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Olympic Peninsula August 2025 – Day 4

May 27, 2026
Adventure, Coldwater, Exploring, Fish, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Hiking, Outdoors, Scouting, Travel, Wade Fishing
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For our last day of fishing we opted to gain some elevation and head into the mountains. The target wasn’t going to be coastal cutthroat today, but rather coastal rainbow trout. We were unlikely to run into any big steelhead, but were told there would be resident fish in this stream. I don’t know that I’ve ever caught rainbow trout in their native range, I’ve caught them pretty much everywhere else that I’ve fished for trout, so today was the day.

The river we fished had a trail that ran alongside it which made access pretty easy – we just parked at the trailhead and hiked as far as we were willing and then got in and started fishing. The river was crystal clear and the water was super cold – much colder than the last few days of fishing. It also had more volume than I was expecting, which was actually pretty nice, but made crossing it a little dicey in spots. It was a wide enough stream where Blake could stick to one side and I to another and we could kind of work it together as we moved upstream – really an ideal width.

It didn’t take long to start catching fish and the first fish I caught was not actually a coastal rainbow, but another species entirely. As I’ve learned from Gary Marston, it was a southern subspecies of Dolly Varden. Not what we came for, but a delightful bycatch! My first Dolly and really my first char of any kind from the Pacific. Pretty sweet to find them here as well. I followed it up with a tiny rainbow and then the small one you see photographed above.

The stream had a lot of elevation gain in this section so there was quite a bit of fast water with intermittent pools and long runs. It was very productive water – a lot of fun to fish. The rainbows were gorgeous – and yes, they did remind me of the wild rainbows we have in North Georgia. These rainbows had more black pepper sprinkles on them though.

We fished dry dropper rigs and ended up catching a few more Dolly Varden on nymphs as we made our way upstream, but rainbow trout were definitely the predominate species on both flies. It was a great river to end our trip on – such a beautiful place to fish.

The Olympics were a great destination to go bluelining. I may have to make it back up to do some steelhead or salmon fishing in the future. Not enough time to do it all, and we barely scratched the surface of the Olympic Peninsula. We were able to catch a few different species on our trip and I got to see another part of our great country that I hadn’t before. I’m slowly checking off states and species in the Western Native Trout Challenge. The WNTC has taken me to some awesome places that I likely would not have visited, or at least fished, had it not been a thing. I’m glad we gave the Wyoming Cutt Slam a shot so many year’s ago, it’s been a lot of fun participating in the many other slams and challenges we’ve come across as states and organizations realize how much fun these programs are, and how important they are to the education and conservation of native fish species across the country.

Olympic Peninsula August 2025 – Day 3

May 21, 2026
Adventure, Beer, Bucket List, Coldwater, Exploring, Fish, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Food and Drink, Freshwater, Hiking, Outdoors, Scouting, Travel, Wade Fishing
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Lake Crescent

A visit to the Olympic peninsula wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Olympic National Park. Of particular interest to me in the Park, was a form of coastal cutthroat trout that was found only in Lake Crescent and it’s tributaries and distributary. Lake Crescent has an interesting history having been formed by a massive ancient landslide. The coastal cutthroat that found themselves in this new lake were cut off from the surrounding watersheds as the outflow of the lake also sported a sizable waterfall which prevented upstream migration. The trout evolved on their own here and though they haven’t been classified as their own species, research suggests they are a distinct form, sporting the highest number of vertebrae and gill rakers among all coastal cutthroat. The history, the fish, all of this was reason enough for me to want to check out the area while we were on the Olympic peninsula.

The ferns, the moss, the big trees – I really enjoyed the hike in to this creek. My photos were taken so that you wouldn’t see the other Park patrons, but trust me, they were there. We hiked far enough to where we figured we were beyond where most people would venture and hit the creek there.

I happened to pop into the creek just upstream of a sharp bend where a large amount of woody debris was stacked up. This was purely by accident, but it worked out in my favor, as everything I know about trout tells me that there were some tucked under this timber pile. It didn’t take long to entice a couple of willing trout out from their hidey hole.

I got a great fight from the second fish, he was probably the largest trout I’d caught on the trip so far. It was a great way to start the day.

We caught a few fish here and there, but the fishing wasn’t stellar, which is usually how it works when you catch fish in the first spot you try. It’s some sort of fisherman’s law that in the moment we refuse to believe in, but as the day progresses you remember. God has a great way of keeping you humble like that. Still, it was an absolutely beautiful creek to have spent a day on. When we met back up with the trail that ran along the creek we were ready to head out.

On our way back to camp we stopped in at Waters West fly shop in Port Angeles and got a little more local intel on the fishing – the guy working the front desk was super nice and helpful, it sounded like another angler in the shop at the time had himself a day on another river not far from where we were at. It was another positive fly shop experience, definitely check them out if you’re up that way. We then headed over to Barhop Brewing where, both, the pizza and the beer were awesome. I had left us enough time to try once more for a sea-run cutthroat at some beach access on our way back, but we decided the better option was more beer back at the camp.

Rio Grande Cutthroat Country – Day 3 continued

May 9, 2026
Adventure, Coldwater, Exploring, Fish, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Hiking, Outdoors, Scouting, Sightfishing, Travel, Wade Fishing
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Man, it doesn’t seem very fair to write a blog post, end it with “to be continued”, and not actually continue the story, lol. Especially when the tale takes place on one of the best cutthroat streams I’ve ever fished. My apologies on the three year absence; the adventures never stopped, but the passion to document them sure has – hopefully y’all have found me on Instagram by now @mountainstomarsh

This place was special. A Colorado stronghold for Rio Grande cutthroat. I knew we needed to fish it on our trip based on research ahead of time, but also on the recommendations of people I trust. A lot of times places like that have a hard time living up to their billing – your expectations going in can be too great. This place didn’t have that problem. Cutthroat were tucked in seemingly every undercut bank ready to come out and eat a well placed dry fly. The fish made us look like pros that day.

I was originally worried about other anglers – whether they were there that day or just from the pressure they had put on the stream in the days prior, but that was really all for naught. When the fishing is that good time just kind of goes away, hunger never sets in, you forget about everything else going on, and are consumed by what you are doing – catching fish, lol. It’s an amazing feeling.

We fished our way up the stream, catching our way through beaver ponds, until eventually we ended up at a lake. What a dynamic fishery – a forested section to a meadow section to a section with beaver ponds and eventually a lake – I told y’all this was a special place.

Some time has passed by now and my recollection of the day is probably hazier than it would have been had I written this shortly after the trip, but from what I can recall we didn’t catch fish right away on the lake. There were fish holding too deep to sight fish, but there were also sporadic cruisers which you could try and cast to. As we made our way around we were able to catch some fish, but the fishing there wasn’t lights out – it was a fun challenge though and some of the fish we did catch were really colored up – some of the most vibrant reds were on trout from the lake.

What I do remember very well was that this was the toughest hike out I can remember ever doing, lol. After fishing as far as we did and for as long as we did my legs were shot. There were numerous times I had to stop and take extended breaks on the walk back. Time and neglect are not ideal ways to stay in shape and they definitely caught up with me on that day.

We managed to make it out before the sun set though and I will tell you that I would do this trip all over again just to fish this stream. Definitely a top 3 cutthroat destination that I’ve been to – right up there with Shangri-La – a stream we hit during our Wyoming Cutt Slam trip.