Alaska Fishing Dissertation....with pics....

[DocSpotty]

Drove south last week for the annual pilgrimage to fish dolly varden at Quartz Creek on the Kenai Peninsula. Hate going on a Saturday this time of year because it is not exactly a big secret……just me and a couple hundred of my closest friends….;-). Picked up my companion, Corby, at 5 am…..or rather I dragged him out of bed at that hour…what a putz. You have to be careful when fishing with a psychologist, although I personally need all that free psychoanalyzing time…..okay, okay….I’m fessing up, I only take him cause he’s one person I’m faster than when the bears show up.

We actually got there about 7:30am when we planned, but there were already a dozen guys spreading out both upstream and downstream……nothing like having the fish to yourself. Quartz is a small, crystal clear, terminal spawning stream for the sockeye salmon…..if you can see the dollies they certainly recognize you. Right near the parking area at a campground they get endlessly harassed but it is one of my favorite spots to hit……I look fooling the smart ones…..well, as smart as you can be with a four-lobed brain.

There were plenty of sockeye in the water and as we scouted we could pick out several, well camoflauged dollies tucked in behind some of the reds. In my opinion the key to catching these particular dollies right by the campground is to hold position for 10-20 minutes and they seem to ignore you (which I’m used to as my teenage daughter and wife ignore me all the time). Once you’ve stood in the same spot for several minutes the dollies will actually start riding behind the wake you are making in the water. My buddy just kept moving downstream despite my pleadings….don’t try to dissuade a pysch person…..or maybe that was psycho….hmmmmm. Anyway, I kept casting to a group of dollies and it was only about 10 minutes and one sucked it up….you can see my line, not the dolly, but many of the reds:



A few minutes later I landed my first Quartz dolly of the season….about 18”:



By this time Corby was gone around the bend downstream. I noticed pretty soon that the reds weren’t moving around much….not good because it means they aren’t actually laying eggs which is when the dollies go nuts. The reds movement keeps the dollies stirred up and they are more likely to pick up a bead when they are moving around than sitting still. I found another small group of dollies and managed to catch a couple more. As I slowly worked downstream there was a big dolly working fast upstream giving me one chance at her. Managed to mangle a sloppy throw right in front of her and she scooped the bead instantly. She was nearly 22 inches but didn’t fight well. When unhooking her I saw she had a very fresh mouth wound from another hook…..I’m sure that morning….perhaps her brain was only 3 lobed. When the dollies aren’t moving much it is easier to get them interested if you have 2 or more in a small area….I’ve always called it the “herd mentality.” If one of the fish moves toward the bead sometimes it will activate a different one to dart in quick and take it where, fished singly it had shown no interest…..this technique was in full swing this day. Another technique I use is when a dolly is laying up behind a sockeye who starts to move around, or stirs up stream debris while scooping out a redd…you throw right above the fish so the bead comes down looking like the she just laid it….works great most of the time. The dollies routinely hold within a foot or two directly behind the female sockeye.

Must be old age but I wasn’t taking many pictures today….plus who knows where my partner was. It was probably a good 90 minutes from when we started and I hadn’t waded 15 yards. Low and behold here comes Corby back upstream….asked him how many and he showed me the big goose egg…..wasn’t color as our beads were the same color. As he got up to me I managed to snag another dolly…just to rub salt in the wound (wonder what Frued would say about that?). He did snap a few pictures for me:





He attempted to blame his lack of success on leader, egg color, bad body odor, poor dental hygiene….other things, except ineptitude….I suggest he see a pshrink….hehehe. We worked upstream for another 2 hours where several other dollies fell victim to my peculiar fishing style…… ;-). About this time Corby informs me we need to go meet his nephew at the highway…..would have been nice to have some forewarning. While ambling back he asked what the count was…..13 to 0….I tried not to gloat…….much.

We did have a “real” discussion about our different techniques today. There was one glaring difference…..he was using the populist set up of a bead with a strike indicator (fluffy flyfishermen’s term for a bobber) 5 or 6 feet up from that. I had fished without a strike indicator and there’s no doubt that was the key. When there are a lot of eggs in the water the dollies get really activated but they weren’t doing that today. Nearly all my fish came as I watched the dollies where my bead was drifting and if they moved and flared their gills I set the hook. I had witnessed having the fish pick up the bead and spit it out in nearly the same motion with no line movement to indicate the strike….if I hadn’t have watched it there wouldn’t have been a clue. Most of my fish got buttoned up this way….I attribute this to well educated fish.

After getting back to the car we played cell phone tag for several minutes until he raised his blood relative, Blaine…..cell coverage really gets iffy in a lot of places up here. We finally located Mr. Blaine and after he hopped in Corby whined for us to go fish the Kenai River for awhile…..to boost his confidence……where’s the Prozac?

At Jim’s landing we could barely locate a parking spot…..where we wanted to fish was inundated already with fishing types. Casting in the deep, heavy running Kenai was murder on the sucky wrist….so after 4 not to large trout I took a lunch break. Corby kept us there for another 2 or 3 hours and thankfully he started to catch some fish. After several I told him my path was heading back to my Quartz Creek dollies. He grudgingly headed back to the car.

It was late afternoon by now and there were still approximately 3 million flyfishermen…..excuse me….fisherpersons (there were several ladies)….thrashing the water at Quartz. We scooted by several and started downstream. Couldn’t resist dragging my bead along a sunken log and bang…was onto another, very colorful dolly. Corby grabbed my camera and went nuts snapping pics. I’m not sure what was going on when I first beached the fish but it appears to be vigorous pontification:



In this one I swear this was a simple hook removal but Corby accused me of going after the dolly’s wisdom teeth (I really don’t think they have any)….I’m sure my words to the fish was…..”This won’t hurt…..” hehe, famous last dentist words:



It was a beautiful male….you can see the kype, hook on his lower jaw, if you look closely. He was soon in the water and away:





After this Corby and Blaine went way downstream and gladly they caught several dollies down that way. I meandered back to the campground area and had a great conversation with a gentleman from Anchorage. He wasn’t having much luck but after awhile we got him going. The meatheads showed up and we were back off for the 2 ½ hour drive home. My wife had been stalking me as there were several calls on my phone…when I finally reached her my claim was that Corby was holding me hostage….didn’t work. All told it was a pretty good day….especially for how finicky the dollies were….

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Yesterday (a week from the above report) I took my new neighbor, Val, down to float the upper Kenai River for trout. The drive down gave us a view of what the day would be like….lots of rain and wind….love chucking the old flyrod in the wind. We met my friend Dennis where normally we would start a float through the Kenai canyon but it was too windy to guarantee a safe passage to the boat ramp on Skilak Lake so we decided to float the upper part of the upper Kenai ….. confusing….. Problem is you have lots and lots of buddies you compete with on this upper section but, hey….we are congenial guys and only had to consider shooting one or two of the others. That would make a big mess as Dennis packs his nice “little” .50 cal pistol….the bear dissuader.

Anyway Val picked the flycasting up pretty quick and, to my annoyance, he had many fish who were suicidal and decided to inhale his bead and not let go despite his lack of hooksetting or ability to keep his flyline tight…..it ain’t right.

Our initial fauna encounter was not of the piscatory type but rather of the avian variety…..a baldy looking very majestic against the mountains:



Much to my dismay the myriad of sockeye everywhere in the river were still moving upstream and none were actually laying huevos yet…..big bummer. Without the eggs in the water the trout stay very spread out and much more difficult to catch. Most of our fish were small….between 8 and 18” and virtually all dolly varden. This was one of only two dollies I caught over 20”…..kept trying to look for the handle on this one:



This was one pretty dolly obviously working upstream to spawn this fall:



Taking a closer look you can see all the facial damage done to her by other fisherman….





this always irritates the heck out of me cause there is generally no reason to tear up a fish like that. People just don’t take the time to let the fish settle down and carefully unhook them….big personal peeve.

We had a great shore lunch of salmon and halibut then continued our float with all our special friends. We stopped at the last gravel bar before getting out and I managed my largest dolly….a bit over 22”.



Notice how bland this ones color is compared the previous fish. In Alaska these fish don’t spawn every year but every other year or sometimes even every 3rd year. So you find a mix of spawners who are all colored up and non spawners who are generally pretty generic colored.

We hit the beach and headed out…..stopped by Quartz Creek for an hour but the dollies from last week were already gone….

Brian

[TroutOnly]

another wonderfull report,beautifull fish,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,T/O,,,,,,,,,

[Wingnut]

Doc, your reports are the reasons why I work so hard... so I can retire in style.
Another outstanding adventure!