No Profanity *** No Flaming *** No Advertising *** No Anti Trappers ***NO POLITICS
No Non-Target Catches *** No Links to Anti-trapping Sites *** No Avoiding Profanity Filter


Home~Trap Talk~ADC Forum~Trap Shed~Wilderness Trapping~International Trappers~Fur Handling

Auction Forum~Trapper Tips~Links~Gallery~Basic Sets~Convention Calendar~Chat~ Trap Collecting Forum

Trapper's Humor~Strictly Trapping~Fur Buyers Directory~Mugshots~Fur Sale Directory~Wildcrafting~The Pen and Quill

Trapper's Tales~Words From The Past~Legends~Archives~Kids Forum~Lure Formulators Forum~ Fermenter's Forum


~~~ Dobbins' Products Catalog ~~~


Minnesota Trapline Products
Please support our sponsor for the Trappers Talk Page - Minnesota Trapline Products


Print Thread
Hop To
Page 2 of 2 1 2
Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: white17] #6465586
02/18/19 02:58 PM
02/18/19 02:58 PM
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 11,194
Maine, Aroostook
Posco Offline
trapper
Posco  Offline
trapper

Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 11,194
Maine, Aroostook
Originally Posted by white17
We drifted the canyon on the Kenai River. It was an 8 hour drift. Only saw three other people.


I motored up and down that canyon many times back when it was legal to. Between the ferry and Skilak Lake. We got into some incredible fishing just below the canyon but there was good fishing everywhere along the river.

Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: Posco] #6465590
02/18/19 03:02 PM
02/18/19 03:02 PM
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 11,134
Armpit, ak
D
Dirt Offline
trapper
Dirt  Offline
trapper
D

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 11,134
Armpit, ak
Originally Posted by Posco
Originally Posted by Dirt
If you haven't fished for reds before, the first thing you need to understand is it is snagging not fishing, The object is to snag the fish in the mouth. Anybody can snag salmon in Alaska; sometimes it is impossible not to.

Disregard all the above if you don't care where you snag the fish you keep.


You're certainly going to snag some fish during a run but salmon hit a fly out of aggression. How many times have you caught a Red with three or four Coho flies in its snout?


zero. I only been a salmon guide for 26 years though. Not on the Kenai.


Who is John Galt?
Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: Dirt] #6465594
02/18/19 03:06 PM
02/18/19 03:06 PM
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 11,194
Maine, Aroostook
Posco Offline
trapper
Posco  Offline
trapper

Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 11,194
Maine, Aroostook
Originally Posted by Dirt
zero. I only been a salmon guide for 26 years though. Not on the Kenai.


Multiple flies in a Red aren't at all uncommon on the Kenai. Lending in part to their aggression, the number of people fishing for them and the current. You should know better than I do how little time you have to get your pole right before that salmon uses the current to snap your line.

Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: Gary Benson] #6465600
02/18/19 03:19 PM
02/18/19 03:19 PM
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 11,134
Armpit, ak
D
Dirt Offline
trapper
Dirt  Offline
trapper
D

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 11,134
Armpit, ak
Did I mention 30 - 40 lb test?


Who is John Galt?
Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: Dirt] #6465606
02/18/19 03:25 PM
02/18/19 03:25 PM
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 11,194
Maine, Aroostook
Posco Offline
trapper
Posco  Offline
trapper

Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 11,194
Maine, Aroostook
Originally Posted by Dirt
Did I mention 30 - 40 lb test?


Good point. I remember the first time fishing the Kenai and seeing a fifty or seventy pound King trying to makes its way across a riffle. I had never seen a freshwater fish so big in my life. I did everything I could to get to it in order to wrestle it.

I've had them snap seventeen pound test like it was thread while swimming upriver. Not even a hint of resistance.

Last edited by Posco; 02/18/19 03:26 PM.
Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: Posco] #6465627
02/18/19 04:00 PM
02/18/19 04:00 PM
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 555
WV
G
garymc Offline
trapper
garymc  Offline
trapper
G

Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 555
WV
Originally Posted by Posco
Originally Posted by garymc
Last trip we saw 14 bears that was the highlight of the trip for me. A few were close.


Brown or black? I remember having an elderly couple warn my wife and I about a brown bear they had seen the day before on the gravel bar we were camped on. They seemed irritated by my lack of concern...they were probably right. Tracks were always present but as many times as I've floated the Kenai I never once saw a bear.


Out of the 14 bears last trip. 8 were black bears and 6 were brown. It was impressive to see this one brown bear cross the swift Kenai before daylight. It was a true testament to their strength the way he managed through the current. I do not know that a human could have waded that section with a cable stretched bank to bank for support to hold on to.

Most of the bears appeared to be habituated which I hate because they had no fear. You could tell they were searching for fish scraps.

Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: Gary Benson] #6465636
02/18/19 04:11 PM
02/18/19 04:11 PM
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 555
WV
G
garymc Offline
trapper
garymc  Offline
trapper
G

Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 555
WV
All this talk of Alaska Salmon and fishing in general is going to make it a long 5 months before I return. I still have some time to spend at the fly tying bench to pass some of the time.

Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: Dirt] #6465642
02/18/19 04:21 PM
02/18/19 04:21 PM
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 446
Southeast, AK
R
rosscoak Offline
trapper
rosscoak  Offline
trapper
R

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 446
Southeast, AK
Originally Posted by Dirt
If you haven't fished for reds before, the first thing you need to understand is it is snagging not fishing, The object is to snag the fish in the mouth. Anybody can snag salmon in Alaska; sometimes it is impossible not to. Many people struggle to snag reds in the mouth. It is a skill. IMO a fly rod works best. You can get a better swing through the fish and the cushion of a long rod helps keep hooks from pulling out in the fast water. Yard that fish to out of that river fast. I'd practice the technique at home before I left. Maybe you can see how it is done on u-tube. Another thing you want, at least here, is a good set of polarized glasses. You need to see the small groups of fish when they swim by where I sockeye fish. Do not be tempted to fish Sockeye in slack pools as they are much harder to mouth snag than when oriented face first in current.

Disregard all the above if you don't care where you snag the fish you keep.


TRUTH!!!^^^

Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: walleyed] #6465649
02/18/19 04:28 PM
02/18/19 04:28 PM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 21,536
Sandhills Nebraska
G
Gary Benson Offline OP
trapper
Gary Benson  Offline OP
trapper
G

Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 21,536
Sandhills Nebraska
[/quote]

Once the run hits the Naknek, the whole river is a hotspot cause it's so short a drainage before Naknek Lake.

Any where there is a back water current edge close to shore behind a boulder or sand bar is stacked like cordwood with migrating Reds.

That rich kid wouldn't be a Shawback, would he ?

w
[/quote]
He was indeed a Shawback! One of my roommates, and a fun guy to go downtown with. He would be 62-63 now days. I think he said his family owned trucks and busses. Maybe boats too.

Last edited by Gary Benson; 02/18/19 04:30 PM.

Life ain't supposed to be easy.
Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: Gary Benson] #6465773
02/18/19 07:35 PM
02/18/19 07:35 PM
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 8,454
Henderson, N.Y. Jefferson Co.
W
walleyed Offline
trapper
walleyed  Offline
trapper
W

Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 8,454
Henderson, N.Y. Jefferson Co.
Shawback Family married into the Local Native Corporation and won a lot of Federal contracts with the military when the Air Force Built the SAC (Strategic Air Command) Base at King Salmon.

They also have (had} a lot of heavy construction equipment and are usually involved in any and all construction between Naknek and King Salmon.

There is 16 miles of paved road between Naknek and King Salmon, and I'd bet Shawbacks were behind cutting, building, and paving most of it at a Million+ a mile (or More).

Shawback owned pretty much every thing in King Salmon last I knew.

It's a small world.

Haven't been back since 1989 but I really enjoyed my time in the area.

I also Spent 1990 on The Kenai Peninsula in Soldotna and also fished the Russian River, and The Kasilof, and fished Cook Inlet at Deep Creek for Kings. Caught a pile of halibut and even snagged Salmon in The Lagoon at Homer Spit.

For GREAT fishing, and having experienced both places, I'd have to give the nod to King salmon.

I also fished the Branch (Alagnak), Kvichak, Nushagak, Ugashik, King Salmon River, Etc. Etc. on the Alaskan Peninsula

All are once in a lifetime fishing experiences.

Good Luck.

w


"Provisional/Interim" member of NYS Trappers Association
Jefferson Co. Fur Harvesters

I Support Non-Resident Trapping



Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: Dirt] #6466391
02/19/19 09:40 AM
02/19/19 09:40 AM
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 11,194
Maine, Aroostook
Posco Offline
trapper
Posco  Offline
trapper

Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 11,194
Maine, Aroostook
Originally Posted by Dirt
Do not be tempted to fish Sockeye in slack pools as they are much harder to mouth snag than when oriented face first in current.


Have you ever noticed how many colors Coho flies come in? If you fished the Kenai much, you'd hear guys asking what color that fish was caught with. Some days some colors work better than others. I don't see how the color of a fly enters into the snagging equation.

Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: Gary Benson] #6466540
02/19/19 12:11 PM
02/19/19 12:11 PM
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 9,151
Alaska and Washington State
W
waggler Offline
trapper
waggler  Offline
trapper
W

Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 9,151
Alaska and Washington State
^^^^^^^^^
I have a friend who's is murder on snagging kings in the mouth in Washington. He has done it enough that he swears by a black fly or black piece of yarn in most rivers. He speculates that black doesn't spook them.


"My life is better than your vacation"
Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: Gary Benson] #6466554
02/19/19 12:22 PM
02/19/19 12:22 PM
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 11,134
Armpit, ak
D
Dirt Offline
trapper
Dirt  Offline
trapper
D

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 11,134
Armpit, ak
jimmy's fly

Take a look at the color of jimmy's fly. blush


Who is John Galt?
Re: Great spot for sockeye in Alaska? [Re: Dirt] #6466576
02/19/19 12:39 PM
02/19/19 12:39 PM
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 11,194
Maine, Aroostook
Posco Offline
trapper
Posco  Offline
trapper

Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 11,194
Maine, Aroostook
Originally Posted by Dirt
jimmy's fly

Take a look at the color of jimmy's fly. blush


Makes me miss the Kenai.

https://salmonchronicles.com/2014/05/16/what-fish-see-why-salmon-prefer-different-colors/

Page 2 of 2 1 2
Previous Thread
Index
Next Thread