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When most of the province is buried under
ice and snow many of us put away our fly-fishing gear
and unless you have access to a good steelhead stream
and can withstand the extreme cold, which I can not,
you are stuck repairing or maintaining gear and waiting
for break-up. Those of us who dwell near the coast however,
can do what I do; fish for ghosts.
Some of you might be saying "Well, Bill has finally
cracked." about now, but I promise you I haven’t. Much
of our coastline supports varying populations of sea-run
cutthroat trout. I refer to them as ghosts because you
can never be sure that the fish will show up or not
on any given day. There are, however, a few things that
will aid you in locating and catching these beautiful
trout. |
The best thing you can do to increase your chances of success
is talk to the fisheries officers at the Ministry of Environment,
Lands and Parks. They can tell you which areas support populations
of sea-runs. The trout are usually associated with the beaches
and estuaries of smaller streams, especially in the spring
when the salmon fry are migrating downstream. Information
on where populations of sea-runs exist will save you innumerable
hours spent searching fruitlessly for these fish in areas
they do not inhabit.
Investing in a cheap set of tide tables is the second best
thing you can do to give yourself an advantage. Sea-run cutthroats
show up during the late rising and flood tide. I assume that
this is because bugs and other goodies get caught up in the
rising water and smaller fish eat them. The sea-runs probably
follow these smaller fish into the shallows and gobble them
up as they cruise along. With this in mind, you can start
thinking about what patterns to tie up, or buy, which might
entice them to strike.
Sea-runs like to move, and they seldom stay in one spot for
more than a few minutes before cruising further down the beach.
Locating the schools is the greatest challenge and a good
pair of binoculars saves a great deal of walking.
Patterns for freshwater cutthroats are many and varied,
but patterns for sea-runs are few. Three standard patterns
for the ocean-going cutthroats that continue to work remarkably
well are the Mickey Finn, the Professor, and the rolled muddler.
The Mickey Finn and rolled muddler are small streamer patterns
that imitate baitfish. The Professor is a very old attractor
pattern that relies on an interesting quirk that the sea-runs
seem to have. Sea-run cutthroats, for some reason, seem to
be attracted to yellow hues. I have fished many different
patterns and colours when pursuing these fish and flies that
contain yellow or gold work best. Keep this in mind when designing
your own patterns.
My personal fly patterns are nothing more than slight variations
on a theme. I tie my flies on a nickel-plated or stainless
steel #6 or #8 3X long shank hook. The hook is often left
bare, but sometimes I’ll wrap on some silver chenille or opalescent
tubing. At the head I tie in bucktail of various colours ranging
from hot pink to navy blue, but I always start with a bit
of yellow and tie in the other colour(s) over that. That’s
it. These little streamers are some of the easiest flies in
the world to tie; the only pattern that is easier is the crystal
scud.
With the knowledge of where and when to go, and armed with
your killer flies, you can now venture out in pursuit of the
ghosts. When you arrive at your chosen location simply stand
and watch the water. If they are there, they won’t be very
far offshore, usually within 50 meters. Sea-run cutthroats
like to travel in small schools and will often break the surface
while feeding, usually in a rolling manner, but sometimes
jumping clear of the water, and this is a dead give-away as
to their location.
If after a few minutes you don’t see anything nearby, put
your binoculars to work.
Systematically search up and down the shoreline, looking
for signs of rolling fish. There’s not a lot of sense in fishing
the water blind for these trout. It is very seldom indeed
that I have caught one when I have not seen any surface disturbance
or jumps. Keeping this in mind, you may wish to wait them
out, or you can enter the water and cast blindly to pass the
time. There is no guarantee, however, that they will show
up at all and you might want to walk along the shore in search
of a school.
There’s not a lot of special skill required to catch these
trout. The toughest part of the whole game is finding them.
If you can find the cutthroats and get your fly out to them,
you will usually catch them. A point to keep in mind: these
are rare fish and one of the treasures of B.C. Barbless hooks
and catch and release are the order of the day (and the letter
of the law) when fishing for sea-run cutthroats. You may not
find them, and if you do you may not hook any, but one thing
is for sure, it beats staying home watching the television.
One last thing, when you’re fishing for the sea-run ghosts
. . . don’t get spooked.
Bill Luscombe has been hunting and fishing for most of his
42 years. He has been flyfishing for 20 years. He instructs
flyfishing, and has done so for the past 12 years. He also
instructs the federal FSET firearms course and the BC CORE
hunter training course. He is an award-winning outdoor writer
and has been writing freelance since 1987. He has been published
in BC Sport Fishing Magazine, Outdoor Edge, BC Outdoors, Western
Sportsman, Island Fish Finder, and the BC Hunting Guide.
Bill Luscombe was born an army brat and raised in Ladner
(Delta, BC) where he was raised hunting waterfowl and pheasants.
He presently resides in North Cowichan on southern Vancouver
Island where he has lived and worked full time as a professional
forester since 1982.
He presently works in Nanaimo for the BC Forest Service and
continue to write the fly-fishing column for BC Sport Fishing
Magazine as well as contributing articles freelance to various
outdoor magazines in western Canada.
Bill Luscombe is also a BC Director of the Northwest Outdoor
Writers Association. "Catching fish is not hard. You simply
need to understand what makes them tick. If you think like
a fish, you will catch fish. It’s as simple as that."- Bill
Luscombe
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