Short version: Nothing to report.
Long version: Got up at 5am on Saturday morning, made some breakfast and headed out with the fly rod and gear at 5:45am. Drove South of Seaside back to Hwy 26 and drove a few miles East to Kootchy County Park.
Walked out to the river and first impression — not a lot of water. I suppose this shouldn't have come as a surprise considering it's the middle of August in Oregon. The river was mainly shallow riffles for a quarter-mile, then a small drop into a pool, then more riffles for the next quarter-mile. The long and the short of it, nothing to report. The fishing, at least there, was non-existent.
Fortunately, I packed up and drove an hour South to the Wilson River (see my next post) and had a great day.
For the record, I did drive down the Necanicum into Seaside until the river started actually having some substantial volume. This was the main stretch that goes through the heart of downtown, extending under the 12th street bridge and then finally making the left-hand turn into the Pacific. I ask a couple people that were crabbing off the bridge if they knew if the sea-run cutthroat were running and my question was met with thrugs — "what's a sea-run cutthroat?"
So my question (if you're still reading) is do you think the sea-run cutties were in this tidal/river water? I looked over the surface many times and different times during the day and didn't see any obvious signs of fish surfacing to feed.
The takeaway? Wish I would have slung a couple streamer flies at the lower part of the river but didn't get a chance.
Maybe next time!