SEA-RUN CUTTHROAT trout don’t typically inspire the same sort of crowds as their salmon counterparts.
Still, a day targeting the anadromous trout is often much more eventful, largely because cutthroat are voracious feeders.
The right dry fly presentation will often produce a fair amount of action on West End rivers during the summer months.
Once the October Caddis hatch begins — as often happens in September, oddly enough — things really start to heat up for the fly fishers on rivers like the Sol Duc and Hoh.
But one certainly doesn’t have to wait until then to start hooking cuts, according to Dave Steinbaugh of Waters West Fly Fishing Outfitters (360-417-0937) in Port Angeles.
“Anybody who has been waiting for the fishing to get good has been missing out,” Steinbaugh said.
“It’s been a good summer.”
Curt Reed, who also works at Waters West, went out to the upper Sol Duc on Wednesday and hooked a couple of nice cuts on Green Drake flies.
Anglers can also dead drift a variety of other dry flies — Golden Stones and Spruce Flies are also effective — as well as skate flies on top of the water.
The latter gives anglers the added bonus of targeting summer steelhead at the same time they’re going after cuts.
I’ve never experienced it, but I’ve been told that seeing an eight- or 10-pound steelhead rise to take a skated fly is a one-of-a-kind experience.
While the same rising action from a cutthroat isn’t quite as dramatic — a larger cut only measures out to 14-18 inches — it’s certainly a lot less challenging to pull off.
My own trips to the Sol Duc have produced a fair amount of action.
If the fish are around, all it takes is the slightest twitch on a dead drifted Caddis to get cutthroat to rise.
Reed said he saw the beginnings of a Caddis hatch during his day on the Duc earlier this week, but it has yet to truly start.
“We’re still a little ways out from the main hatch, I’d say about three weeks,” Reed said.
“We’re getting close, and certainly the cutthroat fishing is improving out there, for early sea-runs as well as resident ones.
“The sea-runs are getting close, and it should just keep heating up all the way into September.”
Reed said cuts can be found on rivers throughout the Peninsula around then.
Depending upon the amount of water available, larger rivers like the Hoh and Quillayute System tributaries may see its runs begin earlier than smaller streams like the Pysht, Lyre and Hoko.
“They’ve been coming into the Hoh in decent numbers,” Reed said.
“The smaller that [the river] is, typically they are going to come in a little later. So some of the smaller creeks . . . it might not get good until October.
“The larger rivers, we’re seeing them coming in starting right now and that will just continue to get better.”
Salmon closure
Coastal kings have been given an early reprieve by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Anglers must release any chinook caught in the state’s ocean waters beginning next Monday.
The season was originally set to last through Sept. 18 in Marine Area 3 (LaPush) and 4 (Neah Bay), but the state estimates show coastal anglers are nearing the overall harvest quota for chinook.
The requirement to release chinook salmon in those waters does not affect fishing for hatchery coho or other salmon species.
“Catch rates in the ocean for chinook salmon have been strong throughout much of the season, but we still have substantial numbers of coho remaining under the quota,” state salmon policy coordinator Pat Pattillo said in a news release.
“This change allows anglers to continue catching coho, while ensuring catch limits for chinook will not be exceeded.”
As of last weekend, coastwide catch totals for the recreational salmon fishery had reached 90 percent of the overall chinook guideline of 30,100 fish, according to Pattillo.
Barring any further actions, other ocean salmon fisheries are currently scheduled to continue through Sept. 18 in Areas 3 and 4.
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Matt Schubert is the outdoors and sports columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column regularly appears on Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.