Fishing the Olympic Peninsula, The "OP" as some call it.....

I recently went on my first fishing trip to the Olympic Peninsula to fish for bright chrome Steel head fresh out of the ocean.  I was a bit anxious about this trip after seeing the size of some of the fish being caught on the OP.  It takes about 7 hours to get from Eastern Washington...ferry across Puget Sound...up to Sequim...Port Angles and then the road out to Forks and home for the next several days, "The Bogy House".  The Bogy house sits near the Bogachiel river but you just cannot quite see it's waters.  Brazda's Fly Fishing homes out of the Bogy house and operates it like a lodge including sleeping quarters, and some great meals.  http://www.brazdasflyfishing.com/bogyhouse/  The house dog is Jesse who will help you limber your arm up with throwing the ball over and over for her.  Annie Waltz Kubika is our amazing chef and avid fly fisher and does an excellent job with all of the meals.  The guides are Jeff Brazda owner and head guide, Ryan Bullock, Andy Simon, Nate McDonough and Aaron O'Leary

The season had slowed some due to the water conditions.  The OP is at about 13% of it's normal snowfall and it just has not rained as much as usual for that region so the waters were down and very clear and the sun bore down on the waters which is not the norm for this area.  We concentrated on the Hoh because it was running better than most in that it is glacier fed.  Jim Passage and I fished with Ryan Bullock the first day and started up a ways on the Hoh and drifted down to the top of the lower section.  Jim and I were Center Pin fishing and the action was good with lot's of take downs and a few hook ups of some nice chrome fish.  We also picked up a few OP small Whiteys and a couple of Bull Trout.  The weather was bright, shinny and warm and we worked the shady area's hard because that was where the fish hang in these conditions.

I was fishing my "Green Hornet" a 13 foot Batson/Utmost Enterprises Center Pin rod that I built in 2014 one of 5 built so far for various clients.  It is a dark, deep green rod, bright green wraps with copper and green metallic highlights.  I have a Okuma RAW Center Pin reel on it and I am really impressed with the performance of this reel and rod combination.  It is a bit interesting fishing two of these out of a boat at the same time and to that end a new 11'6" rod is in the works for next year.

The Green Hornet....it stings....

A shot of the Olympic Mountains from the Hoh...  Typically you would not see these mountains with the cloud cover that should be in place and there would be drops on my camera lense!!!  

My fishing buddy Jim Passage and Ryan our guide....  and of course "Jim Daddy" the Center Pin Rod...

After a good morning of fishing and working out the kinks of our pinning technique and getting to know the special gear that Ryan had offered up.

Just above an area called the Hoh Canyon fishing a tricky deep hole my indicator went down and I hooked up with a nice fish.  I could tell from the way it fought it wasn't the typical 7, 10, or even 15 pound fish because this fish had some real force behind it's fight.  Slow and easy but not letting the fish take too much I worked this fish for a while until we got a good look at it and I said DAMN that is a big fish!!!  Flowing in and out of panic and calm I continued to let the fish have it's way but then would let it know we were going to get him in and get some pictures.  So I worked the fish from the boat while Ryan came up with a plan.  He set the boat and got out with the net to the shoreline.  I figured he was going to just net it while I was in the boat but no he says I needed to get out of the boat.  I first thought you are kidding, here I have this big fish on, fishing with a 13 foot rod rated for 6-10lb fish, a reel that has no drag, a steep loose river rock river bank and going through my mind is one bad move and this is all over.  I took my time and slowly made all my movements with caution and now I was on the bank working this amazing fighting fish.  My rod was bent all the way to the cork and I palmed the reel with caution and reeled in timing with what the fish wanted to give and Ryan coaching me all the way.  We had it in and to the next so many time that I could not count.  All I remember is Ryan saying keep it away from running in to the bolder field across the river,  keep it from going too far upstream because there wasn't a good path to follow and not too much pressure so the hook bends out and all I am thinking is SURE!!!  Well the fish finally tires some and I get it coming towards the net and as soon as it sees the net off it goes again.  Over and over this happens and Ryan is saying get the head up so he quiets and I can get the net under it and I am trying but the rod, the "Green Hornet" doesn't have enough backbone to let me do this.  Finally all things align and we get this big dude in the net.  Ryan is quick to get the tape out and it measures 38" long, 20" girth and it calculates close to 20 lbs. and it is one beautiful buck that is getting ready for spawning.

Happy, Hell Yeah I Am!!!

Amazing color on this buck and he is getting ready to be in defensive mode 

Check the spots out.. yeah I am breathing hard still!!!

One Last Picture before I release this amazing fish...

Wow that was an adventure of the lifetime!!!  Epic as I have often heard from the guides who get us into good fish!!  I could feel some interesting muscles reacting to the fight... this fish kick my butt and I loved it....  I released the fish and with a flash it was gone....  no shock which was great.
We drifted down through the Hoh Canyon which had steep banks on the sides and deep cuts and we fished the shady drifts.  The air was trapped in the canyon and had a great scent of leafy trees and slow running water.  Sun rays found there way through the massive firs, ceders and maple trees.  A boat had been through just before us so we made a bit of a quick pass though the area.   Down below the canyon we took out for the day and we crammed Jim into the back of the crew cab truck and headed back to the Bogy house...  I still had a great smile and a good stiff drink of Dry Fly Whiskey and a good meal ended that day and we were ready for another day on the Hoh.......

Day Two, Andy Simon was our guide and I had been with Andy on the Methow this past fall and he was a great guide.  We put in just below where I got my big fish the day before.  The put in was rather interesting coming off a steep bank into the water.  Our plan was to fish a bit of the upper, the canyon and then drop down low on the the river.

Andy Simon and Jim Passage getting ready to drop the boat down...

yep this is the bank we dropped the boat down on....

We changed up our center pin gear some and used some different flies and beads and it was a day of mostly take downs and some hooked but not to the net.  It was also a day of the "Parade of Boats" because the Hoh was one of the only rivers that had a decent flow because it is glacier fed  That being said we had a great time down through the Canyon and down into the lower section of the Hoh.  I had some great take downs and my sets were right on target according to Andy but we just didn't have a great connection to the fish.  The more I talk with steel head fishermen this is not unusual.  We did See Aaron O'Leary  on the river and just as we passed him one of his clients nailed a great fish.  We tagged pretty close to Aaron and they picked up a couple more when we were close by.  Right at the takeout we saw a great fish jump and went after it.  Jim got a great line with where the fish was, had a take down and guess what, par for the day it was a long distance bang bang and off.... story of the day but again a great day on the river with some good action.  We did pick up a few Whiteys and bull trout on the float.

Day 3 Guide Nate McDonough and we decided to fish the Bogachiel River and spend some time swinging with spey rods and between swing sites we would pin.  I have not spey cast much so this was a day of continue to learn and practice.  Jim on the other hand is very accomplished and fished below me so I didn't get in his way.  We set in just out of the town of Forks at the fish hatchery there.  Right away we picked up a few smaller hatchery fish which was great.  Again, the Bogy was really down and the flows caused us to have to walk the boat across several bars.  I liked the Bogy, it reminded me of the kind of rivers that I fished for trout when I was much younger.

The Bogachiel River and Nate walking the boat across a bar

You can tell with the right flow these rocks would be all covered...  Beautiful river....

Jim and Nate in the boat I speyed the section right in front of the boat for quite a while

We took the opportunity to swing several nice bars between pinning some of the deeper sections.  again we were plagued with crystal clear, low, sunny waters so fishing was tough.  We had planned a shorter day of fishing because we needed to get on the road for the long journey home.  We were fishing a deep hole down close to the take out when after three days I really tangled my line and called it quits.  A fish jumped right in front of me in the current.  We hopped in the boat and Jim again got a great line on the fish when his indicator went down....set...bang bang and it was off.  But it was really great that he was able to target the fish we saw jump and get it hooked up even if it was for a short time.  This was our last float until next year when we return and hope that the waters are a bit higher allowing and signaling more fish to come up the rivers.  I  had caught the fish of my dreams so I was still jazzed about my first day and it will bring me back.

Thanks Brazda's Fly fishing and all of the guides as well as Annie our chef for the great three days of fishing.

Thanks to Utmost Enterprises, Carol for the help with rod building blanks and components and to Batson Enterprises for the quality rods blanks that allows me to build some great rods to fish these amazing fish....