FISHEYE
07-18-2008, 09:43 PM
I am not sure if this is the correct place to post but here goes:
Four of us (me, Mike Scott, Tom Ross and Lee Haskin) fished 5 full days and an evening on the Innoko and Bonasila Rivers and numerous lakes in the Innoko drainage, near Holy Cross, Alaska starting July 10. Holy is on the Yukon River and is a small, remote village. We fished with Bruce and Connie Werba and son Bruce Jr. dba Alaska Pike Safaris. Their operation is located on Reindeer Lake on the Innoko, and includes main lodge building, 2 bunkhouses, hot shower building, and meat shed. Power is from solar and wind. These folks are some of the nicest and most gracious I have ever met. They consistently went out of their way to make our trip fantastic. Bruce kept apologizing for the poor fishing but we thought it wonderful. The water was about 10 degrees colder than normal and according to Bruce made for tough fishing. Connie kept us in great food and plenty of it. Since the fishing was better in the afternoon, we started late and fished until 9:30 and had dinner at midnight- only in Alaska.
That being said, we caught between 10 and 30 large northern pike per day per angler. We generally did not catch many small ones because if we caught a few, Bruce moved. He said the small fish generally were not where the big fish were since they got eaten which we can attest to since we saw numerous small pike and pink salmon tails in the throats of the bruisers. We caught a large number of fish in the 10 to 12 pound range, many 14 to 18, and maybe a dozen between 20 and 24 pounds. Lee had the biggest at 24 pounds (I think 54 inches). Most of the pike were caught on Lee's gurgler. The hits were explosive and had us laughing like school girls. The gurglers are amazing. Mike fished one for 3 days. They just hold up really well. I caught a few on bunny flash flies which lasted maybe 3 fish. I stopped using them because the topwater strike is so much fun. I am sure if we fished subsurface we would have caught many, many more fish. I did fish spoons that Bruce had when others were up casting or when my arm was tired. By the last day when we all fished togther, they would not let me cast the spoon into the weeds because it was a guaranteed hookup and they wanted to save the fish for the gurgler. We used 8, 9 and 10 weight rods, 20 pound mono twisted leaders and 30 pound wire. Those big boys shredded the wire after a few fish.
We also got into sheefish. Lee and I fished a nice school on day one and caught them on his slideball or on a smolt fly I tie. Mike and I each had 20 pound plus sheefish in a lake caught on gurglers. On day 4, Tom was gracious enough to take time from pike fishing for about 30 minutes so I could catch 8 sheefish in the 12-15 pound range.
We saw an incredible number of moose (well over 100), black bears (10 in one day), one grizzly, fox, beaver, ducks etc... This is some of the wettest, most lush wetlands I have ever seen. The Innoko is maybe the most productive pike habitat in Alaska and the Alaska record of ~39 pounds came from here. The bugs were not as bad as I expected. They were almost non-existant in the wind and only really bad if we got near the grass.
I can hardly wait to return.
Typical pike water on the Innoko
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1589.jpg
Sheefish- maybe 20#
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1547.jpg
Tom with 22# pike http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1539.jpg
One of the locals
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1494.jpg
Another 20 # fish
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1546.jpg
22# pike
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1483.jpg
Another sheefish
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1477.jpg
Four of us (me, Mike Scott, Tom Ross and Lee Haskin) fished 5 full days and an evening on the Innoko and Bonasila Rivers and numerous lakes in the Innoko drainage, near Holy Cross, Alaska starting July 10. Holy is on the Yukon River and is a small, remote village. We fished with Bruce and Connie Werba and son Bruce Jr. dba Alaska Pike Safaris. Their operation is located on Reindeer Lake on the Innoko, and includes main lodge building, 2 bunkhouses, hot shower building, and meat shed. Power is from solar and wind. These folks are some of the nicest and most gracious I have ever met. They consistently went out of their way to make our trip fantastic. Bruce kept apologizing for the poor fishing but we thought it wonderful. The water was about 10 degrees colder than normal and according to Bruce made for tough fishing. Connie kept us in great food and plenty of it. Since the fishing was better in the afternoon, we started late and fished until 9:30 and had dinner at midnight- only in Alaska.
That being said, we caught between 10 and 30 large northern pike per day per angler. We generally did not catch many small ones because if we caught a few, Bruce moved. He said the small fish generally were not where the big fish were since they got eaten which we can attest to since we saw numerous small pike and pink salmon tails in the throats of the bruisers. We caught a large number of fish in the 10 to 12 pound range, many 14 to 18, and maybe a dozen between 20 and 24 pounds. Lee had the biggest at 24 pounds (I think 54 inches). Most of the pike were caught on Lee's gurgler. The hits were explosive and had us laughing like school girls. The gurglers are amazing. Mike fished one for 3 days. They just hold up really well. I caught a few on bunny flash flies which lasted maybe 3 fish. I stopped using them because the topwater strike is so much fun. I am sure if we fished subsurface we would have caught many, many more fish. I did fish spoons that Bruce had when others were up casting or when my arm was tired. By the last day when we all fished togther, they would not let me cast the spoon into the weeds because it was a guaranteed hookup and they wanted to save the fish for the gurgler. We used 8, 9 and 10 weight rods, 20 pound mono twisted leaders and 30 pound wire. Those big boys shredded the wire after a few fish.
We also got into sheefish. Lee and I fished a nice school on day one and caught them on his slideball or on a smolt fly I tie. Mike and I each had 20 pound plus sheefish in a lake caught on gurglers. On day 4, Tom was gracious enough to take time from pike fishing for about 30 minutes so I could catch 8 sheefish in the 12-15 pound range.
We saw an incredible number of moose (well over 100), black bears (10 in one day), one grizzly, fox, beaver, ducks etc... This is some of the wettest, most lush wetlands I have ever seen. The Innoko is maybe the most productive pike habitat in Alaska and the Alaska record of ~39 pounds came from here. The bugs were not as bad as I expected. They were almost non-existant in the wind and only really bad if we got near the grass.
I can hardly wait to return.
Typical pike water on the Innoko
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1589.jpg
Sheefish- maybe 20#
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1547.jpg
Tom with 22# pike http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1539.jpg
One of the locals
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1494.jpg
Another 20 # fish
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1546.jpg
22# pike
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1483.jpg
Another sheefish
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s240/BN2FSH/IMG_1477.jpg