If anyone has a good anchovy pattern, I’m all ears. I ran into a ton of them today that were smaller than chum fry.
SF
SF
Puget Sound
- Thread starter Stonedfish
- Start date
We also ran into large schools of small anchovies at nearly every place we stopped last weekend. Fish were on em but it felt nearly impossible to get a fish to take a fly when they had thousands of anchovies at their disposal. Every fly we tried would eventually get a grab or two but nothing consistent.
We’ve been seeing a lot of those anchovies the last few weeks as well. Did a mixed chum/ SRC day today. Not great on the SRC front and non existent on the chum front. A few SRC to hand plus a one I snagged in the adipose somehow. Crappy tides with lots of junk in the water as well.
Caught a couple in this class. Small and skinny!
Snagged in the adipose. Not something that happens a lot with SRC.
We also saw one of the largest sea stars I have ever come across. I’d say 1.5 feet from arm tip to arm tip at least. Short spines sea star I think??
Caught a couple in this class. Small and skinny!
Snagged in the adipose. Not something that happens a lot with SRC.
We also saw one of the largest sea stars I have ever come across. I’d say 1.5 feet from arm tip to arm tip at least. Short spines sea star I think??
I fished South Sound both Saturday and Sunday this past weekend, and I’ve never seen so many anchovies in my life in the deep South Sound. It was incredible. Visibility wasn’t quite what I like, and if you’ve ever talked fishing with me, you know I care far less about the tide and far more about visibility. There were cutthroat all over the place, and both days were fantastic on the water. If you’re fishing South Sound right now, you’ll definitely be competing with an incredible abundance of food sources for the fish but overall if youre considering going out I would highly recommend it! Look for the anchovies getting crushed by the cutthroat and throw your fly right in the mix!
BriGuy
Life of the Party
Interesting. @Shad and I fished a very South Sound beach last weekend and also saw tons of anchovies. So many that we were often surrounded by them while wading. We did see a few jumpers and were sure the SRC were feasting on them below the surface. Unfortunately, we couldn't attract a single bite. We threw all kinds of files at them, including some that pretty closely mimicked the size and color of the anchovies. We just figured that there was so much feeding going on that they just never noticed or picked out our flies among the thousands of the "real things". We also lamented how good that beach used to fish, but lately we haven't had much luck there -- even on days like this when you know the fish are around and active.
When there's so much food around, do you have any secrets to attract those fish? We sure haven't been having much luck down south, lately.
I am really interested how all that bait impacts the SRC and rezzies down there. We may have some fatties to chase come winter. We have also noticed the SRC can be finicky with all that bait around. I’ve heard the same from others who fish down there as well. We did not spend a ton of time on SRC last weekend but the weekend before we did and I don’t recall ever seeing that many refusals from SRC in October before. Lots of follows, often including multiple fish rejecting boat side. We found plenty of players but definitely messed around more than usual with patterns and retrieves too. I even deployed the old stop the retrieve then pop the fly boat side jiggy style pink salmon technique for a couple hookups 
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Anymore I basically just go out with a little bag of 12 of the same pattern, beach bums or steamboat Island leech. Had a lot of success with landing a fly right on top of where the bait was getting chased, pause a second then super varied retrieve to get below the bait just a bit. That seemed to work pretty well we caught over 20 cutthroat both days doing this nothing super big though. I was fishing from the sled so I was stripping away from shore but the anchovies were all the way out to the boat. I definitely caught quite a few small coho in deeper water as well and hooked an adult fought it for awhile before losing it and Pete had an adult coho as well to the boat that didnt fit in our little net and came off after rolling into the side of the boat while i did a horrible job trying to get it into the net lol.
Me too, I talked to a friend at WDFW that does studies on anchovies and hes going to head out and look at what we were seeing. With this much bait Im curious if we will find some absolute monsters this year or next!I am really interested how all that bait impacts the SRC and rezzies down there. We may have some fatties to chase come winter. We have also noticed the SRC can be finicky with all that bait around. I’ve heard the same from others who fish down there as well. We did not spend a ton of time on SRC last weekend but the weekend before we did and I don’t recall ever seeing that many refusals from SRC in October before. Lots of follows, often including multiple fish rejecting boat side. We found plenty of players but definitely messed around more than usual with patterns and retrieves too. I even deployed the old stop the retrieve then pop the fly boat side jiggy style pink salmon technique for a couple hookups
BriGuy
Life of the Party
Thanks for the info!
I need to put more ammo in my SRC box, so I'll look up those patterns. BTW, we weren't too far from sreamboat Island.
Headed down south today. Kind of a slow day. Ok looking exchange on the chart but the water didn’t move much all day. Not much beach left with the 14’+ high. Some early jumpers I covered with casts but not many biters.
Some of the smaller guys are getting guts. Maybe they are stuffed with anchovies, though I didn’t see any today. Nice cloudy day with a bit of wind and rain. Really nice conditions.
SF
Some of the smaller guys are getting guts. Maybe they are stuffed with anchovies, though I didn’t see any today. Nice cloudy day with a bit of wind and rain. Really nice conditions.
SF
I have also encountered schools of anchovies and in salmon stomachs in Central Puget Sound this Summer. While other Puget Sound forage fish such as most Pacific herring stocks have been declining, Pacific anchovies are going from usually episodic around warmer water conditions (such as around the 2015 strong El Nino, seems this in this El Nino too) to increasingly common in our waters. Athough there are no good historical baselines for anchovies in Puget sound, warmer waters under climate change favors them over other forage fish.
Unfortunately it is not a fair like for like diet swap for salmon and other fish since anchovy dominated diets have been recently found to be behind thiamine (B1 vitamin) deficiency complex (TDC). Anchovies have an enzime called thiaminase, which as the name indicates, breaks down thiamine. As salmon eat on anchovies, the thiaminase destroys their own vitamin B1 supply. TDC results in neurological and behavioral changes in fish, swimming in circles, disorientation, etc resulting in lower survival. The impact is compounded since offspring of B1 deficient salmon have shown 40% to 90% mortality in heavily affected populations, such as California's Central Valley Chinook salmon.
So although cool to see them around, and while they may provide fishing opportunities in the short term, it may not translate into monster well fed fish or better fishing opportunities in the mid to long term.
See below links for more information on this.
Anchovy found on an Elliot Bay king salmon this Summer
www.fisheries.noaa.gov
Unfortunately it is not a fair like for like diet swap for salmon and other fish since anchovy dominated diets have been recently found to be behind thiamine (B1 vitamin) deficiency complex (TDC). Anchovies have an enzime called thiaminase, which as the name indicates, breaks down thiamine. As salmon eat on anchovies, the thiaminase destroys their own vitamin B1 supply. TDC results in neurological and behavioral changes in fish, swimming in circles, disorientation, etc resulting in lower survival. The impact is compounded since offspring of B1 deficient salmon have shown 40% to 90% mortality in heavily affected populations, such as California's Central Valley Chinook salmon.
So although cool to see them around, and while they may provide fishing opportunities in the short term, it may not translate into monster well fed fish or better fishing opportunities in the mid to long term.
See below links for more information on this.
Anchovy found on an Elliot Bay king salmon this Summer
Anchovy Dominated Diets off the West Coast Pose New Dangers for Salmon
Lack of key vitamin turns fatal for as many as half of salmon offspring.
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Just for my own reference I went back and looked at my photos to see when I encountered large quantities of anchovies in the sound and canal.
I found four times, once in September and three times in October.
The first year I saw large quantities of them was 2016. I did have a cutthroat puke up an anchovy in May, but I never saw any others that day.
SF
I found four times, once in September and three times in October.
The first year I saw large quantities of them was 2016. I did have a cutthroat puke up an anchovy in May, but I never saw any others that day.
SF
I grew up right there! Really cool place!
That is super interesting, Ill have to learn more about this and talk with the bio more about the forage fish and these implications. Anchovies were everywhere off the coast down here in Ilwaco too. Might become the new norm with higher temps but hopefully wont translate to worse conditions for our fisheries.I have also encountered schools of anchovies and in salmon stomachs in Central Puget Sound this Summer. While other Puget Sound forage fish such as most Pacific herring stocks have been declining, Pacific anchovies are going from usually episodic around warmer water conditions (such as around the 2015 strong El Nino, seems this in this El Nino too) to increasingly common in our waters. Athough there are no good historical baselines for anchovies in Puget sound, warmer waters under climate change favors them over other forage fish.
Unfortunately it is not a fair like for like diet swap for salmon and other fish since anchovy dominated diets have been recently found to be behind thiamine (B1 vitamin) deficiency complex (TDC). Anchovies have an enzime called thiaminase, which as the name indicates, breaks down thiamine. As salmon eat on anchovies, the thiaminase destroys their own vitamin B1 supply. TDC results in neurological and behavioral changes in fish, swimming in circles, disorientation, etc resulting in lower survival. The impact is compounded since offspring of B1 deficient salmon have shown 40% to 90% mortality in heavily affected populations, such as California's Central Valley Chinook salmon.
So although cool to see them around, and while they may provide fishing opportunities in the short term, it may not translate into monster well fed fish or better fishing opportunities in the mid to long term.
See below links for more information on this.
Anchovy found on an Elliot Bay king salmon this Summer
View attachment 195601
Anchovy Dominated Diets off the West Coast Pose New Dangers for Salmon
Lack of key vitamin turns fatal for as many as half of salmon offspring.
look at those bellies! they look stuffed!
BriGuy
Life of the Party
A buddy and I rented a house right on Eld Inlet off Madrona Beach Road. It was my first time living on my own. It was a great place for a guy in his very early twenties. When the sun came out, all of our friends showed up with beer to enjoy the large deck and sometimes stayed for a beach fire. When the sun didn't shine, Character's Corner was within staggering distance.
I also found out about SRC as my neighbor would invite me for some trolling trips on his boat, albeit with gear. I ate a few since you could way back then.
Good times! Back when two twenty-somethings could afford to rent a place out there.