The Aleutian Islands - Unalaska, AK

In the Summer of 2003 my wife Liz and I, Just married, honey-mooned in Alaska. Which is where we had met 5 years earlier while in college. Liz suggested that we could go back to Alaska for our honey moon and mentioned that I could put the trip together. I went a head and planned out two weeks of fishing. One fishing for Salmon on the rivers of Unalaska on the Aleutian Islands, and another week fishing the Naknek and its tributaries in Bristol Bay.

The Aleutian Islands were our first destination, but due to foggy conditions we spent two-and-a-half days just waiting for a plane to be able to fly into the Dutch Harbor airport. We finally made it to the Island. Unfortunately we were not able to go with the outfit that we had planned on also due to the weather, which was a shame as to get there we would have taken a Grummin Duck which is a plane I have not yet flown on.

I explored fishing oppotunities that were road accessible. The local chamber of commerce and the hotel took really great care if liz and I. even lending us a vehicle to explore the island with. They also got us out on the harbor to fish Bass and to see them pull a few crab pot. The Sea Bass fishing was great.

I also caught a good number of Pink Salmon in the salt water bay behind the hotel. They were a ton of fun.

Eagles were seemingly everywhere.

Unalaska has been a continuos human settlement for the last 9000 yrs. people have called the harbor part of the island home for as long as people have inhabited Damascus. It is very possible, if you believe that the first peoples to the Americas could have traveled by boat rather than land bridge, that the first immigrants from Asia to America came through Unalaska and the Aleutians.

Snake River - 2010

Snake River: 2010

In October 2010 Rusty and I headed back the Region of the Nez Perce. Travel was tough this year with cancelled flight and unplanned detours, but we made it to the Salmon only a half day later than expected.

Our first evening was great despite the water being a bit warmer than desirable. the weather was

mild and we got one of our favorite runs, a nice long easy wade with a rip that sits about 80' from knee deep the whole way. I wore a T-shirt since the weather so fine, feeling good to be done traveling and finally fishing. The run we were on produced rusty's first fish last year... and mine this year.

I fished a Thompson River Caddis down the lower half of the run and, just as day tipped to twighlight, the fish took. It was on the strip, but it still took.

I had gotten a 15' TnT from poppy the previous fall and this was my first fish with the rod. I was worried that a 9wt would be too much rod for smaller fish, but this fish I caught our first night was 5-6 lbs and it was a great fight and I, don't think a smaller rod would have made the experience any more fun.

We camped around a bunch of other fly fishers, but apparently what we fish and what they fish is different, as we almost never seemed to see these guys on the water we fished. Although there is more pressure this year than last. The guys at camp were having a tough time with the warm water. Over the next few days we fished some very good water and struggled to find fish. we ran up to the Clearwater a few times but it had alot of people on it.

We did connect with two more fish. Both under pretty bright conditions. Both also came off what was our most productive run last year. I caught a small fish under a bright/partly cloudy midday sky. It ate a yellow/Orange/ Natural Married wing spey, my first married wing fish, and some how that matters.

A day later on the same run, Rusty hooked our best fish of the trip. It was late morning. I am not sure what fly rusty was fishing but I would wager it was 3 or 5 Yellow Jacket (last years magic fly).

Though the conditions were not as perfect as the year before. we found fish when fishing was tough and the Snake continued her kind and generous tradition.

We fished our 2010 trip fishing the Salmon River in Idaho, which is a tributary of the Snake. We had a great time.

Muskegon River - Michigan

 

I have twice made trips to the Muskegon River in Michigan. It is a very pretty river for the great lakes and has lots of interesting water to fishing. From Croton Dam down to Newago the river runs in a deep and heavily wooded valley. below newago I remember the river bottom getting sandier and the current become more laminar and slow.

Access is limited and flating or boating the river seems to be the best way to access the best fishing water. Jet boats are a great way to move from spot to spot, but I dont have one of those, so the next time I return I will use my Watermasters and just hire a shuttle service.

I have caught a few steelhead on the Muskegon and I really look forward to catching a few more.

The Salmon River

In the fall of 2010 my friend Rusty and I made our trip out to fish the Snake, Grand Ronde, and Clearwater. River conditions on the Snake were a little tough with some pretty high water temperatures on the Snake and a frustrating number of people on the Clearwater. We caught a few fish on the Snake, had a few early grabs on the Clearwater and that kept us fishing there longer than I wanted, but other guys were getting fish. One guy got a fish on a popular run that I had just told Rusty was a pure shit of a run. I guest don't get the Clearwater.

After about five days jumping between the Snake and Clearwater, we decided to try some new water and headed down to the Salmon river near Riggins, ID. On the drive down I realized the down side to the Salmon is that if you get there and it is not fishing, you will have a long drive to find them. The drive down was really neat though, as you come south down 95 from the Clearwater you a following the route that Lewis & Clark used to return to the east, after reaching the Pacific Ocean. Rusty has read the accounts of that trip and was able to tell me about some of their adventures as we headed through passes and valleys of Idaho.

We passed through a town on the way that had the full skeleton of a mammoth in a glass house. I am often looking for spots where ancient people would have traveled or lived in the lands I fish and here was a sign of the truly ancient, the prey of America's first humans. The slopes around us were wooded with several streams and they over looked a great grassy valley. I imagined people gathering fire wood and being able to see the mammoth in the distance, across the valley 8,000 years earlier.

Anyway, we had to get licenses in Riggins as well as camp supplies so we got to the Salmon too late to fish, but were able to identify a few good looking spots to start on the next day. As we made camp we had a Small doe wandered by our beautiful and relatively solitary camp and that was just the beginning of the deer we saw over the next day and a half. We saw lots of "small" bucks(according to Rusty that is, to my whitetail eyes they looked huge) and does along the banks and hillsides of the the Salmon.

This year Rusty brought a camper, and it was really awesome. We got camp set up pretty quick and efficient, as Rusty got me in line with camp chores and trailer moving, although I was the one who encouraged all the moving...but that another story. The point is that the trailer was great and that we had a good camp there on the Salmon.

The next morning we were up bright and early and on the river. We marked a few spots on the GPS on the way down the Salmon the day before. I started, what I thought was about half way down the run, but this run like lots of runs we found on the salmon are just a little different. I was at the head of a little twelve-to-twenty cast spot, but it only took three.

I hooked and landed a pretty bright hatchery hen, especially for being over seven hundred miles from the sea (I will double check on that number)