I had a rather weird and eye-opening experience yesterday. I went up to my favorite little beaver pond east of Duvall - a place I call my Tomato Juice Pond (since it helps to get the skunk off of me during these down months of Winter). I always catch several of the spunky little coastal cutts that inhabit the pond in large numbers. Nothing over about 11", but very satisfying with a 2wt and a pipeful of tobacco.
Anyway, as I launched in the dreary slow rain, I didn't see any rises like I usually do, but I heard and saw the splash of what I thought was the local Beaver - giving me the tailslap that they do when startled or pissed off. I worked my way out into the pond - which is about 3-4 acres in size - and worked my way over to the corner that usually has most of the fish. Fishing a beadhead chironomid under an Irresistable Adams, I fished the outlet to the pond, with no real luck. As I worked my way around to the other side, I heard the splash again, and glanced back to see how close the "beaver" was. Much to my surprise out pops this Salmon - side jumping like he was trying to shake off sealice! Later I saw him swim by me (remember this is a TINY pond), and he jumped again about every 15-20 minutes. Invariably I was looking away when he did, but a couple of times I caught sight of him and he was dark with what I thought was a dark red body (Coho?) and about 8-10 lbs.
What I'm wondering is why a salmon would be so far up the system (I believe this pond is on a trickle-trib to Cherry Creek), and even more surprised that he'd still be alive and kicking as strongly as if he was on the Snohomish River!
I didn't catch any cutts, but I did catch a number of what I can only describe as Kokanee - large eyes (for their body size), silverish with no spots on their sides, but small spots on the top - purplish golden parr markings, trout-like mouths, deep vee-shaped tail vs. squared off tails like trout have.
They were all in the 5-8" size and hit both the Adams and the chironomid.
I guess I'm curious to hear from the biologists (professional AND amateur) on the board as to whether this occurrence of a lively salmon this far up into a beaver pond is unusual. Also, I thought Kokanee were landlocked Sockeyes, and this didn't look like a sockeye jumping around - looked more like a Silver. Is it possible the fish I was catching were silver smolts, or were they really Kokanee? I wonder if the presense of salmon in the pond has driven out the cutties, since I didn't catch any - just the "kokes". I've fished this pond several times a year for the past 4 years, and I've always caught cutts, and have never caught anything else.
Anyway, it was the weirdest day of fishing I've had in quite a while.
Sean
