I first became aware of sea run cutthroat, Oncorhynchus Clarki Clarki as a teenager,
fishing along the shores of Hood Canal. We would troll pop gear and worms and just
have a ball. In my late teens, through the influence of my dad, I started fishing for
SRC with the fly rod and believe it or not, caught more fish on the fly than with bait.
Look for a section of beach with a good exchange of tide and golf ball size gravel. I
fish SRC much like I would trout on a small stream. Cast “downstream” abit, mend,
and let it dead drift. You will catch a lot of fish on the drift and the strike can be
somewhat subtle, so pay attention. Once your line is straight downstream, make
short retrieves, here’s where strikes are often very savage, so have soft fingers. A
common mistake while fishing for searuns is to ignore the shallows, I’ve caught many
many fish in knee deep water.
The waters within Puget Sound can produce searuns every month of the year.
Washington State laws require you to release all native fish, so check for that
adipose fin, but once you find a beach that has produced cutthroat, they will be
there time and time again, so make sure you use barbless hooks and practice sound
catch and release techniques.
Check out this months special searun fly pattern, I know you'll find that it works
Sea-run cutthroat trout:
