Puget Sound

I don’t think having too much bait happens all that often. The only time I can remember that happening is when there are millions of anchovies.
Sometimes it is just tough fishing. My buddy live on a great searun beach and he said it just been dead recently after fishing it several times a week.
SF
 
The biggest challenge with SRC fishing is so many miles of shoreline in Puget sound....the fish might’ve been there five minutes before you got there or five minutes after you left. Like steelheading in the old days.....gotta put in your time. But sometimes you get lucky, then you’re hooked!
 
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dfilippetto said:
Took a little camping/SRC trip monday-wednesday and had some difficulty. I've been reading up on all the information you guys have put on here and others elsewhere and put in what I considered to be the hours and effort to get to untrafficked, unpressured waters in the south sound. I was with 2 friends and none of us had a fish to hand. We were up at 5 fishing the outgoing, tried the later incoming and then outgoing as well, threw everything from shrimpy stuff to gurglers and baitfish patterns, but nothing worked. At every single beach we tried (at least 2-3 per day), we saw tons and tons of baitfish, presumably fry (or smolt, idk my terminology) and always a number of sea lions. My father put our abyssal lack of fish to hand down to the sheer amount of food available to the cutthroat already. As a beginner at fly fishing and cutthroat I was wondering what you all thought/what your experience has been regarding this time of year. I've been able to get to the right place at the right time for these guys in previous months, and this was an interesting experience. Any suggestions about what to try next year when this time rolls around?
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Sounds like you did all the right moves. Maybe the heat? Fish out in deeper water? These fish like to zig when you zag.
 
dfilippetto said:
sorry didn't make that clear, drop off past casting range, we were fishing that 0-15 ft deep water
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Do not feel bad. I was out 12 days in salt before I caught my first real fish on a fly.

I gathered as much I go as I could from fly shops, purchased and read 3 books on sea runs from local authors. Read up about sea runs here and you tube
Just hard to crack the code. For me it seems I "feel" like the place I am fishing will hold fish. So many variables.

Now I catch at least one fish more times than not.

recently I have experienced fish less days.

Just makes me appreciate the dumb fish foolish enough to strike my fly.
 
Greg Price said:
...So many variables.

Now I catch at least one fish more times than not.

recently I have experienced fish less days.

Just makes me appreciate the dumb fish foolish enough to strike my fly.
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This ^^^ The fish don't have to be there.
Makes me appreciate all the variables lined up in my favor, for that day, that place, and that time.

In addition to the other recommendations, I went to some beaches at very low (minus) tides without fishing gear to photograph - map the structure and bottom composition. Keeping records of date place, high-low tide levels and swing for the day and when fish were hooked, current speed, lunar phase, time and exact GPS coordinates where fish were hooked, and gear, fly... seems to have helped line up some of the variables.
 
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Oh Man I can relate, I'm about 8 months into this new to me SRC fishery and although I connect with the occasional fish I'm a long way from figuring it out. Been keeping a journal to gather info as I go and establish some sort of baseline to build off with the hopes that I can start to attribute catching and not catching to tangible conditions, methods etc.

The anglers on this thread demonstrate regularly its a high quality fishery and what a great setting, keeping the faith!
 
Lots of bait at said beaches ? Ah go back. Repeat. If food is there, eating fish will show up. like to have a bunch of bait up around my local beaches now.
 
They’re a humbling fish to target. One thing that’s helping me is to focus on a few beaches and take notes of the tide/time/catch/sunlight. With a lot of emphasis on tide. I still dabble in others but my goal is to learn of any consistency.

I now have a couple beaches I can regularly find cutts at at high tide. For us deep South Sound folk low tide success beaches are more rare (mud mania) but I’m slowly grasping one I think.
 
Hit the beach this morning. For a big tide swing, the water didn’t really move much.
Got some cutts on a clouser minnow pattern @Wanative showed me last fall on the canal.
Did a garbage sweep down the beach and in the parking area sponsored by Whiteclaw and Monster Energy 😉 when I was done fishing.
Also added a nice agate to my collection.
SF

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Had to get back for a ten am duty and on the last stretch of my wade plugged a cast where two of the three cutts from today were hooked. A light strike but when the hook was set, a much heavier weight and from shallower water than the cutts, no sign of fatigue, preferred an uptide run hugging the bottom. This one earned the reel, a bull trout, he shook his head a few times and then was off. The weird thing was a veritable 20 head pack of seals was just moving out with the tide when I hooked this one, They weren't chasing it, but we sure had their attention for minute or two. Packed it up after that, as far as I am concerned 2023 could end now and I would be happy... Been experimenting with jig hooks and otherwise beadhead and tan and sparkle sort of fry flies, this was on the jig hook, they seem to cast just fine
 
Hit the beach at 5:00 and called it a day at 11:00. Yard work beckons….. :cautious:
They predicted 55° to start the day, but it was hood up weather where I was at. Though it’s still May, it felt like how June used to feel back in the day. I’ll take it and glad I wore an extra layer.
Some cutts caught, but nothing worthy of a mug shot.
Did find the rare yellow Puget Sound sea turtle.
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This guy must have been horny or pissed off about being by himself. He kept acting like he wanted to eat some Orvis wading boots.
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SF
 
I got into fly flingin‘ the Sound some years back. I caught some sizable fish and smaller ones mostly. The magic of fishing the Sound is the magic of the settings, the unexpected dolphins ,sea Lions, an Orca once And the isolation of discovered magic beaches hiding in plan sight in a setting of a million humans. That’s what I really loved and really miss.
 
My new secret weapon for picking up stuff I don’t wish to touch in the never ending battle against parking lot littering scumbags.
$1.99 at Harbor Freight…. 😉😂
SF

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Stonedfish said:
My new secret weapon for picking up stuff I don’t wish to touch in the never ending battle against parking lot littering scumbags.
$1.99 at Harbor Freight…. 😉😂
SF

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That will come in handy next time you visit the secret beach north of the oil tanks.
 
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