Puget Sound

Got out to Hood Canal on Wed and Thu. Great weather; calm waters under fog, undisturbed by pesky fish for the most part
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Several beaches from Lilliwaup all the way south, east, and back west along the north shore were quiet and tugless.
One exception was a large school of chum 150ft off a boat ramp. I had my kayak, but the school was accompanied by about 50 seagulls and a half dozen very large, hunting, thrashing sea lions. I looked at the scrum, looked at myself, and noped it on outta there!

Karma rewarded my yielding of the apex predator role by stacking the north shore's searuns right on the beach of the cabin I stay at. Fishing the couple hundred feet of gravel bars just out front got me 7 hookups, most of which went ballistic and came unbuttoned. This was the nicest of the ones landed. Just after sunrise - foggy and 36°, Delia squid
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I launched the yak and fished a mile of beach in both directions without another touch.
I'm gonna have to upgrade the libations I leave in the fridge for my neighbors to thank them for the use of this place!
 
Really cool to see the scars on the gillplate, same kinds Chinook (And coho) will have when they feed on sandlance. I assume Cutthroat do the same?
 
Kashf said:
Really cool to see the scars on the gillplate, same kinds Chinook (And coho) will have when they feed on sandlance. I assume Cutthroat do the same?
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I think it could be from chasing a number of different food sources, sandlance being one of them. Their near shore life histories involve sticking their faces in a lot of oysters and barnacle covered rocks while chasing breakfast, lunch or dinner.
SF
 
Fished 7:30 until 2:30. Kind of started out slow, but a back eddy formed off a point and some of its dwellers showed up on the incoming.
SF

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Looks like a great day out! Cool fly too, like a sand lance pattern?
 
jeradjames said:
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First cutt on a fly I tied, Delia squid variation.
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Nice! Giving hope to those of us still flailing away! 0-5 on my pre-workday beach runs the last couple weeks. And to anybody fishing Seattle's favorite pink park (think "presidential") there's been a handful of washed up ratfish carcasses that make an interesting sight. I'll have to snag a pic next time, today's was pushing past 20".
 
ophamill said:
Nice! Giving hope to those of us still flailing away! 0-5 on my pre-workday beach runs the last couple weeks. And to anybody fishing Seattle's favorite pink park (think "presidential") there's been a handful of washed up ratfish carcasses that make an interesting sight. I'll have to snag a pic next time, today's was pushing past 20".
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I lived close to that park when my son was a kid. I never did all that well other than casting practice. But since it was close, I could fish an hour or two and get back home to relieve my wife of baby duty.
 
So here's a question for you SRC folks, how big do SRC's get? For the most part, what I see posted here are in the 2lb range.
Reason for asking is some years ago my father-in-law was fishing a buzz bomb off the Fox Island beach below our house, and caught what I believed to be a SRC. The fish was 5lb's easy, big and fat. We were fishing for coho and had caught a couple, and his fish was not a coho.
 
gwb72tii said:
So here's a question for you SRC folks, how big do SRC's get? For the most part, what I see posted here are in the 2lb range.
Reason for asking is some years ago my father-in-law was fishing a buzz bomb off the Fox Island beach below our house, and caught what I believed to be a SRC. The fish was 5lb's easy, big and fat. We were fishing for coho and had caught a couple, and his fish was not a coho.
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The state record is 6 lbs and caught in 1943. That record obviously will never be broken at least in the salt due to the mandatory release. It was caught in the south sound.
Many people don’t believe that cutthroat that size exist any longer. I’m not one of them.
There likely aren’t a lot that size, but I think there are still a few of those unicorns out there. I’ve seen enough over the past ten years or so to still make me a believer that they exist and to continue my quest for them.
SF
 
gwb72tii said:
So here's a question for you SRC folks, how big do SRC's get? For the most part, what I see posted here are in the 2lb range.
Reason for asking is some years ago my father-in-law was fishing a buzz bomb off the Fox Island beach below our house, and caught what I believed to be a SRC. The fish was 5lb's easy, big and fat. We were fishing for coho and had caught a couple, and his fish was not a coho.
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I have seen pictures of nooksack fish absolutely large enough to run afoul of commercial gear, and I imagine the largest specimens tend to meet this fate.
 
Stonedfish said:
The state record is 6 lbs and caught in 1943. That record obviously will never be broken at least in the salt due to the mandatory release. It was caught in the south sound.
Many people don’t believe that cutthroat that size exist any longer. I’m not one of them.
There likely aren’t a lot that size, but I think there are still a few of those unicorns out there. I’ve seen enough over the past ten years or so to still make me a believer that they exist and to continue my quest for them.
SF
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I'm also a believer. A 5 lb SRC would have to be a minimum of 23-24", probably more like 25". I think there are some out there. I've lost a couple that were easily over 20. I'm sure many on here have as well. 24-25" seems possible to me given there are still plenty of areas that really don't get fished much.
 
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