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Yesterday I had a double digit day ebb fishing for SRC that were schooling up. I was anchored and standing in the Kayak and was able to refine some techniques. Specifically the set. In this circumstance you could often see 2-3 cutts chasing the fly, one might hit it, and in general the hit would be a quick tap and the fish was then off. If I missed the strip set, I would stop the retrieve and let the fly fall, and it was on the slack fall that most fish then nailed the fly and turned, often setting themselves. It got to be that even with the first hit, I would just stop and not even try and set, and let the fly fall. I'd wait a couple of seconds, start the retrieve, and the second hit would more often result in the line tightening and the set was way more relaxed. During the fall you could often see the trailing fish dive after the fly, so cool to watching the other fish trying to get in on the action. Most were your standard 14-17 inch range of fish, and seemed a might skinny, some had a ton of sea lice, and others mostly clean. Most were very healthy looking fish, just a little ectomorphic.
I tried a shrimp pattern under an indicator for a while, which brought one fish to net, but in general they were hitting muted light brown streamers or a white spider/squid looking thing, those latter flies both carried a little weight up front so they had a jig-like fall when the retrieve was stopped. the more fish-like my fly the less they seemed into it, though the minnows playing in the shallows were muted brown looking things... The larger fish definitely occurred when the fly was deeper.
On one of the submerged areas the hit was way better on fishing uptide. On another, the downtide. But the set strategy didn't need much revision regardless. Deeper presentation outfished the popper in a blowout.
At one point a larger probable Coho came lurking up to see all the fuss while I had a cutt on the line. I saw two large schools of again I think coho move uptide. Water visibility was great and there is an electric thrill when a school of huge fish moves under you when anchored up in relatively shallow water...
I tried a shrimp pattern under an indicator for a while, which brought one fish to net, but in general they were hitting muted light brown streamers or a white spider/squid looking thing, those latter flies both carried a little weight up front so they had a jig-like fall when the retrieve was stopped. the more fish-like my fly the less they seemed into it, though the minnows playing in the shallows were muted brown looking things... The larger fish definitely occurred when the fly was deeper.
On one of the submerged areas the hit was way better on fishing uptide. On another, the downtide. But the set strategy didn't need much revision regardless. Deeper presentation outfished the popper in a blowout.
At one point a larger probable Coho came lurking up to see all the fuss while I had a cutt on the line. I saw two large schools of again I think coho move uptide. Water visibility was great and there is an electric thrill when a school of huge fish moves under you when anchored up in relatively shallow water...
Nice writeup!
