Puget Sound

[Wadin' Boot]

Long paddle today, but just about perfect wind and tide and temp to do it in- 3 decent sized cutts in the 16 inch range, healthy looking, solid fights, orange bead and gold flash was the ticket.

Caspian terns were killing it on smolts and little perch


Crow was working the mussel beds, he'd fly up about 30 feet and let it drop until it busted open. Never really thought of a crow as a shore bird but they do pretty well down there....

 

[Zak]

Slow day today. Lost one nice fish and four others to hand. Nothing over 12-13” or picture worthy.
Much nicer then forecast, which didn’t help.
Flat water with little wind.
Water seemed warm to me. A few fry around.
Added to my beach ball collection.
Stop by a popular spot on the way home. One person fishing and a sea lion working the trench. Traffic was a bitch getting home.
I think this will be my last trip south until fall.
While I like spring cutthroat fishing I just enjoy fishing for them more in the fall when they are in their prime after feeding all summer and prior to spawning.
Fishing in the rain was terrifying.
A few random pics from today.
SF

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You got a lotta balls!

 

[Kfish]

Slow day today. Lost one nice fish and four others to hand. Nothing over 12-13” or picture worthy.
Much nicer then forecast, which didn’t help.
Flat water with little wind.
Water seemed warm to me. A few fry around.
Added to my beach ball collection.
Stop by a popular spot on the way home. One person fishing and a sea lion working the trench. Traffic was a bitch getting home.
I think this will be my last trip south until fall.
While I like spring cutthroat fishing I just enjoy fishing for them more in the fall when they are in their prime after feeding all summer and prior to spawning.
Fishing in the rain was terrifying.
A few random pics from today.
SF

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I think that's the same guy we saw on our way home couple hours ago.
Lovely Tacoma traffic as always.

 

[Divad]

Took off early and beat all traffic, had the dog so a walk and desolate beach was the goal. What a wonderful change of water today was compared to the two spots I’ve been fishing. No mud, an oyster abundance, almost no smell to the water, hands weren’t left sticky, and a plethora of aquatic life.

At one point I could count 11 leopard heads bobbing in confusion, not having seen such sexy legs in the water before. They’re vastly too comfortable around us, bout bltch slapped one with my rod tip on accident. Some odd mix of a sudden stop to my row, him probably using my wake, a cast and wack-a-mole. Might of head a little after it.

Caught a bunch of cutts in the 10-12 range and lost a big one considerably larger splashing by the tube. Caught a flounder too while working shallow water. The cutts loved a chartreuse, orange head leech I had still on my line.


After talking fishing with one of the guys on his deck, Ranger and him took to each other’s company while I fished.


Ended up only collecting 4 zip ties. Almost no trash on this beach today.

 

[Wadin' Boot]

Mmm flounder....

 

[Divad]

Mmm flounder....

Tomorrow ice is going in the cooler for hopefully some resies. I haven't ever kept flounder, some quick reading leads me to think I should of Looks like I can keep 15, might have to give that a try too. Sand paper belly was cool, not quite sure how to handle them nor gut for that matter.

 

[Wiznet]

Has anyone fished around the Belfair area? I've been there once and it looked fishy, but people complained about low oxygen in the water reducing fish numbers.

 

[NRC]

I’ve caught small cutts out there, but not my go-to Hood Canal spot. If you’re already in the neighborhood certainly worth giving a shot.

 

[Wetswinger]

Tomorrow ice is going in the cooler for hopefully some resies. I haven't ever kept flounder, some quick reading leads me to think I should of Looks like I can keep 15, might have to give that a try too. Sand paper belly was cool, not quite sure how to handle them nor gut for that matter.

Nisqually Delta, out by the large boundary poles, is full of Starry Flounder. You can use is plastic worm or bunny leech. Just drop it down and jig...

 

[Divad]

Big swings in the evening high tides, tidal coefficients in the 99/100 98/100.

-4ft tides should be fun to see. Jealous of all the tight channels north, might have to drive up to Kitsap tomorrow.

 

[jasmillo]

Headed out to an MA 10 beach early today to see if there were any early season, chunky rezzies around. Found some bait, with a small school of rezzies in the 3-5 inch range chasing them around. Other than that nothing. Not discouraged. June beach fishing for rezzies in MA 10 has never been particularly productive for me. I give it a shot each year because it’s so close though.

Headed over to a local SRC beach after that. Only fished for another hour since I’m fishing for for bass tomorrow. Landed two in this range.



Saw a bigg’n jump a couple times just out of range. I’ll be heading back there soon on a lower tide to try and get a shot at him!

 

[Sam Roffe]

Puget sound is not showing me any love this year. I did catch three, but holy cow, I’ve used cut plug herring bigger than these dinks.

 

[Wadin' Boot]

Decided to check out the flats post big minus. That's the hypothesis, a monster minus changes the beach for the better, at least for a time.These are sand flats and normally they're pretty sparse when it comes to cutts. Today was different beast altogether. The architecture was sure potholed up underwater. In the potholes were clam shells, denser sand and organic debris. I gotta assume they served as holding spots for fish to ambush. Normally you work your way down the flat and you can feel 95% confident of where your next step will be (plus that your efforts are sorta futile and more for "steps" than fishing).

Not today.

Consistent 6-12 inch scallopings under foot in two-foot visibility water. There were multiple oohhh crap moments where the step went deeper than I was expecting which led to my missing many good strikes....Still, 6 to hand, more off with the first good head shake.



( you know the strike of a cutt, I don't know the best way to describe it other than a sort of rasping, like your line is passing over the blade of a super blunt drywall saw- anybody else have a way of describing it?"

So many eagles out today...couldn't really get the focus right on this but thats one eagle and 8 herons....As usual, and unlike Stonefish's typical excursion, no smoking hot perfumed swimmer babes interrupted my day.

 

[Stonedfish]

Back home after a week in the Midwest. Lots of chores to do this afternoon, so I decided to stay local and hit a MA 10 beach.
Started at 4:30 and called it a day at 8:30 as the tide petered out and got weedy.
The fish have plumped up since I last hit this beach about a month ago which is good to see. A decent amount of fish to hand, some fry and some targets to fish to.
First fish I hooked today was a jumbo. Must have jumped at least eight times before finally releasing itself on the last jump. That was a super solid fish.
Only used one fly today, a solid white 2” clouser.
Came upon a fawn that must have just been killed or I interrupted the act as I hiked on the trail to the beach. The doe was there pacing and not happy with my presence so I gave her a wide birth. The fawn was gone when I returned. I noticed a lot of furry looking scat on the trail so likely one of the resident coyotes got the fawn. I’ve been seeing a lot more deer in my neighborhood lately.
Nature is a cruel mistress.
A few pics from today. Time for some yard work… ;(
SF

 

[Wadin' Boot]

Small craft alert started at 11 so headed out way before that. Decided to fish the low and first third of the incoming. I haven't tried that chunk of tide before, glad I did, things held up, 12-16 inch cutts on gold or silver bead heads. A fair amount of casting to fish that showed themselves, always love that



As ridiculous as it sounds, the highlight of the trip was getting out of the Yak and walking barefoot on this beach. It's not quite sand and not quite mud and was just enough to bear weight without letting you sink in beyond an inch. Sense immersion.

@Stonedfish that second to last cutt is looking mighty plump!

 

[Divad]

Small craft alert started at 11 so headed out way before that. Decided to fish the low and first third of the incoming. I haven't tried that chunk of tide before, glad I did, things held up, 12-16 inch cutts on gold or silver bead heads. A fair amount of casting to fish that showed themselves, always love that
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As ridiculous as it sounds, the highlight of the trip was getting out of the Yak and walking barefoot on this beach. It's not quite sand and not quite mud and was just enough to bear weight without letting you sink in beyond an inch. Sense immersion.
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@Stonedfish that second to last cutt is looking mighty plump!

That last shot is quite something. Looks like something foreign to Washington.

 

[copperJon]

The view from my new "home" beach.

 

[Stonedfish]

Took the day off to go fishing, since it might be the last time for awhile….think painting project.
Clear as a bell when I left home at 4:00 but a nice marine layer moved in by the time so hit the beach at 5:00. Actually wished I worn a heavier top once some wind kicked in.
Only small fish to start but bigger fish started to show as the tide got lower. No jumbos but some decent size fish. Solid white clouser again was all I used. Decent number of jumpers and the amount of different bait options was crazy. Called it a day at noon under bright sunny skies.
I had several big schools of anchovies swim by me with fish in hot pursuit. The biomass of shiner perch was just incredible.
Cool to see dark masses as they swim towards you in the clear water.
@Cabezon …. Quick question for you. I know in the past you mentioned male shiner perch being black in their spawning colors if I remember correctly.
I saw what I believe were shiner rolling around together on the surface. It looked like a couple of fish together at one time.
Is this the mating ritual or perhaps giving birth as I saw some really small fish today as well that I couldn’t ID?

If this Penn Cove mussel disc did come from Penn Cove proper, it travel a good distance in the currents to make it to MA 10.
Lots of boats on the road this morning and out on the water for the crab opener.
A few pics from today of fish, schools of fish and litter.
@Wadin' Boot … no beach glass or swimmers were seen in the making of this report.
SF

 

[Cabezon]

@Cabezon …. Quick question for you. I know in the past you mentioned male shiner perch being black in their spawning colors if I remember correctly.
I saw what I believe were shiner rolling around together on the surface. It looked like a couple of fish together at one time.
Is this the mating ritual or perhaps giving birth as I saw some really small fish today as well that I couldn’t ID?
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Hi @Stonedfish ,
It is about the time for the females of all the local surf perch species to be giving birth. I suspect that the shiner perch in your picture is a female in light of that swollen belly. And she is about ready to release her juveniles at any point (from 2 to up to 36 neonates per female). Surf perch do mate just after the females give birth. In fact, shiner perch are sexually mature at birth. The females then retain the sperm until winter when they ovulate and the eggs are fertilized.
Steve
Steve

 

[Stonedfish]

Hi @Stonedfish ,
It is about the time for the females of all the local surf perch species to be giving birth. I suspect that the shiner perch in your picture is a female in light of that swollen belly. And she is about ready to release her juveniles at any point (from 2 to up to 36 neonates per female). Surf perch do mate just after the females give birth. In fact, shiner perch are sexually mature at birth. The females then retain the sperm until winter when they ovulate and the eggs are fertilized.
Steve
Steve

Steve,
As always, thank you for your knowledge.
SF