After returning from Beaver Island, Steve turned right around (with his wonderful wife’s blessing) and headed off to guide in Alaska at the Naknek River Camp for month. He returned in mid-September with stories of big bears, 30″ rainbows, giant char, and silver salmon to beat the band. Check out some of his pictures below.
I realize I did not post something yesterday. I would like to extend a sincere apology for this oversight. Though I would also like to point out that this happens to be the first time in 357 total post where a weekday was missed. And I’ve posted News Update Friday on a Saturday two times before by accident, therefore I’m technically still ahead in terms of total posts vis a vis total week days. Just sayin’. I’m not defensive. Not like it matters. Whatever. So there. Stuff that in your one hitter and smoke it. If you know what that means, cool. If you don’t, cool. Not that we endorse that sort of thing, it just sounds better than pipe for some reason.
Anyway, I was very lucky to spend yesterday on a special river. We fished hopper-droppers and I caught a brook trout, a rainbow and a brown. It was fantastic. That is all.
We had a couple unseasonably hot days with highs over 90 degrees and Tuesday night it barely got down to 70. Water temp in the upper river was a surprising 67 yesterday evening. But a cold front moved through last night and brought some wicked thunderstorms and heavy rain. Not sure if the water will pick up much of a stain in the upper river, but it might not be a bad idea to pack some streamers today and tomorrow just in case.
My folks were up for a visit and my dad and I got out for a couple hours last night before we were driven off the river by severe thunderstorms and some really thick mosquitoes. Not much hatch activity. Not a gray drake spotted. We threw terrestrials and did some nymphing and managed to pick up a rainbow before the storms rolled in. Such a shame about the storms because things were shaping up for a great night of mousing: super low, clear water and hot temps.
The Hex hatch is just around the corner. Any day now. We have some great dates left for the hex hatch so drop us a line if you’re interested. And mousing after dark will only get better.
We also stopped in at Historic White Pine Village. Pretty neat place. Learned that the first wave sentry at Big Sable Point didn’t last too long.
I’ve had a few days off from guiding so I decided to take a trip up to the fly water and walk in for some trout fishing. I looked quite out of place with my five weight and trout net. There were a number of folks after salmon so I only got to fish seriously for about an hour, but I did manage to land a decent rainbow, quite a few steelhead smolt, and I hooked two kings which promptly broke me off on 6lb flouro. Smaller egg patterns and lighter, flourocarbon tippet were necessary in this very low, clear water.
If you want to try eggin’, first thing you need to do is go somewhere with lots of salmon and preferably lots of trout. The fly water on the PM is probably the best place to egg, though there are some big trout in the middle river and the nesting salmon tend to concentrate them or at least make it more obvious where they might be (though note that trout season is now closed on the middle river, so you’re really eggin’ for steelhead there). The most straightforward way to get started is to fish the holes and dark water pockets behind gravels blind. In the fly water these tend to be pretty shallow, 2-3 feet deep, though in some spots, particularly in the lower fly water and middle river, they can be significantly deeper.
Eggin’ is pretty much just nymphing behind gravels with eggs, so the rig is very similar to any trout nymphing rig you might use. My preferred setup is 18″-36″ of 10lb-15lb Maxima Ultragreen tied directly to a 1/2″, neutral colored Thingamabobber. Length to indicator and diameter of line to be determined by clarity and depth- lower and clearer, go lighter and longer. I then tie a piece of 8lb flourocarbon directly to the Thingamabobber, the length of which should be about six inches less than the depth of the water you’re fishing.
Tie a 18″ piece of 6lb flouro to the 8lb flouro using a bloodknot. Tie an egg to the 6lb flouro. Fishing two eggs can increase hookups (but also tangles) and allow you to experiment with different tippet sizes. I usually tie eye to eye from the first fly to the second using 6lb flouro, though if you encounter heavily pressured fish in very low clear water you may want to use 5x or even 6x flouro to your second egg. Going down in tippet size is always something obvious to try during a difficult bite.
Now go back and affix a single split shot to the leader just above the bloodknot between your 8lb and 6lb flouro. The knot is intended to prevent the split shot from sliding down the leader. I typically use a large split shot, like a BB or even AAA, though they can be difficult to cast. A single #4 is usually sufficient, though you get down quicker and better in faster water using something heavier. And importantly, a heavier weight will keep more tension on the indicator thus allowing you to detect more takes more efficiently. So start heavy and only go lighter if you absolutely cannot cast the heavier weight.
I prefer to use smaller size egg patterns tied on smaller hooks when eggin’ for trout. I use #12 and #14 hooks and tie a sparsely tied #10 size nuke egg on them, steelhead orange being probably the best inside color for nuke eggs this season for both trout and salmon.
If we don’t get another big push of kings, eggin’ should be pretty good over the next week or so as the trout won’t be getting their fill of the real thing. And you never know, maybe you’ll hook into an early steelhead?
