Fly Fishing Singapore - Alaska’s Midnight Sun, Part 2 : The Salmon

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Feb 9, 2010, 8:12pm

Fly Fishing Singapore :: Catch Reports :: Fresh Water Catch Reports :: Alaska’s Midnight Sun, Part 2 : The Salmon

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Topic: Alaska’s Midnight Sun, Part 2 : The Salmon (Read 816 times)

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Alaska’s Midnight Sun, Part 2 : The Salmon
« Thread Started on Jun 29, 2005, 4:57pm »

Although Salmon stop feeding after they start their up-river run, they retain their aggressive predator nature and will most often strike a fly when they see it. They usually hug the bottom of the river and stream on their up-river run so the first challenge is to get the fly deep and near enough to them to get a strike, then you main problem begins……… fighting and landing these chunk of silver muscles in very fast flowing water!

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Four species of Pacific Salmon runs up the Kenai and Russian River systems.

The Chinook (also call King) Salmon returns to their spawning ground from mid-May each year. Chinook is the biggest of the Pacific Salmon species that averages 20-30lb and grows as big as 90+lb. However, their numbers are not as plentiful compared to other Salmon species and they tend to favours the very deep water in the main river system. Hence, Chinook tends to be a difficult target on the Upper Kenai on a fly rod. They are usually caught on the Lower Kenai downstream of Skilak Lake where motor boats and bait fishing are allowed. Generally, bait and heavy lead sinker are required to get them. Fly rodders may use heavy shooting heads but the average catch rate is very low and hence not worth the effort unless you have lots of time.

The Coho (also call Silver) Salmon runs later in Aug onto the Kenai and Russian. They averages about 10lb and get as big as 20lb in the Kenai and are aggressive fly eaters. Although they are good candidate to target on a fly rod, the wet and cold weather in Aug is a deterrent. Coho are not reputed to be good eating so the local fishing crowd tends to be small during a Coho run.

The Pink (also call Humpy) Salmon are the smallest of the Pacific Salmon and averages 3-5lb and only gets as big as about 12lb. They only run on alternate years on the Kenai on even years (2002, 2004, 2006…….) and please don’t ask me how the Humpy figure out what year is it! They are easy target on any kind of tackle.

The most popular Pacific Salmon is the Sockeye (also call Red) Salmon. They averages 8-12lb and get as big as 16lb. The Sockeye runs in 2 batches onto the Kenai. The first run of smaller 8-10lb fish starts in mid June up the Kenai into the Russian while the second run of larger 10-12lb fish starts in mid July. The Sockeye run numbers into the millions and the 2 run arrangement is probably mother nature’s way of managing river space. Sockeye is alleged to be the best eating of all Pacific Salmon. The Brown Bears knows it too and had been known to chase the sockeye all the way to their spawning ground 30 miles up river. Sockeye will turn into a bright red colour 3 to 4 weeks into their run up-river (hence their nick name Red Salmon). When I asked for the reason for the colour change, local wisdom says that that’s so that the bears can see them better……. My wife who was wearing a red wading jacket got a little worried after hearing that.

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Standard tackle for Sockeye is an 8-9wt rod to account for the power of the fish and fast river current. My wife was fishing an 8wt Sage with 16lb tippet but I was a tad adventurous and choose a Winston XTR 6wt and 12lb tippet. It turned out ok but I ended up loosing a lot more fish and took a lot longer to land them. A strong biological change occur in Salmon after they run up-river such that every bit of their body system is converted into usable energy to swim against strong current and jump up water-falls to reach their spawning ground. They only have to leave sufficient energy to have one last ultimate orgasm before they die. Hence, salmon do not need to maintain reserve in their attempts to overcome any form of resistance or restrain, be it from fly rods or brown bears. That explains why they run faster than bonefish and pull harder than GT…… upstream! If they choose to turn downstream, even a 10wt and 16lb tippet does not stand a chance in those river current.

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The first key element to successful Sockeye fishing on a fly rod is to first be able to read the river current and find the “highway” that the fish are taking. Our guides were ace outfit and always set us on top of the PIE of the Kenai every time within 10min ride on the drift boat. After that, its non-stop action until your arm surrenders. But if you can’t find the fish “highway”, you could be in for a boring day. We had actually met anglers that had walked the banks all day and don’t get any hook-ups. A word of caution is that wading around those Salmon “highway” can be tricky due to the very strong current. Going deeper than knee level will get you dunked for sure. Felt soles or stream cleats are almost a must. I strongly advise those with less experience in wading to wade with life jacket.

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Sockeye are not very picky about fly patterns. The most important factor is to get the fly deep down to a few inches from the river bed where they swim, sweep it in their face to trigger their predator instinct, and they will strike. Nonetheless, heavily weighted patterns such as Polar Shrimp and Simply Stealth worked well for us. The biggest challenge is to get the fly to sink fast and stay deep in those strong current. There are 2 ways to do it. First is to use heavy shooting heads such as Courtland LC13 or RIO T14. Don’t even bother with anything lighter. Even then, they may not work if the current is too fast or the water at the “highway” runs deeper than 6-7ft. This is because, before the line could sink 6-7ft, the current had already swept it way down stream. The second method of adding split shots to the leader is more reliable. And I’m talking about BIG split shots! Casting with split shots can get ugly and even down right dangerous when it is windy. But its either that or no fish at all because remember……. the sockeye had stopped feeding and they will never rise to eat your fly. In fact the only thing on their mind is that ultimate orgasm. So its either you get the fly down fast into their face and get a hook up or just watch hundreds of big salmon swim by you all day. But once you master the technique after your guide set you on top of the highway, you will not need more than several casts to get a strike. After the hook up, the fun begins!

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Typically, a sockeye will shake its head repeatedly like a bull dog after the hook set to get rid of that irritating sting in its mouth. The hook set needs to be hard and firm to penetrate its now hardened jaws. When they realize that they are being pulled towards the shore, they’ll take-off….. hopefully upstream. We set a heavy drag of 5lb and yet, almost all fishes run us into backing against the drag into 9000 cfs of river current!

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On the average, fly fisher will probably land 1 out of 4 or 5 fish you hook. Most of the lost fish are due to improper hook set as the fish jaw is extremely hard. The fight usually last 10 to 15 minutes if the fish maintains its up-river run or simply run across the river before the guide gets a chance to net it.

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But it’s a different story when it decides to turn down river. Probably one out of five fish that you hook with turn chicken and run down river. My fist experience with a down river run was quite humbling. My guide had warned me to break the fish off after it had turned down river with 30m of backing out. He predicted that the fish is not likely to turn back. I guess I just wanted to see it for myself. 15 sec and another 200m of backing later, I saw the base of the of the reel spool appearing vaguely behind the few wraps of backing left on the reel. I clamped down on the reel spool with my hands and prayed that I had done a good job on the loop to loop knot between the backing and the fly line. I took a while to wind back 250m of backing plus fly-line……. I listened to all the guide’s recommendation after that!

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Although the Salmon fishing was action packed and exciting, we did not spend too much time doing it as it gets predictable after a while. Out of the 5 days or about 50 hours that we had spent on the river for the trip, we probably did about 6 to 8 hours total of Salmon fishing. The rest of the time was fruitfully spent chasing Rainbows. Even then, my wife and I had no less that 50 hook ups between the 2 of us, and we landed 15 fishes in total. We kept the 2 smallest ones for dinner and released the rest for the betterment of future Sockeye population.

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We had heard from the locals how much better a wild Salmon taste as compared to the farmed ones. And we really appreciated the differences! Fist of all, the flesh of a wild sockeye is crimson red in colour. This is unlike the dull pink colour that we find on the farmed Atlantic Salmon that are sold in Singapore. We later learned that the red pigment is from the krill and shrimp that the sockeye eats out at sea while the pink flesh from farmed salmon are created through chemical pigments added to the fish pellets that was fed to the fish.

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Anyway, the flesh was promptly marinated in garlic salt and Terriyaki source just a few hours after the catch and set on the broiler in the lodge. We had never tasted any fish as nice as this! The flesh was juicy and melts in your mouth and does not carry any hint of the fishy smell that we commonly find in Salmon back home. The 2 small salmon fed the 2 of us for almost the entire week! It was comforting to know that it is still possible to stay in a log cabin in the middle of the woods in Alaska and live off the river!

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We enjoyed our salmon fishing adventure. But the real fly fishing starts with the Rainbow trout! Stay tune for part 3…………………..

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Re: Alaska’s Midnight Sun, Part 2 : The Salmon
« Reply #1 on Jun 29, 2005, 5:25pm »

Thank you TY for sharing your holiday with us.
The sceneries are so beautiful and the salmons are just magnificient.

Great catches.

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Re: Alaska’s Midnight Sun, Part 2 : The Salmon
« Reply #2 on Jun 29, 2005, 8:06pm »

Great story, gorgeous photos and wonderful catches!! I wish i was salmon fishing again. Looking at you catches reminds me of when i was fishing for chinooks while at sea in 1997. the first run of the huge fish almost stripped all the 20lbs line off the reel. I was pretty thrilled to watch the coloured braided line peal off at such a fast pace. after about 40 minutes i got the fish to the boat and found it was bigger than me. (i was still a little kid of 6 years old going 7)... will scan the photos to show sometime.. when i get my scanner working again..

Tight Lines

An Ren

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i had the best day with you, today...

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Re: Alaska’s Midnight Sun, Part 2 : The Salmon
« Reply #3 on Jun 30, 2005, 2:12pm »

dream on ... dream away....

I was in Vancouver almost 10 years ago and wish I was in fly fishing then....
:-[

alberto

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