Olympic National park
Cutthroat Trout
Sea-run cutts filter into the Queets, Hoh, Quillayute, and the coastal strip portions of Kalaloch and Goodman creeks between midsummer and late fall. The Hoh tidewater is deep and often crowded with gear fishermen making it difficult to fly fish, but the Quillayute and lower Dickey River estuaries are easily fished from boats, with launches at Leyendecker County Park and the mouth of the Dickey.
Sea-runs favor slow, snaggy water, and a selection of Muddler Minnows, Knutson’s Spiders, Spruce Flies, Elk-hair Caddis, Woolly Buggers, and soft hackles are all you need. Although not quite as good as the Elwha, the North Fork of the Skokomish in the south-central park has resident cutthroat and rainbow trout and is open to fishing along the North Fork Trail through September 15.
Low and High Lakes
Olympic National Park has 800 miles of maintained trails and an abundance of backcountry trout lakes. Dozens of solitary lakes lie in gorgeous cirque basins, but hiking into clusters of lakes increases your odds of finding cooperative trout. Most of the park trails are snow-free—or at least passable—by July 1.
Seven Lakes Basin is the best known group of lakes and includes Sol Duc, Clear, Morgenroth, and Heart lakes. It is located at the headwaters of the Sol Duc River, approximately eight miles from the trailhead at the end of Sol Duc Road.
Grand Valley’s Grand, Moose and Gladys lakes are about four miles from the trailhead at the end of Obstruction Point Road. In southeast Olympic, near the North Fork Skokomish River, Flapjack, Black, and White lakes are popular because of their large trout.
The park’s best known stillwater fishery is Lake Crescent. Biologist and author Robert Behnke wrote: “If I were asked what Pacific Coast lake holds the largest nonanadromous rainbow and cutthroat trout, I would say Crescent Lake, Washington.” Beardslee rainbow trout in Lake Crescent have been documented up to 20 pounds. The record Crescenti trout is 12 pounds. Crescenti trout are descendants of steelhead and sea-run cutthroat trapped in the lake by a prehistoric mudslide. They adapted to the 9-mile, 4,000-acre lake by gorging on juvenile Kokanee salmon. Crescenti trout swim up Barnes Creek to spawn, while Beardslee trout spawn in the Lyre River outflow.
Lake Crescent has become increasingly popular with fly fishers since the park imposed catch-and-release regulations and banned fishing weights over 2 ounces. Most fly fishers wade the shoreline points and creek mouths, and catch trout up to 15 inches, but a fisherman in a boat can work a Kokanee pattern deep on a fast-sinking line and catch much larger trout.
Lake Ozette is a shallow, swampy, cedar-stained lake framed by low coastal hills. It is the third-largest natural lake in Washington, sprawling over more than 6,000 acres. Cutthroat trout swim up the Ozette River from the ocean in late summer and autumn and feed in the lake until they enter the lake’s spawning tributaries.
Ozette is big water, and the only practical way to fish it is from a boat. Sculpin and three-spined stickleback patterns are effective during fall. Use #8-10 peacock-and-white or pink-and-white Clouser Minnows or my Nerka Rose when ocean-bound cutts prey on juvenile sockeye during spring.
Fall Fishing
My favorite time to fish Olympic National Park is during September and October. Despite its reputation for rain, the Olympic Peninsula is nearly always dry and warm in early autumn, with cool, clear nights and midday temperatures in the 60s or low 70s. Although this off-season is no longer a secret among hikers and tourists, you seldom see other anglers. Summer steelhead are the primary attraction, but hungry trout in mountain lakes, October Caddis on the Elwha, and salmon and cutthroat in coastal rivers make it difficult to decide where to focus your energy. No matter how much I fish in autumn, I always feel like I’m missing something.
Summer steelhead are less numerous than winter steelhead, but they trickle into the Queets and Hoh during the summer and early fall in fishable numbers. Backpackers are especially fond of the wilderness section of the Queets. The Queets River Trail begins across the river from the Queets Campground, where you must ford the river. The current is swift, so use at least one wading staff and studded boots, and be sure of your wading ability. Do not attempt to ford the river if the water is unusually high from recent rain or snowmelt. Again, the road was damaged in 2005 and you may not be able to drive to the Queets Campground in 2007.
The Hoh main stem and South Fork also produce summer steelhead, and the lightly fished, special-regulations water on the Hoh is just a short hike from the road. Smaller runs of summer steelhead filter into the upper Bogachiel, Sol Duc, South Fork of the Calawah, and Quinault rivers. Low and clear autumn flows encourage dry lines and waking, skating, and greased-line presentations.
All five species of Pacific salmon spawn in park waters, but Chinook and coho salmon are the primary fly-rod targets. Fly anglers using Spey rods and high-density sinking-tip lines have the best shots at Chinooks. Coho usually hold in shallower water, are more responsive to the fly, and match up perfectly with an 8-weight, single-handed rod.
Hatchery coho from the Quinault tribe’s Salmon River hatchery appear in the lower Queets in September, a month before wild coho. This is a good time to target them, because single barbless hooks and no-bait regulations are in effect, which discourage conventional anglers. The Hoh tidewater is also open in September and October, but you may be shoulder-to-shoulder with gear and bait anglers. The Quillayute estuary is basically a boat show, although you can cast from sandbars at the Mora Campground when the river is low. The Sol Duc’s summer coho swim up the Quillayute in August and September, providing rare summer fly fishing for cohos.
Redtails and Rockfish
Redtail surfperch are abundant along Olympic Peninsula sandy beaches year-round, but the surf usually isn’t calm enough to safely wade until spring, and fishing remains good through summer. The best strategy is to walk the beach and identify fish-holding troughs and holes on a low tide, then return at high tide and cast orange or pink shrimp patterns to the same spots using a sinking-tip line. Kalaloch and Beach Four are productive perch beaches, accessible from Highway 101. Surefooted anglers can probe the kelp pockets off nearby rocky beaches for black rockfish, but be careful. People drown every year along this coast.
The 19-mile North Coastal Strip and 22-mile South Coastal Strip (to the north and south of Quileute Indian Reservation) are roadless wilderness areas. Anglers hiking into these areas must negotiate headlands and creek mouths, and monitor tides for safe passage. Fishing for surfperch along these beaches is excellent, as is fishing for sea-run cutthroats in the estuaries and creek mouths in September and October.
Doug Rose is the author of Steelhead Fly Fishing on the Olympic Peninsula and Fly Fishing the Olympic Peninsula (Amato). He owns Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishing guide services (360-796-0101).
Government Contacts
• Olympic National Park
(360) 565-3130
nps.gov/olym/
Accommodations
• Kalaloch Lodge
(360) 962-2271
visitkalaloch.com
• Lake Crescent Lodge
(360) 928-3211
lakecrescentlodge.com
• Lake Quinault Resort
(360) 288-2362
lakequinault.com
• Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort
(360) 327-3583
visitsolduc.com
• The Lost Resort at Lake Ozette
(360) 963-2899
lostresort.net
Fly Shops and Guides
• J.D. Love Guide Service
(360) 327-3772
jdlove.com
• Jim Kerr Guide Service
(360) 301-4559
jimkerrguides.com
• Northwest Fly Fisherman
(503) 939-5819
northwestflyfisherman.com
• Waters West Fly Shop
(360) 417-0937
waterswest.com
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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