Puget Sound

Fun times indeed. Only a small number of SRC to hand but did better with rezzies. I agree with @Stonedfish, they do seem to get more picky as more fry hit the water. Maybe an opportunity to see more naturals and just having more naturals in the water makes it tough. I am thinking very sparse and very flashy for next weekend. Like no natural materials flashy. Want the right silhouette but really make it pop/look vulnerable.

The two SRC I landed today were actually on a shrimp flies early in the day.

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All the rezzies except one ate fry I believe.

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Fun day today. The little guys have some guts on them.
Did a lot of fly changing until I found one pattern that worked ok, but never felt I had it completely dialed in. Got lots of rejections. 😂
Had a person tell me today I was fishing illegally because I was within a 70’ radius of a salmon bearing stream and to expect a citation if the warden saw me. That’s a new regulation to me.
Got to see some spouts and jumps from some killer whales off in the distance. Too far away for any good pictures.
SF

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Another successful trip down south in MA13. Same numbers as last trip. All rezzies with the last fish of the day being a searun. Started fishing around 9:45 and finished around 12:30. Fished showed up right before mid tide.

One beach, one fly, two in the cooler and one beached sea dragon. Fly was hammered by the end of the day 😆.

The two rezzies I kept were full of polychaete worms. I have yet to see them in the water pre-consumed.

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More Hood Canal disappointment for me. Fished two beaches and visited one day before yesterday around sunset. No chum fry in sight. One beach had a cutthroat or resident coho crash bait right next to me but he moved on quick. Gorgeous views though! Might try the west side next time- I imagine it’s closer to the chum and the tidal flow dynamics with the bays there could be fishy

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speedbird said:
More Hood Canal disappointment for me. Fished two beaches and visited one day before yesterday around sunset. No chum fry in sight. One beach had a cutthroat or resident coho crash bait right next to me but he moved on quick. Gorgeous views though! Might try the west side next time- I imagine it’s closer to the chum and the tidal flow dynamics with the bays there could be fishy

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I’ve fished the canal two times in the past week or so and saw no fry activity. I caught fish but the lack of fry activity is very odd.
The water was flat and if they were present they would have been visible.
The only time I saw any fish acting like they were chasing fry would have been around the middle of February. That would make sense since summer chum are present there.
The fish you saw was likely a cutt or could have been a small blackmouth. Not to say they aren’t there, but in all my years of fishing the canal I’ve never caught a resident coho there. I generally fish the southern part so that may be part of the reason for never seeing any.
SF
 
Stonedfish said:
I’ve fished the canal two times in the past week or so and saw no fry activity. I caught fish but the lack of fry activity is very odd.
The water was flat and if they were present they would have been visible.
The only time I saw any fish acting like they were chasing fry would have been around the middle of February. That would make sense since summer chum are present there.
The fish you saw was likely a cutt or could have been a small blackmouth. Not to say they aren’t there, but in all my years of fishing the canal I’ve never caught a resident coho there. I generally fish the southern part so that may be part of the reason for never seeing any.
SF
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Proof of a rezzie in the southern part of the canal from 10+ years ago 😂4862.jpg
 
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ffb said:
Only the one rezzie that day, the rest were all cutts. Was a pretty memorable outing though one of my best on the canal.
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That’s a cool encounter. Do you remember if it was clipped or not and what time of year you caught it?
I don’t recall any canal net pen projects, but there might be some. With all the ampipods and euphausiids available in the fall and winter, I wonder if some don’t travel south down the canal in search of food?
I love a good fish mystery. 😉😂
In the fall, I’ve caught some chrome 14-16” jacks with some starting to develop small kypes.
SF
 
Stonedfish said:
That’s a cool encounter. Do you remember if it was clipped or not and what time of year you caught it?
I don’t recall any canal net pen projects, but there might be some. With all the ampipods and euphausiids available in the fall and winter, I wonder if some don’t travel south down the canal in search of food?
I love a good fish mystery. 😉😂
In the fall, I’ve caught some chrome 14-16” jacks with some starting to develop small kypes.
SF
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I don't recall if it was clipped or not. But it was for sure in the middle of March when I ran across it.
 
Not a stellar day but a few around. The coho had been MIA the past few trips, so nice to see them show up again. The coho were not caught on southern Hood Canal. 😂
The morning tide sucked and the bright skies didn’t help.
SF

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Both rezzies and cutts were super keyed in on penny to quarter sized chum fry when I fished Saturday. None of my patterns were very convincing, ended up with one netted and a couple missed over about 3 hours with them splashing all around me. The Sound always reserves the right to humble me.
 
Fished on @jasmillo boat yesterday, good amount of fish activities still when the water was moving and still as picky as ever. We threw the kitchen sink at them but some pods were just being outright jerks 😂

Jason had the magic fly yesterday, had a bunch more hookups than me.

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Haven’t seen any cutts yet in 8-1/2, haven’t seen much of any fry yet either. Last year I started catching SRC consistently towards the end of April but wanted to try earlier this year but looks to be about the same timing this year.
Two Sounders showed up for a bit
 
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