Where: The beach
When: Saturday
Conditions: Sunny, warm
Flies used: Clousers, a few experimental patterns
Species pursued: Sea run cutthroat, resident coho

Song of the day: "Extraordinary," Liz Phair

I almost jinxed us.

While winding up the class the night before, I casually mentioned that I haven't had a group yet that didn't have at least one of them hook up.

"As a group, I haven't been skunked yet."

Don't you hate it when the voice inside your head suddenly commandeers your mouth? :(

I probably wouldn't have made such a bold statement had it not been for the past three weeks of consistently solid beach fishing.

Just to be sure, the previous few days leading up to the class had Don and I running recon to ensure the beaches were still in shape.

We had decided to check out a new beach for comparison's sake...

...and found something unexpected--in a good way.

Unfortunately, we didn't find what we were looking for, leading us to believe that the fish were still holding where we last saw them.

Naturally, we had to confirm things. ;)

And confirm we did. :)

And confirm...

And double-checked. ;)

Having satisfied both our theory and our fish-greed, I figured it'd be a great time to take a class out to the salt.

Which brings me to the challenge at hand:

Getting these guys into fish and avoiding eating my words!

It didn't look good at first.

At our first stop, I observed a couple of rezzies jumping around, but we couldn't hook them.

Rather than push a bad situation, I opted for another area, but to no avail.

It also didn't help that a guy that was already there hooked and landed an 18 inch cuttie in front of half the class and then hooked another a few minutes later.

*Side note* Nice fish, John! It was good meeting you on the beach Saturday--sorry to crowd your fishing with the class!

Facing a possible skunking, I had no choice but to grind it out and hope that the fish we found earlier would show up and eat.

It wasn't looking good--the wind was starting to act up and we were running out of beach.

But as luck would have it...

Our little friends showed up and saved the day, after all!

Suddenly, fish worked the entire beach. Everyone had free shots at rezzies and cutties alike as they chased bait in and out of the rips.

In less than five minutes, we hooked four fish, one of which was the biggest cutthroat I had seen in a LONG time.

As I went up and down the beach, checking on each angler, I stopped to ask Nick how things had been.

"Hey Nick, how's it going? Any bumps?"

As he turned to answer, his line went tight.

Well, I guess that answers my question. ;)

It ended up being a great day, thankfully.

Given the amount of fish we saw in those few hours, combined with the consistency in fishing quality these past few weeks, I bet that this year's season will--

--never mind.

I wouldn't want to jinx it. ;)

Simply put: go hit a beach.

See you out there.