fatbillybob
Steelhead
You guys are lucky to have the sound. I read these pages with envy. My local water lacks the concentration of fish you have in the sound.
Puget Sound
- Thread starter Stonedfish
- Start date
You guys are lucky to have the sound. I read these pages with envy. My local water lacks the concentration of fish you have in the sound.
We fished miles of shoreline and both interacted with the same little fish. Ha.
I think another thing adding to the likelihood of a skunking yesterday for Lou and I is using the boat. Both of us have been dedicated beach guys for awhile and recently starting using boats more for SRC and salmon. It gives you access to tons more water which is awesome. Unfortunately, it’s water we do not have much, if any, experience with so the only option is to fish unfamiliar water and see how it goes. We use our SRC knowledge to try and fish stuff we think might be good but you never know with these fish. In the end, we just don’t have the boat game dialed yet but we’ll get there. It will take time though, probably longer than it did the beaches because there is so much more water to figure out from a boat. The one thing we have found is when you find a good, boat only access beach, it’s usually really good due to less pressure.
That said, yesterday would have been tough regardless. We hit some sure fire spots beach guys hit and did not touch anything either…
A boat makes it easy to get sucked into the "let's go try that spot" game. And then the next spot, and then the next.... And after 2 or 3 spots you realize the hook has barely been in the water. It's a constant challenge to make sure the hook is in the water. Or the other way to think about it...minimize boat related time.
The same thing happens when floating a river if you want to fish from shore, like swinging. If you don't give yourself enough time for the float, you won't have any time to fish. Sounds pretty basic, but really easy to end up with a great float, but not much fishing.
On the sound, I really like trying to float with the current along a good beach. Whether it's ebb or flood, doesn't matter as long as there's a nice slow current. I'm basically fishing the same water I would from that beach, but inside out. And the beauty of the boat is that I'm able to fish that private or tough to access beach. And I can fish it a couple times easily.
So this means I avoid slacks like the plague. Get on the water right at the end of a slack and then head for the spot hoping to have some ebb or flood current by the time I get there. And if the current is juicy just ride it as long as I can even if the beach isn't producing in the 1st 100-200 yards. The productive current is more important to me than pulling out and motoring (aka wasting time) to another beach that may or may not be productive. I've drifted with the current for nearly a mile before finally finding fish. Now, there are some reliable spots that nearly always have fish, but SRCs are goofy. They can be there today and gone tomorrow. They keep it interesting!
Better day today but not much size.
My fly was a bit smaller than the naturals. My back colors were off as well.
SF
My fly was a bit smaller than the naturals. My back colors were off as well.
SF
As a dry side resident I'm certainly no expert on tides and beaches. In the past ten years or so I've fished a section of Hood Canal's north shore from a boat a few dozen times. There's one section of beach that sometimes is absolutely killer good (like scenes from @SpawnFlyFish video) where we would slowly make our way down the shoreline casting to the beach. Many times we'd see a SRC instantly following the fly from water only a few inches deep. Amazing to me that these predators were that tight to the shore. We had 40 fish days with three of us taking turns at the tiller (tiller the troller). I don't remember, and this really is MY BAD, what the tide was - I know it wasn't a low tide or we would not have been able to get to the beach we were fishing (that's almost a hot spot). What this post demonstates is the need for anglers to document their outings: date, time, tide weather, moon phase, and so forth.
Fishing by boat it does help tremendously to have a route planned ahead of time, that way you can minimize the transit times in b/w spots. Discovering "bad" beaches is just as helpful as the good ones, you also put that in the mental bank but under places not to waste time on again 
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Semper_Fly
Steelhead
I did the one hour each way commute Saturday morning putting me on the first south sound beach right before high tide (7:30 am). I've been getting skunked at my local beaches so I figured heading south couldn't hurt. Things didn't pick up for me till mid outgoing. Only ran into one person at one of the few beaches I fished. Landed 6, lost one at the net.
First time I've ever experienced having a fish take the fly upon hitting the water without stripping. That happened twice! It was met with mixed feelings due to not getting that strip strip tug bite. Kinda neat.
Someone mentioned earlier about taking notes. I do this all the time. Especially if the fishing was good. I screen grab the tide and mark when the fish were being active. I know this is subject to change per beach but it's good for me to get that info so I can feel better about making those hour commutes down south.
Ah, I'd say you're expert enough! Haha! "few dozen times".... Pat, you sandbagger.
I'm resurrecting this thread from the old sight. I'd forgotten about it but while checking the old sight today I noticed that a new like had been added. I checked it and was surprised to find this account of a day on the south sound with @Nick Clayton. It was my introduction to the resident coho of Puget Sound.
It was a blast then and now a very fond memory. Thanks again Nick, I wish you the best this holiday season.
www.washingtonflyfishing.com
It was a blast then and now a very fond memory. Thanks again Nick, I wish you the best this holiday season.
Area 13 report.
www.washingtonflyfishing.com
Divad
Whitefish
Fished from 645-8 today, saw a bunch of surface sips, rises and fin out chases. I’m thinking they were snacking on euophausiids. My size 6 crustaceans only got a couple nibbles with the sink tip.
Ordered some size 10 Umpqua XS410s. Going to make some tiny patterns and go with a full float for next time.
Ordered some size 10 Umpqua XS410s. Going to make some tiny patterns and go with a full float for next time.
Bambooflyguy
Life of the Party
I don’t have much confidence fishing a #16 scud in a bazillion gallons of water…….my .02
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Divad
Whitefish
Admittedly I was in the same bandwagon but too many times I’ve been in the right spot with the wrong fly. Casting to what I can cover from the shore breaks it down into small habitats of water. The fish today were all showing themselves actively feeding in one spot, which would have made a small pattern presentation doable.
To your point I’m going to tie up a cluster fly of size 10s/12s to make a pod of euphasiids. That or run a tandem setup to help when they aren’t making their location so easily found.
Skating a small foam pattern might also turn out to be the ticket for searching water.
Bambooflyguy
Life of the Party
It is cool watching a pod feeding…..sure looks like they’re sipping emergers! Maybe that’s what I’ll throw at them next time.
roger stephens
Steelhead
IMHO you are seeing resident coho feeding on amphipods. Resident coho in the northern part of marine area 13 often can be feeding on the water surface as they eat these amphipods in the winter and early spring. However, I have occasionally seen resident coho feeding on amphipods in the southern part of marine area 13. The amphipods are a little large than 1/8 inch in size and are a reddish/brown color.. They look like a fresh water scud. If amphipods are seen up close, they will often be seen slowly spinning around and the whole water surface will be cover with them. Schools of 20 to 30 resident coho will be seen slowly sipping/dimpling the water surface as they feed on the amphipods. A school of resident coho feeding on them were very spooky as the fish would skirt either side of my boat 20 to 30 feet away.
I had a little success using a #12 hook to tie an amphipod pattern. I used a floating line and a strike indicator and tried to dead drift the pattern into a school of resident coho feeding that was approaching my boat. Every few seconds I would give the line a slight twitch( called amphipod hop by les Johnson) to give the pattern a little movement. It was hard to hook fish so I usually gave up and would go to looking for more aggressive schools of jumping resident coho.
Roger
I saw the same thing last Friday afternoon at a MA10 spot and fished the “feed” for about an hour and a half going 10 for 12 slow stripping a bright shrimp pattern. Fish were mostly medium size and all Cutts. The best was a 17” real fatty!
P.S. I went back about a week later to fish the same tide. There were some fish slurping but the results were not the same. Three hooked and none landed on weak takes. I think the problem was 2 Sea Lions, 4 Seals, and 2 families of Otters(3&4) were working the current in about 1-1/2 hours that I fished.
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I've had good results throwing #10/12 puget sound squimps on an intermediate line retrieved semi-slow twitch. Resies love them. Next is a dahlia squid. I catch my resies farther out, off the beach than cutts. I target resies in the Winter doldrums instead of src down here in deep, dark area 13...
tacomabeer
Smolt
Divad
Whitefish
I opened up my storage bottle I used for coho stingers this summer and found some rust on about all of the hooks. Do you think this is a bad storage system to blame (repurposed pill bottle) or the Gamakatsu Octopus hooks?
If it’s the latter is there a good saltwater octopus hook in size 4 and 6? I did move them into a fly box after cleaning.
If it’s the latter is there a good saltwater octopus hook in size 4 and 6? I did move them into a fly box after cleaning.
