DocSpotty
08-09-2009, 10:56 PM
We’ve had a great summer in Alaska this year but somehow I haven’t been fishing in nearly a month. But Friday a good friend of mine called, and being a “mental health professional”, and told my wife depression was setting in on me due to lack of fishing time. My wife relented and Saturday we set off for the Kenai Peninsula for a little potluck fishing. The sockeye run was just about over….at least for edible fish (they ain’t too good when they’re all redded up) and there weren’t any silvers in yet. We tried the Kenai River but it was running very high so we headed back to my favorite little stream, Quartz Creek to see if the dollies were in there yet.
Quartz was flowing lower than normal but our first look was promising….the reds were up and some were beginning to spawn:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/spawningreds-2.jpg
I could see a few dollies riding behind the reds and caught my first of the year on my 2nd cast:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/1stDoll.jpg
A nice buck about 20 inches long. Figuring this was going to be one of those great days with fish on every 5 minutes I was quite surprised when we didn’t catch a fish for another hour. There were plenty of dollies but they seemed to be smitten with lockjaw. But we soon understood why as nearly 20 fishermen descended on the creek from the adjacent campground…these poor fish had already been hounded to death before we showed up. It became very quickly, a difficult place to fish without “buddies”. I caught another after changing bead colors….and my friend finally got one:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Dolly-2.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/CorbyDoll.jpg
Realizing these fish had become “very” educated due to fishing pressure I started going after specific fish I could see. If they showed interest the first time the bead drifted by then repeated attempts could eventually elicit a strike…this one picked it up after about a dozen casts of getting the bead in front of his nose:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/DollyRod-2.jpg
We caught a few more dollies but with all the wader activity we seemed to be in the middle of water theme park. We took a break for lunch eating sandwiches made out of some old, animal meat of unknown origin…hence by “intestinal” problems today.
We scouted up and down the creek for several miles and finally settled on another location with somewhat minimal human activity (where are the stinking bears when you need them to scare everyone away?). We had been fishing for only about 20 minutes and we seemed to hit a mini feeding frenzy for about 45 minutes. Here’s back-to-back 22+ inch dollies taken out a deep pothole:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/BigBuck-1.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/BigholeDolly.jpg
Corby, my “mental” buddy, was perplexed with his lack of action and kept switching bead colors to no avail.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Fishin.jpg
After my 3rd nice fish in this hole we compared beads….his was nearly the same color, not quite, plus mine was mottled. My opinion is color MOST of the time is not super critical, as long as you are in the ballpark…..but occasionally it really is. I gave him several of my mottled gems and he promptly landed 2 dollies on his next 3 casts…..and never a thank-you….I’m taken so for granted. Continued along managing to catch the odd fish….the size was good…all from 16 to 23 inches:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/DollyRelease-1.jpg
Nice thing about digital cameras ….. you can take as many pics as you like and just pick out the ones that work later. Sometimes the color of a fish is best captured by an inadvertent picture:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/ReleasingDolly.jpg
One very evident observation on these dollies is how thin they were…normally these fish have bulked up for the spawn but some were very skinny. Since these are lake fish it could speak to something affecting their food source in Kenai Lake…I hope not….there are hundreds of thousands of juvenile sockeye dependent on that source also.
We continued into the early evening when one of the larger dollies grabbed my bead as I teased under some overhanging branches:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/PlayingDolly.jpg
Corby also get carried away snapping pictures and caught my somewhat unique style of landing a hooked fish….not exactly picture perfect rod position:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Uniquelanding.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Undertreedolly-1.jpg
After turning this beautiful fish back we decided to hike it back to the car and head home. On the way we spotted a couple of dollies sitting behind some small branches in the water in a shallow, very calm side eddy of the river where a couple of dozen salmon were actively spawning. We spent half an hour dropping beads in front of these dollies and watching their behaviour. It was fascinating. If you left the bead within about 6 inches in front of the fish and let it lay on the bottom…eventually they would come out and start pecking nervously at the bead….and if patient enough to wait they would eventually pick it up. But hooking them was another story and they would spit out those fake eggs as quick as they picked them up. While waiting for one of the dollies to study my bead one of the reds ran off and scooped the darn thing up:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Playingred.jpg
Rather than subject him to an extended fight, as he was quite spirited, I broke him off and we headed home. Not exactly a great day for numbers….but it was 70 degrees and a fabulous day.
Brian
Quartz was flowing lower than normal but our first look was promising….the reds were up and some were beginning to spawn:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/spawningreds-2.jpg
I could see a few dollies riding behind the reds and caught my first of the year on my 2nd cast:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/1stDoll.jpg
A nice buck about 20 inches long. Figuring this was going to be one of those great days with fish on every 5 minutes I was quite surprised when we didn’t catch a fish for another hour. There were plenty of dollies but they seemed to be smitten with lockjaw. But we soon understood why as nearly 20 fishermen descended on the creek from the adjacent campground…these poor fish had already been hounded to death before we showed up. It became very quickly, a difficult place to fish without “buddies”. I caught another after changing bead colors….and my friend finally got one:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Dolly-2.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/CorbyDoll.jpg
Realizing these fish had become “very” educated due to fishing pressure I started going after specific fish I could see. If they showed interest the first time the bead drifted by then repeated attempts could eventually elicit a strike…this one picked it up after about a dozen casts of getting the bead in front of his nose:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/DollyRod-2.jpg
We caught a few more dollies but with all the wader activity we seemed to be in the middle of water theme park. We took a break for lunch eating sandwiches made out of some old, animal meat of unknown origin…hence by “intestinal” problems today.
We scouted up and down the creek for several miles and finally settled on another location with somewhat minimal human activity (where are the stinking bears when you need them to scare everyone away?). We had been fishing for only about 20 minutes and we seemed to hit a mini feeding frenzy for about 45 minutes. Here’s back-to-back 22+ inch dollies taken out a deep pothole:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/BigBuck-1.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/BigholeDolly.jpg
Corby, my “mental” buddy, was perplexed with his lack of action and kept switching bead colors to no avail.
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Fishin.jpg
After my 3rd nice fish in this hole we compared beads….his was nearly the same color, not quite, plus mine was mottled. My opinion is color MOST of the time is not super critical, as long as you are in the ballpark…..but occasionally it really is. I gave him several of my mottled gems and he promptly landed 2 dollies on his next 3 casts…..and never a thank-you….I’m taken so for granted. Continued along managing to catch the odd fish….the size was good…all from 16 to 23 inches:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/DollyRelease-1.jpg
Nice thing about digital cameras ….. you can take as many pics as you like and just pick out the ones that work later. Sometimes the color of a fish is best captured by an inadvertent picture:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/ReleasingDolly.jpg
One very evident observation on these dollies is how thin they were…normally these fish have bulked up for the spawn but some were very skinny. Since these are lake fish it could speak to something affecting their food source in Kenai Lake…I hope not….there are hundreds of thousands of juvenile sockeye dependent on that source also.
We continued into the early evening when one of the larger dollies grabbed my bead as I teased under some overhanging branches:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/PlayingDolly.jpg
Corby also get carried away snapping pictures and caught my somewhat unique style of landing a hooked fish….not exactly picture perfect rod position:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Uniquelanding.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Undertreedolly-1.jpg
After turning this beautiful fish back we decided to hike it back to the car and head home. On the way we spotted a couple of dollies sitting behind some small branches in the water in a shallow, very calm side eddy of the river where a couple of dozen salmon were actively spawning. We spent half an hour dropping beads in front of these dollies and watching their behaviour. It was fascinating. If you left the bead within about 6 inches in front of the fish and let it lay on the bottom…eventually they would come out and start pecking nervously at the bead….and if patient enough to wait they would eventually pick it up. But hooking them was another story and they would spit out those fake eggs as quick as they picked them up. While waiting for one of the dollies to study my bead one of the reds ran off and scooped the darn thing up:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Playingred.jpg
Rather than subject him to an extended fight, as he was quite spirited, I broke him off and we headed home. Not exactly a great day for numbers….but it was 70 degrees and a fabulous day.
Brian