Puget Sound

Salmo_g said:
And here I was, wondering if catching a Starry results in a merit or a demerit for the angler.
Click to expand...

True story, I once caught Starry flounder on back to back casts and they were eating the fly on the surface 🤯. It was weird. I had randomly caught only one Starry many years prior to that morning. Even when I have carefully stalked the sand flats sight casting to them they have refused to eat and often spook out. In contrast, Sanddab are dumber than dirt.
 
DimeBrite said:
True story, I once caught Starry flounder on back to back casts and they were eating the fly on the surface 🤯. It was weird. I had randomly caught only one Starry many years prior to that morning. Even when I have carefully stalked the sand flats sight casting to them they have refused to eat and often spook out. In contrast, Sanddab are dumber than dirt.
Click to expand...

That has been my story. Generally when I see them, they are leaving the area at a high rate of speed. I get a good view of their tail!
SF
 
Cabezon said:
The largest recorded starry flounder was almost a yard long and almost 20 pounds (see here).
Steve
Click to expand...
I think that is a bit of a weird record. Chasing the references (on the places where they can be followed) all come back to the Eschmeyer, W.N., E.S. Herald and H. Hammann, 1983. A field guide to Pacific coast fishes of North America, which is usually a pretty reliable source, but for it to be almost double the largest recreational catch is unusual. Maybe there was an identification error somewhere, or maybe there is a serious opportunity for Ira to become famous as the Starry Flounder World Record Holder!!!!!!
 
First and largest starry flounder I caught was while walking towards the mouth of a Puget Sound creek tributary looking for Fall chum salmon, more than 20 years ago. From the bank, around a bend I thought I saw something on the bottom of the shallow creek, but was not sure. I kept on looking for what it was and I only saw an eye poking from the bottom. Switched the chum salmon fly I had on for a smaller clouser and on a second pass over the fish it took the fly. Fish was thick, strong, looked pretty from the outside. I foolishly decided to take it home, fish was absolutely full of parasites, lesson learned! It was a bit over 9 lbs on the kitchen scale, 26 inches long, see the 7.25 inch vintage fish scaler next to it. Some bad pictures below. I think that was the only one I ever caught fly fishing, caught others on spinning gear and even with a crab pot last year!

1781808445736.png
1781808470702.jpeg
1781809652113.png
 
Last edited:
Caught a starry as a kid that had to have been close to 24''. Thing was an absolute pig. First one I'd ever caught and I remember being real excited about it. Have caught them occasionally since while fishing for SRC.

Caught an english sole last year while fishing for lingcod bait that had to have been pushing 20''. That thing had some respectable thickness to it.
 
VMP said:
towards the mouth of a Puget Sound creek tributary looking for Fall chum salmon.... foolishly decided to take it home, fish was absolutely full of parasites, lesson learned! It was a bit over 9 lbs
Click to expand...
I know you don't want to give up the SF honey bucket hole, but given Stones and I are both sorta close to Carkeek, which so far meets criteria of catch listed by VMP.... We would love to know

Is said SF producing beach within 3 miles of Carkeek park?

And a follow up:

Is that a Subaru Justy in the background?
 
Wadin' Boot said:
I know you don't want to give up the SF honey bucket hole
Click to expand...
"SF" honey bucket hole: I have so many questions: is that Stoned Fish, San Francisco, , Science Fiction or Starry Flounder? ;)

Wadin' Boot said:
, but given Stones and I are both sorta close to Carkeek, which so far meets criteria of catch listed by VMP.... We would love to know

Is said SF producing beach within 3 miles of Carkeek park?
Click to expand...
Not within 3 miles, more like within 30 miles

Wadin' Boot said:
And a follow up:

Is that a Subaru Justy in the background?
Click to expand...
I dunno, not mine, after quick G-ogling it seems like a Ford Festiva
 
It was a helluva good low tide for targeting Starry flounder today. Did anyone go for it?
 
Irafly said:
I do love flounder/dab/sole fishing, I’m sometimes really surprised why it isn’t a more fly rod targeted species. They can be abundant and honestly they fight fairly well on lighter tackle.
Click to expand...
Flat fish fights seem mostly to be about physics and bringing a big flat thing with a large surface area up against water pressure. But it’s hilarious how well they fight for how tiny they are. When I was out lingcod fishing with my salmon trolling rod the bends would convince me we had a big rockfish on or something, only to see a tiny little sand dab
 
Fished with @Steve_S this morning in MA 10.
We ended up landing six rezzies. Steve had the hot hand with four in the net. I kept one for the bbq. I measured it when I got home and it was 18”. Not big but tasty. Hopefully they’ll be in the 20-22” range when MA 9 opens mid July.
Lots of herring around and clouds of orange krill. Thanks for the fun day Steve!
SF

IMG_7279.jpegIMG_7281.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Stonedfish said:
Fished with @Steve_S this morning in MA 10.
We ended up landing six rezzies. Steve had the hot hand with four in the net. I kept one for the bbq. I measured it when I got home and it was 18”. Not big but tasty. Hopefully they’ll be in the 20-22” range when MA 9 opens mid July.
Lots of herring around and clouds of orange krill. Thanks for the fun day Steve!
SF
Click to expand...
That's great and all but I think everyone recognizes those aren't starry flounder
 
Too hot for yard work, so I went fishing. Too hot for that as well. Some recent MA 10 action.
SF

IMG_7308.jpegIMG_7310.jpegIMG_7325.jpegIMG_7331.jpegIMG_7332.jpegIMG_7333.jpeg
 
Yesterday was my play day and since it was forecast to be toasty with no wind, I decided to try my hand at finding some sea runs…..which I pretty much suck at even if cutt numbers are different up in the Salish Sea.

It was a beauty of a morning and flat calm when I launched

IMG_0050.jpeg

a 20+ minute run with a tasty cup of coffee was a friggin’ awesome way to start the day. 😎

Once I got to the shallow bay I wanted to check out…I was like, ‘now what?’.🤔 What would Stonedfish do? Or where might searun hangout?

There wasn’t a lot of water movement or any obvious signs of aggressive feeders so not knowing what else to do, I followed around schools of little guys who were dimpling the surface in 3-10 feet of water and just started casting.

I switched flies and retrieves a couple of time and finally after about two hours I got this little guy 👇on a yellow reverse spider

IMG_0060.jpeg

….which was also fekkin’ awesome cuz it’s only the third cutt I’ve connected with in the salt in about 5 or 10 years of half hearted trying 🥳🥳🤩🤩🤩

It was a one and done for me as it was getting warmer, brighter, and the wind kicked up….but…yahoo I did it🤪

and throughout the morning, I saw a bunch of these things…what are these slow moving creatures?

IMG_0067.jpeg
 
M_D said:
Yesterday was my play day and since it was forecast to be toasty with no wind, I decided to try my hand at finding some sea runs…..which I pretty much suck at even if cutt numbers are different up in the Salish Sea.

It was a beauty of a morning and flat calm when I launched

View attachment 186791

a 20+ minute run with a tasty cup of coffee was a friggin’ awesome way to start the day. 😎

Once I got to the shallow bay I wanted to check out…I was like, ‘now what?’.🤔 What would Stonedfish do? Or where might searun hangout?

There wasn’t a lot of water movement or any obvious signs of aggressive feeders so not knowing what else to do, I followed around schools of little guys who were dimpling the surface in 3-10 feet of water and just started casting.

I switched flies and retrieves a couple of time and finally after about two hours I got this little guy 👇on a yellow reverse spider

View attachment 186792

….which was also fekkin’ awesome cuz it’s only the third cutt I’ve connected with in the salt in about 5 or 10 years of half hearted trying 🥳🥳🤩🤩🤩

It was a one and done for me as it was getting warmer, brighter, and the wind kicked up….but…yahoo I did it🤪

and throughout the morning, I saw a bunch of these things…what are these slow moving creatures?

View attachment 186793
Click to expand...

Nice job getting out and getting some action.
This is what I’ve been throwing lately. I don’t think I’ve changed flies in the past four trips. The wing is pearl, copper pearl and silver Kreelex. The body is gray pearl palmer chenille. I top the wing with a bunch of different colors of Krystal flash. I think this could imitate a herring, sandlance or pink fry, though I haven’t seen any fry lately but I’d imagine the fish still remember them. This is about 2.5” long tied on a size 4 SC 15 and 1/8 size dumbbell eyes.
SF

IMG_7322.jpegIMG_7320.jpeg
 
Stonedfish said:
Nice job getting out and getting some action.
This is what I’ve been throwing lately. I don’t think I’ve changed flies in the past four trips. The wing is pearl, copper pearl and silver Kreelex. The body is gray pearl palmer chenille. I top the wing with a bunch of different colors of Krystal flash. I think this could imitate a herring, sandlance or pink fry, though I haven’t seen any fry lately but I’d imagine the fish still remember them. This is about 2.5” long tied on a size 4 SC 15 and 1/8 size dumbbell eyes.
SF

View attachment 186796View attachment 186797
Click to expand...
Nice! Thanks for sharing 👍
 
M_D said:
Yesterday was my play day and since it was forecast to be toasty with no wind, I decided to try my hand at finding some sea runs…..which I pretty much suck at even if cutt numbers are different up in the Salish Sea.

It was a beauty of a morning and flat calm when I launched

View attachment 186791

a 20+ minute run with a tasty cup of coffee was a friggin’ awesome way to start the day. 😎

Once I got to the shallow bay I wanted to check out…I was like, ‘now what?’.🤔 What would Stonedfish do? Or where might searun hangout?

There wasn’t a lot of water movement or any obvious signs of aggressive feeders so not knowing what else to do, I followed around schools of little guys who were dimpling the surface in 3-10 feet of water and just started casting.

I switched flies and retrieves a couple of time and finally after about two hours I got this little guy 👇on a yellow reverse spider

View attachment 186792

….which was also fekkin’ awesome cuz it’s only the third cutt I’ve connected with in the salt in about 5 or 10 years of half hearted trying 🥳🥳🤩🤩🤩

It was a one and done for me as it was getting warmer, brighter, and the wind kicked up….but…yahoo I did it🤪

and throughout the morning, I saw a bunch of these things…what are these slow moving creatures?

View attachment 186793
Click to expand...
Looks like a nudibranch to me but I'm more of an air breather marine critter specialist.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top