I fished the NF Stilly today and caught what I think was a sea run cutthroat in the lower end of picnic drift. The fish was about 16" long, spotted well below the lateral line, and clearly a wild fish. It was quite chunky as well. Is it common to catch cutthroat this time of year? The other strange thing was that the fish has a leech (or something) attached to his dorsal fin and a black fungal type mark below his dorsal fin. Guys, can you help me out here?

I have caught chum and silvers on the sky with leeches. on their undersides. Little guys about .5-1 cm long. I think that these rivers round here have have a leech population in the gravel. I don't know for sure. I don't know what the fungal mark was could be a number of things. A healing scar, etc.

We see a fair number of cutts in the Peninsula streams throughout the year ... most of them this time of year are skiny post-spawn fish ... not a lot of leeches in the Quillayute system ... but any fish that has been in the Hoh fro a few days or more is covered in them ... I think I recall the Queets fish being the same way!

It is not uncommon to catch searuns this time of year in the N.F.(I caught 2 last week, 1 on the Stilly and 1 on the Sauk) Most will be skinny after spawning but some may not have spawned yet or have already reconditioned and and are down streamers.Unlike steelhead, I think that the cutts feed aggressively up until they spawn. So they may recover faster. I'm no biologist, so I'm not sure how long they hang around in the river after spawning.
Behind steelhead, searuns are my favorite fishery. Long live the searun Cutthroat!!!