MA 9 Report

Hit a MA 9 beach this morning for the open. Talked with fellow board member Josh Smestad.
Lots of bait, both herring and sand lance. Most the herring were larger and the sand lance were mostly 2-3".
Lots of shakers as well. I saw several coho in the 3 lb range jump, but no love for me. Activity really died down after the tide change. Bailed around noon to get some things done at home.
This is my favorite local fishery, so It was good to be back out on the beach again. It proved to be a good shakedown trip to get the new to me rod dialed in.
SF

Thanks for the report Brian. I'm getting tired of the lake fishing, plus it's too warm. Time to hit the salt!!

Sounds about like my morning, although I was a late arrival. In fact, I'm wondering if I talked to you at the beach parking lot. There was another group talking to you and they asked about my stripping basket. Was that you?

Yes, that was me.

Oh man, wish I would have known. Well nice to meet you, even though I didn't really meet you I wondered after the other people mentioned you had an LL Bean stripping basket.

Ed, I'll probably be there in the morning. I have Redington Sonic Pro waders, one of the stripping baskets Bill sells, and I'll be the one throwing really ugly casts! Say hi if you see me, but watch out for the backcast!

I hit that same beach this morning and it was D-E-A-D. I fished a nice rip for about 30 minutes before it fell apart but no takes. After that the good water stayed 50-100 yards off the beach. Still early yet...

I might have just missed you. Talked to a gear guy that said their was another fly fisherman earlier. Dead while I was there too. Not even much bait showing.

Hit up another spot and redeemed the morning with a little SRC action. Hooked one nice one on a surface pattern but after a brief battle it shook the hook. Seals and porpoises working the water out further though.

Sunday morning I fished two MA-9 beaches and saw some small schools of juvenile sandlance (1.5 - 2.5 inches), small groups of stickleback, and tons of zooplankton (I think crab larvae). I fished the first beach on the outgoing tide and got no bites in spite of the bait and nice currents. I fished the second beach on the incoming tide as a nice current formed off of a sandy spit. My first cast I hooked into a solid fish that I initially thought was a silver or a small blackmouth. When it came to hand I realized it was a chunky 18 inch cutthroat (unusual for this beach). I noticed small sandlance being hit on the surface 80 feet out, so I covered it with a cast and hooked up immediately with a second chunky 17-18 inch cutthroat nearly identical to the first one. This guy gave a couple of big jumps. I hooked more cutthroat on each of my next 8-10 casts. Most were smaller fish, but one of these was a very mature looking 17 incher with a tough hooked jaw and a talon scar on its back (a real survivor). After about 25 minutes the party was over. I never hooked or saw a salmon all morning, but it was a pleasant distraction to catch such nice big cutthroat in the north Sound.

Tim, I guess you won't be heading
to the south sound for cutties now
that they are closer to home.

Dave

Yeah, no need to burn the extra fuel to your neck of the woods . I hardly fish for cutthroat anymore, so it was very lucky to find such a nice group of them. I'll let you know if some salmon start showing up.

Tim

I hit a different beach this morning. I could see bait being worked out 50 yards or so but only the odd cutty in close. Twice I could see coho chase sand lance in close and I hooked up both times. The first came unbuttoned after a few jumps but the second stayed on...a nice little rezzie taken on a surface pattern:

Nice work Bill!

Good timing for the 4th of July BBQ

i have spent a good part of the day and did well on the cutties. landed them on pink salmon flies fishing for coho and a king if lucky. and some dar hits on a chartreuse and orange long body clouser that i have.