The weather Gods have finally got it together and they sent us a good shot of rain and some much needed cooler weather.
The Quillayute system, including the Lower Sol Duc (below concrete pump at state salmon hatchery),Lower Bogachiel (below 101), Lower Calawah (below 101) and Dickey rivers are now open outside of Olympic National Park. All of the rivers inside the park are still closed for now, but we do hope they will open the upper rivers for trout fishing. As I write this on Thursday afternoon the rivers are in prime shape and this will be a great weekend to target searun cutthroats. This is the first rain in a long time and the cutties were waiting for this freshet to storm into the rivers. They should be as dumb as dirt and eat most anything, but it is October Caddis time and the termites will be out on the next warm day, so fish your dry line and dry flies and hang on.
The summer steelhead in the Calawah and Bogachiel should be near suicidal and willing to eat most anything, but here again, it is dry line and dry fly time. Skate Bombers, Grease Liners, Muddlers and maybe even an old pencil stub and they should rise to your offering.
The Sol Duc will have plenty of salmon too right now, mostly cohos. Fish it before it gets too low again for the best success.
The Hoh River is often the place to be in September. It is a good month for summer steelhead and there will be plenty of early coho in there too. The river is under selective gear rules this September and until further notice. This means no bait and single barbless hooks for the entire river. The reason is to encourage people to not fish for the few king salmon that are there.
Except for one or two spots the rivers will be quite uncrowded right now. One could walk miles of the Sol Duc, Bogachiel or Calawah and not see a soul all day. Very few actually take advantage of the great cutthroat fishing that is happening right now. Grab your 5 weight, a few dries and a few streamers, and hit the water.