Puget Sound

jasmillo · Jan 2, 2023

I did find a few yesterday across a couple of different marine areas (10 and 13). Water still had a lot of debris but was clearing a bit in the spots I hit. Caught the nicest fish after casting and slow retrieving a small white soft hackle at a smaller fish that was showing itself. Had some interesting markings, I assume from a net?

Caught two more in MA 10 but they were super finicky. Started with a squimp type pattern that they repeatedly short struck. Then switched to a fly with a small stinger, pinkish in color and they short struck that as well (small bit of overhang from material tied on stinger). Finally, a really slow stripped, green bugger got it done again. The first fish was super infested with parasites. I see a lot of that in this spot.

BTW, there is something really fun about short strikes and src. It frustrates me with coho because I feel the fish are mostly moving through so you have limited shots at them. I have fun with the bump, bump, bump…no hookup of src because if they don’t feel the hook, they just keep coming back. People walking by on the beach probably think I’m nuts….”eat it you son of a……NO! Oh, you’re going down, I’m going to stand here all day until you’re in the net!”

skyrise · Jan 2, 2023

Flooded fields , high brown river’s, creeks running full but grays harbor still nice.

SeaRunner · Jan 2, 2023

Took the wife for a walk at Golden Gardens today. Beautiful day. At the boat launch fishing pier saw a large school of what appeared to be mature, spawner herring. Curious as to where they will end up.

DimeBrite · Jan 3, 2023

Interglacial swirling clay layer.

Stonedfish · Jan 4, 2023

SteelHeadDave said:
King tide flooding from earlier this week.

I wonder if this recent king tide flooding event has raised any questions, changes or concerns regarding the marsh restoration plan for PNP?

We have another set of king tides coming up later this month starting on the 23rd.
Hopefully the weather will be calm when they occur again.
SF

Gary Knowels · Jan 5, 2023

I've been playing nurse for my wife with a recently repaired broken ankle so I wasn't able to take advantage of the 2 week break for the holidays. I took the week of to continue to care for her, but she's getting better and more able to do stuff on her own now that we're a week post-op. I took advantage of nice weather and a free morning to hit a new to me beach. It was beautiful, calm, and comfortable but no fish showed themselves. Bald eagles and seals were around me all morning. I fished from dawn to 11:30 on the outgoing.

5 Weight · Jan 5, 2023

Stonedfish said:
Hit the beach today. Wasn’t expecting much and that is exactly what I got. Only fished for maybe an hour. Water was off color and lots of crap in the water. Got triple limits on eel grass.
The beaches and wood sure got a good reshuffle this past week. Some will fish differently after the high water.
Lot of folks and dogs out getting rid of their cabin fever. Must have gotten asked at least five times what I was fishing for.
Tons of litter on the beaches. One nice Nike is available and there is a pair of daisy dukes buried under there if anyone is interested. Lots of booze and beer bottles, cans and fireworks debris left from last night as well, which is disappointing.
View attachment 48049

No 2023 humpies were harmed in the making of this report.
SF

I wish there were more of us cleaning up. Good on you!

Kfish · Jan 7, 2023

Really slow out there this morning, hooked one but LDR it. No shortage of trash though.

Stonedfish · Jan 7, 2023

Kfish said:
Really slow out there this morning, hooked one but LDR it. No shortage of trash though.

View attachment 49036

Lou,
Thanks for your effort.
Same for me. Super slow. Finally hooked two back to back and lost both. Tried big and small stuff. No jumpers or sippers.
Tide moved well even though the exchange wasn’t great. Maybe the annual winter cutthroat doldrums have begun…..

Some pretty interesting stuff left and moved by the big king tide last week.
SF

Kfish · Jan 7, 2023

Stonedfish said:
Lou,
Thanks for your effort.
Same for me. Super slow. Finally hooked two back to back and lost both. Tried big and small stuff. No jumpers or sippers.
Tide moved well even though the exchange wasn’t great. Maybe the annual winter cutthroat doldrums have begun…..
Some pretty interesting stuff left and moved by the big king tide last week.
SF

OK good to to confirm that I didn't suck

Water was clear with decent movement too, I tried everything as well ha

BriGuy · Jan 7, 2023

Kfish said:
Really slow out there this morning, hooked one but LDR it. No shortage of trash though.

View attachment 49036

Hey, you can now turn that stripping basket into a beer bong!

Northern · Jan 8, 2023

North Sound SRC were MIA at all beaches today, but as we arrived at one beach a huge sea lion launched itself clear out of the water right in front of us. That was a first for me!

(Not here; just a nice spot out of the wind for a bit)

SKYKO · Jan 10, 2023

Blanked again during a couple hours of effort but Wow - what a nice afternoon of weather.

Stonedfish · Jan 10, 2023

Nick Clayton · Jan 10, 2023

@ffb and I took advantage of the forecast today and snuck out to play on the sound.

Was a stellar day weather wise. Such a treat after the crazy weather we've had this winter.

Fishing was pretty damn good. We ended up catching really good numbers of fish. We caught some random fish here and there, but the bulk of our day was made at 4 different spots where there were large numbers of aggressive fish hanging out. What was interesting is that at all 4 spots where we found large numbers of cutthroat there was little to no current movement, tons of debris in the water, and 3 of the 4 spots were feature less, muddy/sandy flats that we would completely ignore if we we were just going by what the books say to look for.

Big high this morning with a strong outgoing made some places almost unfishable, and we touched very few fish in those places with strong current. Luckily we changed up our game plan and it turned into a great day. It almost seemed like the fish were hiding in the frog water to get away from the current. I don't think I've ever seen more logs and debris on the sound! It was nuts, especially our run down in the morning. Quite the slalom course. Definitely not a day to be running at high speed!

We both fished 4 or 5 different patterns throughout the day and we caught multiple fish on every pattern we fished. Just one of those days where fly doesn't matter a bit. When we found those high density of fish areas in particular they were ultra aggressive and we had periods of red hot action that provided plenty of doubles. Good fun!

Another great thing was the overall quality of the fish. We caught very few fish less than 12" with the bulk being in that 14-16" range. Biggest was probably 17". They were all fat, in a multitude of colors, and man they were particularly feisty today!

Only took a few fish pics but it's worth pointing out that in both of the double pics Jon's fish were the bigger. A fact that he was quick to point out when I was fighting a solid fish and he hooked up and instantly let me know "Mines bigger!"

Nice to be out on the sound in January and have to take off layers as the day progressed!