2008....review....PART 2

[DocSpotty]

In between these trips took a walk in trip with my “mental health professional” friend to Montana Creek:

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

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

Inadvertent catching of a nice silver and a moldy, oldy chum salmon gave me all 5 species of salmon caught this year:

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

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

This picture of my buddy kind of sums up what a bad day casting is like:

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

The next week made the annual pilgrimage to Nicolai Creek…a small creek with many bears and dollies:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/FirstDolly-1.jpg

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

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

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

I’m pretty sure this sockeye didn’t die of “natural” causes…unless bear canines count:

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

At the end of the first week of September my father (76) flew up with some friends for a week of fishing. Normally this is a fantastic time for trout fishing on the Kenai Peninsula but of course, we couldn’t control the weather which was very rainy and had the Kenai River running at springtime levels making flyfishing very tough.

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

But the guides managed to find some good fish anyway on the Kenai, most in smaller backwaters:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Bow3rdGate.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Dolly-1.jpg

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

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

On the trip to the boat launch we met the 3 stooges glaring at us from the rocks on shore:

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

We spent a day silver fishing on the Kasilop with limited success…..my dad was fortunate to boat several silvers while I wore the stripe…he even got a small steelhead on the way to the boat ramp:

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

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/DadSilver2.jpg

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

Again we took a trip out for halibut and caught NONE…yes….none. First time I have ever been skunked for butts….first time for the guide in 25 years too. The weather was sucky but the grounds were infested with zillions of dogfish….we caught lots of those to 4 feet. We ended catching some very nice rockfish for the table. After they headed out on the plane at O dark thirty I felt the need to stop at Quartz Creek for one last swing at the dollies on the way home:

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

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

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

After that last one I quit….can’t finish up any prettier than that. This ended my Alaskan fishing year. At the end of October I took a 7 day trip to Montreal, Quebec to fish for musky….a trip I have been planning for several years and not able to take. Got to Montreal and again….Mother Nature was to rain (and snow) on the parade. Although the first day wasn’t too bad so I booked a local guide for smallmouth bass…..what a hoot (forgive all the closeup, arm stretched pics as this guy just loved to take them that way):

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Montreal1008007a.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Montreal1008009a.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Montreal1008013a.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Smallie19.jpg

Needless to say there were plenty of big bronzebacks. Then we got several inches of snow, howling winds and miserable conditions…..managed a few small musky to 40 inches in 3 days and that was it. Did go another day smallie fishing with similar results to the first day:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Smallie28.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Smallie26.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Smallie23.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Smallie21.jpg

I’ve never experienced such great smallmouth fishing in my life. The musky may have been a bust but the smallies made it worth the trip.

Thought that might have finished me for the year but my wife insisted she get a week in Florida due to the miserable, cold summer we had up here. So in late November we took the midget (our college freshman insisted she was too busy) and headed to Orlando. Here I spent 3 straight days doing the Kennedy Space Center….and then all 4 Disney theme parks….including hitting all 4 on the 3rd day…thought my feet were going to fall off.

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

My wife kept telling me this nice little reptile was going to eat me as I crept closer and closer with the camera (gators are a lot flatter than bears ;-))

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

I was given a 1 day reprieve and headed towards Miami to fish a day in the canals for peacocks. My friend Steve took me to his personal area after a druidic blood oath. I would have considered 20 bass a good day that time of year coming out of a cold spell. Finished the day catching 109 fish…..70 peacocks, 36 largemouth bass, 2 mayan cichlids, and 1 needlefish…..103 of these came on the same lure, which now lacks a good deal of paint, any eyes, etc.. Here’s a few of the peacocks:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Peacock1.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Pck5.jpg

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

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Pck9.jpg

And the notorious largemouth which wasn’t really hooked…just wedged:

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

While at my fathers in the summer we were going through some of his old slides and pulled some out I haven’t seen for decades and had honestly forgotten about. Just wanted to share a few….you always see me as the Pillsbury doughboy nowadays but here I am 35 years ago at the age of 18 fishing with my father at Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories (not sure how big these lakers were):

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

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

Having some nice pics are great for enjoying much later in life. Here’s one of my father 50 years ago on the Middle Fork of the Salmon with a couple of steelhead:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/ModDadSteelh61.jpg

This final one my father recently sent….it was my first solo trout when I was 4….back in 1959…nice attitude (me on the left, my brother on the right)

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/BriansFirstFish60-SpringCrk.jpg

This concludes the 2008 unabridged version of fish in Review.

Brian

[basscatcher]

wow thanks for all those pics must of took you a long time to get all those pics on here. my dad is leaving to lake bacrac wed-sun.


God Bless


basscatcher

[Nessie Hunter]

Doc, you da man........

Read both parts.. I bow to your ability and tenacity.. Thats a lot of great fishing. 200 species? WOW...

Envy...................

[olfishergal]

WOW Fantastic...........Both parts. Great to see someone living the fishing life many of us just dream of.....OFG

[Greg Madrigal]

SPECTACULAR post there Doc! I am so happy to have an Alaska member to keep us up on the most beautiful state in the union!!!! Great pics. Those were some beautiful fish. Those smallies musthave fought like hell! GM<><

[chivo]

I'm speachless man.

[Wingnut]

Simply fabulous Doc, thank you for sharing!!! :Cool: :Big Grin: :Envious:

[one_leg]

Knowing what the conditions up there can do to a car I wonder where that vehicle in the last photo is today?

Thanks for some more nice fish porn. You're a great fish pornographer.