Kings are starting to arrive;

[Ard]

I know this will be a heart breaker but I will be gone until next week. Some salmon are beginning to show in the rivers and I am going to take a trip. Maybe I'll stumble into some..................

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All cleaned up and ready to go, I'll check in with some photos and a report on what I find.

Ard

 

[sandfly]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

Oh sure just rub it some more, have fun and hope ya get a few..

 

[mcnerney]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

Ard: Have a safe trip and catch lots of kings!
That boat of yours sure looks great!

Larry

 

[Frank Whiton]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

Hi Ard,

Have a great time and be safe. Are you fishing local or heading to the Kenai?

Frank

 

[jpbfly]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

Have a good time Ard!...hope you'll successfully try my flies

 

[peregrines]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

Good luck Ard and have a safe trip.

 

[2PawsRiver]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

Lucky Sonobagun......wish I was there with you.

 

[Ard]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

On the way to the lake I had outstanding weather and although there were no salmon waiting at the mouth of Hewitt Creek I got an overdose of sight seeing on the 77 mile boat ride.

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This is the outlet of the lake into Hewitt Creek. The creek is 4.4 miles long from the lake to its confluence with the Yentna River. This is how it looks as you are about to enter the lake when arriving.

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As I was making trips back and forth from boat to cabin I was under close surveillance by a pair of eagles sitting in one of the spruce trees in the yard. If you look to the right and down you can see the rear of the second bird.

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My activity was too much to bear for them and so they took off.

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I came up short on the Kings but did manage to see some while on my way home. About 25 miles up the Yentna I saw the wake of a few that were hanging around the mouth of a freshwater slough. I did fish but only caught about a dozen Herring which are coming up to spawn also, by the millions I might add. The salmon travel with the herring or I should say, follow them. Yes, an eight inch herring will take a fly and I got a few that were pushing 10" also. The picture below is of the herring or Hooligan as they are known locally, making their way along the shore of the Yentna River. There is an endless ribbon of them from the mouth all the way to the Skwentna River some 50 miles of river and they travel both shore lines. I can only guess at their numbers but don't feel that millions is an exaggeration. The snapshot below is a glimpse of what this migration is like. As I watched them I could only dream of how this place was before commercial fishing decimated the salmon stocks here. Just imagine a time when King, Sockeye, Chum, Pink, and Coho filled the shorelines like this........................

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[Frank Whiton]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

Hi Ard,

I didn't know you were going all the way to the cabin. Thanks for sharing the photos.

I know about the Hooligan run in Turnigain Arm but I didn't know there went up the Yentna too. People use to go to a specific river in Turnagain and load up with Hooligan. I never did it my self because it was not fishing. They used nets and even washtubs to grab them.

Glad to have you back Ard.

Frank

 

[mcnerney]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

Ard: Great trip report and some awesome photos! I had heard of the Hooligan run, but never actually seen it, that is pretty impressive!

Larry

 

[Ard]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

Hi guys,

Yep, they get so thick that you have to cut the motor when you approach shore or you will clog the intake foot with them. I never had caught any with a fly rod but they saved me from getting skunked. I went looking for trout in one of my streams but found it void of any. The ice just went off the lakes about 11 days ago and nothing has moved up the creeks yet. I wanted to go to the Tal but if the trout aren't showing in my little creek then a long ride up there would probably have gave the same results.

Ard

 

[jpbfly]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

Beautiful pics Ard:thumbsup:lucky you to escape our rotten world at timeshope to see pics of salmon caught on the Alaskan Tsarina soon

 

[Ard]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

Hi JP,

I need to find the fish before I can catch them. The first runs are King salmon and I will be using much larger flies that the Tsarina right now. Have no fear the steelhead that travel with the salmon will love it

I am shutting off the computer, gassing up the boat and leaving right now.

Ard

 

[Pocono]

Re: Kings are starting to arive;

Sounds like a heck of a lot of fun! I can feel myself getting closer to the "Alaska fishing trip" every day.

Good luck!

Pocono

 

[Ard]

Looks like it is still early. I fished and floated for a little over eight hours and had no action. However I spoke to a fellow at the Point Mackenzie General Store on the way home this evening who reported flying over the Inlet yesterday and seeing roughly sixty Beluga Whales bunched at the mouth of the river. This means that the Herring and the Kings are at the mouth. In a few days there should be more fish entering the river.

The river is high and off color so I spent the morning fishing weighted flies in known channels with no fish sighted or hooked. The afternoon was more fun even though the results were the same. I used my 13' rod and a Hi density tip (which works really well) and spent a few hours swinging a 0/1 Sol Duc pattern tied nice and full. The fly is a high visibility pattern and had I been able to raise a fish with it .................... Well, that would be really a nice thing.

Oh well the season is just getting started,

Ard

 

[Pocono]

I used my 13' rod and a Hi density tip (which works really well) and spent a few hours swinging a 0/1 Sol Duc pattern tied nice and full.
Ard

What's a Hi density tip?

Pocono

 

[mcnerney]

Ard: I really appreciate your fishing updates and reports even when you don't raise any fish. Most of us dream of fishing in Alaska, but few of us can afford to make the trip, so with your reports we can somehow live the experience.

Larry

 

[Ard]

Glad to hear you enjoy the local news Larry, Allen; a Hi density tip is a super fast sinking 15' head. They are very dark brown (I like that part) and the tip will take even an unweighted fly to the bottom and keep it there during the 'Wet fly swing'. Last year I got a 13' two hand rod for some areas here where you must cast across the channel to reach the lies but have little or no room for a 30' or longer back cast. I am by no means a spey casting expert but manage to get the fly where I want it most of the time. I can see that as my casting skills improve with this rod it will be a fairly easy way to fish some otherwise difficult stretches. I haven't been using sink tips per say since 1994 and am quite happy with how this one works. The lines come with 4 interchangeable tips ranging from floating to depth charge type.

It will be fun when I finally hook one,

Ard

PS. Here is a Sol Duc, the fly I was using was much larger than this one but quite the same. I was able to spot it so I'm sure if a fish were near it will not go unnoticed. Since I had to tug it from the bottom frequently I know that the tip was doing its job well.

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[Pocono]

Glad to hear you enjoy the local news Larry, Allen; a Hi density tip is a super fast sinking 15' head. They are very dark brown (I like that part) and the tip will take even an unweighted fly to the bottom and keep it there during the 'Wet fly swing'. Last year I got a 13' two hand rod for some areas here where you must cast across the channel to reach the lies but have little or no room for a 30' or longer back cast. I am by no means a spey casting expert but manage to get the fly where I want it most of the time. I can see that as my casting skills improve with this rod it will be a fairly easy way to fish some otherwise difficult stretches. I haven't been using sink tips per say since 1994 and am quite happy with how this one works. The lines come with 4 interchangeable tips ranging from floating to depth charge type.

It will be fun when I finally hook one,

Ard

PS. Here is a Sol Duc, the fly I was using was much larger than this one but quite the same. I was able to spot it so I'm sure if a fish were near it will not go unnoticed. Since I had to tug it from the bottom frequently I know that the tip was doing its job well.

[/IMG]

Ard,

Are you talking about he Rio VersaTip system? I know that they come with 4 tips of various densities.

Nice tie on the Sol Duc pattern! What material are you using for the palmered body hackle?

Pocono

 

[Ard]

Allen,

I have a SA Short Head 4 tip line. The hackle on the fly is burnt goose shoulder. You bleach it and then dye to suit for color.

I will be better able to report on the King returns in a few more weeks. As for a start things are not looking so good numbers wise. Last year nearly every river except the Kenai and the Yentna were closed to fishing for kings due to radically low returns. These closures ranged from all the way up at the Yukon Kuskokwim river systems down to the various creeks between here and Talkeetna. It was a bad thing.

Currently I am in a bad way as for fishing options. All creeks have been closed to fishing for rainbow / steelhead trout through June 15th and the king return is less than great. The Kenai is open but that is a 160 mile drive and I have no real time intelligence on the numbers there other than the updates to the state fish counts taken by sonar. As of May 29, the count was at 639 fish, that does not warrant a drive to Soldotna. The Kenai is a very big river and even if twice that number have came in it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

I am doing my best to remain positive here...........................