Out and about on the Sound

I have been fishing the Puget Sound a fair amount over the last few weeks, mainly in search of Coastal Cutthroat, but these elusive fish have been few and far between lately. The same thing can't be said about the resident Coho Salmon, which can still be found in strong numbers throughout the south Sound. The problem with resident Coho right now, is that fishing for them is closed in much of the Puget Sound right now. Beyond this, regulations for the three marine areas that I have been concentrating my fishing efforts on have been alternating from being opened to closed for salmon, so much that it is getting a bit maddening trying to remember which one is open at any given time. A little over a week ago me and Luke headed out to a couple of different beaches to try our luck. At the first beach I put a large sculpin pattern on to see if I could entice any Cutthroat to bite, but only ended up finding a few resident Coho. As the tide began to go slack, the fishing slowed as the Coho moved on so Luke and I decided to do the same thing.

A sculpin eating Coho

The next beach that we headed to was a little further south and was open for Coho, so I switched out my sculpin pattern for Clouser Minnow. It didn't take long for us to find the fish, but they were on the move and we were forced into playing a game of cat and mouse with them if we wanted to have any chance of catching anything. These fish were keying in on a school anchovies that was following the current along the beach and we ended up chasing the fish for about a mile and a half, catching a few each time we stopped, before the school moved on again.

 

Luke with a nice Coho

After following the Coho up and down the beach, the school finally disappeared and the fishing drastically slowed down so we called it quits.

 

A juvenile Bald Eagle at the beach

In my search for the elusive Coastal Cutthroat, I have also been hitting a beach that is a mere three minute drive from my house lately. This beach usually starts fishing well around this time of the year, but as with my trip with Luke, the Cutthroat haven't been around. Oddly enough, the resident Coho haven't even been hanging out at this spot either. The fishing may be dead at this beach right now, but the nice weather that we have been having has made for some great sunsets and peaceful evenings on the water.

A couple of different sunset photos: Different days, different conditions, same slow fishing...

It is still early for sea-run Cutthroat right now and with the chum fry migration right around the corner it is only a matter of time before things pick up again.