Alaskan Memories Part 2.

Brian from our State College store asked me to put together a story for his blog: Flies and Lies . Their theme this week was “Alaska stories from guiding”. So I put this story together for him, figured I'd share it with all my viewers as well.

Many of my fondest memories took place while clients were present; however my best and worst memory of Alaska took place on a remote river virtually untraveled by people. We had decided on the fly to take a single night camping trip, on the other side of the island, the weather looked good for the flight over and the flight back. Around 9:30 we were loaded, and set for the flight over. My buddy Jesse, had is cousin up from the big city of Portland, we wanted to show him the “real” Alaskan experience. To keep the story short, we set up camp, fished all day, came back for dinner, shared some stories and hit the hay, with my .44 under my pillow (bear protection). The next day we had seen a couple bears in the tidal flats but they were no threat at that point, we fished all day and around 3 broke down camp and waited for the plane to arrive, we knew the planes had to be grounded by 7pm, so when 7:45 rolled around we were in for another night on the river. Bringing just enough food for the 2 days, we had only a cliff bar and 2 bottles of water to hold us over. Good news, Pink salmon were in the river, so we went to work. After catching a couple slightly fresh pinks, I was off to work cleaning them. After I was half way done with one and had just enough salmon blood on my hands, I looked up and see almost face to face a 3 or 4 year old Brown bear, looking at me and my fresh catch. Now of course the one time I need it my .44 is back at camp, so doing what I was taught to do: get big, get loud, and don’t let the bear have your food. So after what felt like forever, more like  2 minutes, Jesse came running down with his “bear protection” 45/70 lever action riffle, and we had a stand off until the bear turned and walked away. Talk about adrenalin rushes.  We were on edge the rest of the evening while we cooked the salmon, luckily no more bear sighting for the night. When we woke up I looked over at the river, there he was just standing there looking into the river, waiting for a salmon to swim by. He was occupied, we broke camp down and the plane arrived around 10am.

Reason for the 1 day delay – zero visibility, might I mention it was a sunny blue bird day where we were. That’s the power of the Pacific.   

The Whole Day

Yesterday; having nothing to do and the urge to fish, Leland and I decided to take the boat out all day. We floated from the Stilling Basin, down to the Poachers Whole. The fishing was great, the catch rate however, not so much. It was just one of those days where the takes were very light, when you lifted the fish went crazy and your line went slack. The water was 257cfs and super clear so from the boat we could see all the fish once we hooked them (that is always cool). It's fun to float all day with no deadline, you can take your time, hitting holes you don't normally fish, and maybe find a new "hot spot" while your at it.

I would say even with the catch rate very low, it was still a great day on the water. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Hot Flies: Midge, Midge Midge - Zebra Midge (Red & Black), Sugar Daddy, Psycho Prince (Pink)

Note: Midges everywhere, fisher were up now and again, we had our most luck with midge emergers or just plain o'l zebras.

First Boat Trip Down the Tully

After this last rain the water levels jumped up to over 500cfs, a perfect flow for my boat. Joey and I met up around 6:15am, brushed the frost off the boat and pushed it in. The fishing was slow, but it sure was nice to be behind the sticks again.

Joey worming up with some fresh brewed coffee (look at that smile)

Decisions, decisions, decisions

Beautiful

Made it all worth it

Hot Flies: San Juan Worm, Sugar Daddy

Featured Fly - Tooth Decay

This is a fly that was featured in Fly Tyer magazine this past summer. This fly has been very effective for me during high and off colored water. The hot orange butt gives something "extra" for trout to look at. I tie this fly in 3 different body colors: Olive Yellow, Brown, and Black. The olive and brown bodied ones work very well when BWOs are present.

Materials

Hook: TMC 3761 - sz. 14-18

Bead: Copper - to match hook size 

Thread: Olive Yellow

Tail:  Wood duck or Coq de Leon
Body: Tying Thread
Thorax: SLF Red Fox Squirrel Nymph Thorax
Wing Case: Med Holo. Tinsel - Black
Rib: Ultra Wire - Copper 
Hot Spot:  6/0 UNI Thread - Fire Orange

Step 1:  Start by making a small thread base. Tie in a 6 - 8 lemon barred wood duck fibers.

Step 2: Tie in Ultra wire to the start of the "Hot Spot", Wrap thread forward making a tapered body 

Step 3: Wrap the wire forward making a rib.

Step 4: Tie in the Holo flashe for the shell back.

Step 5: Dub the thorax.

Step 6: Pull shell back forward and tie off behind the bead.

Step 7:  Whip finish.

Finished Fly 

This fish fell to the Tooth Decay after flows well over 3,000cfs. 

Spring is Almost Here

Thank you Mr. Stricker for sharing your flies. This one thought they looked good

2 more days on the river has made me realize spring is coming, and coming fast. Yesterday Leland and I headed up to the Water-Works to try it again. We were reworded with a few awesome fish, the water is warming slowly,but just enough to get the bigger holdovers moving. Midges and prince nymphs seem to be producing the most fish, with worms and smaller attractor patterns not far behind. There has also been reports of fish keying in on little black stones on the lower sections of the river.

Even with wet conditions yesterday, the water stayed clear and low just long enough for Joey and I to get into a couple fish today. The cold and over cast day had midges all over the place, fish were starting to rise consistently to them. About that time the nice people at the dam decided to raise the water cutting our day short.

 Hot Flies: Prince Nymph, Zebra Midge, Sugar Daddy, New Prince, San Juan Worms

3 Days of Fishing

This weekend marks 4 out of 10 states for 2012. I went down to Maryland for the weekend. With all of the "big" game fish out in deep water or up river spawning, we had to turn our attention to one on the only species around this time of year. Yellow Perch make their way up-river between February and March to spawn, so fishing the mouth of creeks with minnows and chartreuse jigs has always been the method to success. Instead of minnows and 6ft light spin rods, I had an Olive Zuddler minnow and 5 weight fly rod.

Over 15" Yellow Perch

 Hot Fly: Olive Zuddler

After a nice weekend in MD, Chris and I decided to take out the eight weights and try our hand at a few winter Musky. The good news is we found one, but the bad news is he didn't eat. If you have ever gone Musky fishing you know that often times this is the case, however we still fish relentlessly for these apex predators. Most of the time it is the anticipation of the take that keeps us fishing for these beasts.

Musky Fly

Not bad for an IPhone - Musky in the trees

Hot Flies: Who knows!

Finally, Joey and I decided to hit the Tully this morning for a couple hours before work. If you ask Joey the fishing was Awesome... Me not so much. Joey ended up with about 6 to hand, all were beautiful hold-over fish. Some days its just not your day, and today was that day for me. Maybe tomorrow :)

Beautiful Tully Trout

Hot Flies: Prince Nymph, Zebra Midge

Another Great Blog

A good friend of mine Brian Michelotti, who also works at the TCO State College store just started a new blog. He was a guide in AK for 4 seasons, and 1 season in Patagonia.

He has a wealth fo fishing knowledge, a whole lot of stories (good and bad) about his many years on the water.

Check out his blog ---  Flies & Lies