A client of mine lives at Lagoon Point. She said a few people had been fishing the point. It's about time a few fish start passing by. I think I'm going to give it a try on Fiday. Any one heard any reports? Ken
There are usually a few steelhead caught of the points each year but not many. I haven't heard of any yet, but it sounds like Sean has! It's always worth trying though.
Nothing like a cold rainy day with the wind blowing 40 in your face to wake you up. Those of us that have fished the beach for years always referred to beach steelhead as the fish of a thousand casts. For the past 7-8 years its actually been about the fish of 5 thousand casts.
I was just thinking about making my first trip of the steelhead season myself. I have heard of 2 fish landed at Bush Pt. so far, but that report is about a week old. With this weather you have nothing to loose! You can never expect to catch a fish with this fishery even at the "Peak" of the run Good luck!
Well, a couple of fish caught is good enough for me. I don't see any 40 in the forcast so I'm going to put in my first 1000. Ken
Do it! How nice would it be to post a quick pic of one of maybe 5 (seriously now folks) fly caught saltwater steelhead per year off Whidbey? Come on now...is there anyone out there (local or not) that really catches more than one of these rare beauties annually? I've never seen one posted anywhere...can someone show me what one looks like? Shame on me for not checking threads or the gallery...I'm on my way...
As I suspected...I could not find a picture of a fly caught steelhead off Whidbey Island in this gallery. You'd think if it's been done by one of us and documented then it would show up here of all places. I searched a few different variations on the gallery but not one fly caught, off the beach, steelhead showed up. Not even a hoochie caught steehlead off the beach. IMHO....fish of a lifetime - so go get 'em and show us all they exist. Meantime, I'll be wishin and fishin for the ones that show up occasionally in our "S" rivers. They too are few and far between but odds are slightly better....that is if you don't live on Whidbey Island. Pink Clouser
Actually ML1 is my best friend and lifetime fishing buddy. He fishes the fly exclusively. We co-own a minted out 1978 Woolridge sled also. That being said, I fished that and other saltwater steelhead fisheries for many, many years with the fly. I can count on 2 hands the total number of steelhead I actually saw landed at those spots. Most were caught by gear guys on hootchies. No one is saying that it can't be done, Marty is just saying that it's the same reports every year, and then when you go out there and really pound it, you realize that it is one of the lowest percentage fisheries we have on actually hooking and landing steelhead on the fly. Tight lines Duffer
I used to fish Bush for winter steelhead quite often a number of years ago but gave up because I could catch a lot more in the rivers. I concentrated on the times the rivers were in spate throwing their scents out into the Sound. I believe the flycaster has the advantage by quartering lighter flies on intermediate lines as opposed to hootchies retrieved slowly through shallow water. Flies were simply in the fishy zone longer. Leland.
Duff & Leland, Just for perspective, how many did you guys land (hatchery & wild) over your many years of steelheading from Whidbey during the cold months? I've only tried it once in Dec 2006, but none were cruising the shallows at the time (sea lions were chowing on them in a rip well out of casting range). My impression was that it would take many ferry trips, a little luck, and a good eye for cruising pods to fulfill this saltwater fantasy. I'm tempted to give it a go this year, at the very least just to see a pod of steelhead a few feet off the beach. I almost hooked a 12 lb. summer run buck in August near Seattle. It followed my fly up to my rod tip before rejecting (seaweed on the hook = bad timing).
I only caught two in two years of fishing. They were both hatchery. Tom Moore, who used to be a school teacher and is now a guide in Missoula, used to fish the beach a lot and did a bit better. Understand, this was not a sight fishery. We did not see schools move in. We cast to the water. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over ......... Leland.
If I can add my own two cents: and on and on and on and on and on and on and on, Did we mention, "and on"? (my version of and over) I averaged half a fish a season over 8 years fishing once a week (full day) during December and some years a couple more days in January. Still beats working though. And it's a great place to step up your casting levels. Heavy winds are the norm and alot of the misery I felt out there made me better and is now applied daily on our flats. There is always room to improve and learn, and I really kind of look at steelhead in the salt as a casting exercise and challenge and if you hook something it's icing on the cake. Tight lines Coach
I used to be a fish checker for a NOAA research project back in the mid-1980s and spent a fair amount of time at Fort Casey. No one will want to hear this, but the fishing was a lot better then than it has been in a long time. It was definitely not a fly fishing scene back then--I never saw another fly rod--but the hoochie guys caught fish most days I worked the beach. I just checked some old WDFW steelhead harvest summaries to make sure my memory wasn't faulty. According to the reports, anglers caught 303 steelhead in December and 271 in January of the 1983/84 winter season, and 435 fish in December and 475 in January of 1984/85. The following year, the numbers were 273 and 211, with an additional 184 in February. By 1996/97 the Dec./Jan. harvest was down to 122/73, and in 2002/03 it was 20/10. Clearly, this fishery has fallen off a cliff. I wish I had had my switch rod and modern lines when it was still strong. www.dougroseflyfishing.com
