Our June club meeting featured local fly fishing guide, Colin Flanagan, speaking to us about fishing for searun cutthroat and coho salmon around Whidbey Island and its surroundings. For those of you not able to attend the meeting, watch the video of Colin's presentation below.
Day dreamer that I can be, I was slow to get the video camera running, thus missing the first part of Colin's presentation: North Sound Cutthroat and Bull Trout. Here are my notes on that portion of the presentation.
North Sound Cutthroat:
- They spend most of their time in the large rivers, moving out to the salt water for June through
October.
- Concentrate on the east side of Whidbey Island, generally north of Greenbank. Strawberry Point
and Ala Spit are good spots, but and point or cobble shoreline can be productive.
- Cutthroat like strong currents. Tide differentials of eight feet or more are ideal.
- While beach fishing can be productive, having a boat give you the ability to move from place to
place easily and gives you access to more fish-holding locations. The Cornet Bay boat launch is
one of the best to use because it is suitable for launching/landing at any tide. Other launches
can be difficult or impossible to reach at low tide.
Bull Trout in the Salt Water:
- The most productive months are April, May, and the first half of June, but don't overlook even
the cold winter months. Those calm days in January can produce some nice fish.