Has anyone caught a blackmouth on a fly rod and flys. If so how and what did you use?

I don't do it anymore, but I used to catch quite a few with my fly rod. My number one choice for a fly would be some type of large, marabou popsicle in either pink, purple, black, or any combination of these colors. Look for concentrations of fish in slow moving pools. Use a dead drift and keep the pool quiet (avoid pools with yocal snaggers).

You also have to hope the fish are in a good mood. I have fished pools loaded with fish for hours without a strike only to have fish mysteriously "turn on" and provide great action.
Good luck. This type of fishing can make steelhead fishing seem fast-paced. :p

I assume that when you say blackmouth you are refering to immature chinook in the salt. There is a small group of salmon fanatics who troll files for winter chinook out of Campbell River. They simply troll bucktail salmon flies on an unweighted fly line. They do not have any big numbers days, but do hook a few and they get to fish in relative solitude.

There was a fistion piece that talked about this fishey in Sporting Classics a couple of year ago. It was called "Winter's End"

honest,

Yes, but only incidentally. We have caught most while targeting resident silvers in fairly shallow waters (5-15') on incoming tides, although points like Pt No Pt or FW Bluff can produce early or late in the day too. But the few BM we do catch doing this are invariably undersize shakers.

A buddy and I like to cruise the shorelines and take turns rowing and casting to crusing pods of silvers that show themselves when there is no wind and conditions are right. We are generally using 8 wt rods with shooting heads, sinking leaders and either a simple shrimp or candlefish pattern. The silvers aren't picky and neither are the occasional cutty. One or two casts, at most, is all it takes. And that's about all you get till they show themselves again. We CNR only.

But catching serious blackmouth down deep is another matter. You'll need lead line with alot of backing and that just ain't flyfishing to me; at least it's certainly not my idea of fun. I know it is not orthodox flyfishing but when it comes to keeper BM, my idea is to hang a bug off the tail end of a flasher that's 90-150' deep. Casting and retreiving a downrigger ball all day still sounds alot easier than working a leaded fly line down where the big boys live. Heck why not just send your fly line and streamer down off a downrigger ball and call it good, even if you can't call it flyfishing?

But then if you're not hung up on keeper BM and you're dying to fly flog the salt, there is always plenty of entertainment to be had in the littoral zone and around piers and pilings. Besides the silvers and the occasional cutty, we have a gas catching flounder and some nice pile perch lately on flies (OK a drop of shrimp oil doesn't hurt either). Seems like I'm reverting back to childhood the older I get.

Tighter lines.