Alaska "Self Guided"

[colo_junk]

First, I want to say thank you again for the replies, the suggestions and advice.

We got back a little over a week ago from my first trip to SE Alaska. It lived up to the hype and then some. We didn't bring back as much fish as I was hoping for but had a great time.

I don't want to call anyone a liar but the week we were there, I don't think it rained at all. The weather seemed to flip where the rain headed down the Colorado and the Colorado weather followed us up to Alaska. I was not mad but did not get to use the new rain gear I purchased for the trip near as much as I was expecting. It primarily served as an expensive wind break on the morning runs out to the Halibut grounds.

We caught a good amount of halibut but only two silvers with the 5 full days of fishing we had. There weren't a ton of salmon being caught by the other groups at the lodge. The only ones who were catching them were beaching their boat and hiking up river to find them. Being relatively new to ocean fishing and dealing with tides, I didn't want to hike up a river and find the rented boat no longer there when I returned.

The lessons learned are probably too many to count but the biggest thing I learned is that I want to be doing this more often and hope to be able to take my dad up there before that door closes.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Well done, silvers can be a little finicky sometimes.

 

[colo_junk]

Well done, silvers can be a little finicky sometimes.

Intrigued by what you mean by finicky. Is their timing running up the river different each year or is it more related to their willingness to bite?

 

[seeth07]

Intrigued by what you mean by finicky. Is their timing running up the river different each year or is it more related to their willingness to bite?

You were certainly late to get the Coho in the ocean but there still should have been younger fish in the typical late summer spots to catch. If you find a good school of them, there should be hundreds upon hundreds of them in that area and they typically won't move around a lot but the bite can go off and on.

All of the spawning fish at the time of your trip would have been in the river mouths or far up the rivers even. They start to head up around Sept 1.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Intrigued by what you mean by finicky. Is their timing running up the river different each year or is it more related to their willingness to bite?

The short answer is yes but it depends. Generally the run on any given system will be about the same time. When I was guiding up in Bristol bay I would tell people August 5 would be ok but we would have to work at it. If you offered me a million bucks to get you on a dime bright silver in fresh water at sunrise on a fly rod on your first cast, for a beautiful photo op I’d tell you to be there on August 12. From the 8th to the 25th the camp would catch their limits easy. After the 25th we start fishing rainbows and spend just a little time fishing for silvers, catch a dinner fish or two.
That being said I could hop in the float plane and go south to Ugashik and catch silvers all day long in early sept.
Bright sunny days are tough especially in clear water streams. On our river you can see rainbows on the bottom in 16 feet of water, the silvers would get “lock Jaw” after about 10am if there was much pressure on them. Cloudy and rainy days you can catch them all day long.
I would typically look for cloudy water in bright conditions and use small flys or spinners late in the day.
Number one factor in my mind is run timing, then comes being early (more important on rivers) then comes presentation.
This young lady brought her parents up every summer for four or five years. At 16 she was throwing 80 feet accurately with an 8wt. And big bugs. Fishing a quarter mile stretch of river on this day she hooked and landed 100 silvers and a couple of dandy Char. We were just a mile or two out of the salt.
Silvers are my favorite when they are in. If they are not there it’s’ tough to catch them.

 

[colo_junk]

The short answer is yes but it depends. Generally the run on any given system will be about the same time. When I was guiding up in Bristol bay I would tell people August 5 would be ok but we would have to work at it. If you offered me a million bucks to get you on a dime bright silver in fresh water at sunrise on a fly rod on your first cast, for a beautiful photo op I’d tell you to be there on August 12. From the 8th to the 25th the camp would catch their limits easy. After the 25th we start fishing rainbows and spend just a little time fishing for silvers, catch a dinner fish or two.
That being said I could hop in the float plane and go south to Ugashik and catch silvers all day long in early sept.
Bright sunny days are tough especially in clear water streams. On our river you can see rainbows on the bottom in 16 feet of water, the silvers would get “lock Jaw” after about 10am if there was much pressure on them. Cloudy and rainy days you can catch them all day long.
I would typically look for cloudy water in bright conditions and use small flys or spinners late in the day.
Number one factor in my mind is run timing, then comes being early (more important on rivers) then comes presentation.
This young lady brought her parents up every summer for four or five years. At 16 she was throwing 80 feet accurately with an 8wt. And big bugs. Fishing a quarter mile stretch of river on this day she hooked and landed 100 silvers and a couple of dandy Char. We were just a mile or two out of the salt.
Silvers are my favorite when they are in. If they are not there it’s’ tough to catch them.

Appreciate the wisdom, Salmonchaser. So much I have yet to learn