Water Condition: Crystal clear, very cold. Low due to lack of rain. (record low rainfall) Easy to spook the fish.

Weather: Warm/Hot with no rain, very dry. Very light clouds moving through during the night and morning.

Rod/Reel used: 5wt. Sage ds2 / Okuma Integrity

Line, Leader, & Tippet type: floating w/ 7ft. leader 4x tippet.

Fly's used: Sparse Muddler , Tan cricket (see photo) rope dubbed grey/grizzly foam post parachute tied klinkamer style.

Species of Fish Caught: Rainbow trout, Brook trout (char)

Fly's that caught fish: Muddler (weighted)

Fishing Method: Across and down, some upstream dead drift but mainly low water tactics for these easily spooked trout.

Additional Notes:

The Hamma Hamma river is located along USFS rd. 25 just off of hood canal in WA. The HH is fed by a series of three lakes called Mildred lakes. It is a very rough and tumble stream during it's short distance to the canal and is a class 5 whitewater.

Saturday 7/19/03 started out the day with a cup of coffee and tied up a few assorted muddler minnows. My brother Tim & I figured we would get a day of fishing on the Hamma Hamma before heading over to our families camp at the Wynoochie. We arrived on Hoods Canal about mid day and it was pretty warm out (80's?). The water was beautiful as we approached the canal and we stopped and talked to one of the locals for a few minutes while we looked over the Skokomish river. Didn't see any salmon or sea run cutt's in yet. After a few minutes we were on our way up the canal. We stopped at the pump house that pipes water down from lake Cushman and watched schools of fish being chased by a seal. It was interesting to watch the seal heard them against the concrete wall. I couldn't tell what the fish were but I suspect juvenile salmon. In a few minutes we found ourselves driving up forest service rd. 25 and admiring the scenery of the southern Olympics. Many wild rhododendrons are interspersed throughout the forest and are a sight to behold when in bloom. We drove up past the Hamma Hamma campground and continued on past Lena creek campground and Lena lakes trailhead. Both campgrounds were full & the trailhead was packed with cars. We finally stopped at a small pull off in the road where it looked like some nice pocket water. We walked down the steep terrain to the river. The water moves pretty fast through large boulders creating a terrace network of pools. The water was very blue looking and really cold & clear. So consequently you need to be sneaky and use a lot of stealth when approaching a hole otherwise you will put the fish down by spooking them. I tossed in the minnow pattern I had tied earlier and wham! I was into a nice little 10 in. rainbow. I caught one more smaller one out of the same hole. We walked (sometimes climbed) heading downstream going from hole to hole. Caught fish and had bites on most every hole. All on the muddler. I managed to keep all of my flies until we started hiking back up to the car when I snagged my fly on a log. I set my rod down and went to retrieve my fly when all of the sudden I felt this stinging sensation on my leg then again. I was having none of this and started running down and away from the hornets. My brother thought that this was pretty amusing by the look on his face. We both got a laugh & I never got my fly back. We wanted to see how the fishing was lower so we drove back down past the trailhead & campground. We stopped at another turnout and hiked down to the river. Fishing seemed to be a little harder in this part of the river. You really had to use your combat fishing tactics around all of the log jams. Fewer holes but some nice gravel bars & runs. You'll want to wade. We found an excellent place to camp & made the trek back to the car for a minimum of camping gear. Berries were quite abundant. Raspberries, Blackberries, red & blue Huckleberries, & Thimbleberries made a nice snack. Caught a couple more fish that evening right next to camp. The next day hiking upstream I found remnance of an old bridge that used to span the river. All in all was pretty good fishing action.