Found some sea-run cutts yesterday fishing a western washington river with my Granger 9660 bamboo fly rod. The Granger 9660 is a 9'6" 7 weight which throws a long line and long mends. Perfect for this big water where there's a chance of a steelhead in addition to the cutts.
I fished a Peter Ross on the dropper and a Dark Mackerel as the tail fly. The Dark Mackerel has become one of my favorite river cutthroat patterns. It's dark but also has some flash.
The Dark Mackerel was invented by William Currie for scottish sea trout but in the words of Stan Headley is "worth a go anywhere the child of the tide swims." I like to fish the Dark Mackerel as a dark fly along with a bright fly like the Silver March Brown, Silver Invicta or Invicta when I'm searching for cutts. Here's the pattern:
Thread: 8/0 Claret or Wine.
Hook size: wet fly 8-10 for river cutthroats, 12-14 for lakes.
Tail: Golden pheasant tippets
Body: Red tinsel ribbed with claret hackle.
Ribbing: small silver tinsel or silver wire. You tie the hackle in at the front and wind it down the fly to the rear. Then you tie the hackle off with the tinsel or wire and wind 5 turns through the hackle to the front of the fly. The counter ribbing makes the fly durable.
Wing: Bronze mallard or Brown Merganser.
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