Fished The Narrows yesterday with Sean Ransom. Arrived at Doc's around
10:30 to the sight of a large trailer parked at the far end of the lot
emblazoned with a "South Sound Fly Fishers" banner. Several club guys
taking a break in the lot, everyone looking pretty laid back; things looking
pretty slow.
Fortunately there's a lot of beach and everyone one was pretty well spread
out. We worked down toward Pt Fosdick, taking advantage of the rapidly
ebbing 4.5' tide to round the points and downed trees. Very few fish
spotted until just before the turn of the low tide when the first decent
school of coho I've seen this year came porpoising through about 60' off the
beach. We fished small euphasid/amphipod imitations - of varying sizes and
colors, and with various lines and retrieves - for nearly two hours to these
cruising fish with only a single take. In addition to being extremely
fussy, they were also acutely line shy, typically tolerating only one or two
casts before they dived and dispersed. Very frustrating. We did manage to
collect several small copepods (they were fairly abundant) and one small
amphipod from the slack water nearest shore. The amphipod was 1/4 long with
a pronounced pink color (especially through the abdominal and thoracic
cavity). The copepods were a dark yellowish-olive and came in two distinct
sizes: about 1/16" and 1/8" (with bodies extended).
At low slack, the pods scattered and the cruising pattern shifted to a more
aimless wandering through the large slack water pools that had formed along
the shoreline. Very skittish fish; one cast and they were gone. Finally
managed to get one good tug on a small baitfish imitation, and then by the
first of the flood it was all over. Walked back to the parking lot, talking
to several club anglers who reported the same thing: not many fish and even
fewer takes.
Spent the rest of the day exploring new waters, finally finding reasonable
numbers of less picky fish (including some cutthroat) in a nice little bay
nearby.
-Wes
Wes Neuenschwander
Seattle, WA USA
