Root Admin Phil Lilley Posted August 14, 2011 Root Admin Posted August 14, 2011 Hey guys. We've been so busy here that it's hard to post reports and pics. I still can't upload videos- and I have some great clips to show off. We spent the week fishing... our clients said we fished too much, if that's possible. They certainly caught a lot of fish!! Didn't have a bad day. We spent several days fishing off the beach for pink salmon, throwing pink jigs with spin gear and pink or chartreuse flies with fly rods. They hit both. My underwater Gopro recorded the action- hundreds of pinks schooling only 60 feet off the edge of the beach, easy distance to cast to. If you waded out too far, you'd be right in the middle of them. They averaged 4 pounds with some up to 5 pounds and they fought hard. Most were silver, fresh out of the deep ocean. The rivers and creeks here are very low due to low rain fall but every pool up in the creeks are packed with pinks waiting for more water to move up. There's reports of some silvers starting to show up but we haven't seen any. The sport fishing boats are catching a few silvers and kings just off shore but it's been slow- too early for them. The limit is 10 pinks per person per day. We kept a few pinks to eat during the week and a few more at the end of the week to take home. They are very good eating if they're fresh and silver- the mildest tasting of the salmon family. Our fly out was great. We flew to Unganik Lake and floated the river out to the ocean. It's a good sized river but not a fast ride. It's full of dolly varden- and I mean full. A small spinner was used and I honestly think if you tried you'd get a strike on every cast, if not a fish. We had to clip off 2 of 3 hooks off the trebles just to give them a sporting chance and to release them easier. They took a purple egg sucking leach too as well as a black wooly bugger. There were pinks in the lower river as well as some chum. Supposed to have been reds or sockeye but didn't see any. We saw some bears on the lower flats as we flew over but they were gone when we got there (darn!). Was one bear on the bank of the lake when we landed but he scooped away and was gone before we got out of the planes (they flew us over in 2 beavers). The sport fishing out in the ocean was incredible. Bill had a trip the first part of the week with 3 clients that wasn't so good. His captain wasn't experienced and they didn't go to the places the fish were. But the other 2 trips with the rest of the clients- all went twice- was awesome. Each trip, one halibut over 180 pounds was caught. We had others over 100 pounds and others well over 60 to finish the limits (2 per person). Then they pulled over to a spot and we were told to drop our lines 50 feet using lead jerk spoons. It didn't get to 50 feet before we each had a black rock bass. Didn't take long to catch our limits- 5 each. Now these are what me and Bill wanted to take home. Best eating fish up here. They ran an average of 5 pounds each with some up to 7 pounds. Then we headed over to another spot to troll for salmon- silvers and kings. Didn't do very well. No one was. Both trips were about the same- great fishing. Our guys caught more fish they could take home. While out fishing one day, we were drifting on a flat. We'd caught our rock fish and were hoping to see some salmon. We saw some Humpback Whales in the distance- it's was cool! But funny thing... they came closer. Then more showed up. And they got closer. Before long we had an estimate of 30 whales all around us. And when I say close, I mean within 100 feet of the boat! The estimate of 30 whales was from the captain of the boat. We saw pairs swimming together, all porpoising and blowing air through their air holes. We all forgot about fishing and watched- for over 30 minutes. People pay big money to go whale viewing and don't see something like that. Got good pics and video- wish I had a better video camera. Today, Bill and I went out with 3 guys who are staying here at the lodge. Without going into alot of detail, one if from here, Ronnie- a native, Kenny- a guy from Florida who spends alot of time here and the last, Richard who spends the summer here. Richard has a boat they take out on nice days and Ronnie knows the holes to go to. We caught one "butt" about 80 pounds and 2 other "chickens". In the same spot, we caught a bunch of nice Black Rock Bass. We also caught a nice Ling Cod and other fish I can't identify. We grilled up 2 filets when we got back to our place. We caught most of the fish on a lead jerk spoon tipped with a piece of herring. One hundred feet of water and most of the fish came off the bottom. The second set of clients get in early tomorrow morning and are here 8 days. We'll do a fly out and 4 days of sport charter fishing. Hopefully we'll see some silvers off the beach this week but if not, there's plenty of pinks.
denjac Posted August 14, 2011 Posted August 14, 2011 Sounds like it about as good as it gets ! We are enjoying milder temps back home, 68 deg. as I speak. Work on finding those silvers, I need a fix . Dennis Boothe Joplin Mo. For a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." ~ Winston Churchill ~
TroutRinger Posted August 14, 2011 Posted August 14, 2011 Sounds like you're doing better than I did at Taney this morning. I stopped by the shop to pick up some jigs on the way home so maybe I'll do better next time...Looks like an awesome trip btw! "Of all the liars among mankind, the fisherman is the most trustworthy." "There's a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore like an idiot."
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