Skunked by sea-run cutts in Puget Sound

by Jerry Smalley
| December 14, 2011 8:13 AM

Nan and I spent most of last week in Seattle baby-sitting the kids of our niece and nephew while they were on a business trip.

Before we left Montana, I spent several evenings looking for information about sea-run cutthroat trout, a fish that hasn't made my "caught" list yet.

I googled ‘sea-run cutts in Puget Sound' and e-mailed both the author of a book on sea-runs and a friend, the former outdoor editor of the Tacoma Morning News.

I learned to target shallow water on incoming tides, on pebbly beaches, in areas with water clean enough to show washed-up sand dollars.

Sea-runs eat candlefish voraciously, but most bait fish fly patterns work, including Muddler Minnows.

I read I shouldn't be surprised to hook up with a blackmouth (immature Chinook) or coho salmon, and also that all sea-run cutthroat trout must be released.

And I stopped by a South Puget Sound fly shop for local information. I'm still shaking my head over what the clerk said. Something for a future column.

When I told son Kyle I was planning to fly-fish for sea-runs, he asked, "Why not steelhead?"

So, after more googling and perusing back issues of Northwest Sportsman Magazine, I found the Bogachiel River, near Forks, Wash., was hot with bright "chromers" returning to the hatchery.

One-third of a three-day nonresident fishing license was about $18, but the real shocker came when I had to pay $11 to park. More for a future column.

I spent a weekday on the "Bogie" with 20 bait casters within the first quarter-mile of the hatchery. Weekends, you have to bring your own rock to stand on.

I saw eight steelhead landed, four by the same guy. The biggest was about 10 pounds.

I spent a perfect morning on a perfect pebbly beach with washed-up sand dollars.

The water was free of weeds but, unfortunately, my hook stayed free of fish. Maybe that big ol' sea lion had something to do it.

I put in a couple hundred casts towards my next steelhead and found the beach that will provide my first sea-run cutthroat trout on my next trip.