Rainbows and stinky salmon.....

[DocSpotty]

Well the little woman actually let me go fishing this morning with my friend Corby again….twice in 3 days….but I think Corby’s wife feels I am a bad influence on her husband……NOT. We did our annual excursion north this time to the MatSu Valley to fish Montana Creek…..normally a hot spot for rainbows it was somewhat pathetic today on that count. Yes…even in Alaska there are bad days fishing and I will not shy away from documenting a less than stellar day.

It started out with a lovely 100 miles drive north of Eagle River (our home about 10 miles north of Anchorage). It was drizzling most of the way and we had a beautiful early morning rainbow at Kashwitna Lake:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MorningRainbowKash.jpg

We continued on just about to Talkeetna and headed up a dirt road to a very not so secret spot. There are rumors of banjo playing local fishermen playing the Deliverance soundtrack….but I haven’t seen any….yet. We geared up and headed down river with little success for the first hour. There were no spawning salmon anywhere….then our olfactory nerves alerted us to that glorious smell…the stench of rotting salmon flesh….YES. We were into spawning fish and in short order we caught a couple of modest rainbows then it went dead again. We fished awhile longer and all of sudden we were into herds of silver salmon moving up river….unfortunately the coho are still a week or two away from actually spawning so there were no trout around them. We did happen to catch an incidental silver or two:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/SilverMe.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/SilverRod.jpg

We continued our trek downstream finding the occasional small group of spawning chums. It was one of those days where the trout were few and far between and after hooking them I managed to lose 4 or 5 in the low 20 inch range. Corby managed to catch something very tall….one should watch their backcast:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/CorbyTangled.jpg

I spotted a very nice bow in behind a couple of spawning chums and made the perfect cast (at least in my mind it was perfect…) and as the bead was sweeping past the salmon right to the waiting bow the stupid male chum spun around and sucked it up…what a pain:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/ChumRod.jpg

After the pic I put him back but alas, the rainbow was long gone….bummer. We continued for another hour or so but it was becoming quickly obvious we were not in any prime rainbow grounds. About this time my feeble brain had a brief flicker of electrical activity and it dawned on me we were using the 6mm beads from fishing Quartz Creek a few days earlier (they are the size of sockeye eggs) but the spawning chums had eggs the size of an 8mm egg. So in abject desperation I switched beads, and low and behold, started to catch an “occasional” rainbow:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Nicebow.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/th_MeBow-2.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/?action=view&current=MeBow-2.flv)

We were still passing herds of silvers and groups of spawning chum….in the pics the chums blend into the river…the silvers are quite red:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/SpawningChums.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/SpawningSilvers.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Chum.jpg

These two kept circling each other so long I was getting dizzy:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MatingChums.jpg

We discovered we weren’t the only ones “fishing” the area….the print on the right is the front paw the one on the left is the back…very similar to a humans but wider…and the “paw” print above that is homo sapiens…me:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/BearPrints.jpg

This was a juvenile brown bear…..not very big feet….probably only a year old….but still something you don’t want to mess with. The river was beautiful as was the day:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/SceneryCreek.jpg

I managed another nice bow and an incidental silver heading back:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/BowRelease-3.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/CohoRod.jpg

As we trudged back I was resigned to it being one of those days as I hooked and lost 3 bows from about 21 to 23 inches….most jumped, gave me the fin, and threw the hook. Finally as we came up the last stretch we found a small herd of actively spawning chums in a little side branch with numerous rainbows darting around eating eggs and getting chased and smacked by the salmon. Managed to pick up 3 or 4 with this pretty little fish being the last:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Netbow.jpg

Not one an “epic” trip…..not hardly an epilogue trip but the weather was great and I always find it fascinating to see all the fish in the water. As we were close to getting out of the river a guided raft came floating by with a friend of mine….as he went by we said “hi” and Steve told me the fishing was much better up river….I hate it when I guess the wrong area….but hey I am only human (although my wife insists I am mostly fish…her family affectionately refer to me as The Fish Whisperer).

Next week is gonna be fun….fishing 4 or 5 consecutive days with mi padre.

Brian

[one_leg]

Fish Whisperer? I'd be hootin' and a hollerin if I was catching fish of that caliber.


Thanks Doc!!!


O_L

[britheguy]

Way to go man. You make me miss straight line nymphing so much!!

I wish I could go outside and there would be hundreds of choices were to fly fish. Beautiful fish!

[SoCalGuy7]

Incredible pics of incredible fish....!

SCG7

[steve092]

Thanks for the report!!

Great pics!

[Skyler]

Dude, I live for your reports! That's a "slow" day? If so, I never want a WFO day in alaska! Might break my wrist, lol. Good job.

[The Angler]

Nice looking fish there. I wish i can go fish out in Alaska the scenery looks stunnly beatiful. Out here in southern cali we fish under smog ridin skys & trash filled lakes lol.

Nice report :Cool:

[troutdog]

Awesome report and pics, nice job on the bows you were able to land! Time to start saving up for a trip to Alaska....can I come visit, I'm a USC fan!:LOL: Thanks for sharing Doc.


TD

[bigbear]

just curious, are those salmon good eating? it seems like they would be all gamey because of the spawn. is it even legal to take them? nice catches btw. you are doing what i always dream of doing in my retirement.

[DocSpotty]

Bigbear.....they aren't the best eating when they get colored up, although the bucks are still pretty firm....hens absolutely not. No....this particular stream is closed to salmon fishing but they are sometimes incidentally caught while fishing trout which are generally sitting within a few feet of them downstream. With the numbers of salmon in the water it's amazing how few are caught....although we did find gear in the water from people obviously snagging them up that way....big spoons with oversized treble hooks...absolutely illegal.

BRIAN

[Troutman65]

Thanks again for another fishing report from up your way. They sure are nice to read and the pics. are great to drool over.:LOL::Wink::Envious::Cool:

[Wingnut]

Fabulous reporting as usual Doc, good stuff, can't get enough of it, thanks for sharing! :Cool: :Big Grin: