I fished Clallam Bay Wednesday PM and Thursday AM. Eight Coho were landed, five hatchery and 3 wild. The hatchery fish were small, the wild fish weighed about 3-4 lbs. each (6-8 if you use Jere's weighing methodology). Instead of casting into the beach, all of these fish were caught out in the open water. This was an interesting change from the standard method I use in the Sound (Agate Passage). Locating the fish was easy. Two groupers of trolling anglers were located about a half of mile out in the Straight. Judging by the catch rates of the gear fishermen, there were lots of fish. There were no rips to work with, so I had to try different ways to catch the fish. I stared out by blind casting from a still boat. This produced 2 hatchery fish Wednesday evening. On Thursday I decided to try and cover more water - get the fly in front of more fish. I tried trolling the fly behind the boat. This was unsuccessful and boring. I may not have been trolling at the right speed. Then I figured to try combining the troll with the cast and strip method. This method proved productive right away. I set the kicker at a very slow speed (about 1 mph, sockeye speed) and cast abeam and then stripped the fly in. Most takes occurred as the fly swung in behind the stern. I tried different types of chartreuse and white clousers made from either; bucktail, fish hair and super hair (slightly crinkly). The most effective by far was clouser tied up from fish hair. This stuff shows up much brighter (more iridescent) in the water than either bucktail or super hair. Hopefully these coho will be showing in the Sound soon. Mike
