Until next season

One of the things I have learned fly fishing in my home state is that October in Washington is a very special time. The biggest problem is settling on the options, salmon in the rivers, salmon in the saltwater, last blast of lake fishing, dries for trout in the rivers, sea-runs in the Sound... The list goes on and on, to complicate matters, just about every one of these fisheries is at its prime during this "golden" month. So when that month starts winding down and the fall colors are in full swing, what do I do? I look to one of the least popular of these options.

If it isn't evident already, I am an absolute sucker for small streams. I probably spend more time fishing the vast expanses of the Puget Sound, but the little out of the way waters that nobody wants to trouble with always seem to draw me back and that I is where I wind up fishing when there are too many options available to wrap my head around. Generally speaking small streams aren't going to gain you much of any bragging rights when it comes to big fish, but I have never been one to get held up on big fish as it is. Plus the smallish trout that do typically inhabit these waters also tend to be some of the most gorgeous fish around anyways.

The creek

So with an unusually beautiful end of October afternoon and several free hours on my hands out of the blue, I made the spurt of the moment decision to head to my usual end of the stream season haunt. Timing is everything on little streams like this and with my outing occurring the day after a good rain and right at I high tide, there was at least a decent chance that some sea-run Cutthroat would be following the salmon into the creek. With conditions looking good, I got a hold of my buddy Colton and we met up at the creek to do some Alaska style egg/ bead fishing, just on a smaller scale. Due to the brushy nature of the stream, my 6' 1wt was my weapon of choice, while Colton opted for a little heavier 2wt. As always with this particular stream the effort to reward ratio was pretty evenly matched, with just enough fish around to keep us from thinking about complaining about the tight brush and tangled log jam messes to climb over and lose flies in. However, with my first drift along a great looking undercut bank, the rewards spoke for themselves and in terms of beauty some of these fish are hard to beat.

A small native Coastal Cutthroat

This first fish that I caught for the day was a beautiful native Coastal Cutthroat, but the next one really caught me off guard as it had Cutthroat slashes and spotting, but many of its other traits suggested rainbow trout, especially the smoking gun orange tip on the dorsal fin. Apparently this creek's native steelhead run still hasn't quite gone the way of the Do-Do. I would have said that this was a fluke, but my next three fish were also hybrids providing me with a few explanations on some cutthroat that I had caught over that past few years at the nearest beach that just didn't look right. After catching the hybrids, some more of the stream's more pure Cutthroat finally there presence known and these fish apparently had a healthy obsession with salmon eggs. My final fish also turned out to be a larger hybrid, which had clear intermediate traits of both Coastal Rainbow and Coastal Cutthroat Trout.

A native steel-throat hybrid (naturally occurring Steelhead x sea run Cutthroat)

However, I didn't have long to marvel at this fish as Colton hooked into a fish that fish had a bit more size to it. The 2wt rod was easily out matched by this fish, which decided to run downstream nearly into the backing before turning around and heading back up the other way. Colton got lucky because there were plenty of snags for it to choose from to dislodge the hook, but instead it held to the main channel and after a few minutes we finally led it into the net. All I have to say is that Colton picked a heck of a fish to end the day and stream season with!

Colton's sea-run Cutthroat

Another look at the 17" Coastal Cutthroat

With the stream trout season closed again until next year, it is time to turn my focus back to the salt water and before long winter Steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula.