Tom, missed you at the spey clinic. You shoulda been at the beach sunday
afternoon. Here are the reports.
Leland.
Friday:
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
Saturday:
Whoooeeee, was it ever windy today. Series of blustery, rainy, squally
storms poured in from the south. I walked north with to escape the wind
with Tom Moore who drove down from Bellingham based on our hot reports. We
were out of the wind for a while except there were no fish. Smelling a
skunk day, we walked back south to Doc's. I had a little lunch and Tom
headed out. At 2pm, I headed back to the beach. I saw a fish jump about 30'
uptide of two guys casting just south of Doc's. A second (could have been
the first) fish jumped at about the same place. I picked up my leisurely
pace and sprinted down to the beach, stripping off line as I went. I
positioned myself about 30' uptide the last ring and made a cast straight
out from the beach. The belly formed and I let the fly swing toward the
last known jump, twitching all the way. A 15" silver struck and I brought
it to hand and released it. Two casts later, I wound it up and headed out
to meet my wife at Home Depot. I don't know, but I hope I didn't leave just
as it was getting to be that proverbially; "you shouldn't have left" good.
Leland.
Sunday:
Things were a bit better, fishing and weather wise, today. It seemed like a
newsgroup fish in. There was Wes Neuenschwander, Jeff Thomas, Gene Gudger,
Bill Hamilton, Rick Bell, Charlie Mastro and myself. It was fairly slow
from 11am to 4pm. At 4, the fish began showing up in small pods traveling
along the shoreline sipping, porpoising and free-jumping. They were
sometimes 20 feet off the beach, sometimes 80 feet and more often than not,
even further. I caught as many fish in the last hour and a half I fished
from 4-5:30, as I did the previous five hours. Six fish for 6 1/2 hours is
pretty slow in anybodys book, but they were nice sized silvers and the 18"
blackmouth was a good bit of fun.
Leland.
