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South Sound Sea Runs

3K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  ChucknDuck 
#1 ·
I went out today, this time to Olalla, looking for cutts. This time, I found them big time.

When I'm not chasing winter run steelhead or the weather puts a damper on it, I do the beaches. I went out tuesday. Here's my report:

The wind and rain built steadily until I left. I waded out from the beach about 10 feet, put my back to the wind and made a first cast directly parallel to shore (9-o'clock), another at 10 0'clock and a third cast at 11 o'clock. I pulled the popper back to me slowly in short strips back up against the wind waves. After three casts, I walked down 5-10 feet and cast again. The casts at 9 and 10 o'clock did the trick (the ones out from the beach did not draw any strikes). I got relatively few follows. Instead I got thrashing, violent hits that were made all the more dramatic by the wind-whipped spray. Most of the fish were beautifully colored male cutts, some with beginnings of kypes. When they came out of the water, they looked every bit like brown trout.

It was an awesome couple hours.

Leland.
 
#2 ·
Ocean trout flyfishing in December... how great is that? One of the biggest downsides of moving from WA was the loss of a year-round angling season for spectacular species. Then again maybe it helped my marriage! ;-)

Leland, thanks for the report. I wonder, are the butter clams good this time of year out on Hood Canal? What a day that would be... dig up a few pounds, leave them in a mesh bag while you fish, stoke up the gas stove and steam the clams and melt some butter, crack a cold hefferweissen and dine by the waters' edge, thinking about all those golden bright searun cutts that came to hand on a winter day.
 
#7 ·
Off the drop off past the bayside flats on Cape Cod are really big sea clams weighing over a pound each that lie slightly open waiting for something to clamp on. If you are working too close to the bottom you could be 'clamped'. These are so heavy that in a rip current they feel like a fish shaking it's head and folks have made the "fish on" call to a sea clam in the current more than once while I was with them. :hehe: This is also true of the moon snails which have a large 'foot' up to 6-8" in diameter that contracts when nicked by a fly. Talk about impossible to remove! The most ridiculous thing I have hooked on a fly is a full grown grey seal - it swam up, inspected my sand eel fly and ate it! After a long drag burning run I clamped down and popped the leader. You should've seen the dumb dog look it gave me when it popped it's head up to see what the heck happened! No fly in it's lip by then, it was barbless / single hook and probably plucked it off with it's fin easily. It's brothers who stuck their heads into lobster traps aren't so lucky - there are many seals wearing bright nylon death necklaces along the coast. Maybe it's time to think about biodegradable netting or a center bar in the opening of the trap, etc.

Anyway, I digress... no clam has the presence of a GEODUCK!!!

Geoduck Book / Image from Amazon
 
#8 ·
With all this talk about odd stuff hooked on a fly, I think it would be pretty intresting to see who can hook and get a picture of themselves fighting the oddest animal. :D :D

We should try to stick to marine life though as I dont want to see Juro stripping mouse patterns across the house for kitty. :tsk_tsk: I think I could agee with PETA, that that would be pretty cruel!! :hehe:

I did see Brian hook that bird on the popper and that was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. You wouldnt think that birds could have facial expressions but as that thing popped to the surface and started swinging his head you can easily see a loof of "What the @$^%??"

I did hear a story that came from the sockeye bars of the Kenai. A freind of mine was up there fishing (flippin') for reds. He saw a fellow standing beside him chase a 'fish' literally 200 yds downstream. When the fish was finally landed. it was no sockeye but instead a Great White 5 Gallon Bucket. The massive current of the Kenai had that bucket swinging back and forth, taking blistering runs and head shaking.

What I would have paid to be there and to have seen that...
 
#9 ·
That's hillarious! Jeff Roop, a very active contributor in the northeast region, once caught a perfect boat anchor and rope on a flyrod! Landed it too.

On a kinda related note, when I first moved to WA I was dying to catch a halibut. We went out to Sekiu and hit the delta off the Sekiu and Hoko River mouths. The only thing I had big enough to use for halbut was the lower half of a surf casting rod, just the lower half. We lowered the frozen horse herring not knowing what to expect. In no time at all we were fast to a very heavy object that well... I think it's alive... no it's just kelp or something... no that's a head shake... no, must've been my imagination... hmm what if it's an underwater cable? We pull it up and it slowly pulls back. The tide was running hard making things even harder to figure out. Eventually we wrapped the line on the cleat and gave the motor a punch. The line would not break. We motors about 100 yards, still no break. I unwrapped the line and there was definitely some pulsing going on down there! We clamped down the drag and kept at it and eventually saw a huge olive diamond shape looming in the depths. It was a halibut of about 45 pounds!

That wasn't even the funny part. It was now time for me and two air force recruits from McChord AFB to wrestle our first halibut onto the 14' livingston skiff. The big 'but now lay calmly alongside the boat as I reached for my brand new shiny Fred Meyer hang gaff. I took the plastic safety sleeve off the point and proceeded to show the gaff experience I had from my east coast bluefish days. I gave the fish the point and yanked, and the halibut woke up! Man, I nearly lost my arm. I did lose the gaff, and it went flying out into the water and sank into the depths. The halibut sounded 100 feet and it was all we could do to save the half/rod from going over.

We worked the butt back up, now a bit smarter about trying to get it aboard. I wacked it with the priest and it sounded again. When we got it to the boat, I whacked it again and this continued as the butt sounded less each time until it could sound no more. We hauled the big fish aboard and laughed until we fell over.

We all got very serious about fishing the rest of the morning. No matter how serious we were, it was like a comedy of errors as the halibut would wake up every 20 minutes and throw everything on the deck (including coolers) around like an angry drunk at a bar room brawl as we ducked for cover. We landed another over by Eagle Pt., 25-30 pound range and a big ling cod and decided it was time for lunch over at the coho resort.

John's buddy decided he was going to bring his sidearm to take care of the last halibut in our limit. I didn't think much of it as we headed out to Eagle Pt. Finally we found another halibut and wrestled it to the surface. As I was preparing to use the priest BLAM! A head-splitting explosion and the top section of the halibuts head is gone. Scared the crap out of me! Later we found out that solid projectiles are not allowed over marine wates. The use of a handgun out there requires shot, not something most people like to put into their sidearm. Anyway the fish came aboard without a fight as one might expect.

We filleted out the halibut, the first three hailbut I ever filleted, and headed home with some very unique tales to tell. Actually, it was so similar to the summer flounder I often filleted before moving out west that it was amazing - just a hundred times bigger.

The next time I visited Sekiu was for coho and I was about to be amazed by their explosive surface takes on bucktails!
 
#10 ·
Oddest thing I ever hooked on a fly had four legs, a wagging tail, smelled like it just had a nice roll in the adjacent ,recently fertilized field, and a bellyfull of my elk pepperoni. Was fishing for silvers last fall when a black lab started tagging along. He was a pleasant companion and we shared part of our lunch with him. My marabou pattern must have smelled like a good snack to him because he attempted to wolf it down when I put my rod down to carck open a fresh Foster's oilcan. All I heard was a yelp and my reel screaming as he bolted off in a panic. Luckily, I was able to corral him and extract the fly before he hurt himself further or drug my rod off. Looked like a sore lip was the extent of it. Another reason to de-barb the hooks!
 
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