Looking for a past thread, book, or other information about fly fishing for cutthroat, i.e. rivers, Hood Canal, wherever they are. TIA, Mark

Are you interested in where they are located or how to fish them? How is fish them is easy; any attractor pattern. Cutts are known as the most non-selective of the trout. They are also known for being poor fighters. Their advantage is that they can grow big in high mountain lakes and some species can also take higher pH balance than the other trout as Pyramide or Mann Lakes have.

Well around here the best Cutts are the Sea-Run Cutts. They spend a few months every year in the salt water and grow up to 6 pounds. They are readily availible from the beach since the tend to stay in water shallower that 10 ft deep. The South Sound is a great place for SRCs. Smelt, herring, and small attractor baitfish patterns work fine in sizes 8-2. Use clear intermediate sinking lines, but floating can be used with longer leaders (popper fishing is becoming popular too and these use floating lines). 4-7 wts can be used with 6 being the standard. There is a lot of info on SRCs on the net. Here is a great article on SRC fishing in the salt. http://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/columns/src.htm Also here is a site with great info, links, and flies (check out the poppers for some real fun!) http://www.pugetsoundflyfishing.com/Home.htm In the late fall a mojority of the SRCs head into the rivers and creeks and you can catch them on attractor dries and spider (soft hackle) wet flies. A favorite is the Reverse Spider.

The SRC is a sea going form of the Coastal Cutthroat Trout. These resident guys are often found in our mountain streams and some rivers and also in alpine lakes, beaver pounds and a few lowland lakes. The usually run 6-10" in creeks and rivers but can get up to 14-16" for some real trophies. In lakes 8-12" is the norm with some pushing the 16" mark depending on where you are. Try fishing the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie or some alpine lakes and mountain streams/rivers for them. Elk Hair Caddis, Adams, Pheasent Tail Nymphs, Hare's Ears and small Wooly Buggers are great in sizes 14-10. Use beaded and non-beaded flies too.

Is a size 14 green scud pattern too small for cutthroat? I know that for the local beach I fish the scuds, although not green(camo actually) are just a teeny tiny bit smaller. I am concerned about having a cutthroat take the scud and swallow it without my knowing until I strip to retrieve the line and feel something heavy on the other end.

RH: I have not used scud patterns, but have done well with muddlers and the old standby the Spruce Fly. Like others say the cutts are usually not too fussy. Look for a beach with lots of structure, big rocks or in the water snags. I find that if cutts are around you will usually see them jumping or swirling on the surface. I do best when casting parallel to the beach and if you aren't a fly fishign purist you can do well with a sammml Dick nir cast on a dry line. I disagree that they are poor fishters. I think the many cutts are poor fighters, but those I catch in the salt do pretty well.

Just thought try and elicit some responses to see if anyone has tried using scuds although they aren't a common part of the diet. Kind of like midges, small and abundant.

Rockhopper -
Actually sea-runs eat quite a few amphipods (sand fleas) in the salt. Thye look very similar to the freshwater scuds that you are familar. They are dark olive and typically size 12 or so.

The down side in fishing them is that they work best on a slow strip. Not the best way to cover water to find fish - streamers are more effective as a rule. Suspect that the scuds would be a ncie backup for fish that are being picky.

Tight lines
S malma

Have done very well fishing these little scud/euphasid patterns on occasion. Usually in Febuary and March. I only fish these when I find fish on a flat and they are spooky. These flies can account for a lot of 16-20 inch resident silvers if you can find them.
I had a couple days, about 3 years ago before I came down to CA for school, fishing the areaa south of the Agate pass bridge where we couldnt get close to these schools in a boat so I floated around in my tube and caught 20-30 fish in about 3 hours. Mix of both silvers and cutts.
They are very effective flies in the right situation but not a lot of fun to fish when you cant be sure where the fish are.

floating around in your tube, your crazy dude, but I guess you got to do what you got to do.

whats crazy about tubing it?

maybe its just me but I have had some encounters with sea lions and I would never be floating around with them. I dont even like being in a boat around them.

Well if you're say in the South Sound or some other shelterd place cutts like to hang out, there are usually not sea lions. There are harbor seals but they are more afraide of people.

sea lions are everyplace I fish, I know the difference between the two, area 9,10,11 is littered with the devils, tomorrow taking the day off and gonna launch out of olalla and jig/fly fish for anything that swims if I can squeese my boat thru the concrete barrier and I assure you there will be a sea lion there checking me out real soon, but all the good spots are littered with trash like them so what can you do, start to fish lakes, hell no

HA! I knew I'd "draw some strikes"!!!

Smalma- The amphipods that I've seen on my beach aren't the normal olive green, most of them are dark colored browns, grays... basically any color that blends in with the mud/cobble/gravel beach. I've even seen some that are a mix of various colors, thus making it appear like they are supposed to be somehow less visible to fish due to their superb camoflage.

Yeah, admittedly, I'd rather be fishing something other than a scud, but there's just some days when the cutts are around, but don't feel like putting on an aerial acrobat show and are probably just rooting around the bottom for little morsels. I might be going fishing for the little buggers on friday if the weather cooperates. Could anyone tell me if all the cutts are congregated around the estuaries or are there still good numbers of them in the normal places? Seems last time I was out it was fairly dead with no jumpers and maybe just few rises. I don't have a boat, and I don't feel like mucking around in the mud. Anyone willing to point me to locations I ought to hammer near Olympia.