Steve Bohnemeyer and I hit the Stilly yesterday looking for coastal cutthroat. We chose Thursday as it appeared to be the last day of sun before the next Pacific storm hit. We chose well. Cool in the morning, we fished from the sunny side of the river. At the first spot, a place I've only fished for pinks, we found nothing but dinks. Went downstream and found nothing. Headed upstream from Arlington to the North Fork.
The water was clear and cold, the sun high and bright with some salmon broaching and a few cutts rising. Steve broke the ice with some cutts on a black spider. I missed a couple on a Percolator--they ignored the Elk Hair Caddis. A soft-hackle or mayfly emerger would have been a good bet, but they were resting quietly at home. I've been tying some 3-4" long flashabou baitfish patterns but needed to test them to make sure the fibers wouldn't wrap around the hook shank. One cutthroat took the pattern to task. Switch over to chartreuse clouser that Yakima River smallmouth love, as did one cutthroat. Switched to black reverse spider that got bit by a coho. Suddenly it was game on! While trying to get it to pose for a couple more photos, it decided to favor the other side of the river and took my only black spider with it.
Steve loaned me one so the catching continued. Not a lot of fish, but enough to keep us casting and exploring the next riffle and run. Just the way it should be on a stunningly beautiful day.
About Me
- The Fishing Writer
- First fly-caught fish was a trout on a Brown Bivisible 50 years ago. Aside from some years foolishly spent playing golf, I've been fishing ever since.