What are you going to be using this winter?

I’ll be using CND Skagit Specialist with a Tibor (Riptide) with three different lines.

OK you’re turn.

10' 8wt Sage SP, Hardy Bougle' SINGLE HANDER RICH!

Mostly a Lamiglas G1324 with a Curado. A 10.5' Shimano Covergence, also with a Curado, will be with me at times though. I'm sure my 8wt DS will spend a couple of days on the water too.

Dupont spinners are a sure thing if the fish are there!

J/K

8124

XP 896 with Ross Bg4 or Or Orvis Battenkill LA IV

CND 14'4 8/9/10 w/ Abel Super 11 , 4n spool and ....... .....well....... .......maybe a new line, or else an SA short head, cut back and looped.

KK

10' 7# Scott SAS w/ Islander TS2 for big Dollies

Here's what I'll usually have in the boat for both myself and whenever I need to supply rods for fellas:

Sage XP 8100-4
Loomis GLX 1388/9
2- Loomis GLX 1089
2- Loomis GL3 1178

All with Lamson 3.5's. Can't afford to swap out ten or so complete reels and another hjalf dozen spools at the moment when these are working fine

another one handed

Bread and butter rod -
Sage 596 rpl+ Near ideal rod for the Dollies I chase-
Second rod
Sage 586 SP - for floating small dries on htose nice afternoons in late winter/early spring for those rising Dollies/cutts and fishing small fry streamers-

Happy Holidays and may the New Year bring you tight lines
S malma

Ok time to hyjack this thread.

Smalma,

You mentioned cutts in your last post. I assume you are talking searun cutthroats. I like to fish the Skagit for cutts in the fall. This year I only fished a few times for these wonderful fish for a couple of reasons. Not enough time being one of them and concern fro the fish being another. On my trips I only managed to land one fish and only hook maybe 4 or 5. These are my totals for about 6 trips to the lower Skagit this fall. I can usually reach these numbers within the first hour of one trip. Now, my question. What has happened to the searun cutthroat in the Skagit? Did they take that hard of a hit in the October flood of last year?

Thank you,

Kerry

10ft 7wt glx galvan torqe and glx cross current 8wt tibor everglads

Kerry -
Hope Brian doesn't mind us hijacking another thread.

I'm sad to report that this fall is the first in more than 40 years that I didn't fish the "cutts".

It has been my experience that sea-run fishing is very much a low water game. That is in my limited experience I have only found decent fishing during periods of low water. This has been especially true on the Skagit with its large flow. There I have noticed following a rise (any time between August and early November) the cutthroat staging/holding in the lower shot up river and it often takes a week or more before decent numbers build back up in the lower river.

After the big rain in late August the river never did drop to levels that I would consider to favorable to fly fishing for the cutts. Prior to the rain I stayed off all the rivers due to elevated stream temperatures. Because of those higher flows I'm not surprised you found tough fishing - that is exactly what I expected when I was looking at the flows.

The impacts from Ocotober 2003 flood likley had minimal impact on this years cutthroat run. The early timing of that flood likely impact the survival of some fo the parr. I had expected that for the coho and sure enough the out migration of wild coho smolts this spring was only about 800,000 or down about 1/3 to 1/2 of expected - we'll see those impacts this fall's coho run (maybe we'll get lucky and have above average marine survival). While it is possible that we some impacts on the small cutthroat they tend to hold in different habitats and my expctation was they did better. If there were impacts we should have seen it in lower than normal numbers of the small (9 to 11 inch) cutts.

The good news is with few fish being caught we may see more larger fish this coming fall if we have conditions favorable to fishing.

Happy Holidays and may the New Year bring you tight lines.
S malma

I use a 9' 6" 8wt. Custom built on a St Croix Avid Blank. With a Reddington RS2 reel loaded with Rio Versttip line.

And I couldn't catch a Sea Run if somebody put it on my hook. For some unknown reason,where ever I fished they weren't.

Jim

St. Croix 9'6" 8wt, Pflueger Medalist 1495, multi-sinktip system.

14 ft , 9 wgt, and lots of T-14 tips

FL

An on sale at cabelas to get started Redington 9/10 14 foot spey and flueger trion reel, we will see how that goes:) as a backup a GL3 9' 6 or I might just go back to my trusty and crusty old flueger 8wt and flueger reel as I have caught way more fish on that $100 setup than all the others combined!

T.F.O. 9' 10wt TiCR mated with Tioga reel.
My GLoomis 8wt is broken for good.
Think I'll try out a Rainshadow 8wt blank for replacement.

GLoomis IMX 9' 8wt...Ross Gunnison4...teeny 200 or Floater.

Lami or Loomis float rods....Loomis drift rods

Calcuttas

Well while out on the OP I broke the tip on my 8 wt. Sending it back to St. Croix tomorrow and will see how long it takes to get my replacement. For now I'm stuck with my St. Croix 9' 6wt. I'm just hopeing I don't get a huge fish on any time soon!