Hood Canal

The Big One

/ Captain Justin / Leave a comment

IMG_0030We all dream of catching the biggest fish of any species.  Wether it is a 40″ Musky, a 200lb Tarpon, or a 20″ Sea Run Cutthroat.  We all want the story of the big one.  Here’s the thing though, in the pursuit of all of these beastly creatures, we have to commit to the cause.

I have been fortunate to guide hundreds and hundreds of people onto a great deal of Sea Run Cutthroat, we have caught quite a few in that 20-22″ range, and a couple that have even been closer to 24″.  However a great deal of those fish were caught because I had those special guys who just said “I want the big one today!” or “I want to go where you want to fish today!” Almost the entirety of those clients were fishing with me for the second or third time and were tired of hearing me tell stories about the epic ones and wanted to see it for themselves.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

When pursuing the biggest fish in Puget Sound we need all the pieces of the puzzle to come together.  All big fish need a steady flow of food, so Oyster beds, Eel Grass beds, or Kelp forest, to hold bait need to be coupled with good tidal flow near by.

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The next thing needed to grow big fish is shelter from predation.  This can be in the form of big boulders to hide in, a steep drop off to spook off, or some other form of structure that the fish can use to escape or hide from seals, eagles, or other predators.  A big Sea Run Cutthroat is a lot of protein for Lucy the harbor seal to crunch down on.

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The last consideration we think of when targeting the biggest Sea Run Cutthroat is kind of two fold.  We need the conditions to be right.  We need an area that has a steady turn over of tidal water to keep the temperature nice and cold, this allows cutthroat to continue hunting vigorously year round, and keeps them nice and happy to chase a fly down and eat it.  Also we need a condition in which the fish are not constantly pressured by anglers.  I want to know that the fish we are fishing for are not being harassed and put down by Captain Zander and his clients.  Thats why we don’t mind sending each other business, but we don’t share our GPS coordinates.  Cold, clean, and undisturbed water is paramount to growing fat, happy sea trout.

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These considerations have helped us put the biggest fish in the net for the last 6 years in Puget Sound.  Now let’s go put this to the test!

Captain Justin Waters

Wilderness

/ Captain Justin / Leave a comment

 

I have always been the guy that gets obsessed. I obsess over the details of anything I become passionate about. When I first became obsessed with the idea of becoming a fishing guide I decided I wanted to first become the best casting instructor I could be. If you have come fishing with me in the last 10 years you probably have noticed, I can’t help but point out the little things you can do to become a better caster. It’s because I spent my rent money and moved into a car to take casting lessons from as many instructors as I could. Not because I couldn’t cast (I did get WAY better) but because I wanted to see all of the different ways someone could teach how to cast a fly line.

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My recent obsession has been finding the most wild places to catch sea run cutthroat within the Puget Sound and Hood Canal. Some of the places we found are a bit of a run to some pretty fantastic spots. We left from Alderbrook a couple of days ago and fished some of my favorite pieces of water on the entire Hood Canal. I don’t go to these places every day, you can’t walk here, there are places to catch fish on the way, however when I get the urge to find some wilderness we make the extra run, and these fish NEVER see other flies.

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The first spot we stopped is the Cliff Creek (thats what I call it, not it’s name.) and we found quite a few smaller fish munching on Chum Fry, this was a good first stop to get the skunk off and get in the groove of catching fish. Also a good spot to get the dirty jokes started for the day. The fish were ultra aggressive, we just never found any size here.

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We then went full on committed to finding big fish, and that is what we did. We lost the first one, it always FEELS like thats the biggest one of the day! However after that we seemed to be on a roll of big solid sea trout! Finding big Sea Run Cutthroat seems to always happen if we commit to the cause, and I couldn’t of asked for a boat of better guys for the job. Thank you guys!Tylerimig2

Fish On!

/ Captain Justin / Leave a comment

The last week has been an emotional roller coaster of weather. Proving why you should never waste a beautiful day here in Western Washington.

Brita and I planned on fishing Monday and we left the day open, we woke up early to the nicest day of the year, ran the boat up to the north and got into some nice fish! We saw plenty of wildlife, with porpoise, seals, whales, and a outrageous amount of bald eagles. We do not get to fish together as often as we would like, however when we do we remember why we will never leave our home on Puget Sound.

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Our beach guide Brita Fordice

On Tuesday the weather decided “Remember how you thought it was spring… Wrong!” and we never got out of the foggy mist that the pacific northwest fly fishing is known for. However we caught fish from the time we made our first stop till the end of the day when the wind decided to pick up. Fishing was just fantastic! That Tuesday night the rain started, and Wednesdays clients toughed it out and were rewarded with some nice fish, we didn’t catch the same numbers as Tuesday, however the fish we caught were big, and they were happy! From then on, its been back to the windy rainy spring of doom. It’s supposed to start letting up early next week and we are back on the water then!

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Morning Coffee at Alderbrook

The Chum fry migration has not let up a bit, we are starting to see bigger chum fry and the early bait is starting to move off the bank a bit as they become better swimmers, so we are starting to see the fish spread out down the shorelines. We are also starting to see the birds catching on to the chum fry a bit better this week and they are starting to point out the pods of bait, this means faster run and gun style fishing in the months to come!

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Big North Sound Searun Bulltrout

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Sea Run Cutthroat from under a bait ball of Chum Fry

Dare I say Spring?

/ Captain Justin / Leave a comment

 

all-waters_logo_colors-03I am hesitant to say it, however I think we are finally starting to get some spring weather. I have spent two whole days on the water this past week without being rained on! Oh yeah, and the chum fry are pouring from the rivers!

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We have been spending most of our time on the Hood Canal, from Twanoh State Park through Quilcene Bay. Mostly meeting up in the morning at Seabeck General Store or at Alderbrook Lodge and the fishing has been great! This past week we have even had some great weather to enjoy with the great fishing!

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What we have been finding when chasing the cutthroat keyed in on Chum fry is that after a certain point in the day they have been gorged on the bait. We can watch the fish react to the fly however they become lazy and we have to fish very slowly to them. So our method has been to strip long twitchy slow retrieves through the schools of bait and this has resulted in soft, halfhearted attacks from the cutthroat OR what has seemed to work better is to bring the boat out in front of the schools by a few 100′ and fish to the fish who have not been gorging on fry for the last week. Thats when we get our crushing takes that we have all become accustomed to with Sea Trout fishing.

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Puget Sound has been starting to pick up with the Cutthroat fishing, however it is still a bit early for the lights out fishing in the areas we mainly focus on, so we will be staying on the Hood Canal for the next couple of weeks and enjoying the more remote fishing!

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