SRC w/pics

Me and a buddy took our first saltwater flyfishin trip this sunday down by fox island. We really didn't know what the heck we were doing, so we just tied up some shrimp imitations and brought some skykomish sunrises and a few other similar flies. We threw those on full sinks with 5/6 rods.


Found a small point that the current ran by that made a small break of about 40 yards littered with rocks and threw into the current and drifted into the slow water.

We managed a few nice juvi cohos to 13-14", which was a buttload of fun by the way, but never did hook up with any Cutts. Nor did we see anyone that had hooked any.


So i was wondering what your goto flys are for sea run cutts. We tried deep, shallow, fast-slow-dead drifts but no cutts. We know they were there so it seems to be a matter of fly selection.

Any pictures of good comercial flies would be cool but i like homemade stuff. Anyone got any good homemade flies for SRC's they would like to share? Pics? Just to get an idea of what to tie on my own.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

F F F

The south sound searun cutthroat are a little iffy this time of year. They are moving around quite a bit. The area you were fishing and also the Narrows are full of roving ratpacks of resident silvers (delayed release from the Squaxin pens) of between 12-15 inches. They are feeding on euphasid and amphipods and small clousers which will draw strikes from the cutts as well.

I have no photos to post as I'm too low tech. You can see my "Miyawaki Beach Popper" and "Crazy Plankton" in the fly archive on pugetsoundflyfishing.com

Leland.

Those look really nice, and that beach popper i have only read about. Couldn't really picture how they trimmed the foam head. Nice. Thank you. This will be great filler time to try some new patterns between steelhead and the lakes opening in april.

The thing that caught my attention (and I was just about to post on the subject) is you said you were using FULL SINKING LINES. The light rod also caught my attention, but that's for another time.

Given the photo's show you fishing off the beach vs. out of a boat, why the choice of a full sinking line?

Over in the UK, it's fairly common to use this type of line vs. a sink tip, but here? I don't think I've seen a full sinker in years.

Hey, thanx again for the replies.

Fred, full sink, the first thing i thought of when selecting flies and technique was shrimp and sculpin then small silver baitfish. Plus the shore slants at about a 12 degree angle so 20 feet out is another 4-7 feet deep. Plus the current is pretty strong so full sink would ensure it getting atleast 4-6 feet down without splitshot. Then as i strip in i know i am just above bottom where i assume they hang next to rocks. Remember this was my first time out for them.

And there were fish jumping everywhere around me, but they were silvers.

SRCs will take many different flies. You can catch them on really simple streamers and attractor patterns, or on very detailed look-a-like streamers. Also many shrimp/large scud type flies will work.

This site has many patterns tied by locals for SRCs and salmon in the saltwater. Puget Sound Fly Fishing This site also has tips on how to fish for SRCs, pictures of local bait, and reports.

And here is a great article on what to look for and how to fish for SRCs. Satwater SRCs


I've caught them on poppers, generic streamers, shrimp patterns, and technical streamers. It really doesn't matter. Just pick a generic streamer that is close to the size and color of the bait in the area and your good to go.

If you want to be really simple. A size 6 olive/white, brown/white or chartruse/white Clouser Minnow 2-2 1/2" long is all you need.