May 24th through 30th Rick and I fished the waters north of Sitka for
bottom fish with some cutthroat trout fishing thrown in. This is our
sixth trip in five years fishing with flies in the salt water north of
Sitka.
I
didn't introduce any new flies this year but I'm concentrating on
refining the proven patterns. Here's the Chichagof Herring, at eight
inches long it is intended for ling cod and halibut and does very well
on them. It catches rockfish too but many rockfish seem to like to just
swim with it instead of eat it.
The
Non-Pelagic Squid, our go to fly is exceptionally good for all Alaskan
saltwater game fish. Non-Pelagic because it is weighted for fishing near
the bottom and sometimes tied weedless to help prevent snagging. I tie
it in many different colors but white, with accents of one kind or
another, is by far the most attractive to bottom fish.
We
flew to Sitka on the morning of May 24th, readied the E-Fish-Ncy and
headed to camp. We took an hour to set up and decided to fit in a short
evening fishing trip close to camp. The conditions weren't good for fly
fishing so we used the conventional gear and caught this limit of 18
rockfish in one hour.
The
weather man was calling for high seas and 15 knot winds for May 25th so
we opted for fresh water in an un-named inland lake close to the cabin.
In years past people had winched a boat overland to the lake, taking
advantage of that boat, we paddled to mouth of a small stream that
trickled into the lake at the far end, where we found the Cutthroat
Trout that we heard live there. So I added a new species to my all time
list of Alaska game fish caught on one of my own patterns.
My second Cutthroat, I was able to catch one on a moose hair mosquito, nymph pattern, and a small smolt pattern.
Rick got in on the fun too with his first ever Cutthroat caught on one of my Salmon River Smolts.
Later
that same day, we went to one of Rick's halibut spots in a protected
bay hoping we could fly fish there, but the conditions would not let us.
We went with conventional gear and I decided to try out some of my new
home made lures. The water was deep, at around two hundred feet and the
current strong so I went with my biggest and heaviest home cast lure. At
23 ounces, it was able to go pretty deep, even in a stiff current. I
was very surprised to catch this 87 pound halibut the very first time I
put this jig in the water.
Day
three, still too rough to fly fish, but you can't just sit on the beach
waiting for the weather to change. This is a Quill Back Rockfish that
was hungry for another one of my hand painted lures.
We
had a boat full of very good commercially manufactured lures that
consistently catch fish but for some reason my home-made lures were
out-fishing the commercial lures five to one and even ten to one on this
day. You can buy the two on the right in a raw form commercially and
paint them yourself which is what I did, then I dressed the hooks with
fur and feathers. The third one from the left is an airplane jig that I
made, it glows in the dark and it swims around in circles when jigged.
The one on the right is my big one, it's too heavy to jig all the time
but really works good when other jigs just won't stay on the bottom.
The
third days catch. Some yelloweyes, black rocks, coppers, quills, a ling
and three halibut. We are fishing two proxy licenses so half of every
days limit gets delivered vacuum packed and frozen to our elderly
friends that can't get out anymore.
We saw a few of these guys.
Bowhead whales, We also saw dolphins but we couldn't get the camera on them fast enough.
Forth day, some yelloweyes, quills, coppers, lings and silver grays.
On
day five we were able to fly fish for about half of the day. Normally
we set up the drift, make a cast toward the structure we want to fish,
in the direction of the drift. As we drift closer we pay out just enough
line to tickle the tops of the structure as we pass over it. I have
been experimenting with sliding a Go Pro camera down the fly line to
capture some of the action. If I use the Go Pro camera I usually slide
the camera down the fly line after the fish is hooked. The camera makes
it harder to fish because you cannot detect a bite as easily with the
camera on the line. The camera also pulls the fly down into the rocks
more making it much harder to fish and increasing the chances of a snag.
On this occasion I made the cast and slid the camera down the string
before the catch to see if I could have a look around down there, and
maybe video a catch from start to finish, I was in for a surprise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKGd9mPb95A
Catching a Tiger Rockfish on a fly.
I can't see what I'm recording until I get home and view it. When I got
the Tiger Rockfish to the boat I knew what I had but I didn't know how
the camera recorded it.
I had been trying to catch a Tiger Rockfish on a fly for five years, and I finally got one.
Here's
the Tiger and the camera rig that slides down the line to capture it
all. We don't catch a lot of these so after a couple of quick pictures
we released it with the deep water release rig.
Our
limit for the fifth day, the tiger and many others were released. There
are strict limits on all species so when you reach the limit for that
species the rest have to be returned to the ocean. In this picture we
have Quill Back, Yellow Eye, China, Copper and Black Rockfish, with some
Ling Cod.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUrRUZq5DM0
Catching a Black Rockfish, watch as the ling cod takes a couple of swipes at it.
Our catch for the sixth day with the comfortable cabin in the background. Rockfish, Ling Cod and Halibut.
On
the morning of the seventh day we headed back to Sitka for the trip
home. We couldn't resist filling a cooler of fresh fish along the way
for some friends back home. Along with those fish was this Copper
Rockfish, the biggest I've ever seen.
Rick
and I didn't get to fly fish very much on this trip, but that's the way
it goes. I was able to add two new species to my all time list of
Alaskan game fish caught on an original fly pattern though; Cutthroat
Trout and Tiger Rockfish.
Thanks for watching.