Some fish were into the lower 20"'s and heavy.
trying to figure out how to add a pic on here of one that shows a small example.

Get one of the grandkids to help you post some, love to see your old beaver pond cutt pics.


c/22

used to fish for them at night with bullhead meat as bait as a kid. the big yellow bellies came out at night to feed in the shallow ripples. if i remember right 22 inchs was the biggest i caught. also caught them at night up in the still waters of the satsop. above matlock

osprey,
Here is a picture I found of a cutthroat my buddy caught out of the salt that is starting to display some of the orange belly you mentioned.




Here is a website you might enjoy. They are starting to catch some of the previously tagged cutthroat they are studying.
http://www.coastalcutthroatcoalition.com/
Enjoy
SF

Here's a Purdy one from way up high on a local river.

Here's a Purdy one from way up high on a local river.

Here's a Purdy one from way up high on a local river.

A friend and I used to catch really big src's from the little creeks at the south end of Hood Canal, and a few out of the Skok. We'd fish nightcrawlers on opening day, and it was typical to get at least one in excess of 20" if we worked all the creeks in all the sweet spots.

I can think of at least a half dozen fish my friend had pics of that were in the 23-24" range. But he died about 10 years ago, and I have no idea where those photos are now. He also had photos of rainbows he'd catch out of Island Lake in Shelton that people would not fuckin' believe. I've had plenty of people scoff at this - and I suppose I don't blame them. I remember the first time I fished those creeks with my friend. He caught a 22 incher, and I caught 2 that were just under 20". I couldn't believe that frogwater could have fish like that. His brother almost disowned him for taking me, but we fished every opening day from that point on, while his brother lost the commitment to get off work and get up early. We caught fish all day, but every toad was caught before it was all the way light.

In my experience, the big SRC's were typically very silvery with faint spots. A few of them had the full blown spots like the one in Eric's photo. The yellow bellied cutts were the one we used to catch in the beaver ponds around Shelton. You can still see a couple of those ponds right by 101 as you go past Wallace Kneeland Blvd on your way north - that was before the freeway went in. We'd catch them in the Deckerville swamp area of the Satsop, too. I don't know if the Satsop fish were SRC's or if they stayed in the Satsop's stillwater area, but those fish typically had the fatter yellow bellies than the SRC's we'd catch of the Hood Canal creeks.

I love cutties because they're beautiful fish, and you can catch them all over the place. The smaller to medium sized ones are aggressive biters, and fight really well. The big fish are at least as challenging as a steelhead to catch, and because of the small, brush filled creeks we fished for them in, landing one was a huge challenge. I miss fishing with my friend on opening day for those awesome fish.

It bums me out that we killed so many of those fish. We were kids, and didn't realize the impact we probably had. We'd go out, kill a few, and take them home and eat them for dinner.

I haven't fished those creeks since they banned bait, but I get the feeling that a fly guy could have pretty good luck out there with a sculpin pattern fished on the bottom. Every single big cutty we caught out there had its belly stuffed with little sculpins. I'm not sure if they stuffed on them in the salt and then blazed upstream, or if they we eating them in the creeks, but they had a taste for sculpin.

Great thread - and thanks for sharing the photos. Unfortunately, back when I was catching SRC's on a regular basis, there was no such thing as a cell phone or digital camera, and I was too broke to afford a SLR.

I might have to buy a fly rod, and start fishing them in the salt. It sounds like cutty fishing in the south sound can be pretty good - and I need to get out there and reconnect. Can that sh!t be done with a spin rod, or will everyone clown me and make me feel bad about myself?



Jesus - I was rambling there. IPA

another spotted yellowbelly
*not my pic

Although I have never seen a really big Cutthroat that spotting pattern looks awfully Rainbow to me.

Having said that, I was at a meeting of bios once and somebody ran a series of slides for us to ID. Every fish that looked like a Coastal Cutt was a genetic rainbow and every one that looked like a rainbow was a genetic Cutthroat. So, I know looks can be deceiving.

I mean, some politicians look human........