About Boots
Books & Articles
Hosted Trips
Programs and Talks
Booty's Flies
Booty's Blog
Contact
Home

Midges, Eggs, and Streamers to Start December

December 2, 2019

Hard to Beat Conditions this November

November 16, 2019

An Unconsidered Realm

November 7, 2019

The Snake and the South Fork in Early November

November 2, 2019

Reports from Area Lakes and Streams

October 22, 2019

October 2019 Rolls On

October 11, 2019

Ending September on a high note. At least on most of our waters.

October 2, 2019

The Snake. The South Fork. Flat Creek

September 22, 2019

Autumn Hatches Are Here!

September 13, 2019

September is here and the Snake and South Fork are in Great Shape

September 5, 2019

Please reload

Recent Posts

Snake River

Flows are at average for this time of the year on the upper reaches and is only around 10-12% above average on the lower reaches.  What is...

Its August 10th - Think dry flies. But don't ignore nymphing.

August 10, 2017

1/1
Please reload

Featured Posts

Winter Steelhead on the OP

February 15, 2018

When I first started fishing for steelhead about a decade and a half ago, I was convinced that it was an autumn event only.  Those I fished with ventured to the B.C.s Skeena watershed, the Grande Ronde, Idaho’s Clearwater and Salmon rivers, and Oregon’s John Day and Washington’s Klickitat.  I was able to fish all of these, and most of them multiple times.  They were great times filled with beauty, good fishing, and learning from wonderful people.

As the years went by, my Octobers and Novembers became too busy at home for me to venture to these waters.  October can be worth 20 trips and $6000 for me in the Yellowstone region.  Early November might bring in another half dozen guided trips.  Steelhead, I feared, would become a distant memory.  Then I discovered the joy of winter steelheading.

My first winter steelhead excursion happened in 2012 on the Clearwater River in North Idaho.  Soon thereafter, I was venturing to the Oregon coast, sometimes successfully, but just as many times fruitlessly.  During those early winter steelhead fishing years, I would hear more and more about the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.   The OP is full of storied steelhead rivers – the Bogachiel, the Sol Duc, the Queets, the Hoh, the Quinault, and the Calawah.  Living in Teton Valley, Idaho, I am surrounded by renowned trout streams, a number of which are within a five to forty five minute drive from my house.  If you live in the ground zero community of Forks on the Olympics Peninsula, all those rivers I mentioned above are within a half hour drive.

 In 2014, I met my brother (who lives in West Seattle) and made my way to the OP to fish for winter steelhead for the first time.  This has now become a bi-annual event.  The first two weeks of February every even-numbered year is dedicated to winter steelhead on the OP.

My previous trips to the Olympic Peninsula were spent fishing the Bogachiel, the Sol Duc and the Calawah.  This year we hit the Hoh.  The Hoh is perhaps the most famous of all OP steelhead streams.  It share a lot of the traits of my home rivers like the Snake and the South Fork – moderate to high gradient, braided channels, plentiful riffles, and heavy in cobblestone.  A fair amount of tributaries feed it as well.

We fished the Hoh for three days, hooking into steelhead on the first two.  The river had a gray glacial look to it that local fly fishers say is close to the ideal color for fishing for sea-run fish.  We swung flies with 12’ to 13’ 6” spey rods throughout the day – starting at just after 8am and finishing close to 5pm as the sunlight diminished significantly.  T-10 to T-11 tips and moderate sized leech patterns were our weapons of choice.  There was no sweet spot in terms of when the bite was on.  On day one my wife hooked into one in here first riffle.  On day two, both my brother and I hooked ours between 2pm and 3pm.  While my hookups came unbuttoned, my brother was able to land two of his.  My brother and his wife also each caught a couple of bull trout approaching 20”.  Not bad for by-catch.

Marching through the rainforests of the OP with its towering pines and wide, knee high ferns is a beautiful experience, but requires being in some semblance of condition.  I come from 6,200ft elevation and was fishing under 500ft all three days.  There was still a lot of sweat and some heavy breathing involved.  

My 2018 steelhead fix is complete.  Well, maybe.  I still want to somehow squeeze in a couple days this coming autumn on nearby waters like the Salmon or the Clearwater.  Back to my autumn roots.  But that is by no means a guarantee.  If it doesn't happen, I will be dreaming of possibilities in 2019.  That is a long wait, though. 

 

 

 

 

Please reload

Follow Us

I'm busy working on my blog posts. Watch this space!

Please reload

Search By Tags

December 2019 (1)

November 2019 (3)

October 2019 (3)

September 2019 (3)

August 2019 (3)

July 2019 (3)

June 2019 (3)

May 2019 (2)

April 2019 (3)

March 2019 (3)

February 2019 (2)

January 2019 (2)

December 2018 (3)

November 2018 (2)

October 2018 (3)

September 2018 (4)

August 2018 (2)

July 2018 (3)

June 2018 (3)

May 2018 (4)

April 2018 (2)

March 2018 (4)

February 2018 (2)

January 2018 (2)

December 2017 (2)

November 2017 (2)

October 2017 (4)

September 2017 (3)

August 2017 (4)

July 2017 (4)