Anyone been out recently hunting SRC action? I had yesterday and today off. Only managed 2 fish total in about 7 hours of casting. They were both fish that I saw jump and immediately shot a cast to and nothing to write home about. I rotated flies a lot but just haven't seen much action.
Just catching fish is worthy of a write home IMHO, grats on getting some action! I hit the Beach today in MA13 and it was pretty much dead with a few rezzies jumping but no action for this boy However, a good handful of folks were out there including Leland ( Looks like he did get some action but I was watching from down beach) and I got to meet Mr Squimp himself Mark Mercer! Great to chat at both Mr Miyawaki and Mr Mercer, that alone made my day I have stopped rotating flies as much, I take about 3-5 patterns out with me and if those don't work I just call it Grats on getting out and finding some fish, although I know how grim it can be standing there in the upper 30's and low 40's for hours with no action... Dave
I will give you a heads up for winter SRC, although this is only my experience for the last couple years. It can be brutal, especially if you're like me and drive 200 miles and hit 4-5 beaches in Feb without a strike. I spent an enter winter fishing beaches from Golden Gardens north and rarely found a strike, so I stopped fishing it, increasing my odds by heading south. I have found cutthroat constistently into mid-January, and for me to find them I had to head south or towards Hood Canal. Once Feb hits, I really struggle to even get a strike at any of the most consistent beaches I generally fish. The action really heats back up in the end of March into April. Might be worth your time to focus on resident coho during February, if you get a Searun, it will be a pleasant surprise. Like anything, you can find fish in any month of the year and not run into the issues I have encountered, just my experience. Steve
Not putting waders on and just standing on the beach isn't that cold. Thanks for the reports though guys.
It was great meeting Eyejuggler (Dave) today, it was too bad the fisherman out numbered the fish... but thats not to uncommon this time of year. I had better luck yesterday at the same beach. Not long after Dave left I ran into another member I knew and we both hooked up on one almost at the same time, that was nice after so much time not finding anything.... but then they were gone. I've hit a few beaches this week and it's been slim pickings, I found one nice 14" cutt ( pleasant surprise) and a few small rezzies day before yesterday at another beach.... I am wondering why I was catching 15 and 16" coho a month ago and only catching 12 and 13 inchers now? Seems backwards to me. As Steve mentioned there's cutt's out there but not always easy to find, it will probably not get any better till spring, so I tend to spend more time chasing rezzies, but when you're semi retired there's always tomorrow...and the day after.....and the day after that..... Sorry, didn't mean to rub it in. Mark
I went out yesterday with a new fishing friend (Jeffrey Dalia)to a north hood canal beach. Within ten min. He ad me on my first SRC! We had a blue ribbon day with around 20 to hand each and countless misses. Every fly I tied on caught fish. Beach poppers,Dalias squid,clousers,chum baby's. Here are a few more pics. I had to stop taking pics because I would have spent more time doing that then fishing. Most of the fish were in the 13-18 range
Wow...20 to hand...each! No wonder it's been tough for us down here...they're all in the canal. They are certainly healthy looking cutt's, nice job.
Sea-run cutthroat can be roughly divided into two groups: early entry and late entry. Early entry cutthroat can begin entering good-sized rivers and streams as early as the month of July and this movement peaks in September and October while smaller numbers may continue to straggle in as late as February. Even though these fish begin to enter freshwater so early, they will not spawn until sometime between February and June (the primary spawning month for north Sound rivers is March). Late entry cutthroat occur primarily in smaller streams, particularly those emptying directly into salt water and will not enter their spawning streams until much later; typically not until November and later. Many if not most of the cutthroat streams occurring in the south Sound and Hood Canal fall into this category. Keep in mind that the sea-run cutthroat, having had no commercial value like the salmon and, until recently, not having had the panache of the steelhead have, until quite recently, not been studied, even by biologists, to any great depth. Cutthroat exhibit a wider variety of life histories than any of our other salmonids (with the possible exception of the bull trout) and there are still wide gaps in our understanding of his actions. By the way, Jeff's last name is Delia, not Dalia
Any tips for targeting rezzies vice SRC when beach fishing? I've only caught them incidentally while targeting cutts. I get the impression most of you guys use boats to chase pods of fish. Is there a different sort of beach they may prefer over cutt beaches? I'm thinking about checking out some south sound beaches specifically.
Based from my experience too with East side SRC's Steve is right. In addition, read up what Preston posted earlier. Even better, do a search on Preston's or Les Johnson's previous posts, as those are GOLD.
Since he was fishing with Jeff Delia, I'm sure it is a Delia's Squid, basically a gold cone head, pearl chenille body and tan marabou tail. It's a very simple, but effective pattern. Roger and I both hooked up with rezzies fishing Delia's Squid on Thursday. Kylesw, I sent you a PM.
I usually tie the Delia conehead squid as a tube fly pattern. Therefore I use a Gamakatsu SC-15 #4 hook. If I tie them on a shank hook, I'll use a TIEMCO 9394 # 8 hook. On Thurs. it was a "cat and mouse game" that the resident coho usually won. However, if Steve or I were able to cast a Delia conehead squid pattern near them, they would really slam it. Over the last month or two the resident coho have liked an olive/white or chartreuse/white clouser minnow pattern but last week they did not like those patterns. I switched to the Delia conehead squid pattern and immediately started hooking resident coho. The pattern is becoming one of my go to patterns. In the summer I use a floating version of the Delia conehead squid pattern and have had outstanding topwater success with it for sea-run cutthroat. Roger
