Winter 2015/16

The winter is a time to develop new flies, tie more flies to replace those used up over the summer and go ice fishing. I like to test new flies, and old ones, by adapting them for ice fishing. Ice fishing gives me a rare opportunity to watch fish and see how they react to different fly patterns by watching them through the ice in a darkened fish house. I am not able to present the flies how I might if I was actually fly fishing but I am able to see how enthusiastically certain species of fish might react to a particular fly.  So here are gratuitous pictures of fish caught over the winter with fly patterns adapted for ice fishing.

Stay tuned, next, spring fly fishing for Paxson Lake lake trout and grayling.

Kodiak Oct. 2015 Fly fishing for silvers and bottom fish.

On October 20th Mike Bracken and I leave Fairbanks to meet the ferry in Homer on the 22nd for our trip to Kodiak Island in quest of Silver Salmon in Terror river and bottom fish in Terror Bay. We also had permits for brown bear in case one came into camp and blacktail deer. This year we were bringing my boat the Non-Pelagic Squid (named after one of my most productive original fly patterns) for transportation and salt water fly fishing.

  The Non-Pelagic Squid at rest in Terror Bay at low tide. Despite some limitations with size and problems with the jet plugging up with debris at times the boat performed really well.

Some of the flies I'm taking to Kodiak. Some prawns, some herring, some rockfish imitations and some Atomic Non-Pelagic Squids.

Mike and I met our two guests from Ohio, Kevin Ball and Joe Bettio at the airport in Kodiak on the 23rd. I had met Joe and Kevin on previous trips to Ohio and South Dakota on pheasant hunting trips. Joe had also accompanied us on our trip to Kodiak in the fall of 2013.

We made a real comfortable camp at the head of Terror Bay. Deer would sometimes come out of the woods within a half of a mile.

Joe and I spike camped up the river to find some spawning silver salmon. Joe started out with conventional gear but the line on his rod was too light and they kept breaking it. After a few quick lessons in fly fishing he picked it up and was able to land this nice silver on a crystal egg sucking leach.

A male in full spawning colors. The silvers here are very big, and explosive fighters. This is one of several I caught on a six weight rod with a six pound tippet and the crystal egg sucking leach. These fish were lots off fun to fight with huge runs down the river. One hefty male finally broke the rod with an especially enthusiastic fight. We landed the fish and continued to fish with the broken rod.

A short video of salmon fishing in Terror River.

If you could get your lure or fly through the large schools of pacific cod, you could reach the rockfish and other fish near the bottom.

The other guys were fishing with conventional gear but I was able to add Walleye Pollock like this one, Pacific Cod and Rock Sole to my list of Alaskan Sport Fish caught on an original fly pattern.

Here's Kevin with one of his Rock Sole, although not often kept for table fare, we kept pollock, cod and sole for camp suppers and they were excellent.

Joe with a Quill Back Rockfish...

and a Yelloweye Rockfish

 

 We took a little time out for deer hunting too, this is one of my bucks. We took six deer in all, three nice bucks and three smaller deer for eating.

Joe with his buck

Beside the fishing and deer hunting we had another mission, we were to field test these knives made with steel we smelted in our own back yard with iron ore mined in Alaska. This steel smelted in the traditional Japanese method of making tamahagane performed extremely well. These knives were able to completely skin and butcher three deer before showing even the slightest resharpening. I was very pleased.

We saw bears and marine mammals of all kinds as well as deer and other wild life. It was a great trip.

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.

Summer 2015

Well I don't have much to report for the summer as far as new species on original fly patterns goes but there were a couple of exciting things to talk about.

I worked on my new (used) boat all winter. I had the Ford 460 Marine engine rebuilt, pulled out the old floorboards and waterlogged foam and replaced it with new closed cell foam and aluminum floor boards, reducing the weight of the boat by over 650 pounds. I also put in new electronics, a new combination graph and GPS fish finder and marine radio. We christened the boat the Non-pelagic Squid after one of my most productive (and favorite) original fly patterns for bottom fish in the salt.

Mike Bracken and I tried to fish Quarts lake at ice out but the ice went out so early this year we missed it. Though we were late, we did fish and caught some land locked silvers on nymphs and streamers.

We decided to run down and check out the ice at Paxson Lake. As soon as the ice goes out there you can catch lake trout as they ambush salmon smolt at the mouth of the river on their run to the ocean. The ice looked to be about ready to go out in a week or two, so we made tentative plans to return.

On June 15 we went with my buddy Greg Chapin in his boat to Paxson to fish the mouth of the river. The ice had been out about a week and the lakers and whitefish were at the mouth. I wasn't able to pick any lakers or whitefish up on fly fishing gear but I did do on grayling. Greg and the others did very well with lakers and grayling on conventional gear.

Mike and I tried to fish the mouth of the river at Paxson again a week later with my boat. We brought camping gear and food so that we could spend a couple of days and really concentrate on catching fish on fly tackle. On the way from the boat launch to the mouth of the river we saw an eagle eating on a floating moose carcass and a moose swimming across the lake. As we we neared the mouth of the river the engine quit. We did some deductive reasoning and checked a few things, the brand new fuel pump, with only two hours on it, had broken. This began an ordeal to get back to the boat launch with a gravity feed gas system. When we got back to the boat launch we found two flat tires on the boat trailer. Combined with the boat trouble it would take us 27 hours through the night to get back home.

Next I took my boat down to the Kenai river to dip net at the mouth for red salmon. It was a little hectic with all the boats but still fun.

Some reds fresh from salt water at the mouth of the Kenai.

While down on the peninsula we fished out of deep creek for halibut with conventional gear. The huge tides in Cook Inlet do not lend themselves to fly fishing very well, opportunities are very limited at best.

We spent five days in early August fishing for rock fish, halibut and ling cod out of Seward. The relatively small tides and protected waters around Seward lend themselves very well to fly fishing for bottom fish but I had a full boat (6 people) and I was doing the captain thing so I didn't do any fly fishing. We were, however, able to bring home limits of fish every day with conventional gear.

 Part of a days catch, Silvers, Greenling, Quill Back, Copper, China, and Black Rock Fish

In mid August we went to Valdez and fished for Silvers, Rockfish and Halibut for two days. It is possible to fly fish for bottom fish and Silvers in Valdez when the tides and weather permits. We had four in the boat and it was a quick trip so we didn't use fly tackle. We did catch limits of rock fish and a few silvers each day. We only caught one halibut during the trip.

It's winter here in Alaska

It's winter here in Alaska. The ice is three feet thick and fly fishing opportunities close to home will not be possible for at least another three or four months.

Time for tying flies and getting gear ready for next season. I have been putting new line on fly reels, tying flies for bottom fish in the salt and rebuilding my new, old boat.

The new boat is a 1985 Almar 24 foot Jetline with a 460 Ford marine engine and Hamilton three stage jet. I had the motor and the carburetor rebuilt, I am replacing the old wooden floor boards with aluminum tread plate and refitting the motor with a new water pump, alternator, electronic distributor, and starter. But the best part is the new fish finder GPS combination, a Lowrance HDS-9 Gen2 Touch Insight.

 The boat is in great condition for it's age, the hull has only a couple of very small dings in it. The stern is clean, without any of the regular boat projections that make fly casting difficult like knobs and rod holders. I will use this boat in lakes, rivers and small ocean.

The flies. I have had such a blast the last two years fly fishing for bottom fish. I have been working on new and improved patterns for rock fish, ling cod, halibut and greenling. These guys are eight to ten inches long.

Non-Pelagic Prawns, top row. Non-Pelagic because they are weighted to fish near the bottom and weedless.

Middle row, yellow eye rock fish and tiger rock fish imitations. Ling cod are veracious predators of rock fish, these flies are intended to target them. Bottom row, Klag Island Squids. Squid patterns have been extremely productive for all bottom fish and Pelagic rock fish, I am sure these will be killers.

Top row, sea lance imitations.  Any time one of the bottom fish species hits the deck in the boat he spits up sea lances, I had to represent them in the fly box. Middle row, Chichagof Herring. Herring are picked on by everyone, to not have any in the fly box would have been a mistake.

Bottom right, China rock fish imitations, again for ling cod.

In the next couple of months I plan to show pictures of my progress on the boat and do some tutorials on these flies. Stay tuned, thanks for looking.