Greetings From Juneau, Alaska ...!

[flyfisherman]

Can't believe I've been here almost a week! Been trying to post some photos but they simply will not post. Maybe I'll find some "skilled' computer fan around that will be able to help.

Fishing was the primary purpose of the visit and catch fish we have! Out in the boat jhust north of Juneau, called the Lynn Canal ... snow capped mountains all around, even the Herbert Glacier in full view. While fishing (king and silver salmon), you'll see sea lions and so far four whales came by blowing air when they surface twenty/thirty feet into the air. Just incredible sights!

We hiked back into "woods" to a remot lake and caught cutthroat trout like there was no tomorrow. Saw four bears ... a mama bear and two cubs and what we figure was the papa bear a distance off. Bear caution around here is a way of life!

Did a little more stream fishing near the mouth of the streams and so far have caught so many pink salmon on the fly rod that Ive lost count. Keeping the select ones to ship back home (which will cost a fortune!). But the only description I can think of to tell what this country looks like is to say it is of unspeakable beauty.

The down side of all of this is how am I ever going to be O.K. back home (on the "farm" LOL) after experiencing all of this!  If I were a young man, I know where I'd be planning on moving to!



Fly


p.s. the temps have been around 70 to 75 for the day and the low 50's, upper 40's for the night.

[AustinBoston]

We hiked back into "woods" to a remot lake and caught cutthroat trout like there was no tomorrow. Saw four bears ... a mama bear and two cubs and what we figure was the papa bear a distance off. Bear caution around here is a way of life!

Glad you're having a good time.

Bears just love fish.  They'd love to have you catch fish for them...  :yikes:

Austin

[CajunCamper]

I'm glad your having a great time and catching so many fish. Alaska is one of my dream trips. I have to make it happen.
Can't wait to see some photos.

CajunCamper

[wavery]

I love visiting Alaska. I had a brother-in-law that lived in Homer. Did some Halibut fishing there. It was unreal.

We rented a motorhome in '82. We spent 4 weeks traveling around Alaska. We won't talk about the mosquitoes :yikes: .

I tried some fresh water fishing but I'm not very good at it. The streams are full of the biggest trout that I've ever seen. They seemed to gather together and make fun of my bait :p .

Have fun...it's an experience of a lifetime. We'll look forward to seeing the pics. :sombraro:

[austinado16]

Sounds like a fantastic trip!

I grew up in the Anchorage, Alaska from '64 to '74.  Did some great freshwater fishing at Big Lake about 40mi north where we had a weekend (log) cabin, and a lot of ocean fishing out of Homer and Seward.

[wavery]

Sounds like a fantastic trip!

I grew up in the Anchorage, Alaska from '64 to '74.  Did some great freshwater fishing at Big Lake about 40mi north where we had a weekend (log) cabin, and a lot of ocean fishing out of Homer and Seward.

I see that you've done Halibut fishing up there too........They are having a big Halibut run here in SoCal this year. My friends are coming back and talking about 30# Halibut :rolleyes: . They get upset when I chuckle :p .

In Homer, they throw 30#ers back. Halibut aren't much fun to catch (kinda like bringing up an old tire) but the big (barn door) Halibut are some of the best fish I've ever eaten.

I sure envy flyfisherman . Fresh water fish hate me .

[flyfisherman]

Thanks all ...

A surpising amount of popup campers I see in the Tungas Nat'l Forest ... some in campgrounds, some just tucked away in a little nitch. All this talk of bears and popups in the "lower 48" kinda makes it a joke around here!  Somehow, someway, the bears and the popups get along just fine. It's like we've discussed so many times before ... beware of what you do with your garbage, or look for "visitors".  Black bears outnumber the grizz by about 5 to 1, however, folks around here consider the black just as dangerous as the brown/grizz. Oh, and the grizz, like what's already been said ... like their salmon fishing holes and just as soon you not bother them ... that's the bear or their fishing holes! The locals have a "chant" as they "stroll" though the woods to some backcountry location, they call out constantly ... "hey bear!"  Bear bells are not popular here, for whatever reson. For sure, they, the bears, don't like surprises! And just about anywhere you go along the wooded trail, there will be piles of bear scat ... personally, I look for any steam still rising off the piles!


Fly

[AustinBoston]

The streams are full of the biggest trout that I've ever seen. They seemed to gather together and make fun of my bait :p .

I don't fish, but I suspect that's your problem...trout should be taken with flies.  Anything less isn't trout fishing  

Austin

[wavery]

I don't fish, but I suspect that's your problem...trout should be taken with flies.  Anything less isn't trout fishing  

Austin

You're probably right but my idea of fishing was (for many years) dragging a lure attached to 300# test line, across hundreds of miles of ocean at about 7kts until I picked up a Tuna or Mahi-Mahi or some other gigantic beast that almost killed me pulling it in.

I can imagine that standing in a stream, delicately casting a fly across the water is an incredible experience for some. For others (like me) it could be quite trying on your nerves. I think that fly-fishing is more of an art form. You have to have the mind set that enjoys "The chase" from a different prospective than I am able to achieve.

A worm dangling in the water from the bottom of a bobber I can deal with (barely). Especially if I have a good book or my best friend (my wife) at my side to while away the day as I catch "Nothing :p ".

Fishing to "Fly" is what golf is to Tiger Woods. Fishing to me is what killing aliens is to Arnold Swarzenager   .

[austinado16]

We did a ton of trolling around the lake catching Rainbow Trout and Dolly Vardon(sp?).  My did was the consumate outdoorsman and made his own rowe, and even tied some flies.  He fished the rivers, lakes, ocean, whatever, whenever.  We even had an ice house on the lake one year.  He used a chainsaw to cut a 2x5 foot section out of the 3' deep ice and it was really fun to sit and watch the fish and jig for them with corn and other bait.

I can remember guys skinning Halibut in Homer by tying the heads off to the hitches on their trucks and then using Vise-Grips to grab the "hide" and strip it off.  Also, lots of stories of the big several hundred pounders destroying boats if they weren't shot several times in the head prior to being loaded aboard!  Great fun!

For a while I held the (unofficial) record for the largest ocean going King caught out of Reserection Bay in Seward.  It weighed in at 57lbs when we got in and was 60" long.  That was summer of 1978.  That fish is currently mounted on my wall, as a real mount, not a fiberglass copy.

They of course run much large once they get to the rivers and get all spawning crazy.  But to catch a King this large in the open ocean is pretty lucky.  They are so smart that they swim past the herring, smak it with their tail to stun it, and then circle back to eat it.  So, you get a big "wack" feeling in the pole almost like a strike, but instead of setting the hook,  you grab a handful of line and start throwing it out to make the herring tumble........then you wait for the second strike and it's game on!

[flyfisherman]

King salmon is whateveryone here likes best and you have to go deep for them (we fished around 100'), however, the silvers were the most common to catch out in the boat and that's been our main stay.

Speaking of the dolly varden, that's what we went after (wednesday morning), using fly rods. The dollies are now following the pink salmon upstream. The dolly varden is really a char, more of the trout family. Anyway, we drove along the road until we crossed a bridge of the stream we were going to fish and then pulled over to a parking site just past the bridge. I walked back to the bridge to look at the stream below to see what the fish were doing (maybe thirty feet below) and while walking along I glanced over to my left as I approached the bridge and meandering in the same direction, headeding for the stream, was the biggest bear I've ever encountered in the wild, anywhere, anytime! I mean this was a BIG bear!

Now I'm the one walking along in the woods yelling "Hey Bear!" the loudest! (LOL)



Fly

[austinado16]

...Now I'm the one walking along in the woods yelling "Hey Bear!" the loudest! (LOL)...Fly

And, you made a special trip back to the truck to change your shorts!!!!

[flyfisherman]

I see that you've done Halibut fishing up there too........They are having a big Halibut run here in SoCal this year. My friends are coming back and talking about 30# Halibut :rolleyes: . They get upset when I chuckle :p .

In Homer, they throw 30#ers back. Halibut aren't much fun to catch (kinda like bringing up an old tire) but the big (barn door) Halibut are some of the best fish I've ever eaten.
( .

For whatever it's worth ...

In the main airport passenger terminal at Anchorage they have mounted and displayed (hung on the wall), the world's record largest caught (that got measured and weighed at least) Halibut ... caught 6/11/96, 9' 5" long and weighed 459 lbs!

One sure could eat off that fish for a long time!



Fly

[austinado16]

For whatever it's worth ...the world's record largest caught (that got measured and weighed at least) Halibut ... caught 6/11/96, 9' 5" long and weighed 459 lbs!Fly

I don't even know how they got that fish off the bottom, let alone up and into a boat!  Can you imagine the ton(s) of force it was capable of producing?  Someone uloaded a 44mag into that thing before they brought it aboard!

[flyfisherman]

I don't even know how they got that fish off the bottom, let alone up and into a boat!  Can you imagine the ton(s) of force it was capable of producing?  Someone uloaded a 44mag into that thing before they brought it aboard!

They also have mounted there some very big salmon ... after my experience with what I caught (plus the one's that got away!),  I'm also wondering how they got them into a boat or whatever! On some stream fishing, using fly rod (a heavy weight flyrod!), and catching pink salmon and the dolly varden, it would take maybe twenty minutes to land them (if you did!), because of their size and ferociousness!

That part of the country is so vast and with so many resources it is just overwhelming to the thinking. At the mouth of two rivers near Juneau, the water was just boiling with salmon all trying to get upstream. It looked like you would be able to walk across the river's surface on the salmon!

Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention ... while out in the boat, fishing for the silver and king salmon, two humpback whales surfaced maybe 50 feet from the boat (like maybe three times the size of our boat!) and blew air and mist maybe 30 feet up into the air, then giving us a  profile of their enormous tails! Between the whales, the bears near the rivers and streams, and then having a bald headed eagle come out of nowhere and swoop down just a short distance upstream from where I was fishing and snatch a live salmon right out of the water!  I simply do not know of anywhere a person can experience such things ... just blows the mind!



Fly