The Olympic Peninsula. I am here again. Its been since December, when I was a week too early for the Bogey hatchery run. After wild and native ones this time. And anglers are catching them…but the pressure isn’t very high for me.I have more of a been here done that kind of attitude towards actually getting a fish. So I am more enjoying the atmosphere, the challenge of swinging and the spey cast, and that feeling of…it might happen.

This place is beautiful. Wet….but beautiful. I spent several hours on the Hoh yesterday solo and got lost in the big teal water and gnarly moss covered trees. The rivers here make me feel small. You feel sunk in here…like something heavy is about to fall on you. Could be the dampness, or constant gloom, or the sheer thickness of the rainforest…probably a combination of them all. But this place makes me feel different than the Yakima.I spent a few hours on the Sol Duc today. I have never fished the Sol Duc only the other 2. Even when I came out in my 20s I always passed up on the Sol Duc because its spicy to row and not easy to wade. Its a gorgeous river. And I will be on it in the AM and again Monday before I leave. Just to fish it and be knee deep in its waters. The heavy rolling current crashing against boulders, drowning out the world except the river.

The water is gin clear, a hint of blue gray. The trees are exceptionally dense and overhang the bank catching flies before they can land on the yonder side of the river. It feels like a steelhead river. A small compact one. Fishing it today was one of my favorite riverside days I have ever had.With everything going on off river, and things starting to pick up on river, I have come to the conclusion that the river will provide. It has so far, letting the river guide me for a change. Listening to it. Taking the opportunities it presents me with and putting ‘faith’ in its path and course.Sounds kind of silly but the river has given me a lot and continues to enrich and reward my life. Being here on the OP in this dense rainforest, where everything seems to fade away with the morning mist, gives time to clear the head. Every swing and every step into the run, the mind ponders and wanders until it finds clarity. And all that is left is the next swing…the next step…and the possibility at an opportunity to meet a truly wild and amazing beast lurking in the depths of these rainforest rivers.

See ya riverside anglers.

Tamarack