Alaska 2012
September 21,
2012 Friday: Rod and I left Springfield for Chicago at 6 AM with no
problems. Next, we took off for Seattle with less than an hour between flights.
We flew and landed in Anchorage at 4 PM; it was there we found Kodiak Island
was fogged in with no flights landing or taking off. They tried to fly us out
at 6:30 PM and we had to wait in Homer for several hours before ERA returned us
to Anchorage. We called a hotel and stayed at the Puffin Inn near the airport.
We found our room and settled in at 10 PM. We woke at 4 AM to catch our fight
at 5:30 AM the next day.
September 22,
2012 Saturday: We did make it to Kodiak City on the early flight but our deep
fishing trip was canceled. We took a taxi to the Best Western near the harbor
in Kodak City and stowed our gear. We had breakfast while watching a college
football game then strolled about the harbor taking a few photos, checked out
the local fly fishing/sport shops and took in a museum. We had dinner at a
restaurant named the Powerhouse. We returned to the hotel to turn in at 9 PM.
September 23,
2012 Sunday: We check out of the hotel at 10 AM and Brent took us to Dave's
place where the floatplane was moored. Dave flew us out to the lodge on Saltery
Lake lodge. It was a great fight with blue skies and mountains covered in
autumn foliage; Dave gave us a fly by over the lodge to get a feel of the land.
The staff (Geoff, Matt and Roger) greeted us at the plane and moved our gear
into cabin #2. We made it to the water before noon, Rod went to the lower hole
and I started in the lake. I managed to keep a limit (2 silver salmon) and
released six more. Rod caught a limit of salmon and released five more with a
few Dolly Varden released. We did see a few bears moving along the water’s edge
and I could see bear moving about at the mouth of Lake Creek. We finished the
day at 5:00 PM and returned to the lodge for a meal prepared by Roger. After
supper, Rod and I walked down to Lake Creek. The creek had plenty of water with
a good flow, there were a few Red Salmon moving in the creek. That evening, we
spent time watching the computer with Rod bringing the “Big Bang Theory”.
September 24,
2012 Monday: We had breakfast at 7:30 AM and on the water by 8:30 AM. The water
was clear and air temperature in low fifties. I used an 8-wt rod with large
Clouser minnow pattern and fished the lake above the mouth of the river. The
silver salmon were very cooperative taking the fly. I kept two silver males for
the freezer and released ten more salmon for the morning. Rod and I stayed on
the water through lunch; the other guest returned to the lodge for a meal. I
managed eight more silvers in the afternoon for a total of twenty salmon for
the day. Rod fished the lower hole and released ten silvers and a few Dolly
Varden. The bears were on the move with several encounters throughout the day
as the bears moved along the lake looking for fish or napping on the lakeshore
in view for several hours with no concern for us. There were a few Red Salmon
spawning along the shore for the bears to catch with more salmon in Lake Creek.
My Simms
waders had a leak, both legs were wet with the cool mountain water, I suffered
mild hypothermia... (I need to get rid of them and I did). I did have a spare
neoprene wader with me, which were watertight. The neoprene waders were more
comfortable and kept me dry in the cool water. The day was mostly sunny in the
morning with rain in afternoon. The temperature was mild throughout the day. I
did have some issues with the salmon once caught; a few raced towards me and
swam between the grassy bank and me, which were only a few feet. One salmon
actually went between my legs with the rod tip trying to follow, I was lucky
enough to see it coming and released the tension of the rod and lifted my leg
over the line. This is my fourth year fishing Alaska and all rods have remained
intact… just lucky.
September 25,
2012 Tuesday: The entire day was overcastted with a light rain off and on. The
temperatures continued to be mild in the mid-fifties. We returned to familiar
waters with Rod starting at the upper hole and hooked into a salmon on his
first cast of the day and proceeded to have the Silver Salmon hit his fly on
consecutive cast. See video here: http://youtu.be/ioEiNPb1pQQ. I moved into the lower section of the lake at the mouth of
Saltery River only to find rocks and broke off two flies. I decided to move
back into the lake. The catching was more difficult on this day with two salmon
kept and five more released. Rod kept two salmon for the freezer and released
three silvers, a chum salmon and many Dolly Varden. I did have a close
encounter with a bear. The bear came up behind me and I first saw him 30 yards
away at the water’s edge. I talked to the bear to let him know I was near and
he moved away before posing at the point and swimming across the lake.
I would have
more close encounters with this and other bears. The bears are round and full
of Red Salmon; they seemed to want to keep some distance between them and the
man with a stick. Another funny occurrence happened when a hooked salmon took
off for the other shore, I was into the backing, and then I heard a pluck
sound. My spool fell off my reel and into the water, I went to my shoulder
retrieving the spool from the bottom of the lake and had to hold it between my
thumb and fore finger as the salmon continued to fight. I was able to get the
tension off the salmon to settle him down and reassemble the reel. I did bring
him to hand and release him. It is amazing the crazy situations one can be in
with stress on the rod… The general idea is to hang on and hope for the best.
September 26,
2012 Wednesday: The day started out with brisk winds and a light rain blowing
through the mountain pass and down the lake... in the afternoon the weather
turned bad with gale winds and with a light rain blowing across the lake; it
looked like a great mast sail of a Yankee clipper moving with a tailwind, this
was somewhat unexpected but typical for Kodiak and Alaska. We fished until noon
and retreated back to the lodge for lunch, to dry out and to get out of the
wind. From the lodge, we could see the rain moving over the lake at 50 - 60 mpr
with wind gust over 60 mpr. The winds decreased some by 3 pm and we
returned to the water. The rain continued into the night. I had another bear
encounter with a bear coming out of the brush and coming into view up stream of
me and within 15 yards; he entered the water to swim across the stream. I did
not see the bear coming since my back was against the wind and rain. Brent was
fishing downstream from me; he saw it first and kept pointing to the bear until
he caught my attention. I was standing in the water waist deep and nowhere to
go, so I figured take out the camera and get a picture. The bear eased into the
water and swam across the stream. Rod and I both kept a limit for the freezer
with rod releasing five silver salmon and I released four salmon. The weather
was cool, and wet typical for this time of the year.
September 27,
2012 Thursday: Saltery Lake came up two feet from the overnight rain; the water
was cloudy with visibility less than a foot. We found a few silver salmon in
the sand just above the river. With the high water, there was limited access to
the holes with all of us at the lodge sharing the limited water space on the
lake. The upper and lower holes currents were difficult to fish with the fish
probably lying low or behind structure. Not many fish taken this day, I was
able to take a limit with three silvers released. Late in the day, I decided to
look at the lower hole, Frank (Geoff’s father) tagged along. Rod's favorite
spot was full of water but I worked my way to the river and waded into the
stream. Frank was above me and he found a warm sunny spot to rest, he was
comfortable and fell asleep.
After a few
cast, it was proved to be nonproductive, so I retreated and made a move to fish
upstream of Frank. A bear came out of the brush and stood were I was fishing
only a few minutes before, Frank was still cat napping and had the sun in his
eyes. All of a sudden Frank realized it was a bear only a few yards away from
him and not me, I was on top of the bank overlooking the situation with Frank
scrambling up the hill to join me. The bear walked the riverbank just below us
and made it’s way downstream. We talked about that bear encounter for several
days at the dinner table.
Rod learned while fishing, how important it is to
check the hook point on your fly especially when several fish are missed. Rod
was near the lower hole using a fuchsia rabbit hair flash streamer (which does
a good job hiding the hook point), missing one fish after another. After his
fifth missed salmon, he inspected the fly and discovered it had a broken point;
there was no way to hold the fish. Yep… it happens and the moral of the story,
check that fly, even after a single miss.
 |
Here is Rod's broken point fly that lost numerous salmon;
it now on display in his office. |
September 28
Friday: Our last day to fish, the lake dropped 1.5 feet overnight and continued
to drop throughout the day. I was able to fish around the cove starting on the
lodge side just below the property line, covering as much water as possible to
the stream then crossed to the other side fishing up to the standing rock. My
first fish of the day was in front of the rock. It was mid-morning and as the
day progressed I managed to pick up more silver salmon. I finished the day with
fourteen released from hand. Most of the silver salmon were taken with Clouser
minnows. I did manage to take the last two silvers on the lodge side at 5:30
PM, I called last cast last fish and managed to hook and release one within
five minutes that was to be my last cast for silver salmon for this trip. The
other guest had already called it a day with Geoff and Rod near the mouth of
the stream; Geoff hooked silver salmon and he called it last cast last fish for
the day. Rod continued to work the water downstream and missed two fish and finally
broke off his fly; on that he decided to call it and that concluded our fishing
day, week and fishing trip the Alaska.
September 29,
2012 Saturday: We did not fish this day. After breakfast, we chatted with the
other guest, watched the first snowfall for the season and packed our gear. The
ground was covered in white from frost, with dark clouds to the west indicating
incoming snow. There were some concerns to flying out and with the ceiling
dropping; Dave decided at noon it was time to get us to Kodiak City and on to
the airport. The flight in the floatplane out was rough and turbulent with the
windows constantly fogging over. The landing was uneventful with Dave dropping
Rod and me at the airport with our gear and frozen fish. Our flight to
Anchorage did not depart until 7 PM. We had to several hours before we could
check in and we waited until 3 pm to check in and leave our gear. We took a
taxi back to Kodiak City and ate at Henry’s near the harbor and watched some
football. We returned to the airport and left Kodiak on time with the other
flights back to Springfield on time without incident.
Overall, Rod
and I had a great trip. We managed to catch ninety-three silver salmon, a
number of Dolly Varden and a Chum Salmon. The fishing was very good on Saltery
Lake and river. My best fly was a Clouser Minnow pattern in a variety of sizes.
The bears may have been a little too close; it was amazing fishing with them on
the lake and stream banks. A special thanks to Geoff our guide and to
Dave Magoffin for being a great host and pilot. The web site is salterylakelodge.com
with an active web cam capturing photos every ten minutes can be seen at www.kodiakweather.com/webcams/salterylake.php.
Rod fighting a silver salmon in the upper hole:
