Paul, Joe & Al's Alaskan Adventure, Day 6 (10 Aug 06)

[Al]

It rained most of the night and was still raining in the morning when we awoke. After a healthy breakfast we pulled on our waders and rain jackets and headed for the mouth of Goose Creek. The last time we were there a local had monopolized what appeared to be the only good spot. We hoped the rain would eliminate the competition.

A brisk 45 minute walk, punctuated with good stories and a lot of good natured ribbing brought us to the point where Goose Creek emptied into the Susitna River and once again we had been outflanked by a local gentleman. The only bright spot was that he was not standing in what had previously been the "honey hole" location. He was a bit upstream and was casting into the flow of the main river. He also had his limit of two very nice silvers on his stringer. (3 salmon limit, only 2 of which may be silvers on the Cook Inlet drainage). He was a friendly fellow who was staying with his brothers family who lived during the summer very close to the big river. They had a private road built for a motorhome which they drove in once and then left there for the trees to grow back up around. Nice to say the least. Once we arrived he quit fishing and proceeded to fillet out his catch. (Photo attached)
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While he was filleting out his two silvers we fished a bit downstream in the "honeyhole" and caught several pinks and chums. Once the local left, Paul and I went up to his vacated spot on the main river and fished the grey stained glacial flow. We couldn't see the fish but they were there and we both soon had a silver on the sandbar.(Photo attached)
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There were also a lot of chums coming up the mudline. Some were over 30 inches long and probably weighed in at about 15 pounds. I caught a good one and while taking a photo of it, (photo attached),
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I wasn't paying attention and must have put too much pressure on my 4 piece 9wt flyrod because the next thing I knew the tip section had shattered into 4 pieces. That ended my fishing for the morning. I ended up being cheerleader and fish cleaner for Paul and Joe as they sifted through several more pinks and chums on their way to our limit of 6 silvers. (Photo attached)
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BTW I had a spare rod. The broken rod was an Orvis. I called them, received a repair authorization number, no questions asked other then to verify who I was and that I had registered the rod at time of purchase. The rod is on the way to them for repair or replacement. I like that kind of service.

Just as we were leaving the mouth of Goose Creek, the gentleman who had left with his fish shortly after we arrived, returned with his extended family of wives, grandmothers, and kids, all of whom had some sort of fishing gear. I'll bet they all limited out within a short time.

Corndogs on the grill for lunch. They tasted pretty good.

We went down to Montana Creek, which is the closest to our cabin, and finished out the day. Caught several fish and brought home a couple for a supper of grilled salmon, fried potatoes and green beans. Of course we washed it down with a glass of wine.

We are running out of freezer space. I think we have enough salmon for all to bring home as much as we can reasonably use.

My friend, Eric Knowlton, whom I met on an Alaskan fishing forum several years ago, came up to spend the evening with us. In addition to being a real nice guy, Eric is a well known wildlife artist who specializes in trout and salmon reproductions. He has his own studio and website. You can see some of his work at http://www.reeltrout.com/ . Tomorrow he is going to take us north to the other side of the Susitna drainage where we hope to find some graylings and trout.

[Mstash]

Thanks Al
 Were there any kings in the river? I think they might have been out of season by this time.

I hooked 2 with the 5wt while Bo fishing and the fish never knew they were hooked. One of them I had to wade out and just about kick him to move. I might as well haved tied my line to the back of the truck and try to move it. But it was fun.

Great Pics Al

Mstash 

[Al]

Thanks Al
 Were there any kings in the river? I think they might have been out of season by this time.

I hooked 2 with the 5wt while Bo fishing and the fish never knew they were hooked. One of them I had to wade out and just about kick him to move. I might as well haved tied my line to the back of the truck and try to move it. But it was fun.

Great Pics Al

Mstash 

Yes, there were a few kings still present. Down at the mouth the few kings we saw were about 4 feet long and bright red in color. We also saw a couple way up the creek that had already spawned and had that, "I don't want to touch that", sickly decaying look.

King season had come and gone. Any kings caught had to be immediately released. I don't go up there during king season because it is so tightly regulated. You need a special license,can only keep 2 or 3 the entire season depending on where you fish,  must tag your fish and can't fish any more on the day you tag a fish. Many streams are open to fishing only on weekends and it is "combat fishing" in every sense of the word.

[Mstash]

If I were going to AK for the first time I don't think I would plan it durning the king season
Like you said Combat fishing.

There is plenty of fishing after the king season.

They are some monsters though
Much rather do the silvers

If I get to go back it will be for silvers on dry fly's
They wouldn't come up for them when I was there.

[phg]

You hike down the railroad tracks to the tressel...some things don't change very much...
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...but this isn't the Smith River.  The tressel, barely visable near the end of the curve,  is over Montana Creek, and the mouth of the creek is off to the left, perhaps another 1/4 of a mile.  This had become a familiar hike, almost daily, and I suddenly realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of the treck in, so out came the camera.

This is a typical Alaskan hunting/fishing camp.  This cabin seems to be abandoned, but it is typical of hundreds you will find throughout Alaska. 
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Everywhere we went, the landscape was pockmarked with small lakes and ponds.  Some of these are sterile, some have fish, but they are everywhere!
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Then there's the fireweed.  As one Alaskan told me, "it's a bitter sweet time when the fireweed is in blossom, and the Silvers run.  It means summer is almost gone...."
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Thursday morning was had been good to us.  We had agreed to only keep 2 silvers each, so that we could fish more in the afternoon.  We caught lots of fish, but it took a bit of time for each of us to land 2 silvers.  Joe, in particular, was having difficulty, in that the hole he was fishing was loaded with pinks and chums, but there didn't seem to be many silvers.  While we "waited" on Joe to get his second silver, Al and I continued to play with the chums.

This is the fish Al broke his rod on. 
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This is about as pretty a Chum as you are going to see.  They are also known as tiger or zebra salmon because of their stripes, and dog salmon for their teeth.
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These bad boys do have some fangs!
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Then there were the Merganzers.  These diving ducks were on the Susitna River, but would come up the mouths of the creeks a little ways.  Some of the time they just floated along with the current, but when they decided to head upstream, they could really boogie!  It almost looked like they were running on top of the water.  This is a hen and 5 diddlers on Montana Creek.
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In the afternoon, Joe wanted to get a nice Chum for smoking, and myself, I didn't care if I didn't keep any more fish, but I did want to fish.  This would probably be our last chance at the salmon, so chums, being the best fighters, were the target.  We went back to Montana Creek, and headed down to the mouth.  Off the right channel, as I mentioned before, we had discovered a depression in the river where the fish would hold before starting up the creek itself.  The depression is right in front of Joe, but, obviously, if you don't know it's there, you don't see it.  The water is just a bit deeper there....
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Also notice the color change in the water.  The grey is the glacial flow that is full of silt.  The darker water around Al and Joe is the clear water from Montana Creek.  The trick was to fish right along the line where the to two flows meet.  It was always a fairly distinct line, for a couple hundred yards at least.

After working this area for a while, we moved upstream to the first pool.  Ok, we were crowded out.  Each time we hooked up, some German guy would move in closer trying fish the same hole.  Al had already moved upstream, and then Joe got crowded out (I didn't really notice, as I was too busy catching fish near the lower end of the depression).  Eventually, though, he just stepped in front of me, when I backed out of he water to land a fish.  I can't recall if he was having much success, but I don't guess he would have been crowding me if he was catching fish were he was.  Anyway, having been crowded out of my spot, I moved upstream to see how Joe and Al were doing. 

This hole, dispite the fact that it was a bit tricky to cast to, had been really good to us!  Al and Joe were hooking up regularly.  While Joe landed a fish, I decided to hazzard a cast or two myslf, and immediately got accused of being a German.  Oops.  Sorry, guys.  There was plenty of room, though, and by rearranging ourselves, we all got to fish.  Several more fish were caught by each of us, and I even managed to recover several of the flys I had snagged on the overhanging bush the day before.  I think I ended up recovering all but one of my flys, plus several that other people had lost. 

In all, Thursday was a good day.  I actually lost count of how many fish I had caught twice, both in the morning and in the afternoon!  It don't get much better.