Official AK fishing thread

[grillebilly]

I had an opportunity to skip work and take my youngest girl out in the canoe. Got on the water right before sunup. We have had some heavy rains lately so my thoughts were the Potomac river was muddy and fishing would be tough. We fished a marsh the water was running out of post high tide. Water was a lot clearer there. We caught 3 Largemouth Bass each, none big enough to brag about. We also saw tons of birds, a couple buck deer, snakes, beaver, turtles and lots of cool flowers along the banks. The sunrise picture is from the Virginia shore looking across the river into Maryland, right below the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Just a couple miles from Washington, DC.

 

[Speedbump71]

Just a quickie from a trip to Cabo. Little Blue Marlin. How have I not seen this thread before??

 

[Speedbump71]

The wife in Key West.......shes on the right

 

[mfrench]

If my stories of yore are sort of weird or a bother, lmk. Until then,…

Sarge, the spousal unit, and I, used to live in a trailer park in Laguna Beach, Treasure Island Trailer Park. Its biggest claim to fame, well, one of them, is that it is the coastal trailer park in the movie, The Long Trailer (Desi and Lucy). It was a nice park, and the type of park where they make you take the wheels off.
Its other claim to fame was its beaches

to the south, towards Aliso Beach,… The following fishermans tale plays out at the rocks around mid-picture. They're revealing themselves as a bit of an offshore ripple in the waves in this image. At low tide, they become shorebound in part, and with exposed edges. That reef is at the hard right center edge of the picture:

I used to go out onto the rock outcroppings and fish for Calico Bass, regularly. I also did a lot of surf fishing for Corbina on these beaches, and, in hopes of whatever else might be in around the edges of the reefs. Beaches and reefs like this attract a wide variety of species.

Sarge and I decided to take a walk along the beach at sunset, and I grabbed my 6wt fly rod, and box of flies, in sand crab and anchovy and sardine/grunion streamer patterns. I figured I could walk the surfline, and cast and walk all at once.
Well, we got as far south on the beach as the bluffs would allow, and I drew nothing. So we turned around, and started heading back. We got to about halfway back, where there is a large rock reef that was partially exposed at this low tide. So, I stopped there for a few more dedicated searching casts. I was doing a hand-twist fly jigging retrieve, and had about 4’ of line in the water, and was watching the fly drag in the sand, when suddenly, literally at my feet, this monster halibut came surging out of deeper water, inhaled the fly. I set the hook, and the race was on.
I literally had a half of a rod length of line in the water when this thing took. A 6-weight fly rod is a medium duty trout rod, for bass, pike, pickerel, panfish, etc. For surf fishing, and hooking a large halibut in the surf,… hands full.
This tug-of-war all played out for a good fifteen minutes. Finally the fish started to be brought back to the surf line, and with the help of a small wave rolling ashore, i was able to get it up onto the beach, got myself between it and the open water, and, it was mine.
18lb 36" Halibut 8'6" #6 Fenwick Graphite Fly Rod

 

[mfrench]

Some more fish from the local coastal waters, both surf, and Newport Bay

Corbina, Ghosts of the Surf.
These things battle intense currents and waves their entire lives. They are thick and strong!!

They, ^^, are members of the Croaker family.

This is a cousin of the Corbina, the Spotfin Croaker; again, thick and strong:

Newport Bay drift jigging,... ^, Balboa Bay Club in the background.

And a few more Spotted Bay Bass in Newport Harbor
Jigging in tight to structure:

 

[satellite]

S

Sounds fun to catch them and also tricky to handle! Like Northern Pike here are tricky, if they don't get a lure treble hook suck in you they will bite you, mouth full of big teeth, big and slimy, and a nasty disposition!

When I tried to fish for them, I asked a local for advice. He said "If you land one, don't even touch it without leather gloves"!

 

[7whales7]

I haven't been fishing in a long time. I made the mistake of turning it into a living. That led to a bad case of burnout, as I wasn't ever fishing for the love of it.
So, my pics and stories are a bit of the past.

Wild Trout. Thats my addiction.
My family lines are from Utah and Idaho, going back to the pioneers. I spent a huge amount of time in both states exploring small waters.
I've been puring over some old pics, and, thought I'd share a few, and some stories.

This is in south-central Utah. It has brown trout, and rainbows. On this day, I ran into a small mayfly hatch at sundown, and managed to catch a few nice browns in some riffle water just downstream from this pic. I took this pic, because i liked the layering of the weeds/algae flowing in the current. Thats my cousin on the bank, exploring, looking for fish. More pics with Greg, and our explorations of Utah to follow.
View attachment 1252194

Beautiful!

 

[7whales7]

When I tried to fish for them, I asked a local for advice. He said "If you land one, don't even touch it without leather gloves"!

Get a Bogogrip, some needle nose pliers to get the hook out. For years I would grab them with my hands, gotta grab them behind the head and gills, only got stuck with a hook once....and it was a good one! LOL!

 

[7whales7]

This is a trip into an upper colorado drainage, green river drainage area of central-eastern utah.

The accommodations out there can be a little rough:
View attachment 1252292 View attachment 1252293
But the water is sweet; cuz'n Greg again,...
View attachment 1252297

This one, below, well,.. its sort of a gutter flow.
I'll explain,...
There was a wonderful outdoor fishing show many decades back, back when we had to VHS tape it by hoping to get the time right, and making sure the cable box was also on.
That show, was hosted by a gent named Jerry McKinnis - Fishin' Hole, I think?
At any rate, in one episode he went to this small stream, and went upstream into this beautiful canyon, and just tore it up. I tried to replicate his effort, found this same stream, went up into the same canyon,... and got skunked.
This place was like three hours into nowhere, and with nothing around it. I was bummed.
So, I drive back down out of the canyon, and the river dries up, and is run into ditches, into the farmers fields, and the river bed is dry. Fack!
I already had reservations to stay in the only hotel for miles around. So, I went in, and, they also had a diner attached. So, I order a burger. I started to speaking to the owners wife about my luck, and she looked confused about the river being dry, and she pointed across the road, and there it was flowing. WTF?
She said the kids in town float the river, and fish in it all through this stretch of town And, the town folk actually are friendly, and let you cross their property.

The next morning, I drive my truck 100' across the road, and start fishing upstream.

View attachment 1252294
Cus Greg again,....
View attachment 1252295 View attachment 1252296
And, finally, me, with a slimer of a brown trout caught out of a gutter flow, that sort of reappeared on me, after it disappeared.
This was a good thing, because I went from skunked to pumped.
View attachment 1252298

I just got a fly rod for my B-day in June! Working on my casting mostly ....it can be frustrating! I'm up to the challenge! Gives me something new to try.Love the pics keep them coming!

 

[mfrench]

I just got a fly rod for my B-day in June! Working on my casting mostly ....it can be frustrating! I'm up to the challenge! Gives me something new to try.Love the pics keep them coming!

My pleasure.


More stories,… always my favorite part of each adventure,...


This is one of my favorite places on the face of this earth to fish; The Arcularius Ranch in the eastern Sierra, near Mammoth (slightly north, and east). You know what,... I'm calling it one of my favorite places on earth, period.
It is on the Upper Owens River, which is a glorious spring creek in its upper reaches, and then about 1/2 down the fishable waters, it gains a large input of water from over a mountain ridge, and through a tunnel.

In an instant, the stream goes from a small intimate spring creek, to a larger creek, that borders on being of river size (by south-west standards). This convergence is called the East Portal Weir.

At any rate,… The Arc.



Yeah, that big in tiny waters.

 

[mfrench]

I'll start with this one, a nice fat Rainbow.

I got to the Arc for a three day stint. I went down to my favorite stretch of water all pumped up to be back on the ranch. That beat is called Green Bridge Over Swift Water. I wet my line, and,... nothing.
This image is the lower part of the Green Bridge Over Swift Water beat. The bridge is just upstream from my truck.

OK,... nothing? that was a fluke.
Head back to the bottom of the beat, and work my way back up through the runs, and,... nothing.
I break out my seine net, and, look for aquatic bugs; nothing in particular abundance, just the regular stuff.
As I'm sitting there, another fisherman comes up through the run, he is just a vacuum going up through there. WTF?
I ask permission to approach, granted. I ask him about his rig, as it was acting somewhat strangely. He was fishing a nymphing rig, and, he had something on as a fly that was completely new to me, a glass bead head on his pheasent tail nymph. Hmm,...
I inspected his fly, knowing it really well, having tied a million of them in my day. But the bead was different, and, his results were phenomenal.
His fly was chewed up, and unraveling. So he cut it off, and gave it to me, suggesting that I might reuse the bead on a new fly.

I always carry my complete fly tying kit with me. So, I went back to the truck, and promptly took the bead, and tied a new fly behind it.
I went back through the beat again, and this time it was like magic. Everything worked.
I get to the Green Bridge (a small footpath birdge over the creek), and, just above the bridge, I hook a beautiful fat full shouldered Rainbow of probably 15". It fought wonderfully, and, I had it at hand, when it rolled over and broke the line. Dang there went my glass bead!
When I tied that fly, I also tied a couple of others that had a shiny glitter head in place of the bead, just in case this happened.

So, I go back to the bottom of the beat again, and start working my way upstream, and, was just nailing them.
I get up to the bridge again, and, make another cast to the same run where I hooked that Rainbow that bagged my fly. I'm watching the drift coming back downstreaam towards me; the line stops, hook set. It was a nice feeling fish. I play it out, and get it to hand, and land it.
Well, I'll be dogged,.. it was the same Rainbow that I had hooked in my last pass through the beat. How could I tell? It still had my fly in its lip.
So, I took both flies out, and let it go. Yep, same fish, twice in an hour.

#3 8'6" Orvis Graphite Fly Rod and Lamson reel. Same fish caught twice in an hour (and released).

 

[bobabode]

If my stories of yore are sort of weird or a bother, lmk. Until then,…

Sarge, the spousal unit, and I, used to live in a trailer park in Laguna Beach, Treasure Island Trailer Park. Its biggest claim to fame, well, one of them, is that it is the coastal trailer park in the movie, The Long Trailer (Desi and Lucy). It was a nice park, and the type of park where they make you take the wheels off.
Its other claim to fame was its beaches

to the south, towards Aliso Beach,… The following fishermans tale plays out at the rocks around mid-picture. They're revealing themselves as a bit of an offshore ripple in the waves in this image. At low tide, they become shorebound in part, and with exposed edges. That reef is at the hard right center edge of the picture:

I used to go out onto the rock outcroppings and fish for Calico Bass, regularly. I also did a lot of surf fishing for Corbina on these beaches, and, in hopes of whatever else might be in around the edges of the reefs. Beaches and reefs like this attract a wide variety of species.

Sarge and I decided to take a walk along the beach at sunset, and I grabbed my 6wt fly rod, and box of flies, in sand crab and anchovy and sardine/grunion streamer patterns. I figured I could walk the surfline, and cast and walk all at once.
Well, we got as far south on the beach as the bluffs would allow, and I drew nothing. So we turned around, and started heading back. We got to about halfway back, where there is a large rock reef that was partially exposed at this low tide. So, I stopped there for a few more dedicated searching casts. I was doing a hand-twist fly jigging retrieve, and had about 4’ of line in the water, and was watching the fly drag in the sand, when suddenly, literally at my feet, this monster halibut came surging out of deeper water, inhaled the fly. I set the hook, and the race was on.
I literally had a half of a rod length of line in the water when this thing took. A 6-weight fly rod is a medium duty trout rod, for bass, pike, pickerel, panfish, etc. For surf fishing, and hooking a large halibut in the surf,… hands full.
This tug-of-war all played out for a good fifteen minutes. Finally the fish started to be brought back to the surf line, and with the help of a small wave rolling ashore, i was able to get it up onto the beach, got myself between it and the open water, and, it was mine.
18lb 36" Halibut 8'6" #6 Fenwick Graphite Fly Rod

View attachment 1252938 View attachment 1252940

Real nice flattie, Mike. Cool t-shirt.

 

[mfrench]

Ahh yesss,.... the Arc on the Upper Owens.


And he readies his trusty 3wt for the evenings effort,...

 

[mfrench]

OK,... the Arc was pure magic. It is above Crowley Lake, which puts out spawning runs of large browns and rainbows. They scoot upstream to the headwaters of the Owens, which in large part is the Arc. The Arc is divided into the two parts, Small Water and Big Water. Small Water is above an inflow from a tunnel that channels a stream from a different drainage onto the Arc property, as part of the great L.A.D.W.P. water grab.
In truth, the flows weren't all that much different, as so many springs enter the Small Water before it gets to the Big Water, that the stream is naturally quite a bit larger by that point anyway.
Big Water is defined at that point of the tunnel entry, and is called the East Portal Weir.

Jump back to the images above with me rigging,...
I rigged two rods; one a miniature flea weight 6'6" 2wt One Ounce by Orvis, and, my 8'6" 3wt Orvis
I was using the 3wt and doing really well with it, fishing upstream frome E. Portal Weir. I got up to a point upstream where it got brushy, and my log rod was a bit of a hinderance. So, I decided to tie on a large Wooly Bugger streamer, which is best served with a stout rod, of say a #6,... But, no, lets take the lightest whispiest rod in the quiver, and tie a half of a chicken onto it, in the form of a giant streamer, and lets fish downstream with that,.... and lets see what happens.
I landed the fly, and, an explosion occured, and it seemed like a giant suckhole opened up and took in half the river flow, and an alligator-sized brown inhales the fly.
What could I do, but set the hook?
Holy crap, that thing freight trained me, blasting through 90' of flyline and probably a 100' of backing, and he sticks himself into a willow root ball about a half block away.
That tiny rod didn't stand the slightest bit of a chance. It bent in two right at the handle, but didn't break. The fish, long gone. But the thrill,.... That was a 10lb brown, and it just blew me away.

I broke that rod down, realizing just how undergunned I was with it. I worked my way back down to the truck, where i rigged my 6wt, for some real streamer chucking,..

So,... here are a few Arc trout, taken on my 3weight


This is a mystery fish. It looks like a Cutthroat, but not defined well in that regard. They are native to the drainage, and it might be. If so, this one made for a Triple Crown of Brown, Cutt, and Rainbow.


And,.... i continued fishing down towards the big water of the E. Portal Weir. Where the two flows combine is a large deep hole. I got therre right as the sunset behind the Sierras, and, I let my Wooly Bugger swing low and deep.
next post,...

 

[mfrench]

I got to E. Portal Weir, and it was getting dark. I was at my truck, and, thought I'd give a few casts, and sweeping streamer retrieve. The fly was down deep, when suddenly, it stopped, and, things just sent really heavy. Then I felt a head thump, and I set the hook.
I had a good fifteen minute toug of war with this guy before i finally got him to hand. I had no net, so, i guided him into my hand, and lifted him in an 'upside down" grasp; meaning belly up towards my thumb, and dorsal fin at my fingers. In this upside down grasp, fish will turn to mush, and easily lifted from the water.

I've fished through this water, and this hole many times. I've caught some nice fish, but, the hole is so deep, with a good current flow that prevents deep drifts. I've often wnodered about som of the big ones that I've seen lurking in it.


My E. Portal Weir, Big Water Brown,..

 

[bobabode]

I got to E. Portal Weir, and it was getting dark. I was at my truck, and, thought I'd give a few casts, and sweeping streamer retrieve. The fly was down deep, when suddenly, it stopped, and, things just sent really heavy. Then I felt a head thump, and I set the hook.
I had a good fifteen minute toug of war with this guy before i finally got him to hand. I had no net, so, i guided him into my hand, and lifted him in an 'upside down" grasp; meaning belly up towards my thumb, and dorsal fin at my fingers. In this upside down grasp, fish will turn to mush, and easily lifted from the water.

I've fished through this water, and this hole many times. I've caught some nice fish, but, the hole is so deep, with a good current flow that prevents deep drifts. I've often wnodered about som of the big ones that I've seen lurking in it.
View attachment 1256422View attachment 1256423

My E. Portal Weir, Big Water Brown,..

Oh man, those are some beeyootiful browns. I've never had the pleasure. Most of my fishin' was on the Thunderbird or the Freelance occasionally. Hell, even used to run into Walter Trout's old bass player on the T-Bird now and then. Nice guy who passed way too early.

ps Hope the smoke from the Holy Jim fire isn't affecting you too much.

 

[mfrench]

Oh man, those are some beeyootiful browns. I've never had the pleasure. Most of my fishin' was on the Thunderbird or the Freelance occasionally. Hell, even used to run into Walter Trout's old bass player on the T-Bird now and then. Nice guy who passed way too early.

ps Hope the smoke from the Holy Jim fire isn't affecting you too much.

The air has been fouled a few times, depending on wind direction. Minor, but apparent. We are not directly threatened; but, we are near a whole lot of open land, with wide open connected spaces all the way through to there.
We look up the spine of the San Mateo Wilderness/Tenaja/Santa Ana Mountains area of the Cleveland Nat'l Forest. The Holy Jim Fire is at the northern reaches of the S.M. Wilderness/Tenaja/S.A. Mtn CNF range, and, we're at the south end of that area. We can see Saddleback peak from here. On several nights of the fire, we could see the red glow of it, and Sarge suggested seeing the flames.
I had to drive up to L.A. area last week, and drove up the 15n through Elsinore. I was looking up the hill at the tract of homes that has been threatened in this fire, thinking, bad location in case of fire.
I've spent quite a bit of time exploring that area of Saddleback; Holy Jim, Trabuco Cyn, Harding Cyn, Modjeska Cyn.
All of the streams in those canyons had wild rainbows in them, some native, and some as rainbows that escaped Irvine Lake, and made it into the tributary creeks.
Harding Canyon was a long hot hard hike up a dry creek canyon,.. and then suddenly water, and tiny wild rainbows.
When I first moved to South Orange County, I went exploring up San Juan Creek, just below the fire station, and saw wild spawning steelhead; circa 1978
I'm really looking forward to winter rains.

 

[sfox52]

I had an opportunity to skip work and take my youngest girl out in the canoe. Got on the water right before sunup. We have had some heavy rains lately so my thoughts were the Potomac river was muddy and fishing would be tough. We fished a marsh the water was running out of post high tide. Water was a lot clearer there. We caught 3 Largemouth Bass each, none big enough to brag about. We also saw tons of birds, a couple buck deer, snakes, beaver, turtles and lots of cool flowers along the banks. The sunrise picture is from the Virginia shore looking across the river into Maryland, right below the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Just a couple miles from Washington, DC.

One thing I haven't done in too long, fishing the Potomac. Haven't taken my daughter fishing in forever!
View attachment 1252464 View attachment 1252465

 

[satellite]

Yesterday evening I took my 4-year-old son down to the Boise river close to my house. It was very hot. I got his rod rigged up with a worm and in the water. By the time I got my pole rigged up with a
little spinner, he had somehow gotten his line all tangled up around his reel. I fixed that, got his bait back into what I thought would be a good spot, and cast my spinner about five times before he completely
lost interest and started to throw rocks into the river. After a while I ended up losing my patience, got snappy with him, and we went home.

This morning I was feeling guilty for losing my patience. I certainly didn't do anything to help instill a love for fishing in him like my grandpa and my dad did for me.
Not enough time to leave town and go to a proper spot, so we drove to a spot further upriver on the outskirts of town that I have had good luck at in the past. We took our time on a little hike through
a wooded area, and even caught a frog and a small lizard. Only one pole this time. No trout, but I caught two good- sized mountain whitefish on a panther martin, and let him reel in the fish both
times. He was ecstatic! He was so excited! I'm calling the the trip a success.

 

[mfrench]

A couple of more random Utah trip pics.
Provo River brown, Orvis #3:

A nice cutthroat. Not sure why, but I had a heavy stick out that day:


And, this is a spring creek in south-central Ut., near Capitol Reef area. The ground that I'm sitting on was a floating mass, with deeply undercut banks. If I tried to walk, vibrations went wide, and the fish stayed down. So, it was a sit and wait for fish to emerge from the undercuts and start to feed.