Fresh Wild Salmon Please!

Alright, so keeping up with my blog while guiding in Alaska this season has been more difficult than anticipated. With a few days break between guests I have found the time to make a recap blog of the first month of fishing, but not without the help of a cup of freshly brewed kona coffee. What a treat.

King salmon and sockeye salmon season was very successful here at Valhalla Lodge. The Nushakag River and the Kvichak River provided generous runs of salmon filling up freezers and putting smiles on the faces of guests. We are in a transition period from salmon to trout. When the salmon find their spawning ground and the eggs begin to drop the trout show up in mass numbers to gorge on eggs. The anticipation here is contagious.

Mid June through mid July is the best time to visit Alaska if you are looking to fill up your freezer with fresh, wild pacific salmon. Almost 50% of the world's wild pacific salmon come from the Bristol Bay Region of Alaska. Watching thousands of sockeye salmon swim by you per hour for several weeks is something I am still not use to; yet salmon is not the reason why I love Alaska. I am here for the big, wild rainbow trout which survive on salmon eggs and salmon carcasses. Without the nutrients from the salmon the trout would not make it through the harsh winter. This "need to feed" attitude of the rainbow makes them reckless feeders. You know when a trout is on your line just from the hard take of your fly. The big trout practically rip the rod out of your hand. The salmon are here which means trout season is near. If you want to chase 25 to 30 inch rainbows visit www.valhallalodge.com to joins for some epic trout fishing.

Checking In From Alaska

I've been at Valhalla Lodge for a week now, working hard to get everything operational after a long, hard Alaska winter. Cracked pipes, leaky pipes, repairing docks, putting boats in the water, getting motors running, hauling propane, and the list is getting longer instead of shorter.

Regardless, today was opening day to fish for trout and we don't have guests yet, so instead of following our to do list, we went fishing. We have had beautiful, warm weather for most of the week until today, the day we go fishing. Typical! We managed some quality fish but no pigs. The grayling were fat and plenty but the rainbow trout were few and thin. None the less, a fun morning on the water. The weather was cold, wet, and uncomfortable. We decided to settle for a warm dry place after 3 hours or so of fishing.

Alaska Bound

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go. No, this is not John Denver's hit, Leaving on a Jet Plane. This is reality for me. I leave on a plane today as I look ahead to facing another season guiding in The Last Frontier, know as Alaska.

I have several fly boxes full of flies, two large bags stuffed full, both weighing less than 50lbs, which is very important. I also have a large back pack full and a cluster of fly rod cases rubber band together. I feel prepared, but I'm sure there will be something I need once I get to the Alaska bush.

The next time you hear from me I will be at Valhalla Lodge...

Alaska Trout Flies Session 4: How To Tie The Fish Skull Sculpin

As my preparation for a another season in Alaska comes to an end, I have one more trout fly to share, the fish skull sculpin. Most sculpin species are found in saltwater, but the freshwater sculpins can be found in river systems searching the bottoms for whatever they can find to eat. For the most part, a sculpin is consider a bait for larger game fish such as trout and stripped bass.

My favorite sculpin patterns are large and heavy. Their bulk and weight will not fair kindly to beginner fly casters. It is good to have a some sculpin patterns in your box when you come to Alaska looking for trout because they can be effective. I use an olive color and a tan color. In dirty water I will use the tan ones and in the clearer water, I use the olive ones. So let us get tying.

Materials list: 1. Danville's thread 120 in olive or tan
                     2. Gamakatsu BS10 stinger hook, size 2
                     3. Fish skull articulated shank 35mm
                     4. Barred zonker cut rabbit strip olive or tan
                     5. Cross cut rabbit in olive or tan
                     6. Grizzly mini marabou olive or tan
                     7. Barred crazy legs in olive
                     8. Enrico Puglisi streamer brush with micro legs in olive or tan.
                     9. Fish skull sculpin helmut in olive or brown size large
                    10. Super glue or head cement

1. Start thread and wrap a piece of barred olive rabbit strip facing down, leave about a 1/4 inch from the eye of the hook. Stop at the the hook bend and tie in a piece of Krystal Flash so that it lays down on both sides.

2. Tie in a piece of cross cut olive rabbit strip and bring the thread to the front leaving about a 1/4 of an inch from the eye of the hook. Then add super glue and wrap the the cross cut to the front still leaving room from the eye of the hook, secure in place with a dozen wraps or so.

3. Turn the fly over, or if you have a rotating vise, rotate, tie in two grizzly mini marabou feathers on the top, secure. Then tie in two barred crazy legs and pull them towards the back and secure with lots of wraps. Trim the legs to about the length of the mini marabou feathers.

4. Insert the articulated shank into the eye of the hook and wrap the thread to close the gap in the shank and make 20 or more wraps to cover the exposed gap. Tie in a piece of cross cut rabbit and then bring the thread to the front leaving about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch.

5. Just like on the tail section of the fly, tie two grizzly mini marabou fathers on the top and then tie in two barred crazy legs, pull them towards the back  and secure with a dozen thread wraps. Trim the legs to about the length of articulated shank.

6. Tie in a piece of  Enrico Puglisi streamer brush with micro legs and wrap the streamer brush several times pulling the fibers out and towards the hook so that in builds a good head of the fly, secure with half a dozen thread wraps, and whip finish.

     

7. Add super glue and the fish skull sculpin helmut.

                                                                                                                                                                              

Oobi Checking Out Fairhope Peir

Who or what is Oobi? Well, Oobi contains a message to another human on the hollow inside of his paper mache exterior. He was given to me by a friend who found him on a bench in Everglades National Park.








Oobi will join me in Alaska this summer where I will share some adventures with him and then send him on his way to New Mexico. Before we head out to Alaska though I wanted to show him some of Fairhope Alabama's best.

I took him on a bike ride to Fairhope Pier where Oobi swam in the fountain to cool off from the bike ride, and then we looked out over Mobile Bay. The sun was bright and the breeze was soft to keep us refreshed.



For more info about Oobi visit www.newoobi.webs.com

Alaska Trout Flies Session 3: How To Tie An Articulated Flesh Fly

When salmon spawn out, reaching the end of their life cycle, they still have not completed their full purpose. Salmon spawn and die right? These dead salmon provide nutrients for an entire ecosystem, including trout. Trout in Alaska have a limited feeding period of about six months. They are very opportunistic when it comes to food, and one of the opportunities a trout has to feed on is flesh from dead salmon. As a salmon carcass breaks up in the water, pieces of the rotting flesh float down stream becoming food for other animals, including trout. It sounds gruesome, but it really is not. If you can get a flesh fly in front of a trout, I bet you it will eat it.

Today I will show you how to tie one of my favorite flesh fly patterns. It is the articulated flesh fly. There are many variations to this fly. I try to have a few different kinds of flesh patterns. Which one I use will depend on what salmon species are in the area. Bristol Bay boasts the largest sockeye salmon run on earth, so naturally there are lots of them around. So I will tie the pattern I use when rotting sockeye are around. When Sockeyes enter freshwater both males and females begin to go through a chemical change that takes weeks to play out, but the first sign of change is they begin to turn red. This is the color they will be until the end. So my flesh fly will have a reddish/white piece of bunny strip, some orange marabou, and tan cross cut bunny strip. Let's get started...

Materials List: 1. Gamakatsu BS10 stinger hooks size 2 or 4
                      2. Danvielle's 210 pink thread
                      3. Fish skulls articulated shank 35mm
                      4. Two tone rabbit strip, fleshy pink
                      5. Orange or pink marabou 2 or 3 feathers
                      6. Cream cross-cut rabbit strip
                      7. Flashabou tinsel flash, ice pearl blue or pearl
                      8. DNA's holo flash, shrimp color
                      9. Lead wire .035
                     10. Super glue

                 

1. Run the thread down the hook shank and stop when you are even with the point of the hook. Tie in a tail section of two tone rabbit strip about 2 inches long, and secure in place. Wrap the thread to the eye, add super glue to the shank, wrap the rabbit to the eye and tie in and secure.

2. Tie in a few pieces of flashabou, making sure that it runs down both sides of the fly about the same length as the fly. Secure in place, whip finish, and add head cement or super glue.

3.. Insert the fish skull articulated shank into the eye of the hook. Put the fish skull shank into the vice and wrap the thread to the back and close the gap on the shank making lots of wraps.









4. Tie in a finger full section of DNA's holo flash, halfway down the tail section. Try to tie half on top, then pull the other half to the bottom and wrap, securing it and holding it towards the back of fly.




















4.Tie in the marabou, turn the fly over and tie in another piece of marabou and secure.

4. Flip the fly back over, wrap lead wire almost to the eye of the shank, tie in the cross cut cream colored rabbit, wrap the thread to the front, securing the lead wire, add super glue, and wrap the rabbit to the front and secure with a dozen wraps or so.

5. Tie in a finger full group of DNA's holo flash, try and spread it out on all sides, secure with many wraps to form a nice head, whip finish, and add cement or super glue. All done.

Alaska Trout Flies Session 2: How To Tie A Smolt Pattern

The next fly I'm going to tie as I get myself ready for the upcoming season is a smolt pattern. The smolt pattern is an early season trout fly. In late spring the juvenile salmon (smolt) leave their nesting areas in large schools to follow the same path their parents did to the saltwater where they will grow to adults and then make the return trip to spawn and die. A life cycle that is usually 3 to 5 years. To make it to the sea, the schools of smolt have to survive the assault from winter hungry trout. If you are lucky to catch this early season smolt migration it is good to have some smolt patterns in your fly box. I am going to share my favorite smolt pattern with you but really this pattern is a universal bait fish pattern. It is quick and simple.

Materials list: 1. Gamakatsu BS10 stinger hooks size 4 or 2
                     2. Danville's 210 thread in white
                     3. Fish Skull head medium size
                     4. Enrico Puglisi EP-Fibers white
                     5. Enrico Puglisi EP-Fibers 3-D ocean blue
                     6. DNA's Holo Fusion silver grey
                     7. Krystal Flash
                     8. DNA's Holo Fusion red
                     9. Super glue

1. Run the thread about mid way down the hook shank and tie in a section of the white Enrico Puglisi EP-Fiber about a quarter of an inch think and two and a half inches long. Make half a dozen raps of thread to secure it in place.

2. Next tie in a nice finger full group of DNA's Holo Fusion silver grey to match the length of the EP-Fibers. Secure it with half a dozen thread raps.

3. Take a piece of Krystal Flash twice the length of the existing fly and tie it in at the halfway point of the Krystal Flash. Make three raps and then fold the remaining half of the Krystal Flash down towards the tail section and make half a dozen raps or so to secure into place.

4. Tie in a section of the ocean blue EP-Fibers less than a quarter inch thick or not as thick as the white section of EP-Fibers; make it just a little longer than all the fibers you have tied in. Make a dozen raps or so, flip the fly over and tie in a half a dozen DNA's Holo Fusion in red, secure with lots of raps and whip finish. This gives the fly a gill plate flash and the impression of a bleeding or injured smolt making it an easy target.

5. Glue the Fish Skull head into place (I like to glue the eyes on prior to gluing the head into place but you can do it either way). I fill the gaps behind the head with a clear cure goo but you don't have to. The final step is to make a thread damn at the front of head so that it doesn't slide off. Make enough thread raps so that it forms a large enough thread damn to secure the head into place then whip finish and cut the thread. All done.