the fishing hasnt been red hot but I have been exploring new areas and hood canal due to the bad bad bad red tide around the island. the water is turned a burnt orange color. its gross.
I have been experimenting as well with some new tube flies and surface flies. Not a ton of big fish but lots of action.
My mom got a couple last night, I landed 4 in about 15 minutes and then i went out this morning to a different spot and managed to find one really good fish plus a few more.
Its been pretty good and should only get better. the big guys are starting to show.

Agreed. I was out yesterday and the fishing was pretty good for SRCs on the Canal.

check out this guy... the focus was a little off but thats not water on the lense, he had a scar or something that made one spot on him look magnified.

who is the person I "always" see out there in a Alumweld V wearing orange rubber overalls fly fishing? Would that be your? If so, we saw you by PnP.

Had a GREAT day on the Hood Canel as well, got my biggest SRC X 2, 16" average.

Might be a well-healed lamprey scar.

suppose it could be. I dont know much about lampreys but i kinda always thought they stuck to the bigger rivers and were a bigger eel. anyways... i'd never seen something like this before on a cutt...

another pic from a couple days ago.

There are, or were, lamprey in most of the stream around the sound. They spawn in freshwater and the "smolts" are about the same length as steelhead smolts (150 mm). Once in saltwater they become parasitic, but start out small. In addition to the Pacific lamprey, which were the common lamprey around here and are pretty good sized there is also the river lamprey. It is anadromous, too but don't get as large.

Like our salmonids, lamprey numbers are crashing big time.

thanks for the info C.

Here is another fish from a couple days ago... Steelhead/SRC hybrid anyone???

make the photo bigger. Tough to see

click the picture neal, it links to a bigger one

It's hard to tell by just that pic but looks like a great fish whatever it is.

you are so demanding neal.

Looks part steel to me, Im focasing on the less spotage below the lateral line opposed to a cutty which is littered with spots below the lateral line. Not to mention its lacking the yellowish fins.....I say hybrid IMO



Jake

Queets guy is onto something with the overall appearance loloking more like a steelhead. One feature that makes it look at least part cutt is that the maxillary (upper jaw) extends beyond a vertical line at the rear of the eye. Did you happen to look for the cutt marks? I've caught one or two that had yellowish cutt marks, rather than the red ones typical of cutthroats. My guess is hybrid, too. In any case, nice catch!

You will find cutts in the salt though that have no line at all under there jaw, very common salt coloration, the "yellow" slashed ones you saw where more than likely just starting to color up.
I dont know too much about the whole maxillary jaw theory, i have really only noticed that difference to be the deciding factor on male vs. female.
I think you just hooked into a REALLY nice rainbow. Or even a small steelie, though with the body type/structure i dont think so. There are tons of really nice fish in the canal rivers from the skok all the way up to the quil. could be a fish just summering in the canal because of better habitat...meaning: temps, food, cover, which we know sometimes the canal rivers struggle with. Either way Killer rainbow though, i hope He spawns to make more girthy, plump breathren.

this fish came from the sound, not the canal.
i'll just have to go get him again and see if i can get a scale sample.

Hmm if it was a rainbow, its a steelhead now since you caught it in the salt.:). Looks like a mix of some sort to me, but we need a better picture . Cool fish either way.
Neal

Neal when are you going to come out some morning and catch some cutts...

I'm in Salt Lake City right now... coming home today though. You around next week?

you know it.
got him again

Looks a lot like O. mykiss to me. Even if it has some sort of color under the jaw, this is seen in some redband rainbow. With all the moving around of rainbow stocks it is easy to see how some might get mixed in. Only way to know is with the genetics.

In the last few years I have seen photos of whay looked like "pure" cutt or 'bow. Genetics said otherwise. Said they were the other species, and pure, at that.

As to the long maxillary (upper jaw), I have see adult rainbow with prettty long max's. That character, in my experiance, seems to work best on smaller (8" or less) fish.

I cannotfugginbelieve you caught that thing a second time! Cool fish. A true steelthroatcutbow trout.

It's a cohnark.

thats awsome! and to catch him twice....unreal!

D3, a friend of mine is a bio on the OP for the USGS, and his specialty is studying the hybridization of SRC's and steelhead...to make a long story short, he says it happens a lot more than most folks would think.

That fish sure has a lot of characteristics of both, just looking at it.

Fish on...

Todd