That's an interesting story about the Montana Nymph. They were long used to imitate a stonefly nymph but have been replaced for I don't know how long by the Pat's Rubberlegs in several sizes which does a really good job of simulating stonefly nymphs, both golden stones and the large salmon fly nymph.

Size 14? Must have been a really good hook to not straighten out.

My mentor on fly fishing and tieing, Jim Garrett, had a small framed Royal Coachman back by on of those old fishing maps. He typed on it there and when he caught the fish; his first on a fly.

I think that Summers may be more vulnerable to flies as they are known to feed while in freshwater. The only actual feeding I am aware of with Winters in post-spawn gorging. One year we had a large Carpenter Ant emergence and many of the kelts, especially females , were plugged with ants. They were also in very good shape as they were reasonably silvery and had tight bellies. Always thought a nice dry fished in May would attract them.

Walked up to the holding pond on the Sol Duc one time and noticed it was plugged with summer coho. Included with them were two summer run steelhead. I had some shrimp on me so I tossed one in the pond. One of the summer run tore through the silvers and engulfed it. I tossed in another and watched the second one do the same thing. Any question about summer runs feeding was answered then and there. They acted as if they were starving from being trapped in the pond.

They weren't exactly "trapped" in the pond. For a while, WDF ran a summer steelhead program (under the table). They reared the steelhead and coho in the same raceway and got nice returns. WDG quashed the program when they found out about it.

That's what we need now! All HM hear this! Raise em and dump em.

Starting to see some chum fry now. Not a ton yet.
They released 30K into the creek below my house last night.
My buddy who lives on the canal has been doing well using fry patterns, even though he isn’t seeing a lot of them. It will only get better.
SF

This seems awfully late for chum fry. I remember seeing a few in late December (summers) but I guess they went pretty strong into April. Seemed the creeks I was on, that had summers, saw most of them gone to salt by March.

It was pretty cool last night seeing how quickly the fry headed downstream after the release.
Can’t say I’ve ever seen chum fry in December over all the years I’ve fished the canal including areas near summer chum streams. Might be because I’m not looking for them at that time of the year.
Like everything, things vary year to year. Mid to late March has always been the beginning of seeing decent numbers of fry and the fish attacking them.
Based on what I’ve seen so far this year and the lack of post spawn fish, peak cutthroat spawning hasn’t happened quite yet. At least in the areas I like to fish.
Some years you run into a good number of post spawn fish in late January.
SF

As I thought about it more, or my memory defogged, the early fry were from summer chum. Since we ran traps and electrofished we'd have seen them and it seemed by March that stock had cleared. But, the normal-timed fish I worked with emerged in March/April/early May. We'd collect them during the day and release at night. The SRCT would basically open their mouths at the outfall pipe........Those cutties also clobbered coho smolts.

Stonefish, I've heard that Cutthroat target chum fry? What's the limit on Cutts? Smoked cutthroat with cheese and crackers while humpy fishing this fall sounds amazing

Cutts love pink fry as well, but we'll have to wait until next spring for that.

Just curious, what was the earliest date that you witnessed summer chum actually spawning?
It is always fun to stop by the counting station at the end of a day of cutt fishing to see how many summer chum have been counted.
This year it was about 5,300+. Since they count 8/15 to 10/15, it seems like there might be some overlap at the end with late summer / early fall fish but I'm not really sure.
SF

SF

Early September, around Labor Day. But I think that has probably shifted some in last decades (I was there 76-79) as drought/low flows dry things up more. I think the early Fall fish, like Kennedy Creek, later in October. But, drying Falls probably compresses timing.

The earliest that I saw when I was working H.C. ('83 to '86, I think) was late August.

Oncy, I'd have to go back and look at some of the spawner survey and trap data buy, yeah, late August doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility for summers, especially if the spawn in a larger stream. Summer chum, at least those I worked with, were small and I found some in a very tiny creek in Sequim Bay. Although most chum stocks are 3-4-5 the summers (at least some) are 2-3-4 and maybe 5. The streams weren't large enough in September for a 20 pound 5.

Good info on the summers. Much appreciated.
I never start my searun fishing until they close coho, which used to be the end of October where I like to fish. Now that October isn’t available, I start it earlier now, but never in August when those early summer chum are around. That is why I was curious about the early spawn timing.
That late August / early September timing may also be why my buddy is seeing nice size cutts at that time in his stream. Maybe they are up there eating summer chum eggs?
SF

In PS there are two types of searuns. The early entry fish, which are associated with the ;larger river systems like Still/Snoh/Skagit enter the streams in August likely following pink and Chinook. The small creeks (like HC) are late entry and tend to enter December/January and may not be eating eggs of the summer chum but may be chasing the later chum and coho.

The late entry fish are larger, at age, when they enter freshwater due to the couple extra months in the salt.

Yep, that is why I do almost all my cutt fishing in the south sound or on the canal.
I’ve caught nice cutts in the north sound, but it can be pretty barren once the early entry fish leave the salt. There are always later entry fish available year round. November followed by October and December would be my favorite months down south when the fish are in prime shape prior to spawning.
Not many post spawn fish around so far this year, at least where I like to fish. Perhaps peak spawning hasn’t occurred yet as it does vary year to year. Some years you see a good number of post spawn fish as early as late January.
SF

Spawning is somewhat related to temperature and it has been fairly cold so later spawning is likely. Cutthroat, of all flavors, are my favorite fish.