Brian, I saw only one pumpkin while fishing this weekend, a ways off in the distance, making its peace with the shore. The pumpkin hatch was not as expected, not many where I was. Maybe the escapement numbers were off this year?
Puget Sound
- Thread starter Stonedfish
- Start date
Bruce Baker
Life of the Party
I will see if anyone at the office can lend some insight.
Bruce Baker
Life of the Party
@Stonedfish can you please make the following sentence a little clearer for me where I have it boldfaced?
This one was on the white belly right the gill V.
Is the arrow pointing to the "gill V" you mentioned?
This one was on the white belly right the gill V.
Is the arrow pointing to the "gill V" you mentioned?
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Bruce,
Sorry, should be right behind the gill V.
So on the white of the belly. I’ve never seen one located there or a clear one.
Not the same fish, but the Argulid I found was located right where the gash is located on this fish.
SF
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I'm thinking the belly is not the best spot on Cutts if you're one of these thing, since they often work the bottom for a meal. If one managed to stay there it probably turned clear to blend in with the white tones. How the hell does it know to do that though? 
Maybe it's the level of light/wavelengths reflecting off from the Cutts skin that affects it somehow?
I think I've seen an almost clear one before, not that clear but close.
Maybe it's the level of light/wavelengths reflecting off from the Cutts skin that affects it somehow?I think I've seen an almost clear one before, not that clear but close.
Today @ffb was kind enough to ferry me around the south sound in the bow of his Tiderunner. Was just a stellar day on the sound. From the amazing weather to the fantastic fishing it was a great example of why the sound sucks so much!
We had pretty dang good cutthroat fishing pretty much all day. I started off a bit rusty and Jon quickly got a good lead on me in the fish landed department, but I eventually got my groove back and ended up landing plenty of fish. We didn't land anything huge, but lots of nice quality fish. We did have a good handful of opportunities at real nice fish, including a toad that I lost after it just crushed my Silver Surfer near the boat but the spit the hook before we could net it, and several missed grabs that were very nice fish. We found cutthroat just about everywhere we looked, and for the most part they were exactly where one would expect them to be. Two or three stretches in particular provided very consistent action.
We caught a handful of resident coho and encountered a decent number of small schools of them in some places where I would kinda expect to find them, which I thought was a good sign of things to come. We also saw chum consistently all day.
I pretty much stuck to two flies all day, the Silver Surfer and a small tan/orange Bugger type pattern I've posted before. Both produced very well. The flashy Surfer seemed to draw more aggressive strikes, they definitely weren't shy about attacking it, while the more subtle pattern just consistently produced all day. Jon fished a peachy fly of similar design most of the day, but also caught fish on a cool baitfish pattern with some purple and blue colors. Just seemed like the kind of day where the pattern itself didn't matter a whole lot. We didnt see any sign of bait or any noticeable food source at any point. We caught a lot of fish in areas that were pretty traditional in terms of bottom structure and current, but we also caught quite a few fish in dirty, stagnant water. All fish were very healthy and most were colored in that way that makes this time of year so special.
I fished two new lines all day that I recently picked up to try out as replacements for my quickly diminishing 40+ stash.
One was the Cortland Compact Type 3, the other a SA Sonar Titan triple density Int/3/5. I came away very happy with both lines. The Cortland Compact has a shorter head than I tend to prefer but it really wasn't clunky at all, and was a very forgiving line to cast. Sink rate was perfect for my preference for a type 3 line. I think I preferred casting the SA a tad more, and it fished extremely well in places where I would turn to a type 5, and I think I preferred the running line just a bit more as well. My only complaint with that line is it appears to be a bit textured so it was super noisy which is a bit annoying but no biggie. I think both lines will serve my needs well, hopefully they hold up to Puget Sound abuse.
Weather was amazing. Started off foggy and super cold, but the fog didn't last long and once the sun showed we were quickly removing layers.
I never did take any fish pics, as I was just enjoying my day too much to really stop and think about that. I did snap one shot in the afternoon as we were transiting just to show how much Puget Sound sucks.
Was so enjoyable to just hang in the bow of the boat and fish all day. Jon definitely vaulted himself into challenging for the GOTY award.
We had pretty dang good cutthroat fishing pretty much all day. I started off a bit rusty and Jon quickly got a good lead on me in the fish landed department, but I eventually got my groove back and ended up landing plenty of fish. We didn't land anything huge, but lots of nice quality fish. We did have a good handful of opportunities at real nice fish, including a toad that I lost after it just crushed my Silver Surfer near the boat but the spit the hook before we could net it, and several missed grabs that were very nice fish. We found cutthroat just about everywhere we looked, and for the most part they were exactly where one would expect them to be. Two or three stretches in particular provided very consistent action.
We caught a handful of resident coho and encountered a decent number of small schools of them in some places where I would kinda expect to find them, which I thought was a good sign of things to come. We also saw chum consistently all day.
I pretty much stuck to two flies all day, the Silver Surfer and a small tan/orange Bugger type pattern I've posted before. Both produced very well. The flashy Surfer seemed to draw more aggressive strikes, they definitely weren't shy about attacking it, while the more subtle pattern just consistently produced all day. Jon fished a peachy fly of similar design most of the day, but also caught fish on a cool baitfish pattern with some purple and blue colors. Just seemed like the kind of day where the pattern itself didn't matter a whole lot. We didnt see any sign of bait or any noticeable food source at any point. We caught a lot of fish in areas that were pretty traditional in terms of bottom structure and current, but we also caught quite a few fish in dirty, stagnant water. All fish were very healthy and most were colored in that way that makes this time of year so special.
I fished two new lines all day that I recently picked up to try out as replacements for my quickly diminishing 40+ stash.
One was the Cortland Compact Type 3, the other a SA Sonar Titan triple density Int/3/5. I came away very happy with both lines. The Cortland Compact has a shorter head than I tend to prefer but it really wasn't clunky at all, and was a very forgiving line to cast. Sink rate was perfect for my preference for a type 3 line. I think I preferred casting the SA a tad more, and it fished extremely well in places where I would turn to a type 5, and I think I preferred the running line just a bit more as well. My only complaint with that line is it appears to be a bit textured so it was super noisy which is a bit annoying but no biggie. I think both lines will serve my needs well, hopefully they hold up to Puget Sound abuse.
Weather was amazing. Started off foggy and super cold, but the fog didn't last long and once the sun showed we were quickly removing layers.
I never did take any fish pics, as I was just enjoying my day too much to really stop and think about that. I did snap one shot in the afternoon as we were transiting just to show how much Puget Sound sucks.
Was so enjoyable to just hang in the bow of the boat and fish all day. Jon definitely vaulted himself into challenging for the GOTY award.
Good to hear your back on the sound again Nick. Kind of nice not to the one doing all the work eh?
Fished my bamboo Sharpes “88” on a nice stretch of beach for almost two hours without even seeing a measly sculpin. Not any baitfish either, just seemed totally dead. Was about to leave as I waded out and up the beach to where my wife was sitting on a log in the sun reading a book (yeah, it was that nice of a day!) when I saw a jumper about a hundred yards back where I’d just been fishing. I ran back and had an hour and a half of nonstop action. Just a whole bunch of Cutthroat showed up jumping and finning on the surface just like in a dream!
They liked the fly presented shiny and fast and it was just a bunch of fun sight casting to showing fish. Sometimes there were multiple follows at once to see who could eat it first. Lots of exciting following wakes and slashing at the fly. Lots of Argulids too on most of them, except one surprise little Blackmouth of about fourteen inches. It had been a while since I’d caught one and I had to grin a little when I got a whiff of that unique smell that Chinook have. I thought it odd that it was totally absent of Argulids, unlike the Cutthroats I was catching.
Nothing of real size like some of you have been showing but it was a great day to be out and was a whole lot of fun!
They liked this chewed up bright shiny streamer, but I knew they were feeding on little stuff near the surface so I eventually tied on the little shrimp fly and they ate that readily too.
Oh, and nobody give me flack over the Pflueger Sal Trout reel. I have a soft spot for them as my ancestors used these reels and they do the job for this fishery!
I’m looking at you you @Old Man cuz’ you gave me a bad time last time I showed it
They liked the fly presented shiny and fast and it was just a bunch of fun sight casting to showing fish. Sometimes there were multiple follows at once to see who could eat it first. Lots of exciting following wakes and slashing at the fly. Lots of Argulids too on most of them, except one surprise little Blackmouth of about fourteen inches. It had been a while since I’d caught one and I had to grin a little when I got a whiff of that unique smell that Chinook have. I thought it odd that it was totally absent of Argulids, unlike the Cutthroats I was catching.
Nothing of real size like some of you have been showing but it was a great day to be out and was a whole lot of fun!
They liked this chewed up bright shiny streamer, but I knew they were feeding on little stuff near the surface so I eventually tied on the little shrimp fly and they ate that readily too.
Oh, and nobody give me flack over the Pflueger Sal Trout reel. I have a soft spot for them as my ancestors used these reels and they do the job for this fishery!
I’m looking at you you @Old Man cuz’ you gave me a bad time last time I showed it
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Great looking Sharpes and great looking flies!Fished my bamboo Sharpes “88” on a nice stretch of beach for almost two hours without even seeing a measly sculpin. Not any baitfish either, just seemed totally dead. Was about to leave as I waded out and up the beach to where my wife was sitting on a log in the sun reading a book (yeah, it was that nice of a day!) when I saw a jumper about a hundred yards back where I’d just been fishing. I ran back and had an hour and a half of nonstop action. Just a whole bunch of Cutthroat showed up jumping and finning on the surface just like in a dream!
They liked the fly presented shiny and fast and it was just a bunch of fun sight casting to showing fish. Sometimes there were multiple follows at once to see who could eat it first. Lots of exciting following wakes and slashing at the fly. Lots of Argulids too on most of them, except one surprise little Blackmouth of about fourteen inches. It had been a while since I’d caught one and I had to grin a little when I got a whiff of that unique smell that Chinook have. I thought it odd that it was totally absent of Argulids, unlike the Cutthroats I was catching.
Nothing of real size like some of you have been showing but it was a great day to be out and was a whole lot of fun!
They liked this chewed up bright shiny streamer, but I knew they were feeding on little stuff near the surface so I eventually tied on the little shrimp fly and they ate that readily too.
Oh, and nobody give me flack over the Pflueger Sal Trout reel. I have a soft spot for them as my ancestors used these reels and they do the job for this fishery!
View attachment 41343View attachment 41344View attachment 41345
Fished my bamboo Sharpes “88” on a nice stretch of beach for almost two hours without even seeing a measly sculpin. Not any baitfish either, just seemed totally dead. Was about to leave as I waded out and up the beach to where my wife was sitting on a log in the sun reading a book (yeah, it was that nice of a day!) when I saw a jumper about a hundred yards back where I’d just been fishing. I ran back and had an hour and a half of nonstop action. Just a whole bunch of Cutthroat showed up jumping and finning on the surface just like in a dream!
They liked the fly presented shiny and fast and it was just a bunch of fun sight casting to showing fish. Sometimes there were multiple follows at once to see who could eat it first. Lots of exciting following wakes and slashing at the fly. Lots of Argulids too on most of them, except one surprise little Blackmouth of about fourteen inches. It had been a while since I’d caught one and I had to grin a little when I got a whiff of that unique smell that Chinook have. I thought it odd that it was totally absent of Argulids, unlike the Cutthroats I was catching.
Nothing of real size like some of you have been showing but it was a great day to be out and was a whole lot of fun!
They liked this chewed up bright shiny streamer, but I knew they were feeding on little stuff near the surface so I eventually tied on the little shrimp fly and they ate that readily too.
Oh, and nobody give me flack over the Pflueger Sal Trout reel. I have a soft spot for them as my ancestors used these reels and they do the job for this fishery!
I’m looking at you you @Old Man cuz’ you gave me a bad time last time I showed it
View attachment 41343View attachment 41344View attachment 41345
Beautiful pics and wow, what a day!
Thanks Dave, not my ties as you know but yeah they worked pretty good!
Bruce Baker
Life of the Party
I did make the inquiry to the fish health unit and one of our aquatic veterinarians chimed in and said he had never observed a clear argulid. If you ever come across another one, maybe save it? Then I can work with you to arrange a drop off.
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Bruce,
I’ll throw a small vile in my pack in case I encounter another clear one.
I’ll also send a picture to the Coastal Cutthroat Coalition to ask if they’ve ever seen one.
SF
Bruce Baker
Life of the Party
Perfect!
Hadn’t planned to fish today as I felt like shit yesterday, but I couldn’t sleep so figured some fresh air might help.
Started fishing about 7:00. 22° when I pulled into the parking lot.
Water was moving good but you had to place your casts in gaps between the ice that was floating in on the incoming tide. Kind of a interesting sound as it crunched against you waders.
I tied on a @Wanative clouser that Fred used with good success last week and never changed flies all day.
Fishing was good with lots of fish to hand. Nothing big but some decent quality fish. The water moved well all day. The only downside were the bright sunny conditions. I would have stayed for the outgoing, but a cold beer and college football seemed a better choice considering the glassy water and lack of wind.
SF
Started fishing about 7:00. 22° when I pulled into the parking lot.
Water was moving good but you had to place your casts in gaps between the ice that was floating in on the incoming tide. Kind of a interesting sound as it crunched against you waders.
I tied on a @Wanative clouser that Fred used with good success last week and never changed flies all day.
Fishing was good with lots of fish to hand. Nothing big but some decent quality fish. The water moved well all day. The only downside were the bright sunny conditions. I would have stayed for the outgoing, but a cold beer and college football seemed a better choice considering the glassy water and lack of wind.
SF
skyrise
Steelhead
Nick, I am curious as to which line you think would cast better in the wind ? Cortland or SA Titan ? I am interested in a new line that casts well in windy conditions.
Kinda hard to say, I imagine both would do ok. I purposely uplined to the 7 wt with the SA when I purchased it, and fishing it on a Scott Meridian 6 wt it felt like it could definitely punch into the wind well. It feels a bit thinner overall both head and running line than the Cortland. That said the Cortland has a shorter and more aggressive head which I have no doubt could also handle the wind just fine.
I'm sure as I spend more time with these lines I could answer this a bit better, but so far just one day of fishing them on a dead calm day doesn't give me a ton to go on.
I fished that Titan line for Coho a bit this summer. I would consider up lining. The 7 weight on my 7 weight centric was a bit light. Much preferred it on my coho 6 weights.
That compact Cortland seems interesting. I bought that Titan as a potential replacement for my OBS which I love for coho but continue to be plagued with durability issues. @Nick Clayton is does that Cortland cast more similar to an OBS?
That compact Cortland seems interesting. I bought that Titan as a potential replacement for my OBS which I love for coho but continue to be plagued with durability issues. @Nick Clayton is does that Cortland cast more similar to an OBS?
I'm using the Cortlan Compact Intermediate. 7wt on my 6wt Burkie. It's OK. I kind of like the Rio OBS 6wt intermediate with the super slick running line on my 5wt Burkie. That fires like a cannon into the beach.
That said I fished most of the time with a type 3 sink on my 6wt most of last season.
That said I fished most of the time with a type 3 sink on my 6wt most of last season.