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Estuarine Neglect + Big Greasy Report

1K views 17 replies 13 participants last post by  wadin' boot 
#1 ·
Thank god for the steady drumbeat of reports and excitement about beach fishing for Coho on the Salt pages on the beach(es) that shall not be named. This fills me with anticipatory joys of great fish heading like 5 miles east to the estuary that shall not be named. An estuary that borders on an enormous sewage farm calm and flat enough to incidentally support floatplanes (without threats of pontoon obliterating logjams and rootwads) should it somehow end up on the fishing radar, which I doubt it will.

You see fly fishermen neglect Estuarine opportunities. Specifically, that neglect translates to no crowds, and great fishing, and still no crowds. I've puzzled over why this is for a couple of years now, and the best explanation I can come up, apart from the fact that the tidal Greasy is closed to Salmon fishing, is something along the lines of Steelhead and Salmon altering brain functions, permanently. Specifically if you want to get really anatomical, right parietal lobe functions are conditioned, through the catching of ever bigger fish, to neuroplastic state changes that result in piscine neglect.

Bear with me, we'll stick with anatomy for a minute, and I'll apologize up front to those who are easily offended by boobs. Trout fishermen turn into Salmon/Steelhead fishermen, you see it all the time. It doesn't seem to work the other way. My theory why that works that way is sorta like this. Salmon and Steelhead might as well be the D-cups of fish, and to a Puget Sound fisherman, they alter brains through hormonal and autonomic influences to be uninterested in trout (any trout except steelhead) and their minimal A-cup flying-ant, skwala-munching existence. It is almost unavoidable for the majority of Salmon/Steelhead fishermen, they can't really control it, sure they will grin and bear a stocked lake fishing excursion with their own children, but what they are really thinking is "I'd rather be fishing for salmon and/or steelhead."

Roger Stephens: Boot, you have to concede that the glorious SRC is at least a B-cup fish, particularly during Chum Fry outmigration. Ain't no way that's the same creature as a stocked lake trout...

Boot: Y'all knew Roger Stephens was gonna take issue with that statement, probably Triggs too, and yes, maybe the Chum Fry Migration pushes the grand month-of-may beach-loving SRC up a cup size or so...I'll concede that... but only because January, February, and March often are the worst kind of anticipatory hell, i.e. the Chum Fry Migration SRCutts wonderbra-it-up a cup, but a month or so later you're thinking of other things, because you know that even the beach-lovin' SRC might stoop to suck down a flying-ant every now and then.

Roger Stephens: I'll have to think about this a little more, I guess the follow-up question would be, if we continue with the mammary metaphors, estuarine trouts in the Big Greasy are what cup size? Shouldn't they be an "A" too? And by your own arguments is that not an unappealing fishery for you?

Boot: Bigger fisher are not necessarily more interesting to me, behavior and motive interest me. I don't have piscine neglect, at least not that I am aware of. Back to your question though, Big Greasy trouts can't be metaphorically compared to conventional bust sizes. These trouts are metaphorically more like three breasted women. Just plain fantastic.

I submit the Big Greasy's coastal cutthroat trout is a poorly understood beast, perhaps even more so as its maturation and behaviors are directly influenced by special nutritious sauces from settling ponds (where floatplanes can land) that periodically outflow to the Big Greasy (where floatplanes should not land (f-ton of tree debris)), by the means of intermittently placed vertical pipes that line the riverbed and are clearly marked on the shores with signs that warn not to anchor in those locations. Those vertically-emitted sauces deliver- all year long- Snohomish County demographic nourishments to a relatively short stretch of river. And it's in that stretch, where the fish equivalent of 3-breasted beauties reside.

I fished here weeks prior, on a modest tide drop, and caught all kinds of searuns. Most were skinny and skittish, 12 inch fish. A few were fat and struck hard, 16 inch fish, though none of the latter were in abundance. There was one jack fish, spots only on the upper half of the body, silver below (I forgot to look at the tail) about 12 inches or so, not sure what kind of salmon.

Today, on a similar tide, I fished again. Anchoring up (not over the effluent emitting submarine pipes) was easier, and some of the more technical water I'll avoid on a stronger tide was looking approachable. Good thing too, first cast, fish on, 16 inches. The skittish fish were rarer, the larger fish more numerous. Takes were more aggressive and further up the water column. Water was clear, debris minimal, and jet skiers completely absent. An August day on the Big Greasy without Jet skiers is a worth a couple Praise Cthulus shouted among the pylon pipes.

I hooked a much larger fish trolling a brown and white clouser uptide along the logs and rootballs. I suspect one of those bruiser searuns, the 18-inch triple-breasted C-cup kind, though this fish did the Coho thing, ran straight at me, had good swirls and some solid weight. I never did see it close enough to tell what kind of beast it was.

Juvenile bald eagle, tons of Osprey, otters, harbor seals, black crowned night heron, great blue heron, kingfisher, rufous Hummingbird, gulls, geese, sculpin, stickleback, pile perch, pikeminnow (in brackish water) and frogs (yep, salt water, heard them, didn't see them, though have seen them before, alive and kicking) were otherwise present. Fun times.
 
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#7 ·
Outstanding, classic "Boot" post! Entertaining read to start the day off!

Your sea-run cutthroat experience has inspired me to head out to some of my favorite estuaries today. My mind won't be on fishing but trying to come up with a worthy response to your post;).

Roger
Roger, the water temp in this place is probably 62-5 or so, depending on where the bulk of the water is coming from. Why do you suppose South Sound cutts go all sluggish in that range and Estuarine Cutts are quite comfortable and uber aggressive there? You can find these bigger fish resident much of the open season in the Estuarine Big Greasy, though the numbers clearly go up August+Sept. Just hypothesizing here but I am assuming salt water being heavier than fresh means that thermal mixing can be far more varied depending on tidal heights and river outputs, and the Estuarine cutt's thermal responses may not be as dainty...Three weeks ago I caught a fat 16 inch coastal cutt well up an S river, the water temps were easily mid 60's and the fight was good

just saying as a trout fisherman. I swing fairly comfortably.
so you're saying swingers are different, but not mutually exclusive, to boob-men...no arguments from me there.
 
#13 ·
Nice report! I was out there plying the grease with the father in law today. Fishing along some shallow mud flats on the incoming this morning was phenomenal. Muddlers waked along just under the surface were tortured. We came into one such spot and there was splashing everywhere along the bank. It looked like a feeding frenzy. After some experimenting finally got an eat, only to not have a clue what it was. Landed several lost many, their mouths were like paper. Some sort of shad?
 

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#14 ·
Nice report! I was out there plying the grease with the father in law today. Fishing along some shallow mud flats on the incoming this morning was phenomenal. Muddlers waked along just under the surface were tortured. We came into one such spot and there was splashing everywhere along the bank. It looked like a feeding frenzy. After some experimenting finally got an eat, only to not have a clue what it was. Landed several lost many, their mouths were like paper. Some sort of shad?
We do have American Shad here and it is entirely possible that you ran into a school of them.
 
#16 ·
Boot -
I agree a great read.

Regarding water temperatures. I suspect that those salt fish during the warm summer waters are experiencing thermal shock. In most parts of the sound (the shallow bays that are dewatered during the lows are an exception) only have to move deeper a few feet to find temperatures in their comfort zone. However once we hook one we force them out of that cool haven into water that may be 10 degrees or more warm result in that sluggish behavior. Not unlike what one sees with lowland lake trout during the dog days of summer.

Whether in the salty bay or the freshwater I will not target sea-runs once the water temperature creeps past the low 60s. Experience has shown that in temperatures in mid-60s or more the fish become stressed when I caught them. That stress leads to what I feel was excessive handling mortalities. I realize that CnR is still a blood sport but just like my decision to use nothing but barbless hooks for them 40 years ago the decision to fish in cooler waters allows more fish to survive my encounters to provide for the future of both the resource and our sport.

As an aside every year my most active fish are those fresh from the salt (typically only a week or two) in tidal or lower reaches of the rivers. Those fish after a summer in the salt are at their fittest condition and at least in my experience not only aggressively take the fly they are far more active once hooked than the fish I have caught in the salt or later in the season in freshwater. Common for them to jump multiple times once hooked. The weather a few days ago gave the necessary temperature relief for me to hit a favor tidal section of a local river for my first trip of the season. After a couple fish I moved to a new spot that had been productive in the past on the first cast my fly was slammed with the fish immediately took to the area clearing the water by 3 or 4 feet each time and made multiple runs taking most of my fly line. While at the first leap my eyes told me it was a sea-run its antics and size screamed an early season coho. As I brought the fish to hand it was obviously a "double D" sized sea-run cutthroat complete with yellow spot (tattoo?) appropriately located; certainly the fish of the year.

Curt
 
#18 ·
As an aside every year my most active fish are those fresh from the salt (typically only a week or two) in tidal or lower reaches of the rivers. Those fish after a summer in the salt are at their fittest condition and at least in my experience not only aggressively take the fly they are far more active once hooked than the fish I have caught in the salt or later in the season in freshwater. Common for them to jump multiple times once hooked. The weather a few days ago gave the necessary temperature relief for me to hit a favor tidal section of a local river for my first trip of the season. After a couple fish I moved to a new spot that had been productive in the past on the first cast my fly was slammed with the fish immediately took to the area clearing the water by 3 or 4 feet each time and made multiple runs taking most of my fly line. While at the first leap my eyes told me it was a sea-run its antics and size screamed an early season coho. As I brought the fish to hand it was obviously a "double D" sized sea-run cutthroat complete with yellow spot (tattoo?) appropriately located; certainly the fish of the year.
This could be the same exact report for my experience yesterday, I went back same place, same fly, hooked -perhaps- the fish that eluded me Saturday. That fish jumped and played very solidly, I thought it must have been a coho Saturday and again yesterday, but no, it was a SRC of the same type you describe, a big beauty, devoid of sea lice. Of the fish caught yesterday, only one, a skinny pole of a SRC, had sea lice on it.

Thanks for the input re temperature, the gloomy and cool Saturday fished much better than the bright Monday.
 
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