(11/25/04) I went to a family Thanksgiving celebration
on Hood Canal this weekend. I couldn't believe my
luck. We stayed in a place about 9 miles up the road
from Belfair right on the canal. As I put my turn
signal on to turn into the driveway, I noticed a small
creek running out toward the beach. After we got
settled in, I walked out by the beach to check out the
fishing situation. By the debris on the beach, I could
tell that the tide was definitely down several feet.
As I was surveying the situation, a chum jumped two
times just off the beach. I tried to act casual as I
went back to the van to get my fishing equipment.
I strung up a dry line on my 8-weight rod with an 11'
leader. I tied on a chartreuse comet. The tide was
slowly starting to come in. I started fishing at about
11:30. I tossed the comet out to passing chum for
about an hour. I couldn't get any fish to take. They
were swimming by in singles and groups of up to 10
fish. At about 12:30 I tied on one of Leland's poppers
and worked my way up and down the beach. I tried
various fast/slow retrieves to no avail. I decided to
try a fly I had tied for pink salmon. It was a simple
woolly bugger tied with pink chenille and a pink
marabou tail on a size 6 barbless hook. Around 2:00, I
hooked a hard fighting fish. It was a large sea-run
cutthroat. I landed it and my dad snapped a couple of
pictures (luckily, my dad had seen me fighting the
fish and came out with the camera) and watched the
cutthroat swim off strongly. The fish looked like a
battle-hardened veteran. He was heavily spotted, his
back was a dark olive color. His golden sides had a
streak that looked almost like the pink stripe on a
rainbow trout. He had some sort of sea lice attached
to his back. I decided to give the little estuary a
break (actually me).
I took off my waders and sat enjoying the sunshine for
about half an hour. I was feeling a bit lazy, so I
decided to make a few casts without putting my waders
back on. After a few casts over the oyster vein off
the beach, I started working my way toward the sea
grass (eel grass?) near the mouth of the creek. Around
2:45 to 3:00, I got a hard strike. I couldn't believe
it, this fish was fighting noticeably harder than the
first one. It was another sea-run cutthroat. It was
smaller than the one I caught earlier, however it
fought much harder. This fish was a bright golden
colored hen. I'm guessing she was a hen by the shape
of her head and jaw. I decided to call it quits for
the day. What a day.
(11/26/04) I fished for an hour or so with no results.
I did manage to get a couple of pictures of a large
chum that I adopted as my fishing buddy. He showed up
nearby whenever I was wading.
(11/27/04) The family piled into a van for a tour of
the surrounding areas. We drove by the Tahuya River.
Yikes! There were guys lined up fishing there. We
drove around to Rendsland Creek. There was a bunch of
chum milling around near Rendsland Creek. The fish we
could spot from shore had seen better days. After
exploring a bit, we headed back around to the Dewatto
River. I would like to take a boat out and fish the
Dewatto Estuary some time. It was teeming with chum.
Every time we crossed the Dewatto we would stop and
look at the salmon spawning. We also saw numerous
lakes on this adventure. We made the loop back around
to Belfair and headed home to eat some more turkey.
Brent
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