Searuns

[Aufwuchs]

One thing I would like to get better at is fishing Puget Sound beaches for cutthroat. So I have a few questions:

Is spring generally the best time of year?

I have heard of people catching SRCs throughout the sound and strait but it seems like I hear mostly about people fishing for them in the south sound and Hood Canal. How does fishing in the north sound compare to the south sound?

Is there a general rule about best tides or does that vary with location?

 

[Josh]

It's older and out of print, but this is a GREAT place to start if you can find a used copy somewhere:

Fly-Fishing for Coastal Cutthroat Trout: Flies, Techniques, Conservation: Les Johnson: 9781571883339: Amazon.com: Books

Fly-Fishing for Coastal Cutthroat Trout: Flies, Techniques, Conservation [Les Johnson] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Fly-Fishing for Coastal Cutthroat Trout: Flies, Techniques, Conservation

www.amazon.com

 

[Squatchin]

Spring can be good, Fall can be great.

Different beaches fish well at different tides. Try hitting a beach on an incoming and and outgoing. Find the moving water and if cutts are around they aren't bashful.

 

[Vandelay Industries]

North Sound is not worth it compared to the South Sound.

 

[Aufwuchs]

Thanks for info

 

[Stonedfish]

Spring is ok, but in the spring you’ll also encounter some post spawn, snaky looking fish.
Fall is the best in my opinion, at least in the south sound and canal. If I only could fish searuns one month, it would be November, followed by October then December.
SF

 

[Squatchin]

For me there is a slow decline in Jan. Usually by now I am on to other fisheries. But I am curious why Summer isn't on anyone's list for good fishing. Are the just not around ? Hard to believe @jasmillo and @NRC are just sitting around waiting for fall or is salmon too much of a draw in late summer?

 

[Nick Clayton]

I agree with Stonedfish. Give me fall into early winter any day.

Still, src CAN be caught 365 days a year if someone is willing to put in the effort.

I haven't fished for them a ton in the summer, mainly because I'm doing other things. If I am fishing the sound during the summer I'm generally chasing salmon. That said, src have saved more than a few slow salmon days for me when I decide to give up on salmon and change gears.

 

[adamcu280]

This is another great resource that's currently available. The image is lifted from Amazon but I recommend stopping by a local fly shop and picking up a copy. Chances are the staff will also have some great information for you.

 

[NRC]

For me there is a slow decline in Jan. Usually by now I am on to other fisheries. But I am curious why Summer isn't on anyone's list for good fishing. Are the just not around ? Hard to believe @jasmillo and @NRC are just sitting around waiting for fall or is salmon too much of a draw in late summer?

For one thing, the advice I’ve gotten is to forego fishing the south sound for them once water temps get too high late June thru early September, so I’ve tried to stick to that. But you’re exactly right that I also start thinking hard about bigger rezzies in July (which isn’t to say I often catch them - that’s @jasmillo ’s job). Lately I’ve been enjoying some warmwater fishing duri the summer months as well, and obviously the periodic river trip.

 

[Brian Miller]

I checked out Les Johnson's classic book from the library and told Mrs Brian about it. The following May when we volunteered at the WA FFI fair she used a couple of raffle tickets and won a stack of great classic fishing books that included it. One of the best takeaways has been a fly pattern called James Peach that is one of my top 3 producing SRC flies.

Chester Allen spoke at a club meeting and I bought his book. It is also excellent.

 

[Stonedfish]

For me there is a slow decline in Jan. Usually by now I am on to other fisheries. But I am curious why Summer isn't on anyone's list for good fishing. Are the just not around ? Hard to believe @jasmillo and @NRC are just sitting around waiting for fall or is salmon too much of a draw in late summer?

There is also the early coho opener to consider in MA 10. Some years it opens as early as June 1st. Last year was June 16th.
While not big, they are pretty tasty. You can definitely catch searuns in the summer, it just seems there are lots of different options once that time of year rolls around.
For me, I just prefer to fish searuns in the fall when they are in prime shape prior to spawning.
That gives them all spring and summer to fatten up after spawning.
SF

 

[cedarslug]

For me there is a slow decline in Jan. Usually by now I am on to other fisheries. But I am curious why Summer isn't on anyone's list for good fishing. Are the just not around ? Hard to believe @jasmillo and @NRC are just sitting around waiting for fall or is salmon too much of a draw in late summer?

From my limited beach wading experience, summer can be fine for sea runs, but summer also opens up beach activity for the rest of the population. Summer's bring dogs, kids, joggers, etc to the beach. It is a more pleasurable experience having the whole beach to yourself on a cold rainy winter day.

 

[Greg Armstrong]

North Sound is not worth it compared to the South Sound.

For a good part of the year I think this is true. As with all things fishing though, this is not always the case. I’ve had some of my best days while fishing some North Sound beaches.

 

[jasmillo]

I will on occasion target SRC in summer but I am almost exclusively fishing salmon in the sound from July to through Chum in mid November. Like @Nick Clayton mentioned, I have definitely licked my wounds on a good SRC beach in summer after a poor morning fishing coho. Sometimes there is a little 2-3 week period between the end of coho and the start of chum (depending on how MA 10 is fishing) where I’ll target SRC exclusively and it’s almost always really good.

I then fish mostly the south sound from mid November to March with a few mid to north sound winter beaches I like thrown in through mid January. As chum fry become more relevant by March, I start mixing in other MA’s and beaches where that fishing heats up. I will say I do fish a lot of north sound beaches in late spring through coho starting up for SRC and it can be pretty good.

All that said, if you really want to learn a lot spend a little time on that other site we do not talk about using the search function. I have only been doing this for like 6-7 years and there are so many guys out there that have been doing it a lot longer than I who have posted tons of useful info. I also live on the Kitsap side so timing of beach fishing (north to south sound) is a bit different than the Seattle side.

 

[Vandelay Industries]

For a good part of the year I think this is true. As with all things fishing though, this is not always the case. I’ve had some of my best days while fishing some North Sound beaches.

Yeah, you can have some good fishing up there.
That said, with the short amount of time early entry north sound fish spend in the salt versus the late entry south sound and canal fish, there is no comparison. I'm heading south or west!

 

[SpeyrodGB]

I haven't fished SRC's in a few years. I was fortunate to live near some really great water, at the southern end of the sound. Wade fishing was was usually good from late summer/early fall to about January . When Bought a boat, late summer/early fall got better. Early winter got a little hazardous due to water conditions.

I found that every beach fishes differently. Some are good on incoming, some on outgoing tides, some on big tide swings, and some an lower tide swings. When you think you have it figured out, the fish will laugh at you leaving you scratching your head wondering what you did wrong. It will be a never ending learning experience. I really miss them.

I found summer to be difficult because the shallow water warms up to much. You don't want to stress such a valuable resource. Roger Stephens, who was on the other site, wrote some great stuff about fishing SRC. I don't know if he is on this site or not.

If my memory serves me right, SRC are spring spawners. When they return to the salt, they will be hungry. Good luck.

 

[IHFISH]

I can't equal the experience of those who've already chimed in, but I can validate the quality of the advice you've gotten so far. I'll add the following from the perspective of someone who's still relatively new to it but has put in a good deal of time:

- The recommended books are well-worth owning, but at least the Stoll and Johnson ones are also available through the King County library system if that is something you're interested in accessing.

- Take note of the portion of Nick Clayton's post that Jasmillo excerpted in the other SRC thread. I have developed a list of more SRC/Salmon beaches (and probably many more sculpin/flounder beaches ) that I could ever hope to learn well and visited many of them over the past few years. I really enjoy the exploring, but I think that I would have been better served by focusing on fewer beaches at the outset. My thinking is always evolving, but I my current view is that you should build toward learning a group of beaches that is small enough to know well but large enough to give you places you enjoy fishing across a variety of tide, wind and current conditions.

- Related to the above, plan outings around a cluster of spots, not just one beach.

- Keep a journal. Include enough info to make it useful but not so much that it feels like a chore to keep up with.

- Take pictures of your beaches at very low tides and take note of structure, depressions, etc.

Good luck, at least for me this is not a numbers fishery but it has been extremely rewarding.

 

[Aufwuchs]

All great advice. Much appreciated. Thank you

 

[roger stephens]

Roger Stephens, who was on the other site, wrote some great stuff about fishing SRC. I don't know if he is on this site or not.

I got on this site a week ago. For the last 20 years I have used top water patterns 90% of time when fishing for sea-run cutthroat.. In the near future i will made a post on this site. It will be a write-up with photos of 4 or 5 top water patterns which I have had excellent success with.

Roger