matter is I say that every year! Once again, a busy spring is
keeping me away from fishing but I did manage to get one
more shot at Icefishing before I think about converting over
to open water fisheries. It was awesome! headed out
towards Glenallen and found 4 feet of ice waiting for us.
Tally for the day was a half a dozen burbot ( 2 largest went
ten pounds! That's a trophy fish in Alaska!), A lake trout,
and a limit of small rainbows. The rainbows in this particular
lake aren't big, they average maybe 14 to 16 inches. I know
I promote catch and release but this is a stocked rainbow
lake and the rainbows here are the best tasting rainbows I
have ever had. The flesh color is ruby red and boy are they
tasty. Sorry all you religious catch and release folks, but man
can't live on bread alone!
25th! I saw kings in Homer and Kasilof river in the 2nd week of May. The first kings are always tough. They demand top
notch equipment, cat like reflexes, and goods fishing skills if you want to land a high percentage of the hooked fish.
Unfortunately they are the first salmon species to come up the rivers. I like to think I fish hard and check gear, but every year, I
always seem to lose the first king or two I hook due to equipment failure or operator error! RESPOOL NEW LINE! Its the
best and cheapest investment in fishing you'll make. Don't buy the cheap mono. Buy premium mono, especially if you plan on
using spinning gear. For more info on how I fish Kings, check out my tips page.
drag control etc. If you go now, You have a shot at Kings, Sea run Dollies, Cod, Pollock, flounder, and even small halibut.
Check my previous year logs for more details on how I fish Homer Spit.
starting to feel more motivated to go fishing. Between the slow fishing, super cold weather, a nasty flu, and work... the
motivation level has been LOW! Still that's no excuse! So after being bored all weekend, at 6pm on Sunday night I decide I
just have to go fishing at least once over the weekend.....flu or not! So I call up Doug and as always he's game so off we go.
herring. At 10:45pm he gets a nibble then his line goes crazy! Burbot? Nope, ran too hard! After a good battle on 6 pound
line, doug pulls up a 24 inch Dolly through the hole. Strange. I catch trout and dollies at night all the time during the summer,
but this is the first Large Dolly I have pulled up in the dark. Early year in the year, I did locate one lake where I can get
consistent hits at night from rainbows, but not dollies.
and a trout rod. It was actually a battle to get them up the hole. Of course I caught mine on my "traditional" 100 pound dacron
set lines. Too heavy? Heck no. I've broken 20 and 30 pound test on set lines. Not necessarily because of Big fish but they
seem to find every snag possible to wrap around. One final thing. In many parts of Alaska you can use set lines and leave them
unattended for upto 24 hours for Burbot. Our group has a lost a couple of them this year to inconsiderate folks who just have
to steal everything they come across. Well we are seriously thinking about setting up and nailing a few of these folks. We fish in
pretty isolated areas so we have a good idea and the fools are pretty consistent from the evidence we have gathered so far. Just
as an example I have pretty good photos of tire tracks and other evidence from a couple of scenes. Some of these folks are
going to be in for a major surprise the next time they try it. If its not your gear, leave it alone. You'd think people would be
smarter. I can't believe they would risk being caught for a dowel, one hook, and 20 yards of line and maybe one fish.
Consequences to them on capture will be severe...guaranteed. Just like fishing, this may be fun trying to hunt these fools down.
Pretty easy to nail them I think.
away from fishing for most of the month. Therefor the entire month of February gets lumped into one entry.....my laziness
knows no bounds!
month. Still, as the days get longer and spring nears, the bite can sometimes pick up. Last year, I missed the month of March
due to an overseas trip, but we caught a few fish in April. In the years past, the pike bite has held up well as long as we had
safe ice.
freshwater in my opinion. Okay they are uglier then sin, but once skinned and filleted, they are nothing but firm white flesh that is
somewhere in between cod and halibut in my opinion. The lake we fish you can use set lines and we have been hammering
them well. the trick for us is to punch holes as close to shore as possible while maintaining about 5 to 15 feet of water under the
ice. Although we use set lines, the initial strike of a big burbot will surprise you. The hits can be vicious! In fact Erick sliced his
hand pretty good when a big fish struck while he was jigging a herring tipped spoon while handlining. We have caught our limits
virtually everytime out and we have even managed 3 or 4 fish that would qualify for a trophy certificate. A trophy burbot in
Alaska is 8 pounds. But after hearing rumors of much bigger fish in the lake, I'm waiting for a slightly bigger one before I go
weigh it in.
hammer the head onto a solid board. Then with a pair of pliers or a dry towel, you can just peel the entire skin off with a good
tug. you are left with a skinless burbot that is 100 times easier to fillet since you can pretty much see everything.
two weekends together.
though I did manage one small rainbow in deep water. An interesting observation was made by Erick and I on the Big Lake
Char. Lately we are pulling up an inordinate percentage of the darker brightly colored char. fish & Game tells me that they
believe the char in Big Lake are "skip spawners" or they don't spawn every year. this would explain the two different color
schemes we are seeing. the brightly colored spawning type and the more silvery pink dot non-spawners. The last weekend we
were out, all the darkly colored char were skinny and light in weight. My bet is that they are just getting over the spawning
phase and are now looking to regain their weight. Things could be picking up as they go on a feeding rampage. We did keep
one smaller silver phase Dolly and it was loaded with larger 3 inch salmon parr. The one dark char we kept that inhaled the
lure and bled profusely on the ice had nothing in its stomachs. the other fish we landed seemed to have empty stomachs but we
are not sure. We did notice that all the dark colored fish didn't fight at all. The fish were also considerable darker than even the
dark fish we had caught a week or two ago. Earlier in the year, dark or silvery they were full of fight. Not right now! A dark
26 inch fish came up and laid in the hole. It really didn't fight at all! They probably have just got done spawning and if so, it
could mean an aggressive bite as they try to put the weight back on.
eating and half of its stomach was filled with milt (sperm). If you catch a good one, you may want to consider tossing it
back...especially if you think its a female.
is signed. Last time I checked a week or so ago, it still had not been signed.
to 18 inches. This is one of my favorite "secret" lakes I go to now. Why? Becasue as many fish as I release, this is THE
keeper lake for rainbows. I'm not sure what their food source is, I think its freshwater shrimp, but the flesh on these
STOCKED rainbows is a bright red. They are Delicious! The other bonus is that I can get the rainbows to hit consistently,
albeit at a much smaller rate, at night! During the day, as fast as i can lower a single egg or a small lure, a rainbow would take a
whack at it. In fact, the night bite is more like fishing. At least you have time to slam down a soda and some food inbetween
hits. Light line, a sensitive rod or a small bobber will do the trick.
Big Lake produced a few fish but as the year progresses, the rainbows inbig Lake are harder to find. The Char seem to be in a
stage where they are preparing to spawn. Still we managed to hit a several fish over 20 inches over the course of the day. It
seemed that depper water and silver or chrome spoons were the way to go.
was soo tired I was in bed at 10pm so I could save energy to go fishing. Well I was still tired but managed to drag myself out of
bed! I am really into the sightfishing now! What I mean is that despite the fact that all my friends are hammering fish at the 30 to
40 foot levels, I am setting up in less than 20 feet so I can see the fish better. I maybe getting a few less hits (I don't think so)
but watching those fish cruise in, take whacks a t a lure, miss, come back, and hit it again is just awesome. Its amazing how
many fish will come by but not hit the lure despite eyeballing it or making several passes at it. However I can say on this day
that I hooked every fish I saw. I think my total tally was 6 fish with the largest a 18 inch rainbow...nothing huge but what a
blast!
You'll see what I mean in a second. First I punch a hole, for whatever reason my holes never are straight (this is my
modification!), they are always at an angle. Therefore you can see "one way" a lot farther than the other. Toward the direction I
can see furthest, I drill another hole about 4 feet out. If bait is allowed I rig up bait on a longer traditional length rod. then in the
other hole I jig as normal. I lay a piece of carpet carpet down., Cover my head (and body if cold) with a dark blanket. I can
see the bait as well as watch my lure as I jig it. Often the bait is ignored, but so is the lure, then I give a little jiggle with the bait
rod which is close by because it is longer and whammo the fish often hit the bait once it moves. When the bait restrictions goes
into effect, I am going to replace the long bait set up with a HUGE super trap or my huge 5 inch Luhr-Jensen Krocadile, maybe
even a major league Herring Dodger or summer type troller flasher with a weight. Beat the bottom, make sounds attract the
fish, and once they come in, finesse them with my traditional 5/8 oz Krockadile. So far the system works great. When the ice is
less than 2 feet thick, you can see a whole LOT more when you lie down right on the ice instead of just sitting in a stool inside of
an ice shack. Give it a try, once you see the number of fish that don't hit, plus the thrill of watching them hit, I think you might be
hooked. I'm sure watching those blips on the flasher is cool (I use the old LCD's) but there is now way you can tell me that it is
more exciting than seeing the actual reaction of the fish as they chase your lure, bump it, and finally smash it. I was going to get a
flasher unit but naww, I'll stick with my LCD for depth checks and I am going to look down the hole. Only super cold weather
will force me into a shack....anyone want to buy a portable two man ice shelter?????
skimmer ready and as soon as you punch the hole, scoop out quickly, or often you don't even have to scoop and drop the lure
down IMMEDIATELY. Jig a few minutes and if nothing then you can take your time setting up. Maybe its just Big Lake but
the fish are NOT scared of the power auger noise. In fact I think it attracts them. People hear this and say, yeah its because
Big Lake is deep...nope, remember I fish under 20 feet most of the time. I have caught numerous fish while a buddy of mine
was punching holes right next to me. I certainly have caught lots of fish in a hole that was opened less than one minute prior.
Give it a try!
Oh yeah, stayed past dark and managed two burbot..they were pretty tasty and since I can catch them at night, it extends my
fishing time in the winter by many many hours. Good thing I'm still happily single!
FISHING! You Betcha. well as you would expect when you blow off work to go
fishing....it was slow. Still we had a good time. I landed a 25 inch Char that came close
to 5 pounds. It was AWESOME. Just like Doug's fish, I saw it swim lazily past the hole
and watched him take a few good looks at the lure, then finally smash it. It was pretty
amazing. Doug caught a nice rainbow close to 18 inches that we released as well.
Another tip I'd like to pass on is that if you aren't looking down your holes every now and
then while jigging, you are missing out. I use electronics, but the electronics can't tell you
how the fish is reacting to a certain presentation. Things I noticed included that when you
pounded the bottom and created a sediment cloud, smaller fish would come swarming
toward the cloud.
competitvely joined in. My big fish, swam lazily by my lure completely
ignoring it, then a twitch and in an instant he swapped head to tail and
cruised toward my krockadile. He came by bumped the lure without
opening his mouth, swam off. Another twitch of the line he made a big
circle then a very tiny movement of the lure and WHAMMO, he slammed
the spoon. Way to Cool! After a quick picture, we released the fish.
AWESOME!
me eat my words. I still have Douggie by a half inch, but I think he
definitely had me on the girth, weight was about even. On Sunday, Doug
lands himself a beautiful 27.5 inch, 7lbs 10oz Arctic Char! NICE FISH
DOUGLAS!!!!!! We kept her in the water as long as we could.
Snapped a few pictures, tape measure, and digital scale verified the
monster! See, an old dog like me can learn new tricks! I remembered
the tape and got a digital scale. yeah it was expensive, but our
reward....Douglas without hesitation put the fish back into the lake so he
can catch it next year when it is 10 pounds and a trophy fish! Way to go!
We were in about 15 feet of water and he was jigging a 5/8 oz all
chrome Krockadile, on a Ug;y Stick on 8 pound line. He was covered
under a blanket, face down in the hole. You could hear him muffled
under the blanket screaming "He's huge, Oh my GAWD!
cool! I'm sure he's heart was going 100mph. Of course I am going "yeah, yeah, hurry up, Cmon hurry up, let's see it....OH
MY GAWD ITS HUGE...WHY ARE YOU HURRYING ...SLOW DOWN...."
not! I'M GOING FISHING!
along to see if he couldn't catch the monster fish.
Doug and I try our normal spot and get absolutely zero! The since Tom was nice enough to tell us where
he fished, we headed over on the chance he would be there. I learned this later but he's kind of a fishing
nut like we are so instead of it being a shot in the dark, I had the feeling we would find him at his spot
Sure enough he's there! Tom was nice enough to let us fish by him, but really the fisher-person of the day
was his 6 year old daughter, Christine! She pulled up a 24 incher and several fish in the 16 to 18 inch
range. EVERYONE should make an effort to get younger kids out fishing. I don't have kids, but the
reason I love to fish is my parents spent time and tremendous patience to take me fishing. I remember
when I was too young to drive, my mom would drive us down to Anchor River from Kenai in the middle
of the dark on a week night so I could go steelhead fishing. Okay, so maybe I was a bit spoiled BUT, as
the genealogy might imply, she's a fishing nut too! Tom, you get a few extra respect points! Everyone I
meet through the net has been cool so far.
snow was coming down hard. I couldn't sleep! Everytime I have gone out during a snow storm the results have been great.
Imagine my disappointment when I wake up Wednesday and its bright sunny and COLD! Complain about clear skies?!?! Yup,
when its warm, the effect seems minor, but when you have a high pressure system combined with cold, the fishing just never
seems as good. Just an observation I have had...no scientific proof or anything.
inches. All the sizable fish were Char rather than rainbows. Bait was getting hit consistently, but most of the larger fish came on
the trusty 5/8 oz krockadile. The ice roads are in on Big Lake, but once off the road, I encountered overflow and MUCH
thinner ice! Be careful if you go. I'd still only take a snowmobile off the ice roads. I bet in one spot the ice was less than 8
inches as opposed to the foot or so in the shallower bays. I hope it warms up before the weekend. I don't need to be able to
wear shorts or anything, just enough to get those fish "on the bite!"
day starts out with a visit to Todd's place in Big Lake.
I get there and see Todd and Erick with big smiles.
After a month of trudging through the snow, Erick
finally bagged himself a nice spike horn moose.
Congrats! Should go a long way in getting them
through the winter with some good protein! They were
busy so I went fishing by myself...mistake but in a good
kinda way...I guess!
MUSKRAT! Huh? Yup, throughout the day as I was jigging my holes, I'd here air bubbles come up my hole. Thinking maybe
the swampy area was releasing gas, I didn't give it much thought. Then I feel a bump on the line, then another..set the hook!
FISH ON! errrrr....how about "small furry rodent - ON"! It fought pretty well but as it came up through the hole, I had the
muskrat barely by the leg. OOPS! Well the Luhr-Jensen Krockadile continues to pull up everything through the ice! Weird
weird weird. I guess if you spend enough time fishing, you see all sorts of things.
couple of days ago because I ended up keeping the Big fish instead of releasing it :-( I'll be honest, the main reason was I
went fishing without a scale, a ruler, and a witness! When the fish came up I just KNEW I had a trophy fish! Ackk!
WRONGO! I got to a place I could measure it and it was only 28 inches and 8 pounds. 2 inches and 2 pounds shy of a trophy
fish! It probably wouldn't have lived even if I had released it since it swallowed the big spoon...a little bit of consolation. I
caught it in 12 feet of water on a 5/8oz chrome Krockadile spoon (Thanks Doug! see the previous entry). The big Char
completely inhaled the lure. The lure is probably close to 3 inches long and I couldn't see the lure or the swivel after I landed the
fish. A bit of major surgery to get the hook out and there was no way it would live if I clipped the line. Still, I feel bad but I
think most fisherman know how that "Big Fish Fever" can cloud your judgment and make the fish look bigger when it first came
up onto the ice. I am ALWAYS going to carry a camera and at least a ruler! A tip I should follow is to mark off the size on
your rod with Magic Marker. I should have more pictures of the nice fish soon. Equipment: HT medium weight ice rod,
System 2 5/6L fly reel. Stren 10lbs test line, 5/8oz Chrome Krockadile.
It was amazing! I'm kinda glad they are trying to protect this fishery. The new rules are going to limit the catch to one char over
20 inches. I wish they'd make a slot limit so you can keep a few of the smaller eaters but maybe protect all the Big Spawners in
the 20 to 25 inch range and let you keep one trophy fish.
stroke for me. I tend to use 2 to 4 inch strokes with an occasional foot jump. Pounding the bottom and kicking up some
sediment is a great way to attract the fish as well.
I head out to Big Lake. I was fishing in 25 feet of water
while Doug was fishing in about 12 feet near a weed bed.
The weather was cloudy but not too cold. The day starts
off slow but around noon we begin to pick up a few fish
on bait. Then everything went crazy! In the last two
hours we fished, Doug must landed 2 nice Dollies over 20
inches with the big one going 24inches. He also caught a
really nice rainbow that had to be close to 20 inches but
as it was getting colder we wanted to return it to the water
before its gills started freezing up. If you are going to
release fish, its better to try to keep the fish in the water
and take the hook out. Take a quick picture but take the
fish out of the water for as short as possible and never lay
the fish on the ice.
but all the big fish came on the lures. Not to be too outdone, I hit a few dollies about 16 inches and I did manage three Burbot
in the deeper water with the largest going about 28 inches. Not to heavy though. Two of the three came on a huge 3 oz, 5 inch
or so Krockadile. I hit a few smaller dollies with the BIG spoon as well. IT definitely attracts fish though only the most
aggressive will hit it.
logs. Besides its my icefishing tip number 1 on my tips page!
fishing tips, DO NOT listen to anyone who is negative about the fishing. 9 time out of ten, they are liars. The correct response
is then "what are you doing here?" Still I can't believe how many times this year, I have already had to deal with these
inconsiderate people. My group knows better but what if you were a family trying to enjoy yourself on a publicly stocked lake
and you get harassed like that? Could ruin a great family outing. It makes me FURIOUS just thinking about it.
and one rainbow on the ice, after releasing a bunch more. A guy on a snowmobile comes from a nearby house and says "You
boys are illegal." After we stated the regulations virtually word for word, he counters with "they changed the regs". After telling
him that I had just the day before spoken to Fish & Game reps and KNEW 100% the changes had been proposed but had not
taken effect yet. Then we proceeded to tell him that he should brush up on the rule changes, because had he been correct about
the regulations taking effect, HE would have also been illegal since he was using treble hooks and the new regs not only limit
catch, but the use of treble hooks as well. That didn't phase him a bit, the next thing you know all the fish in Big Lake had
cancers and tumors and were inedible despite the fact that 5 minutes earlier, he had said that he just got done eating fish out of
Big Lake and showing off a nice burbot he had caught 3 days earlier but hadn't cleaned yet. Duh!
year. And they are persistent! Most are probably just local folks protecting their turf. I guess I can understand the motivation,
but the acts are still downright low. It doesn't give anyone the right to interfere in other peoples use of public accesses and
public waters. The two other times that we've been told that "there is no fish in this lakes" our favorite reply is "What are you
talking about. You don't live around here do you? " I don't condone being a "wise guy" though. Go armed with information
and you should be okay.
it. A few of the lakes we fish are very small and could be fished out of the larger fish easily. As a general rule when we see
people, if they are new to the lake, we try to help them catch more fish so they aren't as tempted to take the one big fish they
happened to catch. We'll talk about how the smaller fish seem to be better eating and how the larger fish need to be left for
brood stock. Of course, in stocked lakes, I don't feel as guilty keeping a few. Still when we eat fish, those 12 to 16 inchers
seem firmer and tastier than the larger fish. Keep a few smaller ones instead of a couple larger ones for eating. Take along
those new disposable cameras to record the large fish. Most of the recent pictures are taken with the disposable by Kodak or
Fuji, they work great!
alone trying to spot and chase down a moose to see if they have horns or not!
see if I couldn't help some friends get a moose. I enjoy fishing a lot more than hunting, with the main reason being its kinda hard
to "catch & release" while hunting.... though a good camera would suffice. But after years of having friends in many secluded
parts of Alaska where gas can be a couple of dollars a gallon and the local grocery store is over an hour away...by plane,
hunting moose is not a sport but a down right serious hunt to put meat in the freezer. And after being served a nicely aged steak
off a moose the other day, I now know why its such an important hunt for many of these people....it was pretty tasty.
experience, if you see a hundred moose, you MIGHT see a couple of spike/forkhorn. So I trudged through waist deep powder
for several hours. WHEW...no moose but a dang good workout. The heavy snows (15 inches or so in Big Lake and about 26
inches near Willow where we were at) made it a great workout. We'll see if I can stay away from fishing another weekend.
first stop will most likely be Flathorn Lake or Red Shirt Lake due to their proximity. I hate taking even my old reliable
snowmobile more than 5 or 6 miles on the first outing. I know that state lands have been closed to snowmobiling until there is a
foot of frozen ground and a foot of snow cover. Well I think we have that now! So get those machine ready and fired up.
THE SNOW IS HERE...THE SNOW IS HERE...THE SNOW IS HERE...THE SNOW IS HERE...THE SNOW IS
HERE...THE SNOW IS HERE...THE SNOW IS HERE...THE SNOW IS HERE...THE SNOW IS HERE...!!!!!
weekend. Good thing since my buddies didn't get a moose this weekend, we ended up frying a few of the fish I managed to
catch on Saturday.
lethargic than even two weeks ago. While I swear by my trusty Krockadile spoon, this weekend it was roe and shrimp
suspended on light line that got the majority of the hits. As you peered down the hole in about 10 feet of water, you could see
dozens of fish milling around but none would take the spoon. They would race up to it and veer off at the last second. Once I
started tipping the spoon with shrimp, they would GENTLY mouth the bait and immediately spit it out. I was holding the line
with my bare hands and could not feel the bite at all. It was amazing. I basically caught all my fish by using a spoon to attract
them in and as soon as I saw one, I would gently jiggle the baited hook and sometime the fish would smack the suspended bait.
I did have a few of the bigger fish in the 18 inch range just grab and take off with the bait, almost taking my rod in the process! I
bet you on Saturday, I caught and released 100 trout from 6 inches to 18 inches. On Sunday, same holes I caught....5 fish. Go
figure!?!?!
oxygen content tuns down, I think I will have better luck in the more open points ands structure like Burnt Point or by South
Shore Marina.
see if anything would hit. Oddly enough I did get hits consistently but couldn't hook anything. I FROZE out there. Wow, I
thought a coleman lantern would heat a small two man ice shelter....nope it didn't! I stayed till noon but since I didn't catch
anything during the day time, I can't say whether the fishing at night works or not. Oh well. We'll have to try it again. As short
as the days are, I gotta find somewhere or something where I can consistently catch fish at night.
and do some ice fishing. Unfortunately I had to be at a
charity event in town at 1 pm. Well Douggie being
game, said okay so off we went early. Good thing.
We had a great day. We both landed nice char and
rainbow with two biggest char gong 22 inches or so
and about 3 pounds. We also caught rainbows as
well. Sunday was a drag! Over the same fishing holes
stakes on Sunday and try another lake near Big Lake. Well the action is HOT for rainbows and Dollies to about 6 inches.
Ackk!
worth krockadiles in the 1/8 oz up to 1/2 oz.. We kept a char for eating and noticed that the salmon smolts it was feeding on
were about 2 inches long. Later in the year as the smolts grow, I think it helps to match the size of the prey. I like smaller
spoons in the early winter because I can land the large char as well as the feisty rainbows. but later in the year when the
rainbows become inactive, I switch over to larger spoons. The salmon we see the big char feeding on are larger in size and I
think the bigger char want to get as many calories as possible per expended calories. Bigger fish mean more food for the char
with similar energy expended.
seem to always take the Parks Highway into Wasilla. Well it was cold and windy. It was the first time any of had been on this
particular lake. This lake is one of the few lakes near Anchorage that you have a reasonable chance at catching lake trout (if
that’s not a dead give away, a little research goes a long way). Well the fishing was cold and slow. This lake was a good
example on why you should always be careful on the ice. The ice in most places was 6 inches thick. But we definitely found
patches of ice that was less than an inch thick over 50 feet of water. Not a good place to drop in!
the lake and punching holes every where, out total tally was one rainbow for me about 12 inches long. Cold and ready to quit,
we walked back toward the car. With the wind, there was no snow on the lake and we could easily see into the water through
the ice. 30 yards from our car, Douggie yells "wow, look at those big fish!" Dropping our equipment we furiously punch holes.
After quieting down a bit we could see good size rainbows to 18 inches come by in schools of 3 to 10 fish. I even managed a
very small burbot. The fish were lethargic as they would come up to the bait or lure but not inhale it. Still we managed to catch a
couple of fish and being able to see them was a blast.
the freshwater shrimp. Still the lure that continues to outfish everything I try including bait was a smaller Luhr Jensen Krockadile
in chrome and blue. Hmmmm…I need to try something else before I am fully convinced but I know that as long as I have a
Krockadile or two, at least I am fishing.
remember. Nothing huge but good consistent action for most of the day with Rainbows and Dollies to 20 inches. The ice on one
lake was a good 6 inches. The other nearby lake had only 3 inches. BE CAREFUL and ALWAYS go with a partner in early
ice conditions.
ounce chrome and blue Luhr Jensen Krockadile. I have more faith in this lure than ever! On the second lake, the three of us
stood within relatively close proximity to each other and call it luck or whatever, but I must have caught a dozen fish to their
combined total of 3 or 4 fish. Now I know Doug and Erick are waaaay too good of fishermen for me to brag about my skills
outfishing them.
Gamakatsu hooks. The results, I bet a third of my fish were snagged outside of the mouth. Huh? Snagged during icefishing???
After the first couple of times, I peered down the hole to watch. Sure enough the fish later in the day were becoming lethargic
coming up to the lure, bumping it, and then swimming away without every inhaling the lure. So, I’d feel a bump and every time
with the gamakatsu hooks, I would end up snagging them. On the factory hooks, they tend to just slide off the skin. It happens
on your hands too. The gamakatsu stick into your hand just from the weight of the lure, normal factory hooks are NEVER that
sharp. So am I endorsing gamakatsu hooks? Nope, just sharp hooks. Even the factory hooks can be touched up with a hook
sharpener to be ultra sharp.
couple of inches and letting it settle. Normally the fish are more aggressive and they look to hit slightly more aggressively jigged
lures. You don’t need much action at all to get your lure to work. Spend sometime looking into the water and seeing how your
lure works. Remember you have to imitate a dying or wounded minnow, not one with a lot of get up and go that the fish might
think is too difficult to catch.
"Yup! There sure is!" we get told so early in the morning, Doug and I head out to Big Lake with boat in tow. We looked kinda
silly when we pull up to Big Lake and it is ENTIRELY frozen...DOH! So after hemming and hawing about our situation, we
decide to hit a smaller lake that might be frozen over.
look at F&G's home page for more details.
on the ice...Erick! Small world. There was about 4 inches of clear solid ice and we had no concerns about safety. It was
solid ice....no flooding, no sagging, thick solid ice. WOW! Unfortunately without the snow, it was like glass. We could see all
the way to the bottom of the lake, and I'm sure the fish could see us as well. Once the sun came up we couldn't hit at all. Later
in the day as the shadows started crawling over the lake, we did manage to pick up 4 or 5 smaller fish. The fish came on small
spoons, earthworms, and shrimp. Once the snow cover hits or we have a good cloudy day, we are going to hit the rainbow
lakes hard! You only have till about mid-January before the rainbows start becoming more inactive.
Still, you gotta be careful on early season ice. Look for underwater springs and currents under the ice that can cause thin ice
anywhere. Until we get more ice, always go with a friend, extra clothes, and a pole or rope JUST IN CASE. The water is
COLD! Duh!
out to Delong Lake and stomped around for a bit in about a
foot of water. The ice cracked but didn't break. Its almost
time to think about ice fishing....but this warmer weather is
definitely not good.
Still Doug, Martin , and I went out to Big Lake to see if we
couldn't get a final day of open water fishing. WOW, open
water fishing in Alaska in November. Last year Martin
crossed the Big Su River on his Snowmobile in the first week
of November.
I could walk out pretty far and the ice was stable. So we went around to South Port Marina which
was free of ice since it sat on the main lake. Well we had a great day. It wasn't a lot of fish, but
good numbers of quality fish. Doug topped the day with a 24 inch Dolly that fought like crazy. I had
the biggest rainbow at about 19 inches. Martin also tagged a bunch of nice rainbows with his largest
going nearly 18 inches. All of the fish were a blast on ultralight gear. I landed probably 5 fish in the
15 to 19 inch range. Most of mine were caught on a size 3 Krockadile (half ounce?) in chrome with
blue stripe. I did catch the big rainbow on a fire tiger #3 vibrax. All the fish were caught trolling the
south shore of Big Lake. As we suspected the cloudy weather kept the fishing consistent for most of
the morning and up to about 2pm. Then like in ice fishing things slow way down. We should have
few good pix after we develop the film.
that) to fishing Big Lake. Went out with Erick and Doug. Started at around 10 am and we began to
hit fish immediately. It certainly was not a hot action day. but still we landed some really nice fish
near the 20 inch class. Both Dollies and Rainbows. You can pretty much tell immediately after you
hook a fish. The Dollies stay down deep and shake their heads, the rainbows take to the air almost
immediately, often clearing the water by several feet a dozen times or more before they come to the
boat. The clear sunny day made it hard on fishing as usual. Still we were FREEZING on the water!
release those big ones as often as you can! Keep the smaller ones if you're going to eat them. They
are better anyway. Releasing the big ones insures a good catch in future years.
seeing as though the fishing was soooooo good on Monday. ACK! Thpft! I guess that's why
they call it fishing instead of catching. A weather front had pushed through bringing sunny days
instead of the rainy, cloudy day we had on Monday. While we caught 4 to 5 fish a piece, it was
MUCH slower than on Monday. We caught them on spinners, spoons, and earthworms on a
spinner harness like they use for Walleyes down south. We even managed to snag a 23 inch Dolly
in the dorsal fin over 70 feet of water trolling at the 15 foot depth or so. Tell me that fish wasn't
unlucky! We thought we had the trophy Dolly on but it wasn't to be. I'm sure the fish came and
took a whack and missed and got hooked...but still unlucky..for the fish!
Char) during the day. There was ice around the edges but I bet Big Lake is good for open water fishing until Mid-November.
I think this weekend I would like to hit a smaller lake but Big Lake will be on the list in the next several weeks if we don't go
there this weekend!
Doug and I headed out to Big Lake. We didn't see another soul fishing. We HAMMERED fish all day long. We had a nice
chunky fish on our line at least every 15 minutes for most of the day. Doug hit two really nice fish with one rainbow surpassing
21 inches and a dolly in the 23 inch range. I caught a bunch but the biggest I could manage was 18 inches. I lost one that was
huge though! They all are when we lose them! Still they averaged at least 16 inches and they were full of fight. A blast on
ultralight gear! I bet we released over 30 fish. With the colder weather, the trout are on a feeding rampage. One of the big
rainbows spit out a 3 inch salmon. Because they appeared to be targeting baitfish the lure of choice on this trip was a small
spoon. Anything about 2 to 3 inches long imitating the small landlocked salmon and salmon smolts should do well. We hit most
of our fish in shallow water trolling in about 5 to 15 feet of water being the most effective.
Big Lake should be immune from early freeze up so this is a great chance to go catch fish while you wait for the smaller lakes to
freeze.
motors. We basically caught them on everything. worm harnesses, spinners, spoons, plugs..everything. The fish averaged
about 16 inches with the best fish pushing 21 inches. For the size of the lake I can't believe the size and strength of these fish.
We had to push off through ice to get at these fish. the smaller lakes will be freezing fast so you better hit them soon if you want
a shot at these fish in open water. The fish appear to be feeding on minnows but since we released most all of the fish we
caught, we couldn't do a complete stomach analysis. We did note that the Dollies looked pretty close to spawning and one
Dolly we kept because it swallowed the hook was ripe with eggs. If you catch a big one somewhere about this time year, let it
go for brood stock. It'll ensure more fish later!
Japan and South Korea for several weeks so I haven't had the time to fish. Still, my first fishing trip
since coming back into town took waaay too long! Erick and I headed up to a lake in the Mat-su
Valley. Its not a secret lake, in fact I pulled up the map on Fish and Game's home page so I could
check out the depths of the lake. But I promised not to mention it in my logs so a secret it remains.
We spent about 4 hours trolling around the lake, it was beautiful and dead calm which made for some
tough fishing. I was trolling a 1/4 oz silver and blue Krockadile that day. It took us a while to hit a
few, but when we did it was awesome. 4 feisty and fat rainbow trout hooked in the 17 to 18 inch
range, all clones of each other. They were thick, beautiful, and full of energy. They were all loaded
with sticklebacks. the trout in all the area lakes are on a feeding binge prepping for winter. We had to
break through a couple inches of ice on shore. If you want to get out, you better do it soon!
Sea Lion Sports in Seward. We reserved a 24 foot Excel with outboards....supposedly. They didn't call they didn't do anything
but give us a long story about how the distributor cap for the Ford engine was broken and they couldn't find a replacement part
AFTER we got into Seward and they knew of the problem the day before. First of all, since when does Ford make
outboards? So I called and sure enough they said they had given the boat Bob reserved to the couple that came in on Saturday.
A major disappointment and a potential trip of a lifetime ruined by some very shoddy business attitude.
I wouldn't dream of. I thought it was hard to be wrong when I was only asking what happened. Unprofessional to the
MAX!!!!! Then they start telling me that for the last two days (Monday & Tuesday) they upgraded 2 groups to bigger boats
because two smaller boats were not working! Great, Starting Saturday ,the first day I have any info on them, they have
basically have had to rearrange boats because as many as three were not working (out of a fleet of four..maybe five boats..I'm
not sure but obviously not many)! I wouldn't feel safe on ANY of their boats!
inside resurrection bay even if we did have the boat. We scrounged together gear to bobber fish for silvers near the Sea-Life
Center. We had 4 or 5 silvers on but couldn't land a single fish! Herring under the bobbers were enticing a few strikes but no
hot action. We finally settled for a few rockfish by dropping the bait to the bottom. We lost a lot of gear though. Vertical
fishing from a boat would have solved that.
starting to turn pink with about 25% already dark. The pinks were abundant though they didn't look too good and they fought
even worse. Both Bob and I managed to pick up two keeper Silvers a piece while releasing dozens of pinks and a few more
foul hooked Silvers. The run is definitely on its last legs. We caught all of our fish flipping with steelhead type bright fly patterns
and simple yarn flies in orange and chartreuse.
from Downtown after work and landing a dozen salmon. Have I ever mentioned in my logs that I love this place?
to keep things interesting. Erick landed a nice silver of maybe 8 pounds. I landed one smaller male but turned it back because it
was already starting to turn a bit dark. About half of the fish I saw already had some coloration to them. Most people were
flipping flies but the guy below me was drifting a small glob of roe and had three silvers flopping on the bank in less than an hour.
That's what I will try next time. Had a great time, fished 5 minutes from home, landed one silver and hooked 3 more in about 3
hours. ya gotta love it here!
respecting guide would do...I set up for PINKS! Thank God! We did a good job hammering them with their nephew landing
6 or 7 fish by himself. A great fight on light gear. To make it as simple as possible, we were anchored up and ran wiggle warts
behind the boat. The pattern of the day was a smaller wiggle wart in the silver and red color. The exact same wigglewart one
size larger drew less than a quarter of the strikes. We even managed to dredge up a silver using a plug. But NEVER guarantee
fish. Eventually the 6 year old gets bored..of course, so Bob runs him in and Susan and I decide to greedily keep fishing for
pinks. It took us 30 minutes to drop odd bob and the nephew, we come back and we cannot catch a fish to save our lives not
even a PINK! Curses! Oh well, at least I wasn't working!
brags that its his fourth consecutive day of limiting out. He proceeds to rub salt in my wounds, as he limits again on Sunday
before I am even out of bed! WHAT! "So where did ya go?" Silence and a smile. "DANG IT!, WHERE DID YOU GO!"
Well he finally let me in on the secret... I'll only say that he was not fishing the Kenai River. I hate getting out fished by your old
man! Well, no shame, he fishes hard and seriously...almost as bad as I am about the whole thing! All of his fish were caught on
bobber and roe rig. After getting the story out of him, the run does appear to be past its peak. At the beginning of the weak, he
said limiting out was easy. But by the end of the week, he would not see or feel a fish for hours then in a 15 minute span a small
school would come up and he would land three fish in 15 minutes then leave.
overbearing. Still I can;t imagine this down cycle will last long....especially since all of my friends are SLAMMING silvers
everywhere they go. The lack of red salmon to the Kenai River and the subsequent lack of commercial fishing has allowed a
BUNCH of silvers everywhere. While there are just as many people as fish at Ship and Bird Creek in Anchorage, almost
everyone is hooking up. The silvers don't appearing to be biting too well and a lot of the fish I saw were snagged. Give it a try
if you can deal with the crowd.
saying that they were looking for a stream they COULDN'T catch fish in! Everywhere they went, pinks and chums kept them
busy with the silvers adding to the excitement. The peak of the silver run should be the first two weeks here in August so go
give them a try. If you don't like the crowds, wait till the end of August, fewer people but fewer fish. Still you can only keep
three anyway...right?
fish going by the sonar. If you want a few reds, head on up to the Russian river area. the fish should be thick pretty soon in the
upper river. I bet you can still slam fish near Soldotna if you are willing to drive that far. I hope all my buddies are fished out so
they don't read this. They will kill me if they see the run stats now. Of course I can't predict mother nature and the peak of the
run is usually July 15 through the 20th.
steadily. If you are on the peninsula, you should give it a try
