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[clarki]

Yep, estuary fishing (google it).

Not to be a nit picking hair splitter, but not all beach fishing is estuary. Cutthroat can range several miles (once source I read said up to 10 miles) from their natal streams so a productive beach will have the right conditions but not necessarily be in the estuary. Same for salmon.

But speaking of estuaries, IMHO Steve Raymond's "The Estuary Flyfisher" is excellent and holds a spot in my own library.

[Every Day]

Steely that's awesome! Thanks for the feedback on the pattern, and glad it worked as well for you as it did for me.

First time I ever used the pattern off the beach is was experimental. I ended up landing 6 springs off the beach that day plus multiple flounders, cutties, cabezon, and like you a coho. Right then I know I had a winner. Has produced constantly off the beach for me and I can't remember a time being skunked while using it.

I originally was just trying to do my own version of a "Christmas Tree" pattern (you can see that from the recipe list of colours - gold, green, red), but the colour when wet in the water was different and almost a translucent fishy colour that I could see from far off (and the coho/cutties loves it). Worked as a small flash fly in the rivers originally. For springs off the beach I kinda imagine a hootchie and went with that. I knew this colour combo worked well so I tied it into a hootchy style fly that was long. Noticed in the water it made a perfect needle fish pattern and when tied in blue almost matched the colour perfectly. It worked and that's all that has mattered.

Good job on the beach springs, probably one of the hardest fisheries to accomplish and do well at IMO. Took me a long while to figure it out.

Cheers,
Dan

[Sandman]

Yes, it is a great pattern Dan.  I have always been partial to the blue needlefish patterns and hearing this I thought I would give the green a try tonight.  Three small fish hooked in a couple of hours before dark at high tide.  I had thought the first was a sea run cuttie but and took this picture:


I know it is a lousy picture, but I was perched precariously on a rock and did not want to drop my iPhone in the water.  After releasing it I hooked another about the same size, and I  took a closer look.  No orange slash, very few spots and clearly white gums...these were small immature coho.  All three were under two pounds and all caught on a green needle fish pattern.

[Every Day]

Hey Sandman!

Glad to hear of the success!

I was always partial to blue since the colour of this fly with blue flash (I can post the variation materials if you guys want) literally looks exactly the colour and length, and even the shape of the needle fish I've seen on the beaches and in the bellies of fish. Ever since switching to green though, and the success I have had with it off the beaches and in the rivers, I keep going back to it and the blue is on the back-burner.

Maybe it is something to do with how the needle fish's sides reflect under water (maybe it's more of a greenish reflection under water, rather than the bluish/grey tint we see above?), or maybe it's just them seeing something different that has the right size/profile. Maybe it just annoys them? I guess I'll never really know but it does really catch their attention.

The one thing I have noticed is that the small BLUE pattern out fishes anything else I've ever tossed for chinook in the RIVERS. I have literally had 5 or 6 chinook peel off schools on the first pass fighting over who gets it. Like I said however, beaches for some reason the large green one is the best for everything, and in the rivers the small green is best for coho, chum, cutties, etc. One of those weird things, that I've tested over and over but always had the same results.

Cheers,
Dan

[Ezio]

I'll have to tie some up for coho in the chedder this fall and see how they do.  Maybe I'll try some variations of it.