Calawah River

The Calawah is the Bogachiel's rough little sibling. Its North and South Forks meet a few miles east of Forks, and from there it runs a short, bedrock course through town to join the Bogachiel just below the rearing ponds. The name comes from the Quileute for 'middle river'. It does not get the numbers of fish its neighbors do, but the fish it gets are often large: it has a long record of wild winter steelhead well into the high teens and past 20 pounds.

Two things keep the crowds off. Above the Highway 101 bridge the river is canyon water, ledges and slots and near-constant Class II and III rapids, with poor bank access and a reputation as a boat eater. And the bedrock that makes it hard to row also keeps it stable: the channel changes little from year to year, and it clears fast. The Calawah is usually back in shape about two days after a big storm, often before the Bogachiel below it and well before the Hoh. That makes it a good second-day river on a West End trip.

Read the flows at the Forks gauge, right at the Highway 101 bridge. The fishing window is roughly 750 to 1,500 CFS, but a drift boat wants the top of it. Much below 1,000, the rocks in the rapids sit so close together that a boat has a hard time getting through, and experienced rowers have flipped below the bridge at around 800, so the low end of the window is for walk-in anglers. Above about 2,500 it is too high and colored. Winter steelhead are the game from December through March, with the big wild fish best from late January into early March. Coho and fall Chinook come in during the fall, and the canyon is usually too low to float in summer.