Puget Sound Sea Run Cutthroat

The past few years, late February through the end of May has turned into sea run cutthroat fishing season for me. This is the part of the year when all of our local rivers here in the Snohomish/King/Whatcom county area are closed to fishing through the Endangered Species Act. Though other times of the year may offer some better sea run cutthroat fishing, this is still a very fun and easy alternative to swinging flies for steelhead. Steelhead fishing is in full swing other places, but it is just not feasible to travel somewhere every weekend to chase steel, when within 20 minutes of my couch I can be standing on several different beaches.

Sea run fishing in the Puget Sound offers easy access, great scenery, and is a fun rapidly growing fishery. The south end of Puget Sound offers some of the better beaches in the area, but the north sound offers some good beaches as well. Places like Picnic Point, Lund’s Gulch, and Mukilteo waterfront offer very easy access to cutties. Just watch your back cast, as there are often beach combing families walking these beaches, and many of them will be curious as to what you are doing and are oblivious to the fact that fly fishing requires a little space.

Sea run cutthroat will feed on whatever and whenever something is available, they are opportunistic feeders. When the water is moving, more things to eat are swirled around; hence you should fish moving tides. When tides are slack, food is not moving, so sit on the beach and drink a beer during slack tide. Big tide swings will offer the best fishing. Just like rivers, look for seams, where slower water meets faster water, this where the fish will find food. Bait fish patterns, shrimp, spiders, and poppers should be the go to flies. Most likely in the 4 – 6 size range.

When it comes to gear, I have invested next to nothing on sea run specific gear. I have an old brandless reel I found in a box at a garage sale for $2 and a cheap 6 wt. rod. No need to get fancy, spend your money on gas to get to the beach to practice your casting rather than fancy gear. Many beach anglers will use a stripping basket, but I don’t use one and haven’t really seen the need for one. Weather conditions in the Pacific Northwest this time of year feed the stereotype, it rains a lot. Be prepared for windy and rainy days. The wind can often pose a challenge on the beach. If you can, try to make to wind work in your favor. I spent a windy morning at Picnic Point yesterday, but was able start at one end of the beach and use the wind gusts to propel my casts and work my way down the beach around the point.

There is not a ton of information on sea run cutthroat in the Puget Sound. There are groups working to learn more about these fish, and to get some sort of idea as to how many fish there are out there. This is a catch and release only, open year round salt water fishery. This is an awesome fishery that is growing in popularity. It’s an easy way to break into fly fishing since there is not much required other than a rod and a few flies. So head to the beach and enjoy.

 

 

Picnic Point SRC's

With no steel to chase within a four hour driving radius, and a boat trailer in multiple pieces in the front yard, I have had no choice but to mow the lawn, pull weeds, and kill sticker bushes in the back yard to pass the time on the weekends. I needed something to cast a fly at.

As a kid my dad and I would go set the crab pots and then troll around the Hood Canal in front of Scenic Beach State Park hooking sea run cutthroats as we waited for the Dungeness crabs to trap themselves. I took for granted the fact that on more than one occasion we would go out and hook one or two 20+ inchers. Now 20 inch sea runs are few and far between.

Attention Anglers

There are many beach access points north of Seattle that are great for fly fishing, but one of the easiest to get to is Picnic Point Park in the Lynnwood area. Picnic Point is a small point with a little creek draining out into the sound. It offers easy access and is pretty open with plenty of room for fly fisherman to spread out without hooking each other on every back cast. Believe it ot not, it would also be a great place for a picnic!

I hit the beach about 8:00 a.m. With high tide reaching its peak about 8:45. This way I could fish with an incoming tide, high tide, and as the tide began its quick decent. This time of year offers some pretty good tide swings, and the big tide changes is what stirs up the SRC food. There were two other fly fisherman there when I arrived also waiting to fish these tide changes. Prime time for these SRC's is early morning about and hour after high tide. With a negative tide on the way today, the water really started moving.


Pincnic Point Park

There were some signs of chum fry flopping around the surface so I tried four different color streamers with no hook ups except for some sloppy kelp chunks. With my right foot now freezing cold because my high quality waders are not exactly waterproof anymore, I was just about to head home to lay on the couch for the rest of the day. But first, I decided to take off my sink tip and tie on an orange shrimpy looking streamer deal I tied the day before. Finally, along the seam where the creek flows in about 8 feet of water I had a sea lice covered cutty nab my homemade fly.

I made a few more casts, but with hypothermia in my right foot and more growling coming from my belly than any of the sea lions swimming around, I decided to head out. But this will not be the last time I hit Picnic Point Park. Sea run cutties in the Puget Sound is a fishery that is very overlooked. The Puget sound may be one of the best places anywhere to catch a cutthroat in the salt water on the fly.