Fished the Narrows yesterday with Leland and some friends. Morning
ebb was slow. Working south of the Narrows bridge down to Pt.
Fosdick, we saw only a couple of fish and had even less action.
Working back north, near the end of the ebb, scattered pods of working
coho picked up the action, at least occassionally. While swinging a
tandem candle fish streamer/#10 euphasid setup down through the flow
with short strips, I finally managed to hook and land a nice 14" coho,
hooked solidly on the euphasid. The fish was gorged on small
amphipods (pink, size 18-22), mixed with a few small euphasids (about
size 12) and the remains of an 1-1/2" candlefish. I clipped off the
streamer and retied the euphasid. During the remainder of the ebb I
hooked and lost a couple more fish in the tidal rip that had formed 40-60'
off the beach. At low slack I found a few other fly fishers working a still
cove area loaded with jumping and porpoising fish. The pool that had
formed during the slack tide was loaded with the small amphipods. A
couple of casts and I hooked and landed a very plump 16-17" coho.
Over the next couple of hours, working back up against the moderate
flood, I landed several other fish, all 14-15" long, in both the still water
close to shore or in the soft flow 50-80' out, and lost or missed a few
others. Many of the fish in the slack water were working within 20' of
the beach, taking the amphipods with soft dimpling rises. Around 5:00 I
headed back down to the rip area that held the sporadically working
pods of fish during the ebb earlier in the day. Fish were still working,
cruising up and down the beach in the tidal flow. Managed to beach a
couple more 14-15" coho before heading back. Total for the day: 8 nice
coho landed with about an equal number missed or lost.
-Wes
Wes Neuenschwander
Seattle, WA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
