Preping for Alaska Situk River Trip

Well my good friend Brian asked me if I like to go to Alaska for some steelhead, with my reply "in a heartbeat". Well the heart took that beat and we are going late April on a quest for some wild Alaska's steelhead. Starting to tie some flies for the trip. Started with some yarn and I know I likely never use these on our home rivers but here some yarn that I've been told are pretty productive.Crazy multi colors.

My good friend Brad from Soo North Fly Shop tied up a few patterns and shipping then to me A.S.P

Here where we will be staying in Yukatut Alaska and floating the Situk river

Ccounting the days down

Jigs

Well you hear me talk about Jigs, well here is one I've tied myself. I've been using bought jigs but always fun to tye and fish baits tied with your own hands

 

jigs from Just An Aging Steelheader on Vimeo.

The 2013 Derby Begins

Here it is 3 days after Christmas and Kory biting the bit to get out and start working on the trophies. I talked to a friend on face book and he told me the rivers were slushing and lots of shore ice so pretty hard to do any steelheading. Well we thought we see if our secret pike spot would be worth a try.

 Yea we were pretty desperate to get out when its snowing and 0 degrees C but we had to get it out of our systems. So we arrive to our destination to only find the bays off the main river froze. So we cast our lures just where the bays meet the main river but all I could catch was cat tails as seen below

 

After a hour of frustration 2 lost cyclops lures ($14 loss) we decided to cut our lost and try the hot water out flows for the Hydro power plant. Well there was a ton a Guiser Shad and that's all we could produce. It been know to be the odd muskie cruise this area but not this day.

 

 

Kory with his big catch of the day.

 

 

 

The coolest part of the whole trip was when a big freighter pass by us. I hear from local how these big boat displace water but never experienced it until today. When this big boat was passing us it drew the water away from shore, likely dropped the river 2 feet then once it passed us it came back to the previous level. I was slow to getting the camera out and getting it on video but I did catch the water rushing back to the previous level.

 

 

 



Freightor from Just An Aging Steelheader on Vimeo.

Its not all about the catching of fish. I not saying that I don't mind not catching any fish because I do but that's not what the whole experience is about. What not a better way to spend a day out fishing with your son and being able to witness the phenomenon of a big freighter passing. Its the whole experience of the trip.

Trophy Time

Well hard to believe we went threw another year fishing and with the end of the year come our family annual fishing trophy's. So brother Bill was master of ceremony handing out the trophies threw out the evening

The 1st award this year was that trophy that started the whole thing. The biggest salmon and was it a big award this year. A $5000 fish caught in the Blue Water Derby. 1st salmon my brother has ever caught and it was a 23.14 lb fish that won the derby.

 

 

 

The next trophy was for the largest bass. Well this is what retirement does for you guess who won this one. Yes Cricket did it again. His 1st year retirement and he pulls off 2 trophies with a 3lb 8oz small mouth bass. We had some controversy this year. Konnie protested that Dave and I had sabotaged her line and lost the trophy winning bass. So all we could do was give Konnie a consolation prize, a crying towel seen here in her hand in the picture below. All Konnie could say is Dave and Red gonna get theirs next year, what ever that means not sure yet.

 

 

 

 

The next trophy went to my 82 year old dad. The old bugger still can catch fish and took the trout category with a 9 lb lake trout. But being form the old school these dummies again forgot to take a picture.

 

 

 

 

 and to add salt to the wound the old bugger took the miscellaneous category with a 9lb muskie caught up a Sil'very Moon Lodge. Now I was there and we got a picture of this fish

 

 

 Well I happy that dad still gets out fishing with us and the old guy is still a pretty good fisherman. So we now move on to the 2013 season all bets off, time to sharpen up my hooks and think I am gonna try for the grand slam and see if I can get all 4 trophy's.(dreamer)

 

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

 

 

AND

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO All

 

 

 

We had the grace of a white Christmas this year 

Manistee Muskegon Floats

 

 

 

 Well had the privilege to go up with Brian to the cottage near the Manistee River. The 1st day we drifted the lower section and wasn't long I hooked into a nice steelie only to loose it after about a 2 minute fight. Well that seem to be foreshadowing of what was to be the theme for  the next two days. We floated for 2 more hours hitting some of our go to spots to come up empty handed. We made a executive decision to try up at Tipy dam.

 Brain stuck close to the dam and I wondered around the bend to try a few pockets where we had produced fish before. Again I struggled and came up empty hand so with time getting late I head back to Brian who informed me he had a couple fish on but like me earlier was not able to beach them. With dark upon us we headed back to the cottage to regroup and come up with a game plan for day two.
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 We decided to try the Muskegon River and float from the dam down which was new water to both of us and it never hurts with a change of scenery. The water flow had been up for a couple days so we had thought maybe some big boys may have made their way to the dam.

The Muskegon is a much bigger river but surprising not as deep as the Manistee or at least up by the dam. Now again the big fish elude us but there was enough little fish to make the trip not a bust. Again some times plans work to the tee and other times not so good but that's part of fishing and what I find it just makes me hungrier to rework analyze to where our plan went wrong and learn from it.

 

 

 

 

So with the end of day darkness slowly creeping up on us we decided to  head back to the cottage for some bubbly pops  and discuss the short comings of the day not finding any big fish. I had to head back next morning for a Christmas party so Brian call a local friend. Wow did  they finally  figured it out and did they have a great day. Check Brian's blog http://lambton101.blogspot.ca/ some great pictures of nice fish. I had a great time and its not all about catching fish, its the fun we had ribbing one and other and hope I never wear my welcome out.

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Jigs and Yarn

So snow on Nov29th

 

+

warm day on Dec 3rd

 

 

=

 

Raging River

 

 

Was a beautiful day to be on the river.The snow melt made the water a bit dirty so had to change my tactics and went to bight yarn (chartreuse) and black with red back marabou jigs. I was able to tag the leader on a couple fish because this old guy don't chase fish down a raging river but the only problem is I lost a bit of tackle.

 

 

 

 

So here is a Short video of a fish to what I called landed by tagging the leader because of where I am standing in the river

 

Dec Steelie from Just An Aging Steelheader on Vimeo.