a week of swinging dry lines for summer runs, no, I am not booked up.  If you want to go for a long hike and swing alot of water with a switch or a one hander give me a call, I will negotiate.

Jim Kerr
Rain coast guides


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Its Summer


7:30 am and the dew has already burned off the grass, looks like the first real beauty day of the summer is here.  Lucky for me I have lots to do today, I need to tie a bunch of flies, do some advertising work, tighten up the summer schedule, call the insurance guy, mow the lawn while its dry…NONE of that shit will get done, I am going fishing and I humbly suggest that you fake a vomiting attack, blow outa work and do the same.

On our side of the Olympic peninsula we are fishing for sockeye, summer steelhead, a few kings and …trout. 

Here is what’s happening with the coastal cutthroat; If you fish a dries, especially big orange foam ones, you will catch a few 10 to 13 inch cutts in every good hole right now, if you fish through a second time stripping a black wooly bugger you will catch one or two 14 to 16 inch trout that ignored you gear the first time.  I have seen a few pushing 20 inches this year, but they have mostly been accidents that sockeye fishermen caught on gear.  That said, trout fishermen have been finding a few accidental steel head and sockeye, so it goes both ways.


Typical cutthroat, right now these guys are crawling all over the place

Here is whats going on around Forks.

 

Bogachiel, looks good, has some new summer steelhead moving up, lots of cutthroat

 

Calawah, Looks good, has some summer steelhead, and a truckload of idiots with bobber rods.  Lots of cutthroat

 

Sol Duc, Sockeye in the Lower end, cutthroat and steelhead all the way through

 

Hoh, A bit high, probably will get a lot higher today with all the sunshine, there have been summer steelhead, bull trout, and kings caught down there this week.  Lets hope we can get the worst of the run off out of the way in the next two weeks.

Coho Craig helped me score this crazy hot summer hatchery fish

Jim Kerr

Rain Coast Guides

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Opening in this Saterdays summer steelhead workshop, and Trout fishing

First, I have a cancellation for this Saturday’s workshop that I would love to fill.  If anyone thinks they can make it that would be great.  Just give me a call and I will send you all the details.

It’s the full day summer steelhead workshop, you get maps, on the water instruction, a shot at messing with some cool gear, tons of spey lines to try and three meals plus, well lots of other stuff for $135.00

I did a blog post with a full description a few weeks ago.

Also, there has been some great trout fishing, mostly dry fly for coastal cutts in the 10 to 14 inch class with a few larger.  It won’t last long but if any one wants to give it a go I would discount a trip on the 28th through 30th.  I just don’t have that many trout clients and I really want to do this.

Oh Yea, a report.  The crowds are thinning and the fish are moving in.  I guess people are finding other things to do.


The Caddis are on the march, but the trout seem faf more interested in the adult stones

Jim Kerr

Rain Coast Guides

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Summer steelhead, spring chinook, sockeye and trout


In the last week we have caught summer steelhead, winter steelhead, spring Chinook, sockeye, and lots of trout.  Actually a whole lot of trout, and some pretty damn nice ones.  The stone flies are coming off and a dude armed with a 4 weight and a stimulater is in pretty good shape around here right now.

If you want summer steel head it is still a Quilayute system show, fishing around the Calawah or Sol Duc hatcheries.  The Hoh has spring Chinook and late steel head, but doesn’t seem to have much for summer fish yet.

Craig, all smiles when his hatchery summer chromer, turned out to be a native winter chromer.

Sockeye this time of year are small but extremely aggressive.  Oh yea, and super tasty.

Jim Kerr

 Rain Coast Guides

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Good water


 

Last week was a pretty good one for spring salmon, although a lot of the fish were unmarked.  There are more and more summer steelhead wandering around, and now with all of the rivers open they are getting less pressure.

Looks like I may have done o.k. by putting my Kalama dates off until July.  For anyone that wants to head down and has not already booked I still have July 10th through the 14th open.  Give me a call if you are interested.  It’s always tons of fun down there.

Davis with a fat bright hatchery steelhead

Jim Kerr

Rain coast guides

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