Your Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishing Guide Catch & Release, Fly Fishing Only. |
Chasing Down The Prince Of Tides . . .
Andy Hill, Gentleman Fly Angler On the hunt for sea-run Cutthroat. |
My fishing buddy Andy Hill wrote a nice essay for the #16 June 2014 issue of The Flyfisher Magazine about his years of sea-run Cutthroat fishing here. Andy is one of the most passionate fly fishermen I know. Well, "rabid" might be a better word for him really. He travels all over the world chasing trout, and sea run trout, in some pretty exotic locations, Africa, England, Ireland, The Falklands etc., and even right here in Puget Sound country. We manage to get a few days on the water together every year. Last year he came in the fall and the conditions were perfect, the fishing was superb. We got a late start each morning,(after breakfast at our fishing trip headquarters in Chimacum- Farm's Reach Cafe), and finished in the evenings most days. And on some days we used my beach dory, which I only use for friends. Andy wears felt soled boots, no cleats, and he's good company. We have enough fun with the fishing that the memories last all year. We probably gain a few pounds too.
CHASING DOWN THE PRINCE OF TIDES IN NORTHWEST USA.
Then I’d advise a guide for a
couple of days so you can get into the swing of things, swing being the
operative word. You can just go right down to the nearest stony beach, cast and
maybe catch, but a little bit of expert wisdom goes a long way and helps you
avoid duff techniques and locations. If
you’ve got time there are good books and I’ve listed a couple plus some
websites that are heavy on practical rather than lyrical.
Fishing a flooding bar on Puget Sound. |
CHASING DOWN THE PRINCE OF TIDES IN NORTHWEST USA.
By Andy Hill
We had been cruising around
in Bob Triggs’ pea-green dory all morning, him at the oars, me at my rod. The fish had been very cooperative. “Let’s
drop in on that beach while I make us some lunch,” said Bob, and we pulled his
lovingly restored boat up the pebbles, made it secure and unloaded the cold box
for a lunch of humus and olives, pickles and cheese, flat bread, blue corn Doritos,
aged Italian salami and fresh strawberries. We don’t stint on lunch. It shows.
We look less like an owl and a pussycat than overweight Hell's Angels in waders
these days.
“You might like to go up the
shore a bit and cast into that rip,” said Bob, a guide whom I now count as a friend
and guru in all maters to do with flies and fishing with them. He might have
meant; “piss off up the bank a bit. I’ve had you all morning,” but it was
unlikely. Bob knows these waters like the back up his pickup truck. He is as
keen for you to catch fish as you are.
So I wandered up and found a
spot where the incoming tide was pressing against slack water over a shallow,
stony flat, and put my fly into the water. It was a Clouser Minnow dressed with
blue streaks. It hit the water and swung with the tide – no retrieve needed -
and then there was a sharp, no-nonsense “gimmee” grab, and a fish was on. Less
than five minutes later it was at my feet, unwittingly posing for this
magazine. A sea-run cutthroat or cutt, or SRC if you like. Its official name is
Oncorhynchus clarki clarki. Whatever. It was about 12” long, and as wild
as the wind, a golden marbled back, its side covered in black pepper spots and
its jaws bearing the red slash that gives the species its name.
One of many bright sea-run Cutthroat that Andy caught last fall here. |
We watched it swim away,
fully recovered, until its shape merged with the gemstone shop bottom and we
could see it no longer. I looked down the beach towards our boat. A baby seal
was watching us, an osprey was hovering high above, there was not another soul
for miles of tree-lined beachfront, and barely a cloud in the sky.
Where else in the world can
you fish for wild trout year-round for the price of a £50.00 State permit, and
stand a good chance of taking a salmon too? Where else can you wander for miles
and not see another angler? It’s a question I have asked myself every year for
the past four years, and the answer remains the same. Probably nowhere. Which
is why I return to Puget Sound in pursuit of cutts and coho and other salmon.
There’s 2,500 miles of
shoreline around Puget Sound and you can be fishing and catching a few hours
after touch down in Seattle, especially if you fire up with a little of the
coffee for which the city is famous.
Andy Hill, taking a break, surveys 2500 miles of shoreline, sea-run style. |
And this is fishing from the
shore, as opposed to saltwater fly-fishing. You don’t need a skiff, shorts,
shirts in Day-Glo colours, and a headband to anchor your wraparound mirrored Polaroids
or a rod with a fighting butt. A boat is fun, and Bob’s is a treat, but there
is nothing like playing a feisty cutt from the shore or thigh-high in the
ocean, and then wandering down the beach to another spot. There are endless
spots in this network of fjords, countless National and State parks where you
can leave your car and stroll down to the salt. There is water everywhere you look in this
part of the world, and almost all of it is fishable.
All you need is a good eight
or nine foot trout rod twinned with a #5 or #6 floating line, tapered leaders
down to about 3x, waders and boots, a hat (preferably one that won’t blow off)
and polaroid glasses.
You don’t actually need
special flies because a Woolly Bugger will take the cutts and so will muddlers
and conventional flies, even dry ones. But it does help if you have a few of
the local patterns in your box, and these are readily available at any tackle shop
around the Sound.
Bob’s rightly famous for his Chum
Baby imitation, a sparse brownish fly that imitates the chum salmon fry on
which cutts and salmon gorge in the early part of the year. But it’s a good fly
year-round too.
But before you go doing your
bit to boost the Washington State economy, you’ll need a licence. I get mine
from a hardware store and they are easy to come by. You can get a three-day
permit or a year-round one and they cost less than a new line. You can’t get
them online.
You don’t need to cast a long
way but you do need to drop a fly in active water or a “rip” where the tide is
bruising against slow water or an uneven bottom, obstruction or rock pile. Low
slack water is generally considered to be the least rewarding water, although
fish are caught that way, especially over a sandy bottom when eels are in
abundance. Eelgrass is another good sign of a potential cutt lair. Tides do
matter and if you do find local anglers they are probably out three hours
before and three hours after a good tide, probing the places like oyster beds
and clam beaches where crustaceans, sand lances and other food are thrown up by
the turmoil. Cutts feed on this stuff, but so do baitfish, and there are some
great imitations of herring and salmon fry available.
Releasing a wild sea-run Cutthroat. |
Cutts are born in the river
systems around Puget Sound. Some migrate
to the sea for months at a time, generally between spring and autumn. Some live
in the ocean year-round but the truth is we don’t know an awful lot about them,
except that they have recovered in numbers thanks to an angler-led conservation
effort started in the 1970s which has led to them being awarded official
protected status in 1988. It’s catch and release, and barbless hooks only.
What we do know is that they
move, sometimes up to 20 miles a day. A beach that produced a bagful yesterday
might be a blank today. The fish move with the tides to scour out the food that
makes them such tough specimens. They rarely grow above 20” in the ocean,
although bigger ones have been caught, but a fish of that size on a light rod
in moving water is an experience that stays with you.
Andy's kit is ready. |
There are no “hot spots” as
such but a guide or fly shop will put you on a stretch of beach somewhere
around the Sound with a chance of taking.
The telltale signs of a good spot are pebbles, stones, barnacles, nearby
trees and submerged obstructions. Eelgrass is a good sign too, Anywhere near
where a creek or river runs out or where big pools drain back into the sea is
also a likely cutt restaurant.
I’ve found the occasional
angler I meet on the beach truly helpful. There is a Band of Brothers feel
about cutt fishing and many people I have met have given me flies and advice. I
tend to stay in one place on the Olympic Peninsula for a base and there is lots
of fishing on the beaches there, but I have a large map that is slowly
deteriorating with salt water fingering, and I am happy to try a new place any
day. You can fish in National Parks near Seattle – Lincoln, Golden Gardens,
Carkeek, and on the South Sound there are Parks like Fort Flagler, an epic
stretch of sand and stone, and along the
Hood Canal.
One of the Band of Brothers
and an inspiration is Leland Miyawaki, who turned his back on the advertising
industry to manage the Orvis store in Seattle and is now their Fishing Manager.
He gives tuition to would-be cutt and coho anglers and is a regular sight around
the beaches. His enthusiasm for cutt fishing would be tribute enough but he has
also invented a fly that has devotees up and down the Pacific seaboard. His
“Popper” dressed in a variety of colours (pink for coho) brings fish up for a
look. “I love dry fly fishing, it’s so visual, and I came up with the Popper
for the beaches. Fish might mistake it for an injured baitfish or something,
but whatever the reason they see the wake and come up for a look. Using a Popper
will usually determine whether there are fish there or not, and it’s visually
exciting. You don’t need a manic retrieve, just let it swing and bring it in
slowly and keep your eyes open. You blink, you miss.”
Leland Miyawaki taking a break. |
Between August and the end of
September there is a run of coho and humpback (Pink) salmon along the beaches;
you can see them doing aerial ballet and also watch the ironmongers throwing
their buzz-bomb lures and sunk herrings at them.
But there is generally space
nearby for the fly angler and I took one coho and one humpback on Clousers this
year, both very close to the shore of a sandy, windy beach where fish were
moving. If salmon are your main target then you need a guide to help you locate
where they are. Leland fishes his usual nine-foot six-weight for them, but this
year I tried out an 11-ft #8 Orvis Access Switch rod that shot out line like a
harpoon and calmed my nerves when the salmon started running in the general
direction of Alaska. Rules about when you can fish for salmon, and which
variety, vary from year to year so check the Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife website.
Autumn run Puget Sound Coho or Silver salmon. |
The permit allows you to take
fish for the pan and regulations change every year and need checking, but with so much good salmon in so many good
supermarkets, why would you? Mine recovered quickly in the wash and disappeared
into the ocean in a flash. It was one of those moments when fishing again
immediately would have been disrespectful to the species and the sport. Leland has the answer to such
moments. He naps. He is famous for napping on just about every beach he fishes
and it is customary to find him with trademark cigar a few moments before he
dozes off. I didn’t get it, at first. How can you sleep with all that water and
those fish in front of you? But I am starting to get it. There’s a moment after
taking a good fish when all seems right in the world.
Moments like this are perfect
for lunch too.
We never miss a meal. |
The tide was pushing the dory
up the shore as we rounded out our feast with freshly brewed coffee, watched an
eagle, saw porpoises gambol and seals bob in the current. The snow-capped peak
of Mount Rainer stood out on the skyline. We just sat back and looked. “I
wonder what the poor people are doing,” said Bob.
Andy Hill, plying the night tides. |
To learn more about Puget Sound and Olympic Peninsula region sea-run Coastal Cutthroat trout fly fishing, call or write for details.
Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishing Guide and Instructor
I am guiding fly fishers on the Olympic Peninsula beaches, rivers and streams. We walk and wade, fly fishing for sea-run Coastal Cutthroat trout in freshwater and saltwater, and in the rivers for trout and summer steelhead. This is strictly catch and release, traditional fly fishing only. Lunch, snacks, soft beverages, and use of some equipment is included. Personalized and private fly fishing and fly casting instruction, and guided trips are available, to beginners through expert anglers. Public presentations, Naturalist guide for Rowboat Picnics and Tide Pool day trips. Please call, write or email for booking details.
Bob Triggs
Little Stone Flyfisher
P.O. Box 261
Port Townsend, WA
98368
Licensed Washington State Guide
Certified Fly Casting Instructor
Trout Unlimited Aquatic Educator Award
U.S.C.G First Aid/CPR/BLS/AED/BBP/HIV Certified
Phone: 360-385-9618
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LittleStoneFlyfisher
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