Hi mike, though I don’t do it hardly anymore (I primarily fish lakes ) I spent my childhood and a lot of my teenage years in coastal cutthroat.
Two things to consider in August:
most rivers with sea runs and lots of them, the fish will be mostly found in tidewater reaches and lower down on the river, which mostly have the lowest amount of access for bank anglers out of any stretch of river.
Places like the nestucca (as you saw me post on another thread) have Some pods of sea runs way upriver this early, but less likely to find them, and they are spooky/difficult to catch. You will encounter lots of smaller and the occasional larger resident fish that are eager to eat spinners,spoons, and flies.
There are a couple options for the bank angler fishing coastal streams
A: fish the upper portions of the rivers further into the coast range, where a road follows the stream and provides pullout,bridge,campground fishing access.(like my nestucca post on previous thread) also a lot more shade in these places when it’s hot out. Almost all medium/ large coastal rivers have at least a few miles of upper river access via a road that runs parallel. Some of them have a dozen or more miles of access.
B: find boat launches, county parks, and other common salmon angler access in tidewater. These areas won’t be crowded with salmon anglers yet, but they will be full of sea run cutthroats. High tide is the best when cold clean water is flushed in and the “plug” of dirty and debris filled water is pushed up. Which makes it easier for casting lures and flies. You can also look at salmon fishing posts on this forum (search button is key) to find where people commonly bank fish for tidewater salmon, that is where you’ll get cutthroats. There is a lot of information on here that will help you find exactly what you’re looking for.
I have fished virtually every coastal stream that is open for trout between Newport and nehalem and they all have fish in them, some more than others but cutthroat inhabit them all.
with all of this in mind, the larger streams typically have the most Bank access down low in tidewater and estuary areas where these fish are mostly at right now.
Google earth is your friend, access sticks out like a sore thumb, be it a boat launch area, state park, by a bridge,etc.
Good luck out there!
