A nice Puget Sound sea-run cutthroat trout on a early fall ebb tide
One month from now, it will be a lot colder and wetter in the Pacific Northwest. Snow will be piling up in the Cascades, some rivers will blow out into turbid, coffee-colored torrents and many trout streams will be closed to angling.
But right now -- I'm writing this on October 3 -- through Halloween brings some of the best fly fishing of the year, especially on Puget Sound. Coho salmon are rampaging up and down beaches, ravenous, aggressive, dime-bright sea-run cutthroat are prowling rips and dropoffs and the first thuggish chum salmon of the fall are shouldering onto the scene.
And the weather -- cool evenings and mornings, with warm afternoons -- is spectacular.
I got out onto Puget Sound last weekend. I fished Saturday morning's falling tide from a favorite beach and fished Sunday morning's falling tide with my great friend Greg Cloud.
The cutthroat trout were on the feed both days, and I hooked really nice fish. I even landed a couple. Big sea-run cutts shake their heads like dogs when they feel the hook, and they often shake a barbless hook right out of their mouths -- especially if the hook has a bead head to give leverage.
I got into a pod of cutts feeding on sand lance on Saturday, and the fish were silly for Les Johnson's Wiliams Point Sand Lance. A bunch of sand lance were trapped between the beach and a current rip that was peeling off a point. I could see the boils as I walked down the beach, which is always nice.
The tidal flow was fast, as the water level dropped about feet between 7 am and 1 pm. I like a big falling tide on this beach, as the upper reaches of the inlet are almost completely dewatered, and everything that still wants to stay wet has to swim past my feet. So, lots of bait and lots of cutts were on the move.
The cutts hit the fly like linebackers. I lost one really big fish, which might have been a coho. This fish slammed the fly in a big boil and shot off downcurrent. No head shaking here -- just a fast run. The whole deal ended when the fish planed sideways in the strong current and the fly just came free.
I should have been running down the beach and following that fish, as that would have given me a better angle -- and might have prevented the fly popping out. Instead, I stood in the same spot -- much like a pier piling -- and watch line zip off my reel. Dumb, dumb, dumb....
I really like days when the fish are feeding hard, as frequent bites make my inevitable blunders more bearable.
Many of the cutts sported bumpy sea lice on their flanks, which is normal for fish that have spent the summer in South Puget Sound.
The ebb tide petered out at about 1 pm, and I then headed to my friend Joe Uhlman's house in Olympia for Doug Rose's Second Annual "Cutthroat Clan" potluck and general celebration of these wonderful trout.
The event started last year to celebrate Doug's 25th year of outdoor writing. I missed that luau, but I was tickled to get an invitation to this year's party. Joe and Jo Marie Uhlman are old friends -- and wonderful hosts -- and it was great to see so many friends and talk cutthroat. Life is good when you're eating Joe's famous baked beans and talking to Don and Jane Freeman, Jeffey Delia and so many other wonderful anglers. Jack Devlin's collection of flat-wing streamers was an eye-opener.
It's always terrific to hang out with Doug and his wife, Eliana. I met Doug years ago when he did a slideshow on fishing the Olympic Peninsula at a South Sound Fly Fishers meeting. Doug is a great writer and advocate for wild trout and salmon. His books, especially "The Color of Winter: Steelhead Fly Fishing on the Olympic Peninsula" and "Fly-Fishing Guide to the Olympic Peninsula" are terrific reads -- and a must for every Northwest fly angler.
Doug is doing a seminar on winter steelheading on October 6 at the Bellevue Orvis store. Leland Miyawaki's Orvis bashes are legendary -- free food and drink, along with lots of great programs -- and few anglers know the Peninsula like Doug Rose.
I ended up spending the night at the Uhlman's, and Joe kindly woke me up in time to meet Greg Cloud for another morning on South Sound -- this time in Greg's boat. Greg is one of the great friends of my life, and sharing our recent news as his boat skimmed across the glassy dawn water made the cold breeze bearable.
We pestered some big, ocean-going coho that were splashing around, but we only got heart-pounding follows -- no strong takes.
It was easy to zip off to a favorite stretch of shoreline, where the cutts were eager to bite our flies.
Any day fishing with Greg is a good day, and I could only laugh as I bungled another nice cutt. So it goes.
The important thing was being out there during the best month of the year. One of these mornings -- sometime in November, if we're lucky -- we'll wake up to rain pounding on the roof and a cold wind rattling leaves off the trees. That Northwest rain will haunt us for most of the next six months.
Every one of these sunny fall days is a gift, especially when they're shared with friends and sea-run cutts.
Books for Sale: I have a few first-edition copies of my book, "Fly Fishing for Sea-Run Cutthroat," and I'll happily sign a copy and send it to you for $25, including shipping. If you're interested, send me an email at [email protected].
