I went out today to another favorite beach looking for cutts. This time, I found them big time.
I made my first cast at 9:30am, one hour after the moderate low of 6.2', 4 1/2 hours before the high slack of 11.9'. I fished until noon (maybe this will be of help to Ray re: Estuary Question). The wind and rain built steadily until I left. I waded out from the beach about 10 feet, put my back to the wind and made a first cast directly parallel to shore (9-o'clock), another at 10 0'clock and a third cast at 11 o'clock. I pulled the popper back to me slowly in short strips back up against the wind waves. After three casts, I walked down 5-10 feet and cast again. The casts at 9 and 10 o'clock did the trick (the ones out from the beach did not draw any strikes). I got relatively few follows. Instead I got thrashing, violent hits that were made all the more dramatic by the wind-whipped spray. Most of the fish were beautifully colored male cutts, some with beginnings of kypes. When they came out of the water, they looked every bit like brown trout. I was by myself, so I only have photos of cutts with poppers in their mouths lying next to a reel and rod. It was an awesome couple hours. Leland.
