DocSpotty
08-04-2008, 10:51 PM
Haven’t been fishing much this season…..combination of less than ideal weather here in Alaska and being out of town on vacation. Can’t remember when was I only able to fish 2 days the entire month of July. My lack of July fishing actually started in June when I went with my wife and two daughters to a national and world cup dance competition held in Richmond, British Columbia….just outside of Vancouver. There is nothing (except maybe a total psychotic break) quite like spending 6 days in a “guiet” resort with 1,300 girls between 5 and 18…okay there were probably a couple hundred boys thrown in there also just to cause trouble. My wife developed a “convenient” illness that kept her in the bed for three of these days while I attended dance competitions from 9 am until 10 pm almost every day….I did have the privilege of being named team mascot by all the girls from my daughters’ teams. It was actually fun….my 18 yr old took a 2nd in the national competition (there were horribly out choreographed by teams from big cities…) but surprisingly my 12 year olds’ team took a 2nd in national and won a gold medal for 1st in the world cup competition (there were 14 other countries represented…..it took me a while to convince the younger team that the girls staying in the room across from them from Turkey, were not “Turkeys” but “Turkish”…….ah, to be young again). So I was a proud papa.
From there we went straight to family vacation in Montana where the wind howled for about 8 of our 10 days…..lousy summer there too. Consequently I stayed with the family all but one day to help “entertain” them….yeah. But for my 53rd birthday on July 13th I went fishing all day on the upper Missouri River. It was a nice day on the water, highest it has been in years. And due to my shoulder rehab from December surgery I was limiting my fly fishing and so took the spinning rod and rapalas, etc.. I stopped fishing about 3pm when I hit 50. I was by myself so pictures were limited and took them only of brown trout…..I don’t know why….just because……and a little scenery.
Starting fishing up in a little side water above below Holter Dam which has been dry for several years before now….it is very calm and the brownies love it back there. I was greeted by the ever present white pelicans:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Missouripelican-1.jpg
I could see several nice fish in the water and promptly caught my first:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/brown3.jpg
This was quickly followed by another:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/brown2-1.jpg
And had been taking great care to move as little as possible to not spook the fish when I heard a noise behind me and spotted this doe obliviously feeding behind me:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/deer.jpg
There were two or three rainbows caught….then another brown:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/brown.jpg
As I worked down the side stream to the main Missouri….two deer quietly walked across in front of me:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/deercrossing.jpg
When I got to where the deer had been there was a small herd of rainbows holding there. About 11 am I decided to go try another backwater which I knew would be very fishable due to the high water. This required a drive back down through the booming metropolis of Craig and up a dirt road to this beautiful parking spot:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/backwaterpark.jpg
Even though it was the middle of 90 degree day the water was very cool and the fishing was just short of phenomenol. This backwater produced a couple of dozen great brown trout from 14 to 22 inches. Here are a few…. “exciting” water shots (only had one hand):
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/waterbrown-1.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/waterbrown2.jpg
My final good brown was a beautiful buck:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/sum08brown.jpg
Decided soon after I was sunburned enough and headed back home…...to a summer where it had been raining for the previous 2 weeks in Anchorage.
July continued on its rainy theme and I had to cancel a few fishing trips due to small streams with chocolate colored water. Finally I was able to keep a guiding date on the Kenai River on the 25th of July fishing for king salmon. I am including this report just to asure you guys that fishing is not always fabulous here in Alaska. If you had to pick a single week to hit the largest number of king and sockeye salmon in the lower Kenai it would always be the 3rd week of July. Well the runs were weak this year and after spending nearly 12 hours backtrolling on the river with a 4 or 5 hundred off our closet buddies with their closest buddies we had only a single fish to show for it….a big pink salmon I caught right before lunch...so we at least had fresh salmon for a shore lunch. The entire day we saw maybe 20+ king salmon caught for probably 3 or 4 hundred boats working the lower river…it is a zoo of unbelievable proportions and reminds me why I only fish the Kenai River for kings once every 3 or 4 years. I kid you not when during the peak of high tide there were at least one hundred boats in the one hole we worked many within a yard or two of each other all the time…you could virtually hop across the river on boats without getting wet. Anyway here is the picture of the lone pink
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/FreshPinkKenai.jpg
Was finally able to get up north of Anchorage fishing on the Willow River yesterday….the kings have been laying eggs and the rainbows are on the “bead” bite with a vengeance…it was a very nice day although my first time flyfishing in 5 weeks has me pretty sore today. We put in at an upper bridge:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/willowstart.jpg
Not long before we were into rainbows:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/bow.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/raftfish.jpg
This picture of my friend Corby is just downright scary:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/corbybow-1.jpg
It was pretty much bendo most of the day for us:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/bentrod.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/corbyfight.jpg
Not sure how many fish we caught but it was more than a few:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/waterrel2.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/shorebow.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/firstbow.jpg
When fishing this time of year you have to target immediately below where there are kings actually laying eggs…there were a lot of kings in the water and as we drifted through a deep whole I hooked up on this critter with my 5 wt:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/redsubmarine.jpg
It took about 15 minutes or so to work him into shallow water…where he was much larger than I thought:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/kingrod.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/coloredking.jpg
We finally took a break for a great shore lunch of Copper River king in one of the better holes where we caught a couple dozen trout before moving on:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/bowwaterrel.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/mikebow-1.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/fatsobow.jpg
Here’s one pretending to be a mount:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/posingtrout.jpg
Then a couple more nice ones before we pulled the raft out of the water:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/lunchbow-4.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/bowrod.jpg
All around a great day…there should be many more as the trout fishing is just heating up.
Brian
From there we went straight to family vacation in Montana where the wind howled for about 8 of our 10 days…..lousy summer there too. Consequently I stayed with the family all but one day to help “entertain” them….yeah. But for my 53rd birthday on July 13th I went fishing all day on the upper Missouri River. It was a nice day on the water, highest it has been in years. And due to my shoulder rehab from December surgery I was limiting my fly fishing and so took the spinning rod and rapalas, etc.. I stopped fishing about 3pm when I hit 50. I was by myself so pictures were limited and took them only of brown trout…..I don’t know why….just because……and a little scenery.
Starting fishing up in a little side water above below Holter Dam which has been dry for several years before now….it is very calm and the brownies love it back there. I was greeted by the ever present white pelicans:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Missouripelican-1.jpg
I could see several nice fish in the water and promptly caught my first:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/brown3.jpg
This was quickly followed by another:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/brown2-1.jpg
And had been taking great care to move as little as possible to not spook the fish when I heard a noise behind me and spotted this doe obliviously feeding behind me:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/deer.jpg
There were two or three rainbows caught….then another brown:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/brown.jpg
As I worked down the side stream to the main Missouri….two deer quietly walked across in front of me:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/deercrossing.jpg
When I got to where the deer had been there was a small herd of rainbows holding there. About 11 am I decided to go try another backwater which I knew would be very fishable due to the high water. This required a drive back down through the booming metropolis of Craig and up a dirt road to this beautiful parking spot:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/backwaterpark.jpg
Even though it was the middle of 90 degree day the water was very cool and the fishing was just short of phenomenol. This backwater produced a couple of dozen great brown trout from 14 to 22 inches. Here are a few…. “exciting” water shots (only had one hand):
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/waterbrown-1.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/waterbrown2.jpg
My final good brown was a beautiful buck:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/sum08brown.jpg
Decided soon after I was sunburned enough and headed back home…...to a summer where it had been raining for the previous 2 weeks in Anchorage.
July continued on its rainy theme and I had to cancel a few fishing trips due to small streams with chocolate colored water. Finally I was able to keep a guiding date on the Kenai River on the 25th of July fishing for king salmon. I am including this report just to asure you guys that fishing is not always fabulous here in Alaska. If you had to pick a single week to hit the largest number of king and sockeye salmon in the lower Kenai it would always be the 3rd week of July. Well the runs were weak this year and after spending nearly 12 hours backtrolling on the river with a 4 or 5 hundred off our closet buddies with their closest buddies we had only a single fish to show for it….a big pink salmon I caught right before lunch...so we at least had fresh salmon for a shore lunch. The entire day we saw maybe 20+ king salmon caught for probably 3 or 4 hundred boats working the lower river…it is a zoo of unbelievable proportions and reminds me why I only fish the Kenai River for kings once every 3 or 4 years. I kid you not when during the peak of high tide there were at least one hundred boats in the one hole we worked many within a yard or two of each other all the time…you could virtually hop across the river on boats without getting wet. Anyway here is the picture of the lone pink
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/FreshPinkKenai.jpg
Was finally able to get up north of Anchorage fishing on the Willow River yesterday….the kings have been laying eggs and the rainbows are on the “bead” bite with a vengeance…it was a very nice day although my first time flyfishing in 5 weeks has me pretty sore today. We put in at an upper bridge:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/willowstart.jpg
Not long before we were into rainbows:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/bow.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/raftfish.jpg
This picture of my friend Corby is just downright scary:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/corbybow-1.jpg
It was pretty much bendo most of the day for us:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/bentrod.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/corbyfight.jpg
Not sure how many fish we caught but it was more than a few:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/waterrel2.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/shorebow.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/firstbow.jpg
When fishing this time of year you have to target immediately below where there are kings actually laying eggs…there were a lot of kings in the water and as we drifted through a deep whole I hooked up on this critter with my 5 wt:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/redsubmarine.jpg
It took about 15 minutes or so to work him into shallow water…where he was much larger than I thought:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/kingrod.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/coloredking.jpg
We finally took a break for a great shore lunch of Copper River king in one of the better holes where we caught a couple dozen trout before moving on:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/bowwaterrel.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/mikebow-1.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/fatsobow.jpg
Here’s one pretending to be a mount:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/posingtrout.jpg
Then a couple more nice ones before we pulled the raft out of the water:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/lunchbow-4.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/bowrod.jpg
All around a great day…there should be many more as the trout fishing is just heating up.
Brian