Hello greensteel,

Cutts are availible year round in the salt. The diversity of the run timing has them comming and going through out the winter months and any day can be a good one. I'll give you just a few things to work with and will try not to crush the enjoyment of exploration and discovery for you.

Cutthroat are oportunists...they cruise the shore line and feed on whats available at the time. The better you understand the physcial and biological enviroment the better your fishing will become. Lean your local zooplankton. When I take clients in the salt, I use no electronics for finding fish...I teach folks how to read the water, shore line, and wildlife behaviors to lean where to find fish.

Cutthroat tend to stay withing 4-5 miles of thier natal stream. They spawn in very tiny creeks and lower rivers in the Sound, which makes them vulnerable to environmental changes.

Cutthroat also grow at a very slow rate compared to salmon. A 22 inch fish can be 7 or 8 years old and spawned 4 or 5 times. Since there is little information of the health of cutts in the Sound, C and R regs make alot of sense. Handle with care!

Fly patterns change with the season and sometimes each point and bay can have different cicumstances. The good news is they are extremely aggressive in the salt and love good weather. Right now we have an abundance of amphipods (grain of rice sized scud looking), copepods and euphausids. Try collecting a few of these along a windward beach for observation. Watching how they move in the water will be important as to how you fish em. Also using your favorite bait fish imitation in 1-2 inch is a great way to get started on any beach.

Most folks will go to their death bed with their favorite cutt waters....

Good hunting....
T Wolf