Was wondering if anyone could give any god advise on where and how to fish for Puget Sound cutthroat? Tine of year, where? etc. If you do not want to say it over net, I undersyand. Maybe you could email me privately? Amy help would be appreciated.

usually this starts around june/july with the peak of the run in august/september. I've always used spinners and spoons so I don't know about what fly to use but as for the area I always fish Whidbey island. Look for a cobble stone beach, with minimal current and if you can find salmon smolt or other small fish in schools then your chances for success are greately improved. Last year salt water cutt throat was closed, i don't know whats going on for the year ahead but watch the regs closly because it can change at any moment.

All saltwater areas are open to cutthroat fishing under catch and release regulations. You can find cuttthroat in saltwater at almost any location, year round, with late spring to fall being the most productive times. Good saltwater flies include baitfish, amphipod and euphausid shrimp patterns, but don't overlook attractors like the Reversed Spider, fish them with a floating or intermediate-sink line. The time that cutthroat enter the rivers depends a lot on the individual river. The Stilly, for instance, gets a few fish as early as mid- to late July, but it's pretty spotty before mid-August. The fishing usually holds up until the river blows out in the fall. In some places, like the mouths of the Skagit and its sloughs, there can be good fishing in April when the cutthroat (and dollies) come up to gorge on the downstream migrant humpy and/or chum fry. I've caught cutthroat as early as June in the Bogachiel and as late as February at the mouth of Pilchuck Creek. You just have to get to know your river. My number-one-favorite freshwater pattern is Mike Kinney's Reversed Spider fished on a floating line.

Hello greensteel,

Cutts are availible year round in the salt. The diversity of the run timing has them comming and going through out the winter months and any day can be a good one. I'll give you just a few things to work with and will try not to crush the enjoyment of exploration and discovery for you.

Cutthroat are oportunists...they cruise the shore line and feed on whats available at the time. The better you understand the physcial and biological enviroment the better your fishing will become. Lean your local zooplankton. When I take clients in the salt, I use no electronics for finding fish...I teach folks how to read the water, shore line, and wildlife behaviors to lean where to find fish.

Cutthroat tend to stay withing 4-5 miles of thier natal stream. They spawn in very tiny creeks and lower rivers in the Sound, which makes them vulnerable to environmental changes.

Cutthroat also grow at a very slow rate compared to salmon. A 22 inch fish can be 7 or 8 years old and spawned 4 or 5 times. Since there is little information of the health of cutts in the Sound, C and R regs make alot of sense. Handle with care!

Fly patterns change with the season and sometimes each point and bay can have different cicumstances. The good news is they are extremely aggressive in the salt and love good weather. Right now we have an abundance of amphipods (grain of rice sized scud looking), copepods and euphausids. Try collecting a few of these along a windward beach for observation. Watching how they move in the water will be important as to how you fish em. Also using your favorite bait fish imitation in 1-2 inch is a great way to get started on any beach.

Most folks will go to their death bed with their favorite cutt waters....

Good hunting....
T Wolf

Another thing I've heard when fishing Cutts in the salt is to fish the shorelines and if you can't see bottom your fishing too deep of water.

One fly usualy out produces all other and that is a streamer. Usualy about an ince to an inch and a half long works the best.

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work is for people who dont know how to fish

I would like to try this in Mukilteo-since thats where I live. Have any of you fished for Cutts in this area. Be kewl to do after/before work. Not sure if I would need it but I do have a canoe, as well. I would probably try small spinners, Dick Nite spoons. C@R.

Thanks

Greensteel,

If you want to catch record class cutthroat trout, forget about Puget Sound. Come down to Reno and fish Pyramid Lake. World record lahontan cutthroats!



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Life, liberty, and the pursuit of salmon!

Never used a fly but we allways fish them up in the end of Quatermaster Harbor or up by the gril scout camp over by Pt.Delcousing cut plug herring you know the little tiny ones they get in Decmber And no lead trolled fast just deep enough so your moter is not hitting the bottem

Greensteel,

Your profile shows you live in Tacoma...there is excellent cutthroat flyfishing close by. As was already suggested, look for bays and inlets with rocky shorelines and small creeks dumping into them. Timing the tides can dramatically add to your success...I've found the middle two hours of an incoming tide to be most productive, especially if there is a minus-low tide (e.g. low tide -1.57') and a strong high tide (e.g. high tide +16.25); the greater the difference between the two, the better the action appears to be. Next best tide for me seems to be the 1st two hours of the ebb beginning just after peak high.

A light pink colored #8 shrimp pattern seems to be doing the trick right now, at least in the area I fish. Matter of fact, the resident silvers still seem to be on this pattern as well although they should be swinging on over to baitfish (white/peacock clousers) patterns right about now. Retrieve for the shrimp pattern should be 2 or 3 quick strips followed by about 10-15 second pause. Strip is only about 4" and should resemble shaking down a thermometer. This will impart action that is a reasonable resemblance to the real thing. The take seems to most often occur during the pause.

Cutts cruise the shoreline in the inlets and bays...don't make the mistake of charging out into chest-deep water and casting your arm out for distance. Fish the shoreline/close-in water first and slowly fan the waters in a semicircle extending each successive cast out (hopefully, that made some sort of sense to you.)

Was going to suggest several spots for you to try nearby, but couldn't email you directly since you didn't leave an email address. Oh well.

JAS, we've got big cutts in some of our lakes too. The searuns are a different breed...more fight per pound.