i absolutely love fishin fer cutts.

@this time of year I have very good luck and usually catch a few right around 24".

They are f'n fantastic fish.

Somewhat hard to hook cuz if yer "asleep @the reel" you'll miss most of the hits (@least if fishin' w/spoons as I do). On the other hand they are voracious feeders and attack yer lures w/abandon.

I don't catch as many as I did 15-20 yr.s ago but they seem pretty abundant.

I do miss keeping the occasional one fer the dinner table as I found them quite tasty. Yes, I release all that I catch.

As to the endangered species thing I extensively researched what I could find about "coastal" cutts (most of the info came from U of W & wdfw and links thru wdfw) and the bottom line (for about 98% of the watersheds) of all the info I've discovered is, and I quote-"unknown".

Release all cutts and remove those Elwa dam(n)s NOW.

Roger

p.s. I usually use krocs, stilly spoons etc. The absolutely best lure I've found is a 502 or 503 super duper retrieved very, very slowly. I don't usually use them cuz you can"t cast em very far (especially if there's any wind). I always use single hooks cuz less of the fish are fatally injured. I'd tell you what the absolutely best bait is but you shouldn't use bait cuz it almost always fatally injures the fish. Sometimes @dawn you can see these awesome predators chasin' baitfish on the surface and sight cast to them, that's my favorite way of catchin em-it's kinda like fishin & huntin combined (Dollies do the same thing but thy're not nearly as much fun to catch). The best thing is that they are available almost everywhere in WA.

RRR

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[This message has been edited by RRR (edited 08-27-2000).]