Dollies, bears and "the creek"....Alaska [Archive]

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DocEsox

09-02-2007, 05:04 PM

Just spent my second Thursday night in a row with no sleep due to travelling for fishing adventures.....I know life is tough, then we die.... :wink: . Alaskan fishing is not uncrowded at all.....not where a road system is or anywhere around Anchorage.....the problem is nearly everyone fishes. And the weather has been great....hi 60's, low 70's all week. Had booked a guide friend of mine, whom I originally met on an Alaskan fishing internet site, for fishing on the middle Kenai Friday for big rainbows, dollies and coho salmon. We usually go fishing after his guiding season is over but I wanted to use his "professional time" for once. When I talked to him before leaving he told me the silvers are late and hardly any are in the Kenai yet and the trout fishing had been very slow....he thought we might try "something different". Thursday night my daughter screamed for me to come outside to see this:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/BackyardRainbow.jpg

Figured this was a good sign for the fishing trip and made ready. Took off at 2 am to make the drive down to Soldatna.....about 160 miles...nothing like driving in the early morning dark here when the moose love to cross the roadways....keeps you alert. Made it in time for a 30 minute nap and Ed was rapping on my car window...he brought another flyfishing friend of his, Joe. We threw all the stuff in Eds' car and headed for the secret place. Any unfished place is virtually unheard of on the Kenai peninsula due to how many people fish, have float planes, etc, etc.. Immediately Ed required a blood oath about not revealing the location of this spot or he would kick me out of the car. After administering said oath Ed told me a little about this creek we would be fishing and brought up the fact is was extremely bear infested....brown bear style. He probably failed to mention this earlier as he knew my wife, the general, would have nixed the deal. I had brought my bear spray (which I promptly left in the truck and didn't get it into the boat.....so smart) so was only a bit overconcerned about be mauled and eaten. At least Ed was packing his .41 magnum....which MIGHT dissuade a brownie but would be more likely just to piss it off more. I think he said he only packed two bullets....one each to kneecap me and Joe so he could get away while the bears ate us. Anyway we hit the boat launch in the dark:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Boatramp.jpg

Soon after hitting the water thick fog rolled over us...thank goodness for GPS systems .... although I think Ed arranged for the fog so I wouldn't know where we were at. Didn't see a moose driving down on the road but we weren't a few minutes into the fog on lake when we almost hit this big cow crossing the lake:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/EarlyMooseSwim.jpg

When we got to the mouth of creek you couldn't even tell any water was there or there was a creek......how Ed found this little creek I'll never know. We beached the boat up in the creek right about sun up:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Sunrise-1.jpg

It was a picturesque little water with spawning sockeye and the grass matted down everywhere on the banks from the bear traffic:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/thecreek.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Ed.jpg

Ed said he brought me here cause he knew how much I liked fishing little water and wasn't that worried about the size of the fish. The spawning sockeye had lots of little dollies which followed them up to eat stray eggs. The dollies usually sit a few to several feet behind spawning salmon in running water. The dollies are nearing their spawning time also and some of their body colors were fantastic. There are few fish as beautiful as charrs in their spawning colors (dolly varden, bull trout, arctic charr, brookies). There were no human tracks on the creek but the shore was covered with tracks from our furry, bruin friends. Let me apologize for some of the fuzziness of many of the pictures as the fog and heavy humidity on the creek seemed to effect my little digital Canon. These two were on cast number one and two:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Firstcast.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/2ndcast.jpg

I could tell this was going ot be a great trip. It took Joe about half an hour to figure it out then he began to score:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Joescores.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/JoeRelease.jpg

There were numerous trees, overhangs and the like around the banks making backcasting nearly out of the question and requiring some odd positions to fish from:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/UnderTreeDolly.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Highbackcast.jpg

That last picture was my strike indicator (flyfisherman's name for a bobber...... :twisted: )....the picture was looking straight up into the air. This indicator and leader became a permanent tree decoration....sort of returning it back into the wild. We all hopscothed around each other up the river as it was very difficult to spook these unsophisticated dollies. Ed hit a spot where he caught 5 in 5 casts:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Ed5inarow.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/EdsDolly.jpg

Now the spawning and spent sockeyes were just the opposite.....they were unbelievably spooky due to having bears chase them around everyday. But I was struck by seeing no dead salmon on the streambanks.....just the occasional pieces:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Redremains.jpg

Then it dawned on my their were no salmon carcasses because there were enough bears around to dispose of them all. We came across dozens of these little beauties....this spoor was still steaming:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Bearpoop.jpg

Yep....that's a big pile of bear poop. There were footprints everywhere and about this time we saw a large brownie bolt across the creek about 15 yards in front of us. You could hear them occasionally making noises in the heavy brush around the stream....but if you are respectful of them and let them know you are around they nearly always stay clear....after all we are the visitors in their home. We kept fishing up the creek probably around a mile. Right after Ed took a little swim in the chilly creek I caught this beautiful male dolly:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/FightingDolly.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/FightDOlly.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/SpawningDolly-5.jpg

This next wriggly picture was an attempt at a jaw closeup showing the kype, hook on the lower jaw, they develop when spawning:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MaleKype.jpg

About this time we ran into some very fresh tracks of a rather large sow with at least one, maybe two cubs....that is a situation best stayed away from. So we decided to start back down to the boat and caught a good number on the way back too. Caught several of what I thought were rainbows but Ed said DFG said were juvenile steelhead (anadramous rainbows) while we fished:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/JoesSteelhead.jpg

The little devils went berserk when you hooked them. Appropriately enough the last fish of the day was also the largest dolly, caught by Ed:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/EdsBigDolly.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/DollyNetting.jpg

She was prettiest colored hen I'd ever seen....they usually don't color up near as much as the males.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/FemaleSpawner.jpg

During the walk back downstream I took a little dip too....nothing like that feeling when you just know you are not going to keep your feet under you in the waders and down you go. Then when whirling around to get pictures of Ed's last dolly I slipped on a giant rock right on the ground and lit flat on my back....it sucks to get old and fat. Ed and Joe thought I was dead...but I bounced right back up...the macho thing to do. Man am I sore today.

So we made it back to the boat safe and sound and motored back to the ramp.....after one fantastic time.....my official fish count was 36 dollies, 8 steelhead and several sockeyes caught and released....not bad for about 5 actual hours of fishing. We also talked to some people who had float planed into the lake, near the creek mouth, to fish for silvers....they told us they had seen 6 or 7 bears on the creek in the mile we fished.

Now with a 3 hour drive ahead of me any smart person would have headed for home. BUT on the drive home I had to pass Quartz Creek one of my favorite streams for larger dollies...it parallels the highway for several miles and gets fished pretty hard. Yet still I found the need to get out and fish it for a few hours.....so I could wake up (that's the weak excuse I fed my wife). The stream was also thick with spawning sockeye. Unlike the morning's creek this one had dead, spawned out sockeye lining the shores and stank to high heaven. Being right on the highway this area wasn't populated with bears like the creek was. This spawning sockeyes are considered a nuisance to hook up when fishing for trout and dollies.....they don't fight like they do in their peak and who wants to be bothered during that "special" time. Here's several pics of the spawning reds....with time and good glasses you can spot the dollies amongst them but they blend in with the stream bottom very well:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Reds.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MoreReds.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/SpawnReds.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/SpawningReds.jpg

An amusing little incident happened while I was talking the last couple of spawning red pictures...after I finished and put the camera back into my vest....I picked up my bead which had just been sitting on the bottom....much to my surprise their was resistance and then this nice dolly took off:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/QuartzDolly.jpg

Caught several dollies and several spawning male sockeye....they just have to hit anything that comes around their redds:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/MaleRed.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/AnotherRedBuck.jpg

I probably would have stayed way too long but I heard some commotion up on the opposite banks and some low bear woofing and hoofed it out to the car. Got home about 10:30, took a shower and lapsed into a coma. But it was a very satisfied coma.

Great fishing all,

Brian

dtp916

09-02-2007, 08:25 PM

Thanks Brian for such an awesome report and a beautiful pictures! Alaska is seriously a heaven for fly fisherman and I'm trying to get up there myself...Dollies are by far some of the best looking fish to come out of freshwater!

Adam Grace

09-03-2007, 07:20 PM

Brian, great report! Thanks for all of your pictures. Those are some beautiful fish.

k.hanley

09-04-2007, 08:02 AM

Nice report Brian. Alaska is without-a-doubt one of my favorite places for wildlife encounters (including the fish!).
Cheers, K

Hairstacker

09-04-2007, 10:56 AM

Brian, fantastic report! Really enjoyed your commentary and all the pictures. Sounds like a great, if not somewhat nerve-wracking trip. :shock: :lol:

BigBill

09-04-2007, 03:49 PM

I'm not trying to be a jerk here so I hope I don't offend anyone but, isn't it considered highly unethical to target spawning Sockeye on their reds?

In fact, I have always been taught that you should leave ALL spawning fish on their egg beds alone so that they can propagate the species. Have I been misinformed all these years?

dtp916

09-04-2007, 08:03 PM

Darian

09-04-2007, 08:45 PM

So James,..... Does your response mean that you were offended by the question or that BigBill was misinformed :?: :?: :?:

BigBill made it clear that he wasn't trying to cause any problems in the front part of his post. Abrupt or trite answers to legitimate/serious questions are not overly helpful or informative. The issue of fishing over spawning fish has been discussed at length and more than once on this BB. It is controversial but has members of this BB on both sides of the fence. 8) 8)

Manners are what keeps this BB civil. So, I'm wondering why it was necessary for you to respond in that fashion :?: :?:

jbird

09-04-2007, 08:56 PM

BigBill

09-05-2007, 12:35 AM

Specificaly targeting spawning fish is not a good thing. Targeting dollys and rainbows below redds is quite popular and can provide fast action.
Its not a game for the novice tho, the salmon are too easy to hook if your casts arent pinpoint. And if the dollys dont want to play, the devil on your shoulder may give you the nod for the spawners.

A lot of the northern rivers can be so full of salmon that you are always at risk of hooking spawners in your pursuites of trout/char.

James...do you condone fishing actively spawning salmon? trying to interprate your response.

Nice report and photos! :D Love the dolly mug shot with all the teeth :)

Jay

Don't you generally go BELOW the schools of spawners to target bows and bulls? When somebody is casting into huge schools of spawning sockeye as the pictures suggest, isn't it pretty much assumed they are probably going to hook a sockeye?

I don't know if the points I have raised are misguided or not. But these days, conservation/sustainability should be the number one priority for every angler. I'm not trying to deliberately create confrontation, but if in fact the questions I have raised ARE valid, and a little confrontation promotes some awareness, so be it.

DocEsox

09-05-2007, 06:22 AM

Spike Klein

09-05-2007, 12:15 PM

What a great report! That little creek you fished sounds like my idea of the perfect "secret spot." I wish I had a spot like that- minus the bears!

About the spawner situation; I think if I were ever fishing for Dollies and kept hooking the salmon, I'd probably quit for the day- just to avoid impacting the population negatively. But a skilled fisherman could release a few mistakenly caught salmon without causing too much havoc. I particularly don't see the harm if, in fact, the salmon are overabundant that year. I should mention, though, that I've never actually had the pleasure of trying for Dolly Varden.

BigBill

09-06-2007, 12:19 AM

Hey Bill...no offense taken at all. I do consider it unethical to fish in a manner that would have you incidentially "snagging" spawning fish. But dollies in Quartz Creek are generally sitting within a few feet below a spawning redd. Usually the only problem, since you can see all the fish, is aggressive males around the redd which hit anything floating by. There isn't an issue of hurting salmon numbers as the fish are "managed" up here by the numbers which are checked by sonar. Personally I do everything I can to avoid hooking any salmon while dolly and trout fishing...it is a real pain to do so....and they are never intentionally targeted. Although there are some who do go out the thought of snagging red after red....I'm not sure why as the fish do not fight very well and they should be left alone as much as possible. But most the times you are sight fishing to specific dollies and trout. This year there has been an overescapement of sockeye.....too many came up late to support the juveniles in the lake system....up the Kenai and this can cause a problem....late in the season the limits were doubled to six a day in an effort to thin out the numbers. This still, to me, never justifies fishing in a manner to intentionally snag salmon, which goes on a lot up here. Or treating them poorly while releasing. The practice itself of fishing behind spawning salmon in Alaska has virtually no detractors that I am aware of.....

Brian

Ahhh, so the bows and bulls are holding in the same exact water as the schools of sockeyes? I always assumed when I read articles about fishing for these opportunistic bows and bulls that hang out below the schools of spawners that they actually meant downstream a bit of the school, not below individual fish among the school. Is this incorrect? If so, then do most of the bows and bulls follow the schools and therefore require an angler to cast into these schools of spawners in order to get into any fish at all? I ask because I'm wondering if this might be a situation where an angler can just avoid targeting the bows and bulls that follow the spawners and still catch fish in other parts of the river to avoid accidentally catching spawners.

Also, How can there be too many returning sockeye? And, what problems are caused by this?

DocEsox

09-06-2007, 06:24 AM

Yes...the bows and dollies (no bull trout up here) do hold very tight to the spawning reds and if you get very far away you catch virtually nothing. Before the salmon move up the streams the fishing is pretty thin....the whole system revolves around the salmon spawning. If you look at the pictures of spawning reds in a usual day on Quartz I might hook 3-5 reds in a day of fishing....these are virtually all males too. When they are actually on the redds the males get very aggressive....they are constantly chasing the dollies and bows around them. If you look near the back of the dolly from Quartz you will see to rips in its flesh....marks given it from an irate male sockeye. Some of the bows, especially, can get pretty slashed up from the salmon. One does not throw into a big school of spawning reds as you will snag them but you have to have good accuracy to skirt the salmon as the dollies will not move far from being directly behind the salmon. The other day I didn't have one snag of a red....they will actually chase the egg when on a redd....you don't see that with the hens.

As far as too many sockeye....the runs, although all native fish, are managed for commercial and sportfishing take. Sockeye are always dependent on a a nearby lake system for their survival. After hatching the frye head into the lake system where they feed for almost 2 years before smolting and heading out to sea. The lake systems have a very finite amount of food available....if there are two many frye in a given year they starve themselves in the lake system and you have a very poor return when they mature. All the reds moving through the Kenai River system are counted by sonar on the river.....there are certain minimal limits set and when those are met limits are increased. Occassionally, like last year and this year, way more reds came in late then expected. It's a complicated process and I don't believe the people in charge are near as good at predicting it as they think they are...too much politics involved. If runs are low fishing is cut off. Just yesterday coho were relegated to catch and release up the Mat-Su valley rivers due to poor return numbers.

Many people up here do not handle salmon very well and it infuriates me. It is just respect of your resource. This whole question is very entertaining when you include native ALaskans and they think catching, then releasing your fish is the most disrespectful thing you can do to them.

Some may abuse salmon up here.....personally I do everything not to...heck who wants to foul hook one of those beasts when their spawning??

Brian

bigtj

09-06-2007, 11:13 AM

Guys,

I have 8 years experience guiding/fishing in AK so I feel qualified shedding some light on the targeting/spawning thing. It is definitely unethical to sight fish to spawning salmon. Most guys don't do this, though, and they fish between/behind the salmon and try to sight fish the dollies and raibows. However, no matter how hard you try to avoid hooking spawning salmon, it's pretty tough to avoid hooking at least a few spawners, now and again, due to their numbers, especially while fishing eggs or beads. It's a natural reflex for salmon to pick them up. Is this unethical? I'm not sure I have the answer, but I do know that if you fish amonst salmon with eggs or beads, sooner or latter you're going to hook a salmon, either fairly or foul hooked.

The only thing I prefer not to see is a salmon dragged up on the gravel bar for a picture and/or release. Not the end of the world, but definitely a lot of stress the salmon don't need at this stage of the game. In that situation I believe the best thing to do is just break the fish off as quickly as possible after hooking it, leaving the hook in the fish's mouth, where it won't interfere with further spawning. Flies are cheap and it won't kill you to leave a few flies behind.

If someone feels l the need to play the fish, it should be kept in the water and get it released ASAP. In a small stream or side-channel, like that in the pictures, this is very much more difficult said than done; a thrashing sockeye will often distrupt all the surrounding spawning, adding stress to not only the fish being fought but the other surrounding fish as well. Ultimately the outcome of this isn't dire by any stretch, it's just something to keep in mind.

When fishing in AK around sockeyes it's important to fish with a heavier rod, like a stout 6 or 7, so if you do hook a sockeye and decide to play it, you can get it back to spawning quickly. You can also break a hook off much easier with a heavy righ. I still think the best approach is to just point the rod and pop the line and get back to fishing. Heck 50% of the time you get the hook back, anyway.

Another approach to fishing up there that won't hook as nearly as many salmon is to avoid the spawners and fish flesh or mice around structure and target rainbows and bigger dollies. Dollies look very cool but they really don't hold a candle to wild rainbows for fight, jumping, etc. After the Kings are done spawning I generally don't fish egg patterns anymore as I really prefer catching rainbows with flesh, and rainbows are much more selective towards flesh than dollies. This approach generally works best after the Kings die off, it generally isn't as effective when there isn't any flesh in the system.

As an alternative, you can swing/skate glo-bugs on the surface, where dollies will chase them. It is a really fun way to catch dollies, it's deadly effective, and you hardly ever hook salmon this way.

Regardless of how you fish it is important to be cognizant of the redds and to stay out of them while wading. Smashing up the redds while wading will cause more harm than fighting a few fish while accidentally hooking them.

I hope this info is helpful.

-John

dtp916

09-06-2007, 12:44 PM

Darian,

I"m sorry my manners aren't up to your par :lol: As you said, think about all the times we have had long discussions about targeting any spawning fish.

BigBull,

I thought Doc was targeting bows and dollies which were holding below the Sockeyes. he did also mention that the Sockeyes gave a pretty weak fight so I was lead to believe that he wasn't targeting them.

Both - don't you think if Doc was fishing for Sockeyes he'd have 1) more pictures of Sockeyes, 2) Chrome bright fish since he lives in a fish mecca and 3) prorbably wouldn't post pics of spawning socks caught on a relatively conservative fly fishing message board? Not to mention the title would be Sockeyes instead of Dollies and he'd post it under the Steelhead/Salmon section?

Honestly I was just kidding around when I wrote a short answer. I guess my "abrupt/ trite" answers are hard for some to digest.

Personally, I don't condone fishing for spawning salmon. Personally I hardly even fish for salmon. But I have hooked spawners when fishing for trout behind the redds. I've also caught tons of kokanee when trying to tie into browns and bows feeding on eggs.

Ethical? Like bigtj said, who knows, and more importantly, who am I to say what's ethical for other people to do.

DocEsox

09-06-2007, 12:54 PM

I definitely considered it unethical to target spawning fish....period. Inadvertent hooking as John says is unavoidable and I generally follow his sage advice and just straight line them and try to pop them off immediately. But occassionally if they don't fight much I will work them in quick and unhook them.....didn't realize this would get people's knickers in such a twist. BTW virtually all this fishing on the smaller streams, like Quartz Creek is sight fishing.... you can always spot the dollies sitting down in behind the salmon but they are pretty close at times. How come no one gets after the brownies for endlessly catching spawning salmon???? :twisted:

Brian

PaulC

09-07-2007, 06:58 AM

Quartz is a beautiful stretch of river along with the Russian.
I noticed the same thing with the dollies in close when I was out there a few years ago.
Great report. Hope to make it out there again sometime.
-Paul

BigBill

09-07-2007, 10:45 PM

Thanks for all the info guys. There is a lot of knowledge on this board!

roostersgt

09-08-2007, 09:42 AM

Awesome report and pics. I'm curious. I read in one of my magazines awhile back about Alaskan guides "pegging" a bead an inch or so above a a hook when fishing for 'bows and such. Were you guys using this "pegged bead" set-up? It looks like it from some of the pics, but I can't tell for certain. Did you try streamers or nymphs on that stream?

Cheers!

DocEsox

09-08-2007, 12:06 PM

Yes....I was using a pegged bead.....nearly everyone does up here. The regs stipulate it has to be pegged within 2 inches of the hook. I wll say since pegging beads I have never deep hooked a trout or char up here. That wasn't always the case when using glo bugs. This time of the year during salmon egg laying they will hit virtually nothing else.....I used some flesh flies with no success. I was fishing Quartz again yesterday (it was great) and activated and caught several dollies by intentionally using John's technique of skittering the bead....once in a while it will turn on some dormant fish. Also caught one nice rainbow about 22 inches. There were some beautiful dolls in spawning colors up to about 8 lbs but I could not entice them into hitting anything.....they spawn in middle to late October. There were two kids about 18 or 19 which were "lining" these big dollies....gave them my lecture but it didn't help. It was just blatant snagging and illegal....did take a picture of one of these snagged fish....they are beautiful, they are very easy to spot because of the snow white edging they develop their fins this time of year:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/IMG_0022.jpg

At least they didn't try to keep any of these fish....not while I watched them for nearly an hour.

Brian

Dave Neal

09-08-2007, 03:53 PM

This is a great discussion. I agree completely with what Bigtj said.

I just got back from Kodiak Island AK. (my wife's brother lives there and I was shown some awesome fishing!!) Anyway, what we did one day was target dollies by skating DRY FLIES! Just like skating/waking a steelhead dry fly. We used a really simple, basic "spun deer hair ball" on a #12 hook! It was so ridiculously simple I couldn't stop laughing every time I cast it out. This thing resembled nothing bug-like but floated well and it was durable. (why are the most effective flies always the most simple and basic :D )

Not only did dollies rise and whack it, but the BIG advatage was you wouldn't foul hook any of the salmon. After you hook a bunch of dollies and even rainbows on egg patterns with split shot the novelty kinda wears off (please don't think I am a snob by that last comment) Catching them on dry flies and a floating line was AWESOME.

One thing that was important...you had to have the right gradient, depth and speed of current. If the pool was to deep or fast they wouldn't bother. That was part of the allure...walking the stream to find the perfect lanes.

One last note, we did all this fishing upstream of "the road system" which is CLOSED to salmon fishing but legal to fish for bows and char. Due to the closure, we did not see a single person all day long...but we did see some big beautiful brown bears :eek:

If anyone wants to hear more pm me. I also wrote about my experience on my blog.

Alaska is freaking amazing!

BigBill

09-08-2007, 04:32 PM

There were two kids about 18 or 19 which were "lining" these big dollies....gave them my lecture but it didn't help. It was just blatant snagging and illegal....

I don't know how you controlled yourself. If I saw blatant illegal snagging it would be very difficult to avoid a physical altercation if an explanation and verbal warning did not stop their illegal activity. I would have at the very least taken a picture of the two perpetrators and probably followed them back to their car and taken pictures of their vehicle and license plate to turn into DFG.

DocEsox

09-08-2007, 06:45 PM

Bigbill....if I had the time I would have but my wife dropped me off fishing and went into Soldatna for business and we were meeting at a prearranged spot.....no cell coverage out there. I do have a picture of one of them.....physical altercation was out of the question as they were young military guys and one was packing. It does really steam me but unfortunately you see it way too often up here.

About skating the flies...it was fun but you definitely had to have the right current......Quartz Creek doesn't have to many runs that fit the bill but when it did I used it. Have to share my "primitive" throwback moment. Sat and talked with two flyfishermen in the late 60's during a snack break, they were doing very well. As we talked they told me you just couldn't catch this huge batch of dollies that was right where a dirt road at a campground came in......seen too many people and too many egg patterns. Of course, I had to take up the challenge. I waded slowly within about 5 or 6 feet of several dollies sitting behind several redds. There was a washed out sandy area immediately in front of me. Here's the "hopefully no other flyfishermen are watching me" part......I took my bead and just laid it on the bottom (about 18 to 24 inches deep) after skittering it from the shore. Sometimes I would have to wait 3 or 4 minutes but eventually I caught and released 4 of these dollies....it was really fun in a weird way.....too much like real bait fishing. The darn dollies, eventually could just not resist that egg just sitting there in the middle of the sand.

Brian

alaskanfish

09-11-2007, 02:48 PM

Brian, thanks for the great report (again). Also thanks for not spilling the beans. Here are a couple of additions:

I went back to the small creek a few days later, the water was up about 6" to a foot and off color. We fished the first hole with the intention that if we didn't touch a fish we would head back to the Kenai for some coho fishing.

Well, as luck would have it, we landed a nice 18" steelie, so the game was on, despite the 12" visibility in the water... sight fishing was out of the question.

The bear sign was much, much fresher as well... indeed, we shared the creek for about an hour with a curious young adult. While I was prepared for an encounter, the bear just enjoyed fishing along side us. It was awesome.

The further up stream we got from the first hole, the better the fishing got. Eventually, it was every cast. In all, we exercised about 200 dollies and steelies (and no sockeye!). It was an awesome day. I didn't get any photo's because, as Brian indicated, I was swimming in a not-intended-for-swimming area, along with my nice digital camera...needless to say, camera-turned-toast! :oops: But here an an image from a previous trip. This is Ken (from the Sac area) with an awesome dollie
http://www.alaskanfishguides.com/Images/gallery/Great%20Fish%20Ken.jpg

Now for more on the sockeye issue... to further qualify the fact that sockeye are not being targeted, we are fishing with size 4 barbless hooks on a 6-8 lb tippet. One quick head shake from a red and he is off. The ratio of incidental sockeye to dollie/bows is generally no less than 25:1. Not an issue. Besides, I believe that if the sockeye is either broke off, or quickly landed, absolutely no harm done.

alaskanfish

09-11-2007, 02:53 PM

By the way, I did use a flesh fly with success in this small stream, however there is only 3 nice holes that it could be fished effectively. I did not try a mouse, but certainly will. The Kenai Peninsula is not known for its topwater action because most rivers, streams and creeks are glacial, thus very low visibility. This little jewel, however, after the rain settles is crystal clear.... a mouse just might work...