Sea-run cutthroat workshop (April 22nd,2017)
Notes kindly contributed by John Pierce for those who missed the event
Four speakers: 1) Leland Miyawaki, 2) Richard Stoll 3) Jeffrey Delia, 4) Nick Clayton.
BIOLOGY & ECOLOGY
- Cutthroat very diverse, different from stream to stream
- Tell a Cutthroat by mouth which hinge goes well back past the eye & very spotty, varies by time year
- Habit same water as Flounder & Sculpins
- Generally, a very shallow water fish, thus top of fish takes on appearance of bottom substrate for camouflage
- Colour changes from fresh to saltwater
- Sides of fish turn silver once return to saltwater
- Small streams are life blood as where spawn and rear as small provides lots of protection (logs, branches), but a lot of competition with Coho Salmon.
- Issue for productivity is human development, ie roads, culverts, bridges, housing and structures,
- Salmon important as after die provide fertilizer/nutrients for Cutthroat, and in fall C love to eat salmon eggs and dead salmon flesh (as do trout). In spring like to eat juvenile.
- Migrate to salt water at 2-3 years of age, in larger river normally 3, may stay in river 6-8 months and stay in Estuary.
- Prefer structured substrate, ie rocks debris, oysters beds etc as that’s where food is, do not like mud or sand unless chasing salmon fry.
- Studies have found >50% recapture rate, thus when C find good fishing area they often stay there year-round.
- Thus catch & release v important, do not take out of water when catch are in anaerobic state, and when out of water, be careful with skin’s mucous disease stopping membrane as gets removed, and gills start collapsing.
FOOD
- Eat almost anything that swims or wiggles and can fit in mouth
- Love worms, favourite is Mussel (Piling, large centipede type) worms. One type of smaller worm after swarming for fertilization break up with red tails. Thus C love Epitoke flies with red tails.
- Love Chum Salmon fry which run into beach 2-3 in of water to escape predators.
- Love Herring Larvae when in season.
- Sand Lance and Surf Smelt tiny fish
- Clam necks (which when bite, retract so hard they break off
Rod
- Use 6 wt 9ft rod, floating line, 9 ft leader tapered to 0X thus very stout as hate losing flies and knots in leader are OK
- Use 6 wt 10ft, fast action, as easy on shoulder and can place fly
- Put markers on rod to measure length of fish.
- Fast action allows doe wind larger flies and larger fish
- Rarely used to fight fish, just for holding line,
- Like sealed drag as less corrowion
- Rinse at end of day
- Stripping Basket
- Do not use (for seaweed etc) for floating line.
- Definitely use for sinking line for better casting distance, line no tangle on rocks barnacles etc. Ryobi basket collapsible for in boat
- Use, for warmth, big waves from tanker, breathable good.
- Floating for shallow water.
- Sinking for Boat trolling ocean
- Overweight rod ir 7 line for 6 road and can cast further with single haul and less effort.
- Fish sinking lines 98% as less disturb by surface wind on slack line and put rod tip under water so that can tell strike straightaway. Like shooting head lines with short clear non-tapered leaders, 4-8 8 lb max.
- 9 ft Ox and add 1-2 ft tippet. Fluorocarbon shreds on barnacles but still works and thus recommended, whereas monofilament nicks, can’t see then fails under stress and lose fish and fly.
- Many people say C are not leader shy, heavier allows fish to be landed quickly, ie 8 pound and holds up better to knots/damage.
- Tackle Bag - Fishpond brand waterproof bag to protect kit
- Fingerless Glove – Yes as salt tears up hand while stripping.
- Line Cleaner
- Used Fly Box
- Holes in bottom to drain water, for used flys, do not put back with unused flies as contaminate and corrode.
- Take home wash in fresh water, dry on countertop overnight put back in new box.
FLY - MATERIALS
FLY - TYPES
- Fluorescence
- Takes light to fluoresce, thus not phosphorous
- See blue side of spectrum (as water), less red part of spectrum. Fly tying use F materials, but check under light that material actually do f.
- Leland Miyaky popper dry fly, technically is a slider as to imitate a wounded bait fish.
- Haig-Brown Silver Brown fly
- Clouser Minnow fly
- Chum fry patterns
- Worm flies during Chum fly hatch
- Conehead Shrimp
- Terrestrials – ie to match ants
- 98% of time start with Chartreuse coloured Clouser, > Delia Squids, Squimps
- Have confidence in your fly, fly pattern matters little.
- C selective only during Chum Fry migration
- Tough part is finding fish, not gear.
- Change fly size
- 90% flies on 4-6 size hooks, 8-10 for squids
- Tube flies are good as easy to change hook size and to remove hook.
- Estuary & Saltwater Shoreline
- Habitat is where substrate has baseball size cobbled rocks or oyster bed etc. Sand bad, except eel grass which provides habitat. Decent slope, rocky structure, proximity to deepwater.
- Kelp beds good, beach cast out to beds, cast into holes in kelp and fish will come up.
- Proximity to freshwater is good, even small.
- C like walking speed current and points help create current (identify on Google Maps prior to trip).
- Private beach, ask if use or take boat.
- Exploring new beach is fun, first time watch/study for 15 min, ie other fisherman, jumping fish, walking speed of current is perfect, look for bait fish / nervous water. Rips, current seams, look for birds and where and how they are fishing.
Season
- Winter: Good.
- Summer: More salmon.
- Bright sun, no cloud calm water is very hard is bad, best is cloudy little ripple.
- Storm - Before good, after can be good unless clearing water.
- Foggy day is good.
- Rain is good.
- Stormy windy is good, as big trout come out first 15 min looking for stuff blown into lake.
- Night OK, can light up fluoresce with flashlight and then cast.
- Lean to read and understand tide table as drive C fishing.
- Fish a moving tide in or out, when tide changes (every 6 hrs), have nap onshore.
- Want 8-10 ft tides, not 2 or 13 ft tides.
- Favourite is outgoing high tide
- Fish low tide and make notes of impressions, obstructions etc where bait fish and thus C will hang out.
- Always fish clear water, don’t fish cloudy or brown water.
- Waves – Ok but best is small swells and ripples.
- Cast into wind.
- After cast, reach forward and pinch line between finger and thumb as fish may grab immediately
- Don’t walk initially into water as may disturb C immediately at shore
- Walk along beach and cast, repeat walk & cast to tell where to fish. Stay on the move until fish are found.
- Look for nervous water signally fish and cast to it. Look for seams in water.
- Use wind to your advantage. If N wind then start S. Keep wind to your back to help casting
- Start 20 ft cast and fish at different angles, then further out until 40ft.
- Fan 180 degrees to beach, money cast is 11PM angle.
- From water, learn to cast fly onto beach and twitch fly into water
- High tide cast down beach, if can’t see bottom then too deep.
- Quartering cast and get a belly in line and popper is moving and strip slowly to give fish chance to jump on to it.
- Get more action when stripping flies.
- Very your retrieve method, some days fast moving, others twitch, so trial.
- Strip back all the way to leader.
- Slack line is enemy, keep rod tip low or in water.
- When C strike, best to continue stripping. If can’t get out of bad habit (for C), then put rod under arm and two hand strip.
- Learn to strip set fly, hardest thing to do.
- When see big v wake behind fly, strip faster until fish strikes.
- When bringing fish into net, often get trailer fish, don’t grab net, grab rod
- No replacement for time on water.
- Can lead to water but cannot make him catch fish.
- Only as good as last thing you do.
- Be the bait, think bait. Be the fish, think as the fish.
- Always watch your fly to see action.
- Bull Trout (eat fish) and Dolly Varden (high streams) are identical in appearance, Biologists say different. Bull trout in Oregon wait for stocking truck
Reference Books
- Sea Run Cutthroat by Richard Stott
- FlyFishing.com forum, read lots.
This is a response from our guest Jeffrey Delia addressed to Dave Lock
Hi Dave,
I know a lot of folks don't like to go on Facebook so I thought I would send you a copy of this morning's Facebook posting so that you might share with some of your club members. I included A group of photos on my Facebook page but haven't figured out how to get them all sent to you, yet.
I'd appreciate it if you would encourage any of your members and fishing friends to send me a friend request on Facebook if they would like to see my photos and read my postings from time to time. I think the best way is just to send a friend request to Jeffrey Delia Facebook.
As you will read in my posting I had a wonderful time and look forward to coming back and maybe doing a Flytying workshop sometime in the near future. Thank you again for your wonderful Canadian hospitality.
Jeffrey
Border Crossings
I'm feeling relieved and rejuvenated waiting to go through the Victoria B.C. customs and on to the Blackball ferry to Port Angeles and home after the weekend Cutthroat fly fishing and fly tying workshop at the Haig-Brown Fly Fishing Association, with Richard Stoll, Leland Miyawaki, Nick Clayton, and myself as guest speakers and fly tiers for the event.
The event went off without nary a glitch and about as smooth as releasing a big cutthroat trout back into the wild.
We were treated like fish rock stars with drivers ferrying us around Victoria to and from the workshop with all our expenses covered and a morning fishing on some beautiful prime cutthroat waters before we had to say goodbye to our new Canadian fishing friends. I got a chance to fish with my new friend Len Steves who is the author of cutthroatsgalore.com, a somewhat controversial(try it, you'll like it)and very well written site about the politics and joy of cutthroat fishing in British Columbia.
Once we made it across the border we were whisked away by an underground fly club member who introduced himself as John, no last name, just in case the border patrol found us dining on smoked sockeye Eggs Benedict at our first fuel stop. After feeding us, (I can eat a lot of smoked sockeye Benedict) there was no time to change into our cutthroat camo gear so we headed to a pre-arranged meeting spot where we were set up with state of the art, spy-like microphones and paraded around in front of a large group of very enthusiastic cutthroat enthusiasts.
Our comrades had the latest digital technology and soon my fears of my own lack of digital competency were replaced with a feeling of confidence and composure, ready to give our Canadian cutthroat comrades all we could in the scheduled six hour workshop.
We were all introduced with a rallying round of applause by none other than Dave Lock, head honcho of the workshop and weekend escape to Victoria. Richard Stoll spoke first and got the crowd going with excerpts and photos from his most recent book on sea-run cutthroat trout, followed by Leland Miyawaki who had the crowd floating on thin air with stories and photos of cutthroat, bull trout, and Coho Salmon slamming his famous miyawaki beach popper. After a short intermission I was next and tried to tell the all-ears crowd everything I've learned about cutthroat fishing in Puget Sound in the last 30 or so years in just under 45 minutes, along with enough color photos to fill a coffee table book.
Nick Clayton was the last man standing and did a great job of keeping the crowd interested with his enthusiastic presentation of a high speed retrieve style of cutthroat and coho fly fishing.
After a five minute standing ovation(I'm kidding) that cut into the allotted fly tying time we set up our vices(Fly tying vices) and tied a few top secret, well known Puget Sound cutthroat and coho fly patterns before it was time to end the show and say goodbye to one of the most enthusiastic crowds we've ever been in front of.
Once again we were whisked away with our own private drivers to freshen up at the hotel before sampling some of that great Canadian whiskey, wine, and beer followed by dinner hosted by the Haig-Brown Fly Fishing Association members, Club President Ken Marsh, Organizer extraordinaire Dave Lock, Fly tiers/fishermen drivers John Braybrook and Pat George. The only thing missing to make the evening a complete success were club members Mike Edgell, James Tepoorten, and Barry Freeman the tech guys who made it all happen as smooth as a silk fly line.
Sunday morning we each went off for a couple hours of Canadian cutthroat flyfishing with our assigned guides to secret spots we all promised not to give up in fear of losing our passports at the border.
None of us caught any cutthroat this morning but the scenery and company were spectacular, although I did hear that Leland had a Canadian cutthroat chasing his popper and Nick had a bump on his wet fly, Richard and I went fishing but no catching.
After a classic lunch of English fish and chips in Victoria Harbor, Richard and Leland took a nap, no surprise there if you know these guys, Nick visited with Dave Lock while club president Ken Marsh graciously escorted me into downtown Victoria looking for the famous Dutch bakery and Belgium chocolate store that I had been dreaming about since we were first invited over the border. Both stores, unfortunately were closed on Sunday but Ken found a small bakery where I was able to bring back some thick crust European-style Ryebread but no Belgium chocolates!
Next time, and I know there will be a next time, I'll satisfy my Jones on Saturday and hopefully tie flies on Sunday if our new Canadian flyfishing friends will have us back over the border sooner than later.
4/27/2017
This is a response from our guest Jeffrey Delia addressed to Dave Lock
Hi Dave,
I know a lot of folks don't like to go on Facebook so I thought I would send you a copy of this morning's Facebook posting so that you might share with some of your club members. I included A group of photos on my Facebook page but haven't figured out how to get them all sent to you, yet.
I'd appreciate it if you would encourage any of your members and fishing friends to send me a friend request on Facebook if they would like to see my photos and read my postings from time to time. I think the best way is just to send a friend request to Jeffrey Delia Facebook.
As you will read in my posting I had a wonderful time and look forward to coming back and maybe doing a Flytying workshop sometime in the near future. Thank you again for your wonderful Canadian hospitality.
Jeffrey
Border Crossings
I'm feeling relieved and rejuvenated waiting to go through the Victoria B.C. customs and on to the Blackball ferry to Port Angeles and home after the weekend Cutthroat fly fishing and fly tying workshop at the Haig-Brown Fly Fishing Association, with Richard Stoll, Leland Miyawaki, Nick Clayton, and myself as guest speakers and fly tiers for the event.
The event went off without nary a glitch and about as smooth as releasing a big cutthroat trout back into the wild.
We were treated like fish rock stars with drivers ferrying us around Victoria to and from the workshop with all our expenses covered and a morning fishing on some beautiful prime cutthroat waters before we had to say goodbye to our new Canadian fishing friends. I got a chance to fish with my new friend Len Steves who is the author of cutthroatsgalore.com, a somewhat controversial(try it, you'll like it)and very well written site about the politics and joy of cutthroat fishing in British Columbia.
Once we made it across the border we were whisked away by an underground fly club member who introduced himself as John, no last name, just in case the border patrol found us dining on smoked sockeye Eggs Benedict at our first fuel stop. After feeding us, (I can eat a lot of smoked sockeye Benedict) there was no time to change into our cutthroat camo gear so we headed to a pre-arranged meeting spot where we were set up with state of the art, spy-like microphones and paraded around in front of a large group of very enthusiastic cutthroat enthusiasts.
Our comrades had the latest digital technology and soon my fears of my own lack of digital competency were replaced with a feeling of confidence and composure, ready to give our Canadian cutthroat comrades all we could in the scheduled six hour workshop.
We were all introduced with a rallying round of applause by none other than Dave Lock, head honcho of the workshop and weekend escape to Victoria. Richard Stoll spoke first and got the crowd going with excerpts and photos from his most recent book on sea-run cutthroat trout, followed by Leland Miyawaki who had the crowd floating on thin air with stories and photos of cutthroat, bull trout, and Coho Salmon slamming his famous miyawaki beach popper. After a short intermission I was next and tried to tell the all-ears crowd everything I've learned about cutthroat fishing in Puget Sound in the last 30 or so years in just under 45 minutes, along with enough color photos to fill a coffee table book.
Nick Clayton was the last man standing and did a great job of keeping the crowd interested with his enthusiastic presentation of a high speed retrieve style of cutthroat and coho fly fishing.
After a five minute standing ovation(I'm kidding) that cut into the allotted fly tying time we set up our vices(Fly tying vices) and tied a few top secret, well known Puget Sound cutthroat and coho fly patterns before it was time to end the show and say goodbye to one of the most enthusiastic crowds we've ever been in front of.
Once again we were whisked away with our own private drivers to freshen up at the hotel before sampling some of that great Canadian whiskey, wine, and beer followed by dinner hosted by the Haig-Brown Fly Fishing Association members, Club President Ken Marsh, Organizer extraordinaire Dave Lock, Fly tiers/fishermen drivers John Braybrook and Pat George. The only thing missing to make the evening a complete success were club members Mike Edgell, James Tepoorten, and Barry Freeman the tech guys who made it all happen as smooth as a silk fly line.
Sunday morning we each went off for a couple hours of Canadian cutthroat flyfishing with our assigned guides to secret spots we all promised not to give up in fear of losing our passports at the border.
None of us caught any cutthroat this morning but the scenery and company were spectacular, although I did hear that Leland had a Canadian cutthroat chasing his popper and Nick had a bump on his wet fly, Richard and I went fishing but no catching.
After a classic lunch of English fish and chips in Victoria Harbor, Richard and Leland took a nap, no surprise there if you know these guys, Nick visited with Dave Lock while club president Ken Marsh graciously escorted me into downtown Victoria looking for the famous Dutch bakery and Belgium chocolate store that I had been dreaming about since we were first invited over the border. Both stores, unfortunately were closed on Sunday but Ken found a small bakery where I was able to bring back some thick crust European-style Ryebread but no Belgium chocolates!
Next time, and I know there will be a next time, I'll satisfy my Jones on Saturday and hopefully tie flies on Sunday if our new Canadian flyfishing friends will have us back over the border sooner than later.
4/27/2017