03/13/2024
COULDN'T SLEEP...
Thinking about those beautiful spring coastal cutthroat lumbering along the shores of nearby Hood Canal.
For fun, courtesy of my friends at All-Waters.com, here's a few tips for my local fishing buddies, to help get your big fish this spring!
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Search for deep pockets on shallow flats. We've found fish school up on the deep pockets of a flat on outgoing tide.
Try big flies on the deeper shorelines. We've had multiple smaller cutthroat stollen by larger cutthroat in the last few weeks. I promise, a 4-5″ baitfish is not too big to be gobbled down by a 18-24″ cutthroat.
Your go-to beach is dead? It’s time to look on a map and fish your way toward the closest likely spawning creek. It’s that time of year where the fish are getting ready to head to the bedroom. They are eating any bait they find on the way there. (I know, it's so romantic how they go to dinner before they...you know.)
We've stalked trout all over Hood Canal in the past few weeks, and truthfully, in places I haven't fished much. We recently started on a shoreline we fished 100 times, and ended up catching fish miles away from where we started.
Keep an open mind in early spring and be prepared to learn some new tricks of the craft.
Let the fish tell you where they are. We're not catching one fish this time of year. If you find a single fish, there's going to be a dozen more where it came from. In early spring fish stick together!
If you make a handful of casts and don’t find anything, keep moving until you find them. Then once you find fish, methodically pick through the piece of water to find the rest.
Finally, dress for success! Don't under-dress when getting out on the water. It’s simple, really. You're not going to fish intelligently if the entire time you're worried about how cold you are.
Tight lines...
