Fly Fishing in Sitka for bottom fish Sept. 2015

Ah, one of my favorite trips of the year fly fishing in the salt out of Sitka. This year, Rick and I invited Steve Davila to join us on our annual trip, he was a pleasure to have along. We headed down on the 22 of Sept. made it out to the cabin and opened it up.

Some new or improved patterns for this year. Across the top; Prawns and Sea Lance patterns. Middle row; Yellow Eye, Tiger Rockfish and Herring imitations. Bottom row; Non-pelagic Squids and China Rockfish imitations.

After getting settled in a little bit we went out for a couple of hours, the water was a little rough so we stayed close and used conventional gear. We caught a few Rockfish.

On the first full day, the 23rd it was a little rough so we switched between fly tackle and conventional gear throughout the day.

The first fish of the day on fly gear, a Black Rockfish on a bright pink Non-pelagic Squid.

Ling Cod like the squids too, this one was a little small so we let it go.

It was getting a little hard to keep a fly one the bottom so I tried conventional gear for a while. It's my dream to catch a ling cod like this on fly gear.

Back to fly fishing, Rick connects with Black Rockfish on a white Non-pelagic Squid.

I decided to switch up flies a little bit, here's a Black Rockfish on a China Rockfish imitation.

A new species for us, a Canary Rockfish on a new fly, a Yellow Eye Rockfish imitation.

 

I think these and most rock fish species are among the prettiest fish in American waters. We caught another new species on this trip too, the Bocaccio Rockfish. For some reason I'm having trouble finding the pictures of those fish.

 

  Steve and I with our first full days catch, a limit for three

Rick with a very nice Yellow eye on his favorite fly, a white Non-pelagic Squid.

I have been trying to improve the size of my fly caught Halibut for a couple of years, this is my new all time largest, (the second one I've ever caught, the first one was only about eight inches long so it wouldn't take much to improve upon). This one was taken on a Yellow Eye imitation.

 

The second days catch

A Yellow Eye Rockfish on a Yellow Eye pattern.

Rick with a Canary Rockfish on a green Non-pelagic Squid.

Steve with two Black Rockfish on the same lure, pretty unusual.

Rick with another Canary Rockfish.

A cooler of fine eating. These fish will be filleted, vacuum packed and in the freezer within 90 minutes of the time we hit the beach.

Third day.

 

A panoramic view of the cabin and the beach.

 Steve with a nice Black Rockfish, we were able to fill a limit of Black Rocks in less than 30 minutes.

Forth day.

The fifth day, these fish were caught in less than an hour.

Rick and I added two new species to my list of Alaskan game fish caught on an original fly, the Canary Rockfish and the Bocaccio Rockfish for a total of twenty three species.