Sea-Run Cutthroat Flies

[Ian Horning]

Hey y'all,

After doing a bit of research and seeing firsthand how trout attack prey, I decided to tie some new flies up to increase the amount of hook-ups that come off of the "drive by" swinging and slashing of trout.

Anyone who's fished sea-run cutthroat probably has had this experience- stripping line back, to feel several violent tugs, but have no hookups. Strip-sets or raising the rod, doesn't matter... they just don't stick.

I was at the Meadowdale Beach Park last June, (a beautiful walk in beach) and this happened on three consecutive casts. The next cast, I felt no tugs, but instead was greeted by a 14 inch cutt following my clouser back to shore. I slowed down my retrieve a tad, and the fish swiped at my fly four times, but no hookup resulted. The fish really almost missed my fly or hit the tail section every time, thus it wasn't hooked.

I've had experiences like this before where the fish follow or hit and miss, and a couple times on the fifth or sixth hit I'll finally hook the fish. I even somehow got a 20 inch Sea-Run Bull trout to miss my presentation once last year, which is quite a feat. The second time I got him, thankfully those dudes are notoriously aggressive.

After seeing these "drive-by" and pecking type takes, I have gone to the drawing board to create flies that will hopefully increase hookup rates.
Here they are:

The "articulated" style hook should increase the amount of hookups off of short strikes and sweeps. I'm excited to see how flies like this will work. These two are a Sand Lace and a Chum Fry pattern. The sand lace could easily be a chum fry as well, but does kinda look like a slender, darting lace as well. Of course, barbless hooks are used.

Hopefully y'all can replicate these patterns and have success with them.

Tight, unbroken lines!
Ian

[The Quadfather]

Thanks for sharing the pics, Ian. I always appreciate a little fly fishing conversation on this board. As well as it makes me miss fishing the beach. I am only a few blocks from Carkeek park, and used to fish it often.
The flies look great.

[jonb]

Nice flies mr. Horning, those look great.

[Nerka]

Ian,
Those "stinger hooks" are the ticket. Sounds like those sea-runs are slashing at your fly as if to "stun" it before they go in for the kill.

[msmoke]

Those flies look the part, but do they work better than their non-articulated counterparts?

[Ian Horning]

Honestly I don't know. Cutthroat trout do stun their prey, but they also eat head first, so in many cases the articulated shank doesn't really add anything more. You will probably hook a couple more swipers than a standard hook. But, if you get swipes, pause, let the fly sink for a second as if stunned, then retrieve again. This can trigger feeding type hits.

[jonb]

Ive been doing really well on a size 6. Gold bead white uv leech, although im fishing streams here in bc instead of salt. Its been really really good lately.