Sorry about the font, my program keeps giving script errors. Well the sockeye will be here soon, but there are a bunch of Steelhead still in the river. On the 14th of June, commercial nets go into the river. Cross your fingers that the Steelhead are gone by then. There are a small percentage of Steelhead that get caught in the nets each season, but the percent is small enough, that there is virtually no impact on the run itself. I can smell the Salmon in the air. They are close, but I still can’t get out of Steelhead mode. Steelhead are the best fresh water fish there is, and I wish they would run all year long. This will be the last Steelhead post of the season, or until I get back to Oregon for the winter. I hope the Salmon season goes well, and I will continue to post nearly every day throughout the entire year. I don’t take as many pictures during Salmon season normally, as I do with the Steelhead, so if I am slacking on pics then let me know. I will also be tracking down the Yakutat Lodge Hooker fleet of boats, to get pics of the butts, cod, and kings. Hopefully during this time I can give some good info and how to catch Steelhead, and some of the methods I have used for the last 20 years. Here are some pics from the last of the Steelhead with my photographer.

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Here is a Steelhead I released and was able to follow with the camera for a bit, while he swam away.

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Sometimes in life you find the perfect fishing partner. The one who you can fish with and never have any problems. They don't  cast over your line, they don't need you to show them the fish, and most important, they are willing to help you land every fish you hook. I have gone through many fishing partners, but they have all gone away, after I wouldn't talk to them on the river, or help them. When I am at home in Oregon, I don't want to do anything but fish. I have now found the perfect fishing partner, and she is great. Never complains about the length of the walk, never gets to cold, and most important, she never asks any questions, and she needs no help. I am talking about my best friend, my dog Indy. Four years ago I made the most important purchase of my life. I received Indy on the fourth of July, so her full registered name is Independence day, but she goes by Indy. She is a pure bred Blue Heeler, and she is the smartest dog I have ever known. She helps with every fish I land. If I go more than fifteen minutes without hooking up, she will start to bark at me until I hook up again, then she is ok for another fifteen minutes. She is patient, and has more stamina than any other fisherman I have ever been with. Her birthday was on May 20th, so this is a tribute to all the fun she has given me over the years. She can be seen on the cover of Fish Alaska Magazine, January issue 2008. She is also in the Feb. issue, under fishing for compliments with my photographer (Brian Woobank). She is a wonderful dog, and I wouldn't fish with out her by my side. To all that know her, you know she is the best. She has been a faithfull companion, and has also became well known at the Yakutat Lodge, where she had her own chair in the corner of the bar, before the rules changed last year, and now she just rely's on visits from clients who know her well. So to all those who have a best friend of the canine breed, I say to you, don't forget to spend time with your dog, and always let them know they are loved for what they do.

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                 Today my photographer (Brian Woobank), came back to town. I spent the morning out King Salmon fishing, with one of the Yakutat Lodges 3 Hooker captains. We did very well, very quickly. It was only one and a half hours before we had four Kings on the boat. When I got back, I fillet the fish and headed off with Brian to fish for Steelhead and Rainbows at the head of the river. We had a great time. We flew in on the float plane, and walked down river. We got some nice Rainbows, Dolly Varden, and of course Steelhead. I will have more to write about tomorrow I am sure, but here are some pics from today.

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     I took Fred Blau out fishing again yesterday. The fishing was great, but the catching was not so hot. We fished hard for only one fish. I don't have the answer for why the bite was off, except I know I had one boat in front of me all day pulling plugs. When you pull plugs in front of someone, by the time any other boats come to fish where the plugs have been used, you might as well just drift on home. The fish will be spooked, and unwilling to bite after they have had plugs run in front of them. Anyway enough of that crap. I would like to say thank to all the clients of Yakutat Lodge that took their time to fish with me this year, and for reading my ramblings about fishing. I would very much appreciate some more input. I think that when you comment it sends on E-mail to my gmail. I have responded to many of them, but then never heard back again. Tell me if you have made a comment, and I have not responded, it's only because the E-mail has not worked. I have responded to every comment so far. I would very much like your input, and please just let me know your out there!!!.  Thanks again to all those patient clients that put up with the slow catching this year. Without any more wasted time, here are the pics of the fish Fred caught, and one that I tangled with on the trip that day. By the way, the new reel in the pics is a Pflueger Presidential, wide large arbor. I have always had the Orvis Battenkill V in my personal pics. After about 1,200 fish, the drag system just doesn't work any longer. I have always used a Pflueger fly rod and reel. If you look at some of my earlier pics you will see that I used a Pflueger medallist. Three years ago a client sent me an Orvis Battenkill V large arbor. I loved it until the drag went out this year. I thought I would go back to Pflueger since I had such good luck with it in the past, and that the rods have always been perfect. I will let you know as time goes by if the Pflueger Presidential is as good as the Medallist was.  There is also a pic of my Fiance' with a nice Cutthroat Trout she caught this evening. Also some pics of other cuts we caught this week.

Good luck out there.

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Well the rain has caused havoc in the river again. The water is high, and the fish are spread out all over the river. When the water is a bit lower, then you can target the fish in the runs, and the deeper holes. With the water up higher, the fish spread out, and they are harder to target. The bite is better, but it is harder to get in front of them, because they are more singled out, and not in big groups. I think this is just a slow season. Some have come and done very well, but for the most part the fishing has been slower this year. I don't know if it a lack of fish, water height and temp., or maybe I am losing it. I don't know what to say about it, but it has been a rough Steelhead season for me. We had 6 bites, 4 good hookups, and 2 to the boat. I was with a Father and Son team, (Clients of the Yakutat Lodge). Mike (The Son) is on his first visit to the Situk, and he is after his first Steelhead of his life. His Dad has been coming here for 10 years, and knows how to fish. Well he hooked up right away, and landed a nice fish. He then handed me his rod so that he could take a break and get rid of some coffee he had rented an hour before. I took a cast and hooked up with a nice fish. I handed the rod off to Mike, and he landed this big female. It looked like the day was off to a good start. They then missed 2 more take downs. After this first hole, we struggled all the way down the river. With only a few more hookups, and none to the boat, the day ended with a slow bite. Here are the pics, and an underwater release to come later.

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        As all of those who read this on a regular basis know, I have had a rough go of it for about the last three weeks. My clients of the Yakutat Lodge have been able to hook up with fish, but have been unable to land a large percentage of them. Well today looked like it was going to be the same old thing all over again. Fist off, we go on down past the half way point on the river. I have a spot in mind, but as we round the corner I can see something new in the river. In the last two days we have had some strong winds and hard rains. Well last night the wind decided to drop a couple of Spruce trees across one of my more commonly fished holes. Not having a chainsaw onboard, we are forced to drag the boat over the gravel bar, and around the tip of the tree. After accomplishing this task, we started fishing directly behind the downed trees. The hook up came quickly. The fight was as big as the fish. After a good five minutes, the fish had gone down river about 30 yards, and was up near the bank. I headed down with the net. Just as I was about to net the fish, it turned around a limb and popped off. I thought "Here we go again". A little bit later, as seen in the video, we hit and lost another nice fish. The bite slowed to a crawl for the next few hours. In the last hour of the day, we found a good group of fresh fish that were willing to make our day. We hooked four and landed three in this last spot. With the ones we had landed along the way, it gave us a grand total of, 10 hooked and 5 to the boat. 50% is not to bad for the weeks I have had recently. Here are the pics from today.

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Fishing is not always about catching fish!!. The last couple of days I have had some newbies to the Yakutat Lodge. The first day was all floating fly line and yarn flies. I brought along a spinning rod, which one of the guys got two fish on a Blue Fox Spinner. There was only one fish brought in on the fly rod. By the end of the day I has convinced them that the next day we should use the fly rods with monofilament line on the reels. They liked the idea of being able to cast with ease, and also to be able to feel the drift allot better without a bow in the line. When using fly line, if you don't know exactly how to mend properly, you will always have a bow in the line created by the current. To avoid this, you have to mend the fly line above the fly constantly, or the fly line that is in the current will create a bow in the line, and just drag your fly through the water and it takes away from the natural drift you need. Although they could cast just fine, the mending was not there, so there presentation was off just a bit the whole day. Today with the mono on the line, the presentation was much better, and the drift was perfect. Today the hook up ratio was great, but the landing ratio was not. Yesterday they were 3 for 3. Today they were 0 for 13. Big change from one day to the next,   That's fishing!. Water temp has come up finally, and the bite is picking up now. It rained all day today, and the water came up about 6 inches last night. This has caused the fish to become more active, and they have come out from under the alder bushes, making them allot more accessible to fisherman. Here are some pics from yesterday, also there are a couple of pics from a couple of guys who caught a fish upstream from us. The big one is 41" long and weighed about 23 pounds.

The big one

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    Well I don’t know what to say, but the fishing is so slow. I don’t know what is up with the fish this year. Some fish came in, and then water went up, and so did the fish. A week later more came in, the water went up and so did the fish. I have never seen the fishing this slow, this time of year, in this river. I have been pulling my hair out waiting for something to happen, but nothing is happening. I don’t know what to say, except if it doesn’t pick up soon, I think all the guides here are going to go crazy. I have been with some Austrian’s the last couple of days. I have become friends with George Marberger over the last couple of years, and he brought some of his friends here to fish this week, and it has been very slow. There is one pic of a 40″ fish we got today. (Pic #3), so it was not a total bust. The Yakutat Lodge has the best of the best for guides, but we are only averaging around 3 fish per boat each day.  I also had the pleasure of fishing with Frank Amato, (The owner of Salmon, Trout, Steelhead Magazine.), but even with a very good fisherman, as the week before with Pudge and Sandy, the fishing was good, but the catching was real bad. We got just one fish that day, and Frank never even touched one. That’s fishing I guess. So with that said, I haven’t written anything lately, because nothing has happened. Here are some pic’s of some fish from the last 4 or 5 days. The pic’s at the end are fish I have caught this week on the tide in the evening. If your reading this Woobank, I think when you get here the fish will really be showing up. Looking forward to it bud.

They will show soon, They have to!!!

Flymstr;

   Finally the first big push on the lower end in about two weeks. The females are coming in to the system by the truck loads. It was a great night to be on the lower end of the river. Big pods of fish were moving in for the last two hours of the evening, and they were very aggressive. I walked up to the weir tonight, and was going to fish my way out. I hooked up in the first five minutes, but it came unbuttoned. Then I did the worst thing you can do, I got hung up, and tried to use the tip of my rod to get it undone, and snapped my tip off. After that I said “That’s it I am going home”. I started to walk down the trail, when I saw someone in a boat playing a fish. I was going to continue on, but my buddy Matt who was with me said, “Lets take a look and see what’s there”. So after waiting for the boat to move on, we went on down to take a look. When I looked out in the run I saw a good group of fish. So I promptly cut off the remainder of the rod above the second eye, and I was ready to fish again. In the next hour and a half I hooked up with 8 fish, and put two on the bank. I broke three off, because my drag on my fly rod in worn out, and I half to palm all my fish right now. Anyway here the pics from tonight.

I think the fishing is only going to pick up from here on out!!

Flymstr;