I trounce out to a favorite lake of ours in the mat-su valley. This particular lake is small, well shaded, and protected from
strong winds. A perfect combo for early freeze up. We get out there and sure enough, the lake has a solid 4 inches of
good clear ice. No problems walking on it. Still, we exercised a lot of caution until we deemed it safe. If you go out ice
fishing, especially early, make sure you play it safe. never go alone, and bring extra clothes and something you can use to
pull out someone if they happen to break through. Fishing is a blast! But its not worth dying over! At any rate, I know
the lake we were on is safe, but they all differ, a lake right next to the lake we fished was still open.
mid sized dollies right away. Ooooh, this is going to be great.....errrr....maybe not. After the first two fish, we went fishless
for a couple of hours. Then we managed a couple of nice eating size rainbows and a couple of Dollies. Following the
typical pattern, the Dollies were all caught jigging spoons and the rainbows came on cocktail shrimp and single eggs
suspended under a bobber. I managed two of the dollies on an all chrome lure called the "Do-Jigger" made by the same
company that makes Swedish pimples. They are flatter and work great. They are my number two lures to the luhr jensen
Krockadiles. Well, it looks like the ice fishing season has officially begun. BUT BE CAREFUL IF YOU GO! SAFETY
FIRST!
problem. Man, that woman is tough!
The news of the day...IT SNOWED! Oh Yeah! WE LOVE SNOW! You don't get wet like rain, and everything seems
clean and new! Time to get the ice fishing gear out!!!!
Well I do have a quick fishing update from Dougiie who ended up on Big Lake. Nothing super hot but they definitely hit a
share of rainbows and turned up a few good Dollies as well. I'm glad to hear that at least a few dollies are finally starting to
show up. Well I think I am going fihsing this weekend so we'll have another report!
my passions. I always wondered what it would take to keep me away from fishing. Well unfortunately I now know at
least one thing that is a much higher priority then fishing. My grandmother was hospitalized last week and for any of you
who have had the chance to visit our house, you know that grandma is the best host in the world. Not only that, she is a
fisherperson extraordinaire and a whiz at cleaning, cooking, & smoking fish to perfection. She's been one of my best
fishing partners and somehow she always seems to catch the most and the biggest fish. She's recovering now and we
hope to have her home soon. Until she is at home resting under the watchful eyes of my parents, I most likely won't be
fishing much. You gotta take care of the people who take care of you! And if that's truly the case, I'll never able to make
up for all the early morning coffee and breakfast she's made for all my fishing buddies at 3am or for her taking care of a
days' catch while all the young guys were snoring on the couch!
(you can click on it for a larger JPEG). First of all she was jealous that my fish beat out the 55
pound fish she caught early that year (1994), but she gets over that. As soon as I get home, I am
on the phone discussing with my friends how much it would cost to mount a fish like this one. I was
on the phone for no more than 30 minutes. The decision was made to mount it at a pretty high cost.
Afterall there are bigger kings but even I haven't seen a King this large and this brightly chrome
colored. I run back to the yard to find my fish cleaned, filleted and mostly vacuum packed.
AUGHHHHH! GRANDMA! How on earth did you manage to lift the fish onto the cutting board?
What did you do to cut off the head? "You did it yourself???? You have got to be kidding!!!!"
She's tough so she'll recover quickly I am sure. Until then, I hope everyone can be patient until I
can get out and spend more time outdoors. Believe me, I will be back out fishing ASAP! I just
need to make sure my priorities are straight for the immediate future. Thanks for your patience!
organized and the door prizes were great! Everyone (64 entries) went away with something. My boat of three walked
away with a t-shirt, a fillet knife, a fillet glove and a rod and reel combo! All that for a $20 entry fee per person. the
coffee, donuts, & chili were worth the entry fee! The other great news, they paid out 100% of the money back as prize
money!!!! Top 5 fish by length in both the Char and Rainbows finished in the "money"!!! Great Tournament!!!!
Unfortunately the fishing was TERRIBLE! The good news, it wasn't just me. The best we could manage was a 18 and
5/8 inch rainbow that finished 7th or 8th in the tournament. Not bad. But the fishing was slow slow slow! I bet we
managed only like 6 fish the first day and 12 fish or so the next day for three people. Ack! As we approach winter, the
action should only improve. Why were the fish not biting. Ecven the locals had a tough time hooking fish. the winning
Char was only 26 inches...I think. Small by Big Lake standards. The winning rainbow was a bit over 20 inches! We
catch those consistently on Big Lake....most of the time! Still, the weather was crisp but certainly tolerable. We had a
good time.
the fish probably averaging about 16 inches. Most of the rainbows look fat and full of food. We managed one nice
rainbow that spit out several half digested fish about 2 inches long. So they appear to be targeting the baitfish. We were
using half ounce krockadiles in chrome with blue stripe and chrome with red stripe. The red striped spoon seemed to be
getting more hits at a rate of 2 to 1. Hmmmmm...... Well I've always preferred the plain chrome or blue stripe on
chrome but there was no doubt that the red stripe was the better spoon on this day. All the rainbows were caught
trolling in under 10 feet of water over hard rock bottom. One major concern for me is the lack of char we are hooking
into. Of course I have never fished Big Lake this early so maybe they are off somewhere else. But if you look at my
logs from last year, in the month of October, we would consistently hit one or two nice char per trip. I think this last trip
makes like 7 or 8 consecutive trips without a single char. Well I'm not going to panic until we get into the icefishing
season and I'm pretty sure we are fishing habitat more suitable for rainbows, but it would be nice to see if we can't hook
into at least one or two char here soon!
mainly a salmon fisherman, this time year is a great time to be out and away from the crowds. It was relatively peaceful on
the lake, except for a few morons on jet ski's that would pass close by us despite having the lake entirely to themselves.
I am getting a bit concerned about the lack of Char and Dolly Varden from Big Lake this year. Of course I have never
fished Big Lake this early in the year so maybe I am being premature. Its my understanding after talking to the biologists
that the char may be congregating for spawning somewhere so they will be concentrated in a specific area. Hmmmm....if
you look at my winter logs from last year, its my opinion the Char spawn much later in the year at least in Big Lake. In a
few of the smaller lakes, I think the spawning occurs in late October. If you catch a brightly colored char ready to spawn,
think about letting it go. Better fishing for the future!
Well we did manage to land some really nice rainbows during our fishing trip. I'd say they averaged 15 inches with many
coming real close to the 20 inch length. For whatever reason, they don't seem to be taking to the air as often as the fish we
catch later in the year. Increased weeds are causing us to change our trolling pattern where we currently favor rocky
bottom in 5 to 10 feet of water. Any place you can find weed growth at about 15 feet and a ledge of rocks rising to 5 feet
or so seems to produce nice rainbows. while we tried a variety of different lures, the consistent producer this trip was the
Thomas minnow spoon. The fish still appear to be targeting the small stickle backs and salmon parr in the lake.
was going to be his last salmon fishing day for a long time. He seemed to catch silver after silver and I caught a few as
well. I think its safe to say that a few streams still hold some good numbers of silvers. He caught half of his fish on a Fire
tiger # 4 Vibrax spinner. The rest of the fish we both caught on our standard roe and float rig. Combined we hooked a
couple of dozen fish over the course of half a day!
As the current started picking up right after high tide, we couldn't keep the silvers off of our line! It was amazing. Every
now and then you get one of those days when you just can't go wrong. This day was one of them. Of course we also went
through a couple of one hour stretches that we didn't even get a nibble. So though I sound like it was easy, reality is we
worked hard and we waited for the flurries of fish that must have been moving up the river.
Something I found interesting was Ryo was using barbless hooks. He only lost one fish on the barbless hooks and it was
easy to get the hook out after he landed one. So rather than causing him to catch fewer fish, it actually helped him catch
more since the silvers often just inhale the lures and he was able to get back in the water very quickly. everytime I netted a
fish, the lure would fall out after he let up on the tension. And given that the "bite" was on for only 15 to 20 minutes at a
time, he maximized his efforts big time. A couple of his fish acted like classic silvers. running Hard taking to the air 4 or 5
times and he only lost one fish. Hmmmmm.....something to think about for sure. I was using four pound line and my
ultralight outfit. It was a blast, but I think I am going to move up to a slightly heavier gear. No problems landing fish but
heck of a time hooking them. the soft, short rod and light line just isn't enough to bury the hook properly and I was using
premium hooks! Also I noticed that his fish ( he was using 10 or 12 pound line) were much more spectacular fighting.
The fights were obviously shorter than my 4 pound line but I think the added pressure on the line just caused the silvers to
go berserk and leap into the air and battle that much harder. With the ultralight, it seemed like after I tired the fish out, I
would just guide the fish into shore and into the net. Instead of out muscling it, it seemed like I was outsmarting it. I guess
both ways have their merits but almost every fish caught on Ryo's line seemed to fight better! Any opinions out there?
Dolly! Still the rainbows kept us occupied for the most part. Certainly not a stellar day but 4 of us managed to catch a
couple of dozen nice rainbows in a day. the biggest probably went only 20 inches but we still had a great time. We
basically trolled in 5 to 15 feet of water with small silver spoons, rapalas, and crawlers attached to a worm harness. Weed
growth kept us from trolling in many of our favorite spots but we seemed to do really well over rocky patches on edges of
weed beds in about 8 feet of water.
The surprise for the day was Doug's two silver salmon (no, not the landlocked type) that he caught while trolling trout gear.
One came on a spoon but the other came on a night crawler. Huh? I have no idea how that happened but the Silver
simply inhaled the lure! Maybe I need to go try night crawlers for a few of the silvers!
strong. My father and I managed our limit, releasing a few extra fish in the process. All the fish were
mint bright with sea lice indicating they had been in freshwater a relatively short time. All the fish were
caught on a bobber and roe rig starting an hour before high tide and about an hour after.
I also stopped at Russian River to see what was happening. You could see a few trout holding behind
the spawning sockeyes but they wouldn't take. Probably just too gorged on the plentiful supply of roe.
You would occasional hook a red that was nearly spawned out. It was like pulling in a water soaked
log. Still I managed one nice trout that got off at my feet. I think it was a dolly since it stayed in the
water. but immediately I knew I had something different on as it pulled ten times harder and faster than
the reds. I was using a simple bead over a size 8 gamakatsu hook. Still what a sight, brilliantly colored
red salmon everywhere! made for a good picture.
good timed ruined. One of my first tips on my ice fishing page is to be informed! But it applies to all season. Gather
information and be informed about the regulations governing the area you are fishing.
past decade comes down and starts grumbling about how some (insert racial slur here) is in his spot. Well we woke up
early! So as my father and I are speaking Japanese, we are up something like 4 fish to his none and then he turns to
another guy and says do you understand a f%#&!@ thing these (another racial slur) are saying. I laugh turn to him and
say "well, I understand everything you are saying though!" Surprised at my English, he says to me, "You know what we
call the way you are fishing ( we were using roe under a bobber)? We call it (another racial slur) fishing." I reply "Why
would you say something stupid like that?!?!?!... what's your point? Let me give you a reality check, the score's 4 to
zero and we call what you are doing a 'bigot flailing and failing.'"
you keep your third silver salmon, you are done fishing for the day. Not in other streams though. But of course this guy is
going to call the enforcement people on us because he says dad is fishing illegal since he is fishing after his 3rd fish (dad was
100% legal). Fine, I tell him quoting the regulations for him, here's my cell phone. Make the call. Is this guy just
stupid?!?! I know exactly where he lives, he lives so close to the stream that I bet its the only stream he fishes. He shows
up at the same place, same hole like clock work every year. He has much more to lose than anyone else there. Now the
next time I see him, I'm snapping a picture, creating a fake website, and telling him that he's famous since he'll be on my
web site (I'd never do that, he doesn't deserve any further recognition). But I'll make sure that everytime someone comes
walking down that bank, he'll look and I hope it scares the heebie jeebies out of him.
Yet there is always a couple of outcasts that just don't live in the same time era or world as the rest of us. Please don't let
morons like that ruin your trip. I'm seriously thinking about writing a letter to the local paper. I'm sure the vast majority of
the folks in that small community would be appalled to hear how one person is tarnishing the entire area's image and
perhaps chasing away tourist dollars. I know a couple of folks left because they were offended. We weren't going to give
him the satisfaction of running us off. Guess he's just gonna have to get up even earlier!
my Japanese guests to a small clear water stream on the Kenai Peninsula. I wasn't
sure what to expect, but as it turned out, it was an AWESOME day! I hooked over
30 fish landing maybe half of those in a four hour period. All nice fish with the largest
pushing 8 to 10 pounds! All mint bright, within a mile of the saltwater. "You only
landed half?" Yup! but that's what you get for using 4 pound line on such feisty fish.
Actually with patience and a super smooth drag, it was no problem landing the
fish...once hooked! Unfortunately I had forgotten that I had such light line. I thought I
had 8 pound test but after breaking the line on my first couple of fish, a quick
inspection showed I had brought my 4 pound spool. I was using 1/0 gamakatsu's that
are super duper sharp but still the 4 pound line was not burying the hook point. The
first solution was winding 20 yards of 8 pound leader material so I could set the hook.
After getting bored of landing a bunch of fish (am I spoiled or what?) I decided that a
smaller, therefore thinner hook might be the way to go. Yup, hook sizes in the 2 to 4
gamakatsu's allowed for much better penetration.
would savagely attack the bare hook, the sinker, the bobber, and anything else that moved through the water. I have to
figure out what causes these feeding binges. I know I could have hit a few on dry flies skimmed across the surface. what
a blast that would be. Watching 10 pound fish attack on top water.
heard a few fish are still being caught in the streams up north with Sunshine Creek and Sheep Creek being mentioned the
most often. While there is no doubt in my mind that the silver run is smaller than before, the run also appears late in many
of the streams. I say you have several more weeks of at least some sporadic fishing left on the Peninsula! Go get'em!
Alaska. RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN! Many of my favorite rivers are running so high and muddy that they are nearly
impossible to fish. Check out the River forecasting center to see what the flow is like in a stream near you by checking
their home page at: http://www.alaska.net/~akrfc/
I'd give it a try. the water was relatively clear and you could hear people on the bridge saying they could see fish. I
managed to take a average size silver on 6 pound line at low tide with the current running hard! too much fun! had it on
the shore, took off between my legs, passed the rod through, step over, switch hands...it was like some kind of
choreographed dance...except I was all muddy in chest waders!
swallowed the hook. I was the only one using roe. Everyone else was flipping the traditional flipping rigs.
year, I have concluded that flipping for silvers is a very different game. Maybe I am wrong. You just can't seem to get a
silver to take a fly as readily even though they are noted as being relatively more aggressive fish. There is no doubt that
they will hit properly cured roe. Still on many occasions I have watched 30 silvers pass by my bait and for unexplained
reasons one fish in the middle up the pack will move up and smack my bait which is often suspended under a bobber in
small streams. Not all the fish will hit but there always seem to be that one fish in the crowd. The one sure rule is that the
"Fish are in the water." Gotta be fishing to have any chance at the "catching!"
125 emails is a bit out of hand! Still what a Blast! The first day the weather was near 100Deg! But a thunderstorm quickly
cooled the river down to a more tolerable temp.
Just because there were too many things to do, I didn't fish as a much as a normal vacation. Still we hammered smallmouth
bass in the Black River in Dexter. I also managed my first walleye out of the same area. Other species caught included
largemouth bass (tiny one!), sunnies, rock bass, crappie, Sheepshead, Channel cat & a bullhead. Dang no carp! Still I
caught all my fish on my ultralight outfit. The bait of the week for the smallies was no doubt live crayfish. they didn't seem
to care if they were softshelled or not so we used the less expensive hardshell crayfish/crabs. We also hammered a few
smallies in Lake Ontario. Pound for pound, those smallies almost fight as hard as our Salmon! Well we'll say its a tie. To
bad they only get to 5 or 6 pounds instead of 10 to 80 pounds!
All in all a good vacation for relaxing. Now to get some more serious fishing in!
dip netting from our group and managed 80 reds. Wow! the Week prior, Martin and I managed 30 reds in two separate
short attempts. The counters are still ringing up the reds so it should be good another week.
I personally tried the King fishing but found it to be waaay to crowded for my tastes. We saw good number of fish, but
with the sheer number of boats on the river, it still felt like a lottery. I am DEFINITELY fishing the early season much
harder next year...bait or not! The run is in, the counters are going crazy for the reds. IT IS TIME!
A touch of the Flu and a bad work week laid me out. Bummer. Still I managed to hammer a few reds on rod and reel.
They should be present all up and down the river by now. Limited out on Sunday in about 2 hours. I even managed a 8
pound red on my GL loomis ultralight outfit with 6 pound test. A pretty good feat in the raging Kenai River!
can prep ourselves for the upcoming "wall o'reds" that we always anticipate starting anytime after July 15th. Well with
absolutely no plans, we are on the road! We decide that we better test boat before we drop it in the River or in the ocean
so half way down to Kenai we turn off at Hidden Lake and in goes the boat. Well we didn't catch anything but the boat
ran fine so we head to the Kasilof River. Well I have to admit, I'm not much into dipnetting fish out of the Kasilof. they are
beautiful fish but they are tiny when you compare them to the second run reds in the Kenai. So Erick, after spending the
day on Saturday creating an impressive home made dip net from virtually scratch, we head off and try a little dipnetting.
opened, the count had dropped below 4,000 fish. It showed. Erick worked hard for a couple of hours and did manage
to net 6 bright reds. Size wasn't huge, but they were mint bright and when he cleaned them, they looked awesome!
Jumped on the internet, looked at the weather and it seemed perfect! No choice ,but to try the marine fishery. Well we
got there and the weather was perfect! We launch early and fish hard for hours without a strike. But of course the current
was simply raging due to the tidal flow so I wasn't too worried until the tide started to slacken up.
With the large tides for the day, it didn't slack up for an hour or two after book time high tide. But sure enough we started
getting small taps. Then one time Erick sends his herring down, clicks the bail lever, and DOH! Line continues to tear off
the reel. Hey, are we drifting? Heck no that's a fish, and a good one at that. Erick battles and battles finally he gains line
and the fish is nearing the surface. Just about when we looked over the edge to see if we couldn't see the fish, it takes off
again and without hardly any resistance, the line goes slack! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Erick retrieves his line and we
discovered the Knot had failed/cut/broke on 100 pound mono! THAT IS THE LAST TIME, I use pre-rigged hooks I
buy in a store. The knot looked a bit funky, but I figured they knew what they were doing so I rigged it up. The ease in
which the line broke and the twisted broken end immediately told me that somehow the knot had failed. Dang it! I was
using a J-hook instead of the usual circle hooks since right before then we were drifting along with the tide. With the circle
hooks, I like to give them a second or two or ten to have them take the bait solidly before I set the hook. Tough to do
when the current is moving as quickly as it does in cook inlet. The old style J-hooks allow for almost an immediate hook
set, and when you are drifting the force of the current and the boat is usually sufficient to set the hook. The problem with J
hooks is that the fish get off much more often than on circle hooks. Also the circle hooks more often than not hook the fish
in the corner of the mouth. Whereas the J-hooks can be hooked anywhere down to the gullet so the mono gets frayed by
the Halibut's teeth much more quickly.
of the day we are praying for one more hit. C'mon give us something BIG & FLAT! Dang it, I need to be greedier and
ask for more or at least be more specific. Once before I whispered the same request to the ocean. Sure enough I didn't
learn a thing. The result was the same as last time! I hear Erick say "I think I have one." As he reels up the fish seems like
its fighting harder and by the time it nears the surface it is pulling hard! Wow! Too cool. I look over the edge, and I can
"see color" Oh yeah! It looks like a good one at least 40 pounds. Well I was right. It was big and flat but it was a
SKATE! It was a massive one at that running bout 35 to 40 pound I bet. A picture or two and back it goes. Well the
weekend was pretty uneventful, but we had a good time, go the boat ready and we are really looking forward to this
coming weekend! Let the MAYHEM BEGIN!
up the Kenai River has dwindled below 500 fish. The condition were great in
terms of water temp and clarity, but I guess it doesn’t matter how good the
conditions are if there are no fish! Still I guess the proper attitude is that if one
fish goes up the river, I can catch it! Well that’s’ what it took. Have I ever
mentioned in my logs about how perseverance pays off??? Well not this
weekend! Still I got fish for my guests and despite long hours on the River, I
think they both went home happy. You couldn’t ask for better weather!
Kenai River has been restricted to Single hook only, though you can still use
bait. We launched out of Eagle Rock. After hitting a variety of holes as high
as Riverquest and as low as the High Banks, things were not looking too
good for the boat. Because I hadn’t bought large single hooks for the
Kwikfish, I opted to run Spin and Glo and Roe rigs on a 6/0 or 7/0 hook.
minutes we FINALLY see a net go up 4 or 5 boats below us. Then a minute later a net goes up 3 boats below us, then the
boat directly next to us hooks up. "C’mon, C’mon, C’mon Don’t skip us" we are saying out load. These 3 fish are
pretty much the only fish we have seen caught all day long. Then lady luck smiles on my friend from Phoenix and Whammo
his pole dips down, you can see the line skirt off to the side and he makes a perfect hook set and the battle is on! About 15
minutes later we have a beautiful chrome hen of 45 pounds in the net! SWEET! Kurt-san was using a Quantum rod, with a
penn320 Gti reel loaded with high vis 30 pound Ande mono. His terminal tackle was 40 pound Maxima Chameleon
leader, 6/0 single gamakatsu hook, with a chartreuse and flame spin & glo with roe cured with Pro-glo.
Sunday, we once again see no signs of a "morning bite". Bummer. Still we opt to backtroll the cross over hole where we
had luck on Saturday. After 5 hours of nothing, the exact same thing as Saturday occurs. We had seen a few more fish on
Sunday but it was slow slow slow on the river. We see a boat hook up 6 or 7 boats below us, then 3 then 2 then
Whammo my guest is hooked up to a nice King! It darts right, immediately tangling up with 4 other lines on another boat. It
happened so fast that there was nothing we or the other boat could do about it. I look over to Ryo (my guest) and ask,
what pound line you got on that thing? TWENTY?!?!?! Its plenty to land a fish, but definitely not heavy enough when you
have two spin & glos and two kwikfish dangling on your line while a 40 pound King is trying with its life to get away! The
cool thing was that the other boat did everything perfectly. They had one adult and three kids and they handled the situation
better than most guides would have. I should have gotten their names but after it was said and done, I gave them an extra
kwikfish since they lost one in all the mess. Whoever you are, we very much appreciated your courteous attitude and
patience during our fight with the fish!
ambassador 6500 loaded with
20pound Trilene XL. Terminal
tackle was a watermelon with black
winged spin & glo with roe, 40
pound Maxima Chameleon leader,
7/0 Gamakatsu Octopus style hook.
very happy about missing the fish. Just so I remember I better tell the tale. Later in the evening, Eagle Rock hole opens up
with nobody drifting it. Well I’ll sneak in and backtroll it since I’ve done well their in the past. Sure enough, after the
second pass I hear Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, Doh! Line is peeling off my reel and I swear I could virtually see smoke
coming off my reel! I ‘m thinking unless the line breaks this one is mine! I set the hook and the battle is on! Boy, I’ve
caught a few kings in my lifetime and this one feels really good. There was no stopping this fish for at least 50 to 75 yards!
Kurt-san was handling the boat and Ryo had the net in the air!. It zips off to one side and then I see a small fish jump
exactly where my line was. HUH?!?! No way! The fish was only like 25 pounds! At the time, It didn’t even occur to me
that it could have been a different fish displaced by my fish from its hole. But I saw how small it was and I kind of relaxed
and said, I’m releasing this one. Then the fish surges again and if it was a 25 pounder, it was on steroids! A momentary
slack occurs in my line when I mis-communicated with the driver and its off! BUMMER! Oh well. Maybe the 25 pounder
was snagged….backtrolling? Probably not. I wonder?!?!?!?!?!?!? Oh well, I’ll keep at it! My luck is bound to change!
Fish and game checked us on both days since we had a rod out of the water and on both days they said we were lucky to
have that one fish. Well I guess that makes me feel a little bit better. Still I’m nagged by the fact I’m losing fish on the
Kenai. This does not make me happy one bit. I have no problems with releasing fish, I’d just rather be able to "touch" the
leader to make it a shorter distance release!
fishing. So we didn't even think about using a flash. We forgot that the comfy hat that blocks the light from our face also
means no face in the pictures cuz its so bright around us! Take your hat off or use a fill flash and it will solve the problem!
so off we go to Ship Creek at Midnight. We wanted to get to Ship Creek and keep the first bright fish that we catch
between the two of us. Well Sean, hits two fish in about an hour and succeeds in landing the second fish. Its small but its a
beautiful chrome buck of maybe 10 pounds. We had seen a few larger fish but about 75% of the fish were getting to be
dark red. So a quick executive decision was made by Sean that 10 pound tasty chromer beats a 40 pounds of inedible or
at least not so tasty King so we whack it over the head and up it comes on to the shore.
definitely dwindling but the half a dozen fisherman we saw that morning, we probably saw 10 fish or so. The problem is
that you need to release a few before you get a decent fish in terms of color and fat content. The color alone is not an
indicator but as the fish get closer to spawning, they are surviving off of body fat and the same fat is also being used to
generate the roe or the milt in the fish as they sexually mature. If the fish is a bit red, make sure its nice and firm before you
decide to keep it. Otherwise you'll take it home, have one bite, and throw the rest away. One way to utilize the darker
fish is to smoke it. The loss of fat in the fish makes the flesh soft and mushy. The brine used in smoking helps to firm up
and flavor the fish a bit. You'll never make bad fish good, but you can make a marginal fish edible! The trick in my opinion
is to only keep fish in good condition to begin with.
world? It was obvious after a minute or two that Sean's fish was a small one. We were playing the fish near where one
guy was standing so he had to pull in his gear. As he watched the battle, he saw it was a small one and proceeded to reach
out, grab Sean's line, pull on the line while saying "he's a small one, just pull him in." He's lucky he took his hand off the
line as soon I gave him the "death glance". If he hadn't, I would have broken his fingers, my net was already in the
backswing stage of tomahawking his hand. He had absolutely no right determining the importance of that fish to my guest.
What the bonehead didn't know was that we were down at Ship Creek trying to fill an extra tag on the last hour of the last
day with full intentions of leaving after the first bright fish, 5 pounds or 50. What he also didn't know was that Sean had
been trying really hard to catch a king while flipping all week long. though he's landed good fish on the Kenai and
baitfishing, this was his first one flipping. I don't want to make this log a "whiner's log" but for God Sake, let's show some
common courtesy out there!
and I was wide awake around 11pm. Well better do some light reading so of course I picked up the area tide tables!
High Tide at 9pm? hmmmm means fishing should be good but with fewer people about now. So I did what any sane and
rational human being would do. I went fishing!
Hmmmm...maybe the run is over. The I see a small flurry of fish below me. But they all were dark red in color. Rats!
Maybe the run is over. About 30 minutes later I tie into a really good fish. It blasts up and down the river taking me for a
serious ride! Wow was that a blast. Eventually I land a beautiful nearly chrome 35 pound Buck. By far the largest I have
caught out of Ship Creek this year. Have I ever complained about the group of fisherman right below the road bridge.
They were in rare form last night. First they won't move ( no surprise) then they all start yelling that my fish is snagged.
Yeah, they wish. After ceremoniously unhooking the hook from the mouth in plain view of everyone, I slide it back into the
water while every one just stared. Man, does that feel great! Fighting and releasing such an awesome fish. People don't
understand it often, but you don't have to kill the fish to enjoy it! They are tasty, but with stricter regulations forcing you to
quit after keeping a king, I want to have some fun. I made the mistake of keeping a couple of fish early and ended up
sitting on my back end while everybody else enjoyed fishing! Doh!
I spoke with a couple of buddies that fished the streams up North. All my info tells me that Montana Creek has been slow
and spotty. however many of the knowledgeable anglers tell me the last weekend should be the best.
out on the Kenai. Conditions looked good, expectations were high! BUT, it was just not meant to be. Have you ever had
one of those days when nothing goes right? Well I got "those days" for the decade out of the way.
The day starts out with no "early morning" bite. What! There is always an early morning bite! Even if my boat doesn’t
hook up, some one always seems to around us…well, not today! A few fish are being taken but it was really spotty. Near
noon, my reel starts sizzling as my line tears out off my reel as we backtroll K-16 Kwikfish below Eagle Rock. SWEET!
The rod is throbbing and doubled over, the drag is tight but the fish continues to pull out line, I grab the rod, set the hook
and NOTHING!!!!! WHAT!!!!! How can that be??!?!?!?!?! It was a major league take down, my thumb hurts from
stopping the spool as I set the hook, and NOTHING? You have got to be kidding me! Okay life goes on.
Soon after, my guest’s rod dips down, she sets the hook at the right moment, and nope..no fish! Hmmmm….okay, keep
trying. She lets line out, and WHAMMO another fish on. This time it’s on! Klunk! AUGHHHHHH!!!!!!!
NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The reel fell off the rod! WHAT! .....Double WHAT!
I grab the reel as it slams up against the first eye, the fish tears out line, She’s fighting it with the rod, I’m fighting it with
the reel and we eventually get the reel seated and of course the fish is no longer on. So we continue……but after many
many hours (15 or so!), a few kinda – sorta takedowns, we are ready to give up.
Well the guest’s 7-year-old son wants to give it one last crack! You betcha, I like that attitude! Well, as you might expect
after a 15-hour day, the boy is getting bored for sure! So I’m thinking of anything to get him some action. What brilliant
idea does Rudy come up with? I’ve seen lots of Dollies get pulled up! So let’s rig his trout rod up with a miniature spin
and glo rig to catch dollies to save the day. The "Big Boys" will continue to fish Kings. While the idea was a good one,
there was a major flaw in the logic
kinda lightly, Alright! Rudy’s ingenuity pays off!!!! "Reel him up, the rest of you can stay in the water, .it’s just a
Dolly…sure looks like a good one…wait...huh?…What!….Oh no!" He pumps the rod a couple of times and all the
sudden his rod just goes berserk! Uh-Oh! That’s no Dolly…AUGHHHH………. KING ON!!!!!!….
…bbbzzzzzzzzzzz……zzzzzzzzzz……..SNAP! I thought that 6-pound line might be a bit light for those Kenai Kings. Well it
probably would have been some kind of record if he would have landed it!
whole different ballgame…sort of. Well, Martin and Bob are kicking me at my house trying to wake me up. After a little
delay, we are on the river at 5am. Since the whole kwikfish thing wasn’t working on Saturday, and I was too tired to
backtroll, I rig up for the old-fashioned drifting method utilizing lead weights, spin and glo, and roe. We decide to fish Eagle
Rock’s drift hole.
fish on! After a bit of a struggle we bring to the side of the boat a beautiful chrome 30
pound hen. Good Start! After 15 hours and no fish on Saturday, 5 minutes, we have
a fish on! I was using a "Kenai Killer" Lamiglass Baitcasting rod, Shimano Tr200
reel, 30 pound Maxima Fibreglow line, 40 pound Maxima Chameleon Leader,
Chartreuse with black stripe spin & Glo, 7/0 Gamakatsu Octopus Hooks, using roe
cured with Pro-Glow bait cure
refuses to come in! Everytime it saw the boat or the net, it would find some energy to dart off. Sean battled and battled for
what seemed like forever. We must have had it within 10 feet of the boat over a dozen times! Still Bob with a lot of
patience waits for the right moment and in comes a rose tinted 40 pound buck! Alright Sean. His biggest King ever! His
was on the same terminal tackle as mine except a clown spin & glo 6 foot heavy action ugly stick with an Ambassador
7000 reel loaded with 40 pound Maxima Fibreglow
passes, three Kings! That has to be some kind of record for me. Too Cool! Well Bob tags another that I end up fighting
after one of those pass the rods/untangle nets/start the dead engine fiascoes. Another chrome 30 pound hen that Bob
decided to put on his Mom’s proxied license. What a great thing this "proxy system" is! Basically Bob can harvest two
limits of fish because his Mom is either older than a required age or physically unable to fish. This way, his mom can still
enjoy fresh fish and Bob gets to keep fishing for his second limit! Sounds like a great thing to have for a halibut charter!
Much more economical! He was using an Ambassador 6501 baitcaster reel on a Kenai Special Lamiglass rod. It looked
to be loaded with 30 pound berkley big game line.
a good time fishing. It’s always a good thing to be on the water with good company. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves.
I have to admit that I was disappointed that I couldn’t get my guests "hooked up" on Saturday! I hope they will give me
another chance sometime in the future! Man, my face hurts after getting too much sun! Better quit, I’m whining now!
the time I left at 4:30am (still needed to make a 150 mile drive into work!) we had hooked up and lost three or four reds
and a couple of kings. We had managed between three of us to also pull out three jacks. After seeing relatively few jacks,
they seem to be showing up a whole lot more. The water in the Kasilof was high, but there seemed to be decent number of
fish still present in the river. Despite deeper water, surface activity remained relatively high during the morning hours.
Kenai River King. I saw on the internet and had heard reports that the Kenai was a lot tougher fishing than it had been in
weeks since the water clarity was down. However, the run is very strong and we were hoping that that would balance
things out to at least a normal day. Well we were wrong. It was a great day! Not a super day, but a great day. Huh? Well
unless you know the Kenai River, it may sound a bit confusing. All standards are relative. The Kenai is a trophy fishery.
Lots of hours in between strikes, but you are fishing for the next world record or for more ambitious folks like myself, the
first triple digit King!!!!!!!
between 4:30 am and 7am. However, during the first few hours, Erick had a good strike, but no fish were hooked. Things
were not looking too good. I decide to start with two K-16 Kwikfish and two rigs with Spin and Glos and roe. We started
backtrolling by Riverbend Campground. Some of the folks on the Kenai are suggesting fishing higher up in the River but if
we keep one, we want it to be mint bright so we always fish in the Lower River. In fact, in my nearly 30 years of fishing the
Kenai, I don’t think I have ever targeted Kings above College Hole which is well below the Soldotna bridge.
and then whammo! Martin’s Pole dips down and we are on to fish. Well it wasn’t a huge fish, but it was mint bright. I
bet it was around the 18 to 20 pound mark. He was using a new Chartreuse herring bone on Chrome pattern K-16
Kwikfish with a sardine wrap. The strike was at the "falling in hole". Martin was using a Daiwa Millionaire on a 6 foot
heavy action Ugly Stick.
pounder that Erick releases without hesitation. Once again it was on a chartreuse herring bone on chrome Kwikfish. Well,
two fish doesn’t make a pattern either, but pretty soon we are all running some sort of K-16 kwikfish with chartreuse
patterns. Erick was running a Medium Size Penn Spinning Reel on carbon boat rod I picked up in Korea. Stiff as a
broom handle except for the last 6 inches which is a real light action. Worked great.
Another pass or two in "falling in hole" and I am hooked up. Oooooh it’s a good one! It jumps, thrashes on the surface,
you can hear the line sizzling as it trails behind the King which is zippin back and forth between the banks. I have it on over
10 minutes….then the hooks pull free. Oh man! I felt nauseous when my line went slack! That’s King fishing! My
guesstimate has the fish at about 45 pounds. Not a big one by my Kenai standards, but it still would have been the biggest
of the year for me. Darn darn darn darn! Okay, life goes on. Time to start fishing again!
An hour or two later I hook up again! This time it looks like a red salmon! Tiny…still to add insult to injury it comes off
after a second or two. Ouch…this is starting to really hurt! Still three out of four people in my boat have hooked up to the
elusive kings in a span of less than two hours.
did once again! My guest hooks up late in the afternoon and we are running up and down the river chasing a solid 30
pound King. It wasn’t huge but it was an honest 39 inches plus! Why is that significant? He had been dreaming of landing
a salmon at least one meter long. Guess what 39.4 inches equals? One meter! To add to the value, it was silver silver
silver bright hen. His fish came while we were backtrolling an area between Eagle Rock and the Pillar hole. He did a great
job fighting it. He brings it up to the boat, I get designated as the "net man" since Martin was captain for the hour. I go to
net the fish, but before I am ready, the Kwikfish pops out! Oh no, I hear everyone say simultaneously. But WAIT! I feel
something heavy in the net…….You have got to be kidding! The fish came off the hook and jumped/flopped/fell/swam or
whatever into the net! LUCKY!!!!! So there was much rejoicing…yay ! I claim it was all my experience that saved the
fish, but reality is that I have really no idea how it got into the net as I was a bit busy ducking the two massive treble hooks
attached to the K-16 Kwikfish that went flying right by my face!!!!!!! He was using a Lamiglass Kenai King with a
Ambassador 6500 C4 High speed reel. Don't buy the High speed reels for King fishing. The gear ratio that makes them
fast, makes it too hard to crank on a big fish or even a big Kwikfish. I think the high speed will be great for Silvers though!
price cheapo nets in the past. The frabill was much easier, better designed from a usability
standpoint, and I figure its good to about 75 pounder. My other net was poor underrated for anything
over 50 pounds. Its hard to find good quality nets. But I see more fish lost at the net then any other
time. Get a good net! You'll be glad you did!
to release 2 kings on the Kenai! WOW! So all in all we had 7 takedowns, 6 fish on, 4 landed and we kept two. It had to
be the single best non-peak (peak =July 15 to 30) day I have ever had on the Kenai in terms of number of fish. Still the
odd thing was that all the fish were very small (except the one that got away…it’s true!) It seemed to be the one constant
we saw and heard about all day was the small fish. Oh well, you can’t complain about the day we had! Time to
concentrate on those trophy Kings. As many small fish as we hooked into Sunday, we are due for a 50 plus pounder.
Heck I’m ready for another fish over 70pounds! No complaints though. This year has been a great year on the Kenai with
anglers averaging something like 25 hours per fish even though the latest reports show something more like 46 hours per
fish Friday. Well we shattered that average! Can’t complain about that.
up into Kings. The action was really slow given the time of the year.
We baitfished for a while but with no results. Well not completely
true, I pulled up a Dolly that had to be pushing about 3 inches. How
it impaled itself on 4/0 gamakatsu is anyone’s guess. We did get
constantly hit by trout or some other smaller creature. No kings
though. About 2 hours into the day, I decide to put the bait gear up
and warm up by flipping a corkie rig around. Yup, it was a chilly
morning for sure!
River is now beginning to tail off. I saw about 60 to 70 percent of the fish had already begun to turn red. The early morning
hours didn’t produce like normal. In fact an observation we made was that the fish seemed to moving better when the sun
was out. The river was completely different with much higher volumes flowing through the Kasilof. Although the fishing
wasn’t great, we saw plenty of fish rolling and jumping. I think the higher water levels are going to make the fishing harder
for the rest of the season. It doesn’t mean you can’t catch them though!
last Saturday.....Ship Creek is HOT, so what can ya do. If you don’t know the answer by now, stop reading.
Japan who had never caught a King. Ship Creek at low tide is not the best place for a first timer, but its so dang close!
an alarm clock without that dang snooze button! He released them all. I hooked up 5 minutes into the fishing and then my
guest hooks up and the battle is on! After a few words with people who will not get out of the way, we manage to battle
the fish into shore and land it. SWEEEEET-O, frankly I didn’t think a first timer would have much of a chance on his first
king at ship creek but he handled it great! It was a bright fish of about 18 pounds. All the fish I saw today were bright.
Maybe a new slug of fish is passing through. All of our fish were caught flipping the corkie rigs. Erick managed to hook a
couple of fish with bait at high tide.
woke up early, I offered to take him, I drove, and I didn’t charge him, of course, and I still felt kind of impatient and
guilty for the hour. I can’t imagine how bad I would feel if I had just taken $150 from him! Besides, guides are too busy
to fish and since I love to fish, I probably would make a terrible guide. Still watching him battle the fish, the number of
photos he took, and the major league smile afterwards made me realize that what I get to do EVERYDAY in Alaska is an
extraordinary thing and I really really really need to appreciate it more. Everyone I take fishing always tells me that it would
have been enjoyable even without catching a fish (easier to say if you did catch a fish though!), but I also know that
expectations are high when people come to fish Alaska.
friends think I’m nuts that I help, but I think a lot of folks are a bit overwhelmed when they come to Alaska to fish,
especially if they are on a budget. Without being able to fly out or hire guides everyday, fishing in Alaska is not necessarily
the same as the "image" Alaska has of a remote and isolated wilderness. You think I’m kidding? Take a look at the
pictures Ship Creek during normal hours! You can find fishing articles by the Anchorage Daily News right here with a few
combat fishing photos. Hard to believe that we were fishing a stretch of river very close to the photos and we had hundred
yards of the river entirely to ourselves.
fishing and catching nothing (which my guest had done the previous day) and going to the same river, with almost no people
and catching a king. What did it cost me???? Absolutely nothing! I’m going fishing anyway. If you want to tag along, just
drop me a line. I obviously have commitments for guests and work (yes I work!) but if I have the time, I rarely say no to
anyone who takes the time to write or call. Call it selfishness but the more people with good impressions about Alaska and
Fishing, the better the world is…..at least from my own selfish perspective!
true! Well I wake up at 3am and meet Erick at Ship Creek. I HATE crowds. But what can you do? There’s plenty of
fish, just not plenty of space….during normal human hours. We had pretty much the entire river to ourselves at 3:45am.
Too cool. This is the same river that is shoulder to shoulder during normal business hours.
since I was hardly expecting a strike so early and my fly reel just went from zero to a couple hundred rpm’s in less than a
second. Well it was snagged but it was fun. Without all the people, I just decided to take my time and land it. A great start
to a pretty good day. We fished from 4am to about 7am and the total was 4 kings to the bank, half dozen more fish on,
and at least another dozen solid strikes.
a male salmon that decides to return after only one year at sea. They generally run 14 to 20-inches long. They are sexually
mature and they are almost always males. Last year we caught a bunch, this year, not so many. Once again, I have no idea
why.
percentage of rose colored fish is rapidly increasing. Still I’d say half of the fish are nice and bright. All the fish were
caught flipping corky rigs at low tide.
Lots of people where I normally fish. No problem. They either catch fish and leave or they don’t catch fish and give up.
Well not tonight. Nobody was catching anything and nobody was giving up.
showing you how wrong you really are…but not last night! Okay, with that being said, it was major league frustrating
watching 10 people occupy one of the best holes in the river and by watching them, you knew that any hook up would be
a fluke. Well no problem, we all had to learn at some time. But what kind of irritated me was that I offered up some advice
and they laughed at me. So they "flailed and failed" while kings continued to roll in front of them. Tip of the day is to absorb
all information, right or wrong. Then apply that knowledge to the current situation.
really carefully, people are doing things differently. Part of my success in combat fishing is being able to identify groups of
fisherman that WILL catch fish and wait behind them. Once they kill a king, in many rivers they are done and I can fit in. I
can also tell you that the successful "look" has nothing to do with clothing or expensive tackle. If you want to know how
our group fishes kings, take a look at my King’s tip sheet right here.. The flipping and plunking techniques are both
applicable to Ship Creek.
fisherman. It turned out well since there were so many fish in the river that I ended up landing two fish while the rest of the
group continued to flail away. I rolled a couple more fish and I left. 5 hook ups, two landed versus no hook ups for the
other group. I sat on the bank and watched for a half hour drenched in sweat from running up and down the bank chasing
the kings. No one hooked up. I know it sounds mean and evil, but I chuckled, said good luck (they needed it), got my
minor dose of harmless revenge, and left. Ahhhhhh…urban combat fishing……ya gotta love it. Its not the ideal Alaska fishing
scenario that many dream about, but it’s a blast. Just know that you are entering a combat zone, have a good attitude, be
polite and you’ll have a great experience.
your ears) are MANDATORY. A fish isn’t worth losing an eye or getting snagged in the head. You laugh? Stop by the
Soldotna hospital on a trip to the Kenai Peninsula. They have a board shaped like a fish to which they place all the lures
they remove off of unfortunate fisherman through the course of one year. YIKES! It gets loaded! It’ll make ya think twice
about saying "yeah, that doesn’t happen to me!"
go fishing"…especially my friend's wives! IT"S TRUE!!!!
didn’t wet a line for the first 90 minutes. As midnight and darkness rolls around, the people start leaving. Too bad, the tide
was just going out and the action was about to begin!
and landed one in less than an hour. The fish I landed was a 20 pound, rosie colored male so I released it. Martin also
hooked up and released a similar male while bait fishing.
As the tide dropped, I switched over to my flyrod for flipping. As the tide started going out, I bet between Martin, Doug,
and I, we were hooking up to something every 5 .minutes. We all eventually landed some really nice fish
different methods and means that works. These tips are usually generated because I was stupid or negligent and my error
reduced my chances of landing or catching a fish. You can find my previous general tips here and my King fishing tips right
here.
thought this up?!?! Well its so obvious I have to mention it. Good bait means good fishing. Especially since the last several
days, I have seen store bought or poorly cured roe on about 80% of the lines being fished. For the third or fourth time in
a row (well really for the past 25 years), I have watched hand cured king roe outfish store bought roe easily by a two to
one margin...and I am being very very conservative. People will hook up using the other bait, but there is absolutely no
doubt that the good bait will out perform store bought stuff. There’s a guy selling roe at Ship Creek that comes walking
around, but its too firm too hard, and looks terrible. Bucky's Bait, a popular bait company, has roe that will work but is still
poorly colored and hard. Our roe is all a very Fluorescent red, firm but still moist and natural.
face it, its a blob of roe floating off the bottom attached to a sinker anchored on the bottom. Really the only difference is
the bait. We hook up and get hits at a rate double to the other people fishing. Put two and two together......I wish I could
say it was my fishing technique, but its not. IT'S THE BAIT!
seconds. Then with hardly any pressure the line breaks. DOH!…DOUBLE DOH! Anyone that reads my logs knows that I
absolutely HATE it when my mistakes costs me a fish. Apparently while fighting the first fish, the line weakened
somehow.m Salmon's teeth, Sharp rocks, another person's line...anything could have weakened the line. Let the fish beat
you (and they will) don’t beat yourself! For King fishing, it often takes too many hours to land the fish. Check your
leader, check your line as often as possible. If you hesitate for even a moment when checking the line, replace the line
immediately. Not only do I check my leaders, but I will cut back 10 feet or more line every other hour. Especially flipping
in the current, the line takes abuse.
king, this is the time!