Puget Sound
- Thread starter Stonedfish
- Start date
Finally got out on the water after a short term stay on injured reserve.
A few fish around, but no size. 29° when I started at 8:00 and 39° when I quit at noon. Darn chilly fog, current sucked and water was like glass but other than that a nice day overall.
SF
A few fish around, but no size. 29° when I started at 8:00 and 39° when I quit at noon. Darn chilly fog, current sucked and water was like glass but other than that a nice day overall.
SF
Bambooflyguy
Legend
Glad you’re back in the game! And yes it was cold today!
Semper_Fly
Steelhead
Got back on the water after what felt like months of no fishing. Hit up MA13 yesterday exploring two new beaches. Beach one landed 5 and lost around 6 all caught on a golden retriever pattern. No cutties but believe them to be rezzies. Before yesterday, I've only caught maybe around a handful of them. Beach two produced nada.
Great day regardless and felt nice to make a connection. The fog stuck around the whole trip and got back just in time for the game.
That drive home though, not so much.
Great day regardless and felt nice to make a connection. The fog stuck around the whole trip and got back just in time for the game.
That drive home though, not so much.
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That first picture looks like a small blackmouth to me.
Bambooflyguy
Legend
Agreed, black gums and spots…..nice fish!
DryFly82
Life of the Party
After a few successful outings I got blanked on a local beach on Sunday. There were fish there and feeding is slower/shallow water...some sipping and some jumping, but none responding to several flies I threw and stripped on intermediate line. Based on what I read it sounds likely they were on euphausiids or amphipods (which I didn't have on me).
For those of you with a lot more experience in the sound, what's your go to approach for these situations? Switch to floating line? Dead drift or slow retrieve? Indicator? Preferred flies?
Or do I just need to ignore them when they are like that and try to find more aggressive fish?
For those of you with a lot more experience in the sound, what's your go to approach for these situations? Switch to floating line? Dead drift or slow retrieve? Indicator? Preferred flies?
Or do I just need to ignore them when they are like that and try to find more aggressive fish?
I've tried to up my winter SRC/Rezzie game a bit this season through the use of a floating line and longer leader. My new routine is to start with a little topwater prospecting and switch to euphausiid/small generic shrimp patterns if I get follows or see rises or swirls. My best pattern has been a simple 3-material thing in size 8 - a mix of orange and shrimp ice dub over some leftover pink bucktail ends squared off and split into short "feelers" and x-small ez shrimp eyes. Accuracy also seems more important. I've gotten some of those swirlers and sippers to eat, but it's required dropping the fly right on them.
On the other hand, I fished this last Saturday with a friend who's a good angler but has only rarely fished the salt. I pointed him toward the part of the beach where I'd had the most success in the past and he caught several fish using a sink tip and a ghost bugger. My new routine did pay off with a nice fish on the last cast of the day (around 11:30 am in the bright sun) at a different beach, but I had only one bump all day before that, so who knows!
On the other hand, I fished this last Saturday with a friend who's a good angler but has only rarely fished the salt. I pointed him toward the part of the beach where I'd had the most success in the past and he caught several fish using a sink tip and a ghost bugger. My new routine did pay off with a nice fish on the last cast of the day (around 11:30 am in the bright sun) at a different beach, but I had only one bump all day before that, so who knows!
If you have a copy of Les Johnson’s Fly Fishing for Pacific Salmon II, look up “amphipod hop”.
I personally hate fishing the small stuff but it can be very effective.
SF
In my experience, it’s really situation dependent. Sometimes the sippers won’t touch anything you throw at them but little stuff. Sometimes anything will work. Most times, I cycle through a bunch of stuff and eventually something works. Not sure what drives it. My guess is the amount of food in the water. When there are tons of euphausiids or amphipods in the water they really get locked in and it can be hard to get their attention. Because I tend not to fish floaters a ton for SRC, going to small stuff is a last resort I almost never get too. It usually requires I re-rig a rod and I have not yet found a pattern or technique I love that imitates the really tiny stuff they are eating. I would say over the last couple of years, shrimp patterns on an intermediate line has been the most effective way for me to entice a bite from sippers. To the point I have not resorted to tiny stuff in a couple of years now. It’s usually unweighted, bright (pink or orange) and fluttery. Something that will hang in the water column and not sink super fast. Also, I usually play around a lot with retrieve type too. Slowing down the retrieve and keeping the fly in the zone a little longer seems to help sometimes.
Sippers can be a frustrating scenario to come across but even something like chum fry can be as well. Sometimes they’ll hit anything when fry are around and sometimes they want a super specific size or coloration it seems. That’s even more frustrating to IMO. SRC and rezzies smashing baitfish all over in front of you while ignoring 8 different patterns you throw at them until finally one clicks.
DryFly82
Life of the Party
@Stonedfish @jasmillo @IHFISH, I appreciate all of the tips. Definitely gives me some things to try out the next time I encounter the sippers. Getting a bunch of new euphausiid and amphipod flies tied up to try out next weekend if find similar conditions. One more piece to the puzzle to try to figure out.
Thanks for sharing this tidbit.
I wonder if the sippers could be taking the unweighted, fluttery pink or orange patterns for an amphipod/euphausiid "cluster"?
Could be. This general style pattern has worked the best.
Maybe they think it’s a cluster, or maybe just something they cannot resist checking out. I’ve fished this pattern a lot the last 2-3 years and have found that in general, the takes on it are less aggressive then takes on baitfish patterns for example. It sometimes seem like they just can’t resist nipping at it but at the same time aren’t recognizing it as an obvious food item. Often you’ll see follows right to the boat and a last second grab or grabs on the pause. Whatever’s causing them to bite it, it’s been a very productive pattern.
Maybe they think it’s a cluster, or maybe just something they cannot resist checking out. I’ve fished this pattern a lot the last 2-3 years and have found that in general, the takes on it are less aggressive then takes on baitfish patterns for example. It sometimes seem like they just can’t resist nipping at it but at the same time aren’t recognizing it as an obvious food item. Often you’ll see follows right to the boat and a last second grab or grabs on the pause. Whatever’s causing them to bite it, it’s been a very productive pattern.
I’ve wondered about the @Matt B cluster theory too. The one bummer about last Saturday is that the fish took the fly deep. I’ve never fished boobies but I also wonder if there’s something like the deep hooking you sometimes hear about with them at play. I’m planning to tie some versions with small bead chain eyes so they ride hook point up.
I love winter fishing on the sound. It’s been since mid November that I’ve fished much at all.
Small bead chain marabou clousers are generally my go to this time of year. However, Miyawaki Beach poppers have been killing it for me. The hookup rate has been as good as anything else, as long as I can resist the urge to rip it out of the water when they attack. They almost never get it on the first attempt. I think the version I’ve been buying lately are using softer materials. Seems like the old ones had a stiffer material like SF blend and the fish would push the fly away instead of getting it in their mouth.
I appreciate all the people who consistently post on this thread. Keeps me engaged (and very envious) when time on the water is limited.
Small bead chain marabou clousers are generally my go to this time of year. However, Miyawaki Beach poppers have been killing it for me. The hookup rate has been as good as anything else, as long as I can resist the urge to rip it out of the water when they attack. They almost never get it on the first attempt. I think the version I’ve been buying lately are using softer materials. Seems like the old ones had a stiffer material like SF blend and the fish would push the fly away instead of getting it in their mouth.
I appreciate all the people who consistently post on this thread. Keeps me engaged (and very envious) when time on the water is limited.
Envy is emotional soda, it's ubiquitous, almost always useless. I suppose it gets interesting if you put the emotional mentos tablet (maybe that's externally directed rage?) into the emotional soda (envy) the ensuing chaos gets interesting, at least from a distance ( and if you don't have to help clean up afterwards....)
Me and the kids wasted an awful lot of mentos and Coke trying to make a proper explosion, but inevitably the early mentos start bubbling before even the middle mentos can make it in, funnels be damned.
Matt did you go full Human Crucible where you reject the funnel methodology and instead go straight to tongue-inject say a half dozen mentos from your mouth into the 3-liter bottle of coke you are also trying to drink from?
AI says this about crucibles: It's a vessel for transformation, both literally in metallurgy and figuratively in life experiences like hardship, crisis, or intense challenges
So it is like a legit transformative growth opportunity....sciencing
I mean I haven’t personally tried this but now that you mention it, it’s an interesting idea. This is why we have kids, right? As in plural, more than one.
wanderingrichard
Life of the Party
...at this rate it might be WHY u used to have kids...
