Spring Cutthroat on the Panhandle

As the steelhead season in Southeast winds down, another season is just getting going. This may be my favorite time of year when it comes to cutthroat. That is the spring fry feast. Cutthroat returning to the rivers to spawn meet salmon fry migrating down towards the saltwater and gorge themselves. It is an exciting time to be a fly fisherman, especially when the surface of the water is exploding with feeding cutthroat rushing fry to the surface.

Start out with a stainless steel hook (it doesn't have to be stainless but it's nice when fishing close or in the saltwater) between size 2-6. I also started tying some on tubes last year and using a size 4 or 6 OPST barbless swing hook and had great results with that. Add on some eyes. Use some bucktail or faux bucktail as a wing and there you have the simplest form of this fly. When the cutthroat are on a tear they aren't real picky this time of year. Once in a while though, especially towards the end of the season, they can start turning their nose up at the simple patterns and want something that looks a little more sophisticated and a little more natural. That's when you want to have something with a little flash or maybe a couple strands of peacock herl over the back, just anything to give it a little something extra to entice a fish to bite.

Finding fish isn't too hard. Just look for the same things you do the rest of the year like deep pools or a log or rock for cover. However, since they are focused in on salmon fry, they can be found up shallow as well. I still have the mental image of a big 14 incher we spooked as we were bringing the boat to shore one day. He was cruising the beach in about 10 inches of water searching for his next meal. So if the pools aren't producing like normal maybe give the edges a cast or two just in case.

How I fish depends on the water I am fishing. In slow-moving and deeper pools I will strip the fly in. An eradicate strip retrieve works best for me. Something along the lines of small strip, big strip, rest, couple fast strips, big strip, rest, forget to stop stripping, leader ends up on the tip of the rod is typical for me. A dead drift can also be effective in slow water but not often enough for me to want to do it. If I am fishing a faster-moving run, I will usually swing the fly through and have had great results with that. Sometimes I will pepper in a few strip retrieves but usually have the best results when swinging in faster water.

I like using my 3 weight Blue Halo rod or my 4 weight Echo rod (the link is at the bottom of the page to buy it on amazon). I used an OPST commando smooth 150gr this last year for line and absolutely loved it. If you don't want to go that route, the Airflo Indicator line is another great choice if you are somewhere that you need to roll cast. A tippet is unnecessary for these fish so just a straight 10 lb test mono leader 7-9 feet long is what I use. It's pretty hard to beat maxima line around here.

Good luck this spring and let me know how you do!

Product Links