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

Flymstr;