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Yesterday morning I fished my favorite Northern California estuary for SRC. Fall chinook are beginning to stage there so I wasn't ruling out an encounter with something larger. I fished my 7 weight which in retrospect would have been a bit under-gunned for salmon.
I like to fish the lower estuary and started out in the eel grass beds which had been the SRC hotspot for me late this past summer. A few nice sized cutts were swirling at who-knows-what but I couldn't get them to buy what I was selling. After about an hour - I decided to take the half mile walk to fish a tidal slough. On an incoming tide - sea water pours through two large culverts where a road crosses the slough. This can be another SRC hotspot. Upon my arrival, two youngsters (mid 20's actually) were already casting hardware. Over the next few hours, I watched them land no fewer than 6 nice cutthroat. One fish was a monster - while he was fighting it, I thought it might be a steelhead. When I chatted with them later - they said large cutt was a whopping 22 inches long (hooked while using some sort of crawdad looking bass plug). One of them also said that his largest was 28 inches out of the same spot (hot topic in another thread). I'm not totally sure I believe him but I do believe the one I saw played was every bit of 22 if not larger.
My story - a few tentative grabs at the slough crossing and one 15 lb class fall chinook which charged my clauser at the rod tip (about soiled myself). I tried just about everything in my box but I ended up skunked for the morning. It was a fabulous time!
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I like to fish the lower estuary and started out in the eel grass beds which had been the SRC hotspot for me late this past summer. A few nice sized cutts were swirling at who-knows-what but I couldn't get them to buy what I was selling. After about an hour - I decided to take the half mile walk to fish a tidal slough. On an incoming tide - sea water pours through two large culverts where a road crosses the slough. This can be another SRC hotspot. Upon my arrival, two youngsters (mid 20's actually) were already casting hardware. Over the next few hours, I watched them land no fewer than 6 nice cutthroat. One fish was a monster - while he was fighting it, I thought it might be a steelhead. When I chatted with them later - they said large cutt was a whopping 22 inches long (hooked while using some sort of crawdad looking bass plug). One of them also said that his largest was 28 inches out of the same spot (hot topic in another thread). I'm not totally sure I believe him but I do believe the one I saw played was every bit of 22 if not larger.
My story - a few tentative grabs at the slough crossing and one 15 lb class fall chinook which charged my clauser at the rod tip (about soiled myself). I tried just about everything in my box but I ended up skunked for the morning. It was a fabulous time!
