North 40 Fly Shop eMagazine APRIL 2017 | Page 48

Sea-Run Cutthroat are very similar to the striped bass that I fished for in Maine. Find the food source and you’ll find cutthroat. Like their landlocked cousins, sea-run cutthroat tend not to be too selective when it comes to their next meal. Baitfish, invertebrates and insects are all on the menu depending on the season. Spring in Puget Sound signals the time when salmon fry exit their natal stream to begin their life in the salt. Just look on the map for any estuary and you’ll likely find cutties slashing at these silvery snacks with reckless abandon! That’s why surface flies like the Leland Miyawaki’s Beach Popper 48 Top: Bob Trigg’s Chum Baby Middle: Miyawaki Beach Popper Bottom: Half & Half Right: Cutthroat caught with Clouser Minnow are such an effective pattern during the salmon fry migration. There’s nothing quite like seeing a cutthroat boil on a surface fly to wake you up on a gray Seattle morning. Other effective fly patterns include Bob Trigg’s Chum Baby, Clouser Minnows, Half & Halfs and other baitfish patterns in sizes 6-8. Fishing these flies is very straightforward. All you need is 6-8 weight outfit with a floating or intermediate line and a standard nine foot leader tapered to 1X. You’ll want to start your casts parallel to the shoreline and work your way out in a clockwise motion. Sea runs are most commonly found in shallow water, so no need to wade much past your knees. When stripping the fly, you’ll want to vary your retrieve with short, erratic strips. When you get a strike, keep stripping the fly with your rod tip near the water until your almost dragging the fish in. I can’t tell you how many fish I’ve seen lost because of typical “trout sets” where the angler just raises the rod tip when they get a strike, thus pulling the fly away from an attacking cutthroat. Even though I now live in Spokane, I always try to make a couple trips to the sound every year to fish for sea runs. If you ever find yourself traveling to the Seattle area, be sure to pack your fly fishing gear because this phenomenal fishery awaits just beyond the traffic jams of I-5! 49