Dolly Varden and Searun Cutthroat seem to
occupy the same niche and thus should have very similar behaviour. Dollies are,
in their ocean phase, so silvery it is hard to get a decent photograph because
they are inevitably over exposed. But in that surface will be the faint yellow
and pink spots that become so prominent when the fish have been in freshwater
for some time, and turned blue. Searuns are less silvery in the ocean and with
the dark spots above and below the lateral line, along with their namesake – an
orange ‘slash’ under each side of their ‘chin’, or throat.
Behaviourally both salmonid species could
not be more different. Searuns are more widespread in Van Isle waters, while
Dollies are predominantly found in waters to the North of Campbell River a more
limited range on our island. On the mainland side, the drainages can have large
numbers of Bull Trout a related char species that can reach 11 pounds. I have
never caught a Dolly on a WCVI stream, but have not fished them all – yet.
Both Searuns and Dollies are typically
under two pounds though the occasional one may reach four pounds. There are
credible accounts of the rare Searun reaching 7 pounds. And cutthroat do have
freshwater non-anadromous resident cousins, though in our waters the same
cannot be said of Dollies (and no Bulls either).. Cameron Lake, for example,
has given up cutthroat in the low teens and the record is a 41 pound behemoth
from Pryamid Lake on the mainland.
But in Puget Sound drainages, I have
watched with veiny teeth Dollies sit just above the fishing boundary in the
Cascade River. Large fish of five to ten pounds were clearly visible but zero
below the marker. There they rested, the main-stem Skagit below being turbid
and salmon filled. These may have been resident fish, due to their size,
distance from saltwater and presence in an area of large urban populations.
Both species have salt- and fresh-water
phases. In saltwater, Searuns are typically found as opportunistic nomads
cruising from creek mouth to creek mouth. Virtually always they are found in
water three, or less, feet deep, which makes them key species for some fly guys
that make their living targeting these fish by moving from stream to stream in
a day’s fishing. Fish half an hour, and if a Searun is not spotted, move on to
the next stream on your list. Searuns inevitably reveal themselves rolling on
the surface even when there is no apparent feed – insects in saltwater being
rare.
As a diminutive trout, it makes sense for
Searuns to be in very shallow water where larger mouths that would eat them
seldom venture. A safe niche for a small fish that, like steelhead, are too
bold for their own good. The adage is: if you see them you will catch them, and
that includes putting a fly more than ten feet away from the fish. They are on
the move and biting. That’s why we like them. Bazan Bay in Sidney being just
one well-known Searun spot in our area. One wades in and casts a fly.
Dollies on the other hand tend to spend
time among the kelp and divers often see them tooling around. This means they
are more dominant than Searuns because such water can be as much as 60 feet deep
and the ling and other large mouths need be avoided. But Dollies live among
them, a distinct difference, different feed, different dominance and wariness.
Searuns are vastly more opportunistic than
Dollies, coming into estuaries daily. While they have months of preference,
including summer, arriving just before salmon, and eating eggs during the
spawn. They also can arrive in much larger schools than Dollies. Searuns are
also opportunistic in terms of spawning, and may spawn anywhere from January to
September, in small streams off main-stems when rain allows. Anglers need to
know Searun habits in a dozen drainages to have good fly fishing on an annual
basis. Much knowledge. Oh and it is quite common in the Victoria area to find
these fish at mid-tide levels.
Dollies tend to enter estuaries just after
the ebb when the flood begins to push. While they may enter at such times in
large schools, they are more like chinook that happen to be in the same place as
other chinook, not because they school, but because the structure and feed draw
them to a definable spot at the same time.
Once on-shore, Dollies will be seen
frequently on the surface, typically sipping at or whacking whatever freshwater
hatch is flowing out at the same time. Keep a Tom Thumb for such times, and
back up as the fish enter, keeping them below you. They will whack the dry fly
to smithereens and keep on whacking it even though, with floatant, it looks
like a blob.
Minnow patterns will work for both species
in estuarial situations, including epoxy minnows, amphipods, along with handle
bar flies and a standard Mickey Fin for Searuns. A standard Muddler will do for
both, but once in freshwater, Dollies have a preference for blue, not a first
choice for Searuns. Dollies seldom hit pink in saltwater.
Both species spawn in freshwater. Dollies
come in for this purpose in late summer and hold until the water temperature,
in October, hits 10 degrees. After spawning they tend to mass at the bottom of
deep pools, surprisingly staying out of the way and hesitant, until spring
where they move back to saltwater.
Searuns, on the other hand, typically
winter in saltwater, entering freshwater for feeding and spawning, based on the
system’s calendar. You will often see them in spring, keeping close to spawning
steelhead. They hybridize with summer steelhead, presumably because they spawn
sooner than winter steelhead, and in systems where there are fewer summers.
Then Searuns go back to saltwater after being found more than ten miles above
the salt during the spawn.
Cuttbows have behaviour that is a mix of
steelhead and cutthroat. They definitely will chase and out whack what a
cutthroat will hit – the casting pattern for cutthroat is every two feet, and
based on woody debris, whereas cuttbows are found with rocks as well as logs
and the last 30 degrees of the swing, more like steelhead. And orange is a colour of preference, and
why, as I have mentioned, I tie simple orange marabou Rats along with Popsicle
style marabou red over orange over yellow.
You can tell the percentage of cutthroat or
steelhead – they can hybridize over several generations – the fish has in it.
More steelhead and the fish will jump several times. More cutthroat and the
fish will seldom leave the water, preferring to dive. At 50/50 the fight is on
the surface.
And Dollies have a habit, also suggesting
dominance, of one fish dashing in to hit a female salmon in the side, resulting
in disgorged eggs that the other Dollies scarf up. This behaviour has led, not
on Van Isle, some anglers to make a point of killing all Dollies on the grounds
they result in fewer salmon. Never seen this myself, and certainly would not
kill a Dolly, but it is a common tale.
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