I'm hoping to target sea run cutts in the near future (in the Whatcom/Skagit area) and would appreciate any advice you veterans may have for a rookie guy. I'm interested first in lures/flies used, but also any technique you'd like to share. Your favorite spots, too (yeah, right...)

Zambi

Saltwater or river/creek?

River/creek.

I think I read on this site somewhere that SRCs run in Whatcom Creek. Not a place I would like to fish much, but it is only about two blocks from my workplace, and I could easily hit it before or after work on days when I don't have time to travel to more distant waters.

Anybody had luck with them in the Nooksack?

BTW, I've never fished the salt for any type of fish (yet).

I've used nightcrawlers with some success both in the salt and creeks. You got to be on it though or they will swallow the hook. Try #4s or #2s to make it less likely.

Those guys can be ravenous sometimes.

Cutthroat will hammer about anything you throw at them. I'd be hesitant to stick my finger in the water when the bite is on. Nightcrawlers on the bottom near a current/slack water boundary is a good bet. Try small Krocodile, Little Cleo, or Blue Fox spinners. Hang on tight, they hit those like a freight-train.

Most streamer patterns or small spinners and spoons will work. I don't know if depth matters much. I fish a floating line with about a 9' leader so the fly is only a few inches down. Vary your retrieve as sometimes they want it fast, sometimes slow. Fish around structure like logs and stumps, they love that stuff.

I agree with small spinners and spoons. But they also take dries, nymphs, and streamers too. Reds and yellows are good colors. But in general, when they are hungry, you'll find them.

Once key for really finding aggressive SRCs on the bite is to fish the next raining day. Cloudy days are OK, but a little rain on the surface really puts them on the prowl for a quick meal. At least in the rivers I fish...

I hope you'll C&R these, and avoid bait. There aren't that many of them.

I do very well with a black streamer with a yellow wing, and a yellow streamer with a white wing. But my favorite fly for them is a, are you ready, Silver Hilton.

And please, let them go if their not clipped.

Many of the rivers have a bait restriction, BTW. Check the regs before you go.

Wow--once again, the folks on this board have been very helpful--thanks guys. I'll report back if I have any good news to report

I will C&R--in it for the fight, not for dinner.

Checked out Whatcom Creek. Nasty! I didn't know... I'm sure some of you out there are chuckling at my naivete

I'll be on the hunt for other SRC territory...

Zambi, may I suggest that you not post locations here (at least small streams) when you find them. YOu may be surprised at what can happen. Searuns are scarce, and it's best when they're not heavily fished. I used to talk to folks about where I fished, and then I found that I was racing people downriver to the holes. I was also seeing people put 16 inch fish on stringers, never to spawn or to be caught again.

If you let them go, you can catch them again and again and again until New Years. Maybe even later, New Years is the latest in the season that I have gotten them. If others find them, inevitably one of those people will want to keep them, and there goes your fishing. These runs are small in number compared to salmon or even steelhead. Discretion is advised.

Good luck, sounds like you had some fun. Again, I hope you will release these beautiful critters.

I fishs cutts in small lowland streams in the fall. Some of these are best fished with nightcrawlers as it is too brushy to fish lures.

It's best to file down or pinch down the barbs on bait hooks for easier release.

These fish are very agressive and will grab a bait and run for an undercut bank immediately. Set the hook the second the fish starts to run and you can hook them in the nose and release them.

Basically don't give them the chance to swallow the bait and hook. It is better to pull it out of their mouth and miss a hookup than let them swallow the bait. Most of the cutts I fish are residents rather than searuns according to biologist I have consulted. I occassionally retain some of these resident fish from small lowland streams.

If you are fishing larger waters like the Skagit, fish around brush and snaggy areas for searuns with small spoons or flies and please do C&R them.

Thanks for the info, folks.

silver hilton: your point makes sense--I won't post exact locations in the future. I should note, though, that I was serious about Whatcom Creek being nasty. I figured the veterans would be chuckling at me because nobody would go back there for a second time. Garbage all over the place in the water and on the banks. I kind of had my doubts that a downtown fishing spot wouldn't be great, but I didn't think it'd be this bad.

You had me chuckling, alright!

My mom and her sisters inherited a tiny piece of property in the tidelands of Whatcom Creek, right next to a tavern. Currently, according to my sister, it's been slightly improved with a shopping cart. :p

They can't agree on what to do with it, so they do nothing. Make me an offer?

Zambi,
Your Whatcom Creek comments remind me of one of my once favorite streams that feeds into Lake Washington in Kirkland. Being self employed I use to grab my fly rod and bait, (this was many years ago before cutts and a lot of other fish for that matter were not considered endangerd) and go down the the creek five minutes from my house and catch a half dozen resident cutts for dinner.

One day I waded around the corner and there before me stood three brand new condo buildings where a thicket of black berries had previously been.

I stared in disamazement, broke my rod down and walked back down the road to my car.

I never went back.

Do look around for some small creeks that wander through lowland meadows near Bellingham. You may be surprised what lurks in these innocent looking creeks. If you can, fish lures or flies for C&R, if it is brushy or grass covered that it is only practical to fish nightcrawlers, do use barbless hooks and a quick hookset. If you have to kill a fish that is badly hooked, remember that the limit in most of these streams is 2 trout over 8 inches.

I kind of miss those old days with crispy trout and potatoes for dinner, but now days tend to release cutts, dollies, and keep legal salmon for the table.

Nice post, thank you everyone, my favorite fly for cutts is the Mickey Finn.

First of all I will ask you NOT to use bait. These fish are some of the last native, wild trout left. They almost diasapeard ans are just now starting to come back. Because of this they all should be released.

Now, they are really fun on the fly rod and agressivly take flies. Flies to use are Spiders, and reversed spiders (soft hackle flies) prince nymphs, humpies, stimulators, wooly buggers, and elk hair caddis.

Also they will agressivly take small spinners and spoons.

What a weekend. Spent Sunday fishing off the coast (got 2 keeper coho). But MORE fun was fishing on Saturday w/my brother and nephew for SRCs in a tributary to the Columbia. I am officially hooked! You guys singing the praises of SRCs were right. My lord, but those things are beautiful. Found them in a stream I would've expected too small to hold fish of that size (15" to 20"). Great fun, and safely released. That experience beat Sunday (which was my first salmon).

Running on this Monday with little sleep, but lots of adrenaline. May have to move back to SW Washington...