REPORT: For those of you interested in salmon sharks take a look at this link: SALMON SHARK IN HOMER. It's an article about a charter boat that caught a salmon shark last Sunday (Jan. 31st).

If you look at my fishing report from that day you'll note that I thought I'd hooked into a salmon shark at one point. I was fishing Sunday within sight of the boat that caught the shark in the article, so I wonder if that's what I hooked into. I've gotta get me some salmon shark gear on board.

REPORT: Well, some days ya got it and some days ya don't.

We headed out to Seldovia Point today to see if we could repeat on those halibut we picked up last week, and to chase kings, but they both seem to have forgotten to show up---at least in any size.

We started out almost immediately with a "double" that we thought might be a king double. I was running the camera on one downrigger and saw a small king swim up and grab the herring. And as we ran back to take care of it the other rod started bouncing. But it turned out the king was just barely pushing a couple of pounds at the most, and the "double" on the other rod turned out to be a halibut not much larger than a ping pong paddle. We released both.

Over the next 5 hours or so we worked from Seldovia Pt. up past Fourth of July and back and couldn't find anything more than 4 more halibut not worth keeping and a BIG school of black bass that we had to move out into 90 feet of water to get away from. And if it's any consolation there were a few charters in the area we could hear chatting back and forth on the VHF and they didn't seem to be doing any better.

We eventually moved in to the outside of Yukon and then across to Anisom, but struck out there, too, and then headed in.

Note to "aquaholic"--- You'll note that in one of my previous reports I mentioned the 59 40 line. As you'll see in the regs map if you're south of that latitude (a dotted line on the map) in K-Bay and Cook Inlet there's a seasonal limit of 5 kings from April 1 to Sept. 30 and north of it there's an annual limit of 5, and also you're only allowed one king per day to the north of the line, but two on the south side. I am VERY careful about watching that line on my GPS and keeping to the south side. Like everyone should, I study the regs very carefully for the fishery I'm participating in. Mistakes are easy to make with some of the most complicated fishing regs of any state in the Union.

REPORT: Bored-

I was the one that submitted the picture and report. Took about an hour and a half to get my limit of clams. Part of that was spent warming my hands up every once in a while!! We were out of Ninilchik, but Clam Gulch is good also. This time of year it is all about where you can get to the beach. If you have never done it there really isn't too much to it, although of course like most things the more you do it the better you get at it. As KK said, probably best to "Youtube" a video. Also, KK has a good video on AOJ about how to clean them.

For what it is worth without pictures, here is my technique. I use a clam shovel, dig a hole straight down 2 inches to the side of the clam hole about 18 inch deep or so (three or four shovels-full), then reach into the hole and use my hand to dig sideways to where (hopefully) the clam is. This technique is a little more work than some, but I very seldom break them this way. Also, my partner dug his limit using a clam gun, so they also work just fine.
Good Luck!!
Ron

P.S. KK- don't know if they saw their shadow or not, but a bunch of them didn't go back into their holes but "jumped" into my bucket instead!

REPORT: What is the limit on kings in the Kachemak Bay?

Coho Dave seems to catch way more than 5 kings a year. I thought that was the limit for every one, 5 kings per person a year. Right?

[AOJ: Refer to Page 15 in the regs booklet for the details on king salmon limits in the Cook Inlet saltwaters and also the map on Page 12 with further details and description of how many kings an angler can catch throughout the year. It depends on where you are at and what time of year.]

REPORT: I know there are some decent fish in Eklutna. Does anyone know if it is accessible for ice fishing?? And if so where to fish the lake. Fish and Game doesn't show the depths on their website. Thanks

[AOJ: Yes, you can ice fish in Eklutna Lake. It falls under the regulations for the Anchorage Bowl drainages -- See Page 36 in regs booklet for the map. The Bag and Possession limits are listed on Page 37. Note that there are size restrictions for rainbows and Dolly Varden.]

REPORT: Looking to come down and do some clam diggin' now that I see people are succesful at it. Interested in knowing how long it took to get a pile of clams like that and if there is any special technique used to get them...

njdt25@hotmail.com

[AOJ: Try Youtube. They have clam digging videos to watch taken down in Clam Gulch.]

REPORT: Didn't see any groundhogs or marmots but Groundhog Day brought plenty of clams out. Nice weather; I've had colder digging in May!! Just like summer only not as crowded!


[AOJ: Aw Com'on, you didn't say whether they saw their shadows or not and if we have six more weeks of winter!!]

REPORT: I've got so much bait put away this past spring that I figured I better get out on the hardwater and start feeding some fish. It was a toss up between Stormy Lake pike and Hidden Lake lake trout and kokanee. Today was the first day of the Soldotna Trustworthy Hardware Ice Fishing Derby. Weather couldn't have been more perfect in the upper 20's and no wind. Fishing was slow with only 3 flags and two hook ups for 14 hours on the ice. But the keeper I entered bested Shane's wife Jeannie's 4 1/2 pounder by two pounds so the long slow spell was worth it for moving the bar up a couple notches for others to shoot for. There is already a 10 pound pike entered on the first day most likely from Stormy. Its one of the only lakes on the Kenai Penn with any decent size pike left....but I have to warn you it can be very very slow since the numbers are pretty low. And a long drive out to the end of the North Road.

REPORT: Well after a dry spell there I finally had a pretty darned good day.

I headed for the 4th of July area again today bright and early. When I got there only one charter boat was working the area, but within an hour or so another 4 or 5 boats showed up. I started trolling at about 9:20 and by 11 or so I saw a net here and there go up, but not a lot of action. Then about 11:20 I had a good takedown, but after a few good tugs on the line it threw the hook. I put another herring on and about 40 minutes later finally put a nice little 7 pounder in the box.

I moved around quite a bit from just inside Pogi and then back toward 4th of July again over the next few hours and at one point I saw my rod tip dive for the water and within about 5 seconds a good 30 yards of line disappeared from my reel. I tried slowing it down with my thumb, but nothing would stop it. Then about 5 seconds later I felt the hook release and it was gone. I'd like to think it was a really big king, but apparently there was a salmon shark stealing people's bait and I have a feeling that's what it was. It actually bent the front hook of my mooching rig.

I kept working the same area and caught a few black bass and also had a couple more takedowns and missed fish over a few hours. Finally a little after 3, with only one herring left, my rod tip shot backwards again, line started ripping off the reel and it was FISH ON! A few minutes later I netted a nice 13 pound hen (after dropping my net in the water in my excitement and having to retrieve it with my rod tip with that 13 pounder fighting at the other end of my line---LOL!).

Apparently those kings are just hugging the bottom. I trolled early just 30 to 40 feet down in 70 to 90 feet of water, but just before I caught my first one I dropped my line down to 70 feet and kept in the 80 to 90 feet of water range. That seemed to be the ticket because I kept things there and caught both kings in that same zone.

REPORT: Fished Louise this weekend. Caught some good size lakers in a bout fifty feet of water. Jigging the same spoon that I have caught all my lakers on.

REPORT: LOTS of anglers on the lake today. Several snowmachines, a few ATVs, and a number of vehicles. Road is like a highway. Tried my typical spots with my "stick and string" I carry in my trapping gear. Lots of holes all over and only a quarter inch of ice to ream out. Slow start but ended up getting a half dozen coho with some stinky shrimp. Biggest about 14 inches smallest about 5 inches released. No rainbows today.

REPORT: Nothing like condensing two days into one really short report, but sometimes that's all it takes.

Spent the whole day along the length of The Bluffs, then Yukon Island and then Anisom/Lancashire yesterday with nothing to show.

Then the whole day today from Pogi all the way in to Seldovia Pt. with just one large "black bass" right at the end of the day. Not even any halibut like the last time off of Seldovia. I did have one very nice takedown right at the end of the day that pulled the line out of the clip and made a pretty nice run ripping line off the reel, but for all I know it was a decent sized "winter 'but" that was particularly hungry because I lost it about 5 seconds after I "set" the hook.

Things really have seemed to die off in the last few weeks, though I have heard of one charter operation picking up a couple of decent kings here and there, so they've got to be around. Just have to try it again tomorrow.

REPORT: Took a quick trip over to the lake after running errands in town. Got there about 5pm. Left at 5:15PM with 7 chinook. All 7-8 inches but enough for Hors D'oeuvres while the shrimp are cooking. Pro-cured hot red shrimp did the trick.

BTW, ice was 26 inches in the hard-packed area.

REPORT: Sorry loyal readers. I've been shirking my duties. I went out by myself on Sun. the 24th and fished The Bluffs all day, but didn't catch a thing, so filing a report kind of slipped my mind when I got home.

Then yesterday my friend Jane and I decided to give The Bluffs another go. WE both heard from very reliable sources that on Monday someone caught a 15 and 20 pounder out there, so we decided to give it a try.

We started out off the "overlook" at the south end, made a bunch of circles there and when we didn't catch anything we moved way up to the "Whale's Tail" area up closer to Anchor Point. To make a long story short we didn't catch a thing there, or when we moved back to our starting point. UNTIL we were just getting ready to head in. Jane was just lifting out of her seat to go and bring the lines in when I heard her make a few exclamations. She dashed for the back of the boat, grabbed her rod, but whatever was there wasn't fighting very much. She mused that it might be a pesky pollock, but about a minute later it came close to the surface and we could see the telltale flash of silver denoting a nice little king. It turned out to be in the 5 to 6 lb. range and we finally ended up with fresh grilling fare.

Got some nasty looking weather heading in for the next few days, so probably no reports until the weekend.

REPORT: Me and a buddy r thinking of coming down to coopers ls landing on Thursday has anybody heard of any silvers around can you e-mail any info thanks captain j !! Have a good one everybody !

{AOJ: Silver season is closed on the Kenai River as of October 31. Opens back up on July 1st. Rainbows are still open through May 1st.]

REPORT: Anybody have or heard anything about Hidden Lake lately? Planning on doing an over nighter on that lake, but what's the ice depth, and is it plowed out to drive on? Also any word on the sea run dollies? Thank you kindly.

REPORT: Well, I know where I'm headed on Feb. 1st. Read on to find out why.

My friend Jane and I decided to give the outer stretches of the bay a try this morning after some pretty big seas the last couple of days.

We started out off of Seldovia Pt. and almost immediately one of our rods started dancing. But when I pulled it up it was just a black bass. Then over the next hour or so we managed to pull in another small bass and also three small halibut ranging from about 5 to about 20 pounds. It's as if they knew we couldn't keep them. One of them we even caught at about 25 feet in close to 80 feet of water. At that point, since we couldn't seem to catch anything but 'but and bass, we decided to move out to the Fourth of July area.

We dropped our downriggers and within a few minutes I watched on the camera downrigger as a king swam up, made a few passes at the herring, zipped in and ripped the herring off the hooks. But that was about the total extent of the action for us. We trolled a good half mile stretch of the coastline over the next 4 hours or so, but couldn't conjure up any kings.

We moved back to the Seldovia Pt. spot after that, but boated another decent sized little halibut and decided at that point to head closer in. But I know where I'm going to head a week from Monday when those halibut can go into the fish box.

We moved in to Anisom Pt. and dropped our lines and slowly trolled our way toward Lancashire Rocks. We were just getting ready to pull our lines when we finally connected with a small king. Unfortunately it was barely pushing the edge of the "jack" category and since it wasn't hooked badly we decided to let it grow a little bit bigger, and then we headed in.

REPORT: G31 is the number on my ice house. It located on Lake Susitna on the other side of the channel from Lake Louise. I have been fishing there for 3 years. Currently there is about 22 inches of ice and the fish seem to be moving at first light and then at the end of the day just before dark. I fish through a 30 inch x 6' hole so I can see everything that is going on. The house is sitting in 20' feet of water and I am going to move it in to 8' to 10' feet of water on Tuesday. The lake trout seem to be very picky feeders. Any tips on bait to use or other methods to trigger a strike.

[AOJ: I must say that if you want advice on ice fishing any particular species there is another website with a great forum dedicated solely to ICE FISHING. It has general Q&A category forums as well as forums for each state and Canadian province. Besides that it has forums specific to EACH SPECIES, including Burbot and Lake Trout. Reading through those forums may provide some "interesting insights" on the way the others guys fish for the species we have up here. I know just last night I picked up a dandy tip on using a bait I had never used before. So even "old dogs" can learn new tricks. Everyone should give this site a shot - ICE SHANTY. There is a small group of Alaskans hanging out on the Alaska and Darkhouse Spearing forums. Jump onboard. BTW, those "back easterners" call burbot an eelpout (the forum) as well as lawyer and ling.]

REPORT: Locals want to go fishing for Kings in the Nushagak River. Anyone who has gone last couple of years and can give me advice on how to go about it. thanks. Looking at middle of June to go.

REPORT: This is Bob from Alaska Pike Hunters on Alexander Lake. Alexander has been slow also. Fish have been lightly bumping herring so you must wait a little bit when your flag comes up. Fishing usually picks up in March.

Be safe and have a great adventure.

REPORT: I've noticed a number of boats working the area out near the 59 40 line past The Bluffs lately (59 40 is the latitude which divides where you can keep 1 or 2 kings per day, for those that don't know) and I thought I'd give it a try today.

I started out about 500 feet inside the line and worked an area from about 90 feet of water into about 60 feet and after about an hour or so I noticed my rod dancing, but when I went to grab it there was nothing there. When I pulled my line up my herring was gone, so something obviously grabbed it.

I kept at it for another hour or so and my rod tip started bobbing again, but not with much action. I had to snap the line out of the clip and my first thought was another pesky pollock, or maybe a "black bass", but when I got it to the boat I had a king that I'd have to be bragging to say pushed more than 2 pounds. I'm not sure how it even swallowed my green label herring. I decided to let it grow a little bigger and released it at the boat.

I eventually trolled all the way back to the south end of The Bluffs, and after not getting so much as another take down headed in.

REPORT: I've been out of town for a bit and also forgot to file a report the last time out a week ago when we caught a 13 pounder, but I'm back at it.

My friend Jane (a loyal AOJ reader) and I headed over to Lancashire Rocks first thing this morning. To make a long story short we trolled there, then to Anisom Point and around the point and didn't catch a thing. And unfortunately I forgot my video camera so we couldn't even see if there was anything going on down there.

We moved over to the northwest corner of Yukon after that and tried there for just a little while, but couldn't conjure anything up there either.

The water wasn't too bad so then we decided to head for The Bluffs and see what was going on there. We dropped everything down at the southern end and trolled north with the current and about a half an hour after we started one of our rods started dancing, Jane grabbed it, but after a few tugs the line went slack and it was gone.

We kept at it in the same area and about a half an hour later one of our rods started dancing a bit again, but the line didn't release from the clip. Jane grabbed the rod and gave it a pretty good pull and the line released, but whatever was down there didn't put up much of a fight. I started to comment that it looked like maybe it was a pesky pollock or possibly just a really small king and I guess I must have made it mad because it started to make a ripping run straight away from the boat. A few minutes later I was lifting the net into the boat with a nice 14 pound king in it.

We stayed in the same area for another couple of hours and didn't see much sign of any other fish other than another boat not too far off from us pull a pretty nice looking king into their boat not long after we caught ours. Guess I'll have to give it another try tomorrow.

[AOJ: Well....ya finally got some blood on that boat. I was beginning to think all those salmon you have been holding up were stuffers and not real. ha]

REPORT: KK, I remember Crosswinds Lake being 18 miles from Lake Louise. Everyone heed KK's safety advice. Snowstorms, high winds, and bitter cold can appear at any time and, unless you know what your doing, you probably wont even catch a fish. I've been there 3 times now ice fishing and only caught one laker. Last time we were there the high temp was -36 below.

[AOJ: There may be some new trails now. I found this excerpt on the Lake Louise Snowmachine Club website.

Crosswind Trail - The Crosswind Trail starts on the East side of Lake Louise, approximately 3 miles northeast of the lodges and follows old fire cuts to Crosswind Lake. This trail is fast becoming the preferred winter access route to Crosswinds by residents and recreational users. This widely used trail is equipped with numerous safety and hazard signs. Its long straight-a-ways and scenic views make this a perfect trail for a family ride. Length - 23 miles.

There may be multiple access points depending on which part of the lake a person wants to access. One basic fact....it's COLD there!]

REPORT: I'm heading out to my cabin on Alexander this weekend and was wondering if there is any good pike fishing at the time at the lakes stated above.... haven't heard anything good about Flathorn or Figure Eight but I haven't heard any news from Alexander. AOJ, have you guys heard anything about these lakes?

[AOJ: All of the early season news for Figure 8 and Flathorn was not good. Very slow fishing and low fish numbers. Haven't heard from anyone going to Alexander but based on its pike population I'd say its a good bet compared to the others at least for now.]

REPORT: What do my fellow drifters think of the new association of guides for the Upper River? Looks like thay want us off "their" river? Need to watch out for this, let's not allow 50 guides that represent the minority of people fishing to make the rules for the rest of us.

Perhaps it is once again time for the responsible angler to have a voice and get the guides removed from the river instead. If we are not pro-active we will see in the not too distant future, rules and regulations limiting our access and use. Private anglers will have to apply for lottery days on the river, while guides would be grandfathered access because they have log books and records showing days on the water. How many of you keep those types of records?

I am one of those people that the guides want removed for "guiding friends". I take my family and friends down that stretch each year from June thru October. Many times I have folks aboard that aren't expert and I teach them as I can. I don't charge for this, yet I have been approached by guides telling me what I am doing is wrong...?

How many of those guides, or their sub's, actually live up here? Let's not get in the lazy habit of letting non-residents govern us.
I will be watching
6:22

[AOJ: First of all you can relax! Here are the facts.

• 11 business concessions have been given permits to operate scenic tours related to rafting on the upper Kenai each season.
  
  
• TWENTY (20) Fishing Guide business concessions have been granted full season permits to operate fish guiding on the upper Kenai and Canyon to Skilak.
  
  
  • Each permit allows the operator 10 Starts per week.
    
    
  • A start is a boat launch and recovery.
    
    
  • The permitee is limited to a maximum of 4 starts on any given day. So no matter how many boats and guides the permitee may have in his operation they can only make 4 trips on the river on a given day and when their 10 starts (trips) are used up for the week they are on the beach until next week.
    
    
  • Those drift guides using motors on their boats for use when they reach Skilak are required by law to comply with Coast Guard laws requiring a six pax motorized boat license when conveying public clients and have a current motor boat registration sticker with the state.
  
  
  
• The 20 guiding permits currently allowed on the upper Kenai will be reduced to a maximum of 18 permits when attrition has two businesses drop out over time.
  
  
• There are no issues on the table considering limiting public boat use numbers on the upper Kenai.
  
  
• Major changes in the use of or access on Refuge lands takes years, even decades for new rules to be approved and implemented. The mechanisms currently in place for the KNWR have a time-tested track record of working and its easier to get into Harvard law school than to get a major change implemented which would deny the public boaters from access.

REPORT: About 18 inches of ice at Echo Lake over the weekend. Fished about 2 hours and brought home 3 rainbows (10-12 inchers) and 2 dolly varden (14 inch). Great in the pan with some panko bread crumbs! Caught these at around 25-30 feet, using single hook with salmon eggs.

Can anybody tell me where Crosswind and Sport lakes are? I don't see them on the ADF&G website of lake maps. Thanks!

Fish on!

[AOJ: Now who would have guessed anyone would be interested in where Crosswind Lake was? heheheh Actually Ryan both lakes are listed in the F&G lake maps. ADFG LAKE MAPS. Sport Lake can be found in the Stocked Lakes for the Kenai Peninsula and Crosswind Lake can be found in the Wild Lakes for Glenallen area. You can also do a Google Earth search for each but the Crosswind Lake area is only low resolution topo map quality and not satellite view.

REPORT: Spent three days on Crosswind with some friends. I was out fished sort of. One guy caught 2 burbot and a laker while the other friend caught 3 lakers. I caught only 2 lakers but one was a hog. Most fish came from 60 feet of water but the big one came from around 20 feet. Fishing a Big Doc Spoon jigging. Just before it hit we were talking about how it was not a good spot to catch fish as lakers are not around this depth this time of year. Anyway it taped out at 38 inches and is the biggest fish through the ice for me.


[AOJ: Now that makes for a very memorable ice fishing trip for sure. Congrats on the trophy! Great photo too.]

REPORT: Hit Delong right after dark and fished until 1100. NONSTOP action didn't matter what we used or where we fished, we couldn't get the bait to the bottom without another one on. Glo jigs and shrimp, rattle jigs with eggs, didn't matter. Fishcam showed us that most fish were 1-4 feet under ice. Great place for the kids or if your looking for action, but not much size, largest was about 14 inches, kinda skinny though for some reason??(maybe too much competition?) Great time, nice weather. Tight Lines! If anyone wants to take my fishing partner and I into the valley to get into some Pike, we haven't had much luck, it would be appreciated. Contact me at stuckparatrooper82@Yahoo.com Tight Lines!

REPORT: Drove out onto Long Lake, drilled half a hole, broke our gas auger, chipped out the rest of the hole, so 2 of us fishing a single hole all night. Extremely windy, Ice 24+inches 1 small laker caught before we had to leave. On the fishcam, we could see some big fellas swimming around by the dropoff about 10-15 feet away but couldn't punch another hole :( Otherwise nice trip. Tight Lines.

[AOJ: I assume this is the LONG Lake over on the Glenn Highway and not the Long Lake in Willow. The Mile 86 Glenn Highway lake has a number of species stocked in it. "Native" fish are burbot and longnose suckers (illegal stocking in the 50's). F&G currently stocks arctic char and rainbow trout. Years ago they use to stock lake trout but no longer. F&G is planning on starting the Lake Trout stocking program again for this lake once the new hatchery is completed and providing this species. I hear the Anchorage hatchery comes online in 2011 and the other one comes online 2010 with maybe even some stocking fry available for some fisheries in August of this year. That's the extra "fee" we paid for in the license increase a couple years ago. Our fruits of investment are getting close to paying off.]

REPORT: Took the boys out today from 10:30am until 1:00pm. We managed one around 14 inches. It was really nice just to be on the ice. The winds were calm and it was just fun spending time with the kids.

REPORT: Make a short trip to Sport. A few groups were still fishing in the late afternoon. As always catching the 7 to 8 inch chinook was easy. Shrimp worked better than single eggs. I got one 10 inch rainbow and a half dozen salmon in about 20 minutes. Took that many to make a one man meal. :) 24 inches of ice on Sport too.

REPORT: Had to do a road trip to see if the state or refuge guys were plowing the road into Watson Lake and into the Kelly/Peterson lakes. Yep! Not lately but 2x4 cars can navigate both roads just fine. Very little snow on any of the lakes. Lots of campfire remnants out in the middle of Watson so there has been some decent activity fishing for rainbows in the deep water. Kelly had a couple guys and a young lad just leaving as I drove up. They had been out for a number of hours, midday, and had one nice 19ish size rainbow in the sled. All the other fish they caught were throwback dinkers. Not too much indication of fishing showing on the lake other than nearby the parking lot. Peterson had two guys fishing until sundown but don't know how they did. Lots of shallow water around the lake. Fish off the island area for deep water. I ran the camera downhole in a number of spots but was pressed for time and burning daylight so I wasn't able to do much scouting. About 24 inches of ice on the lakes out that way. No overflow.

REPORT: I recently moved here from Virginia (no trout/no ice fishing), and now my wife wants to go ice fishing with me. I've never gone before, and don't know much about any lake around here. Does anyone have any advice on a lake I could go to near Eagle River, where we could catch a decent amount of small trout? Tips advice? Thanks!

[AOJ: Two sources will meet your needs. First is the list of stocked lakes around Anchorage and the Matsu Valley. F&G stocks chinook salmon, arctic char, rainbow trout and even a few grayling in many lakes that offer at least one public access point to get on the lake. The second source is the F&G lake maps they provide which not only gives you a bottom contour map of the lake but also instructions on how to get to the public access location identified on the map. Between these two you can find many lakes with fair/good/excellent fishing. There are also many lakes in the map section that are wild lakes with natural populations of trout and dollies and in some there are lake trout and burbot. The attached fishing info on the map will identify what fish are or may be present. Keeping an eye on the lakes folks report on here is also a good source of firsthand info.
Alaska LAKE MAPS
STOCKED LAKES DATABASE. Choose a specific area on the left side, choose a starting date of say 1/1/2008 and ending 4/1/2010 and it will list all the lakes in that area and tell what species, how many, and what sizes were stocked.

Good Luck!]

REPORT: Hit the lake around 11:00am and fished for about 3 hours and within the first 20 minutes, the three of us had caught a fish. They were all around the 14 inch range. We ended the day with a total of 5. It was a great day.

REPORT: I will be flying back to Alaska again in April. But I forgot if there are any salmon running that early in the year. Can someone let me know if there will be?

[AOJ: Sorry but the only salmon available at that time of the year would be feeder kings in Cook Inlet and some migrating spawners along the Deep Creek beaches at the end of April. Nothing in freshwater and most streams have seasons that don't open until late May. Refer to the Alaska Salmon Run Timing Charts to learn when the fish arrive.]

REPORT: I am going to be bouncing around SE at the end of April beginning of May and will, as always, have a fly rod with me. Looking for tips on locations/river to target. I will have a day or so in each "major" (I use that term loosely) city in SE. I have fished Yakutat for years but want to try some new digs. Thanks in advance for any help.

REPORT: Got on the lake @ 0800 to find that my propane tank valve is on the fritz. A quick trip up to Willow to buy the million dollar mini tanks, and back to fishing! Lines in the water by 0900. Lots of nothing until noon, then a flag flies. I let it run until it takes the break, pull the tip up and break the ice in the hole. Second run and hook set. Heavy bugger with lots of fight in him. 10 minutes or so of the back and forth, and I "Think" I have him coming home. Grab the gaff hook, look down the hole to see the biggest Pike's head I've ever seen! I have a 10 inch auger, and his head filled the hole. At any rate, he was highly agitated to see the light of day, and changed his mind about meeting the halibut hook on a dowel rod! He turned tail, ripped line through the flesh of my fingers (literally, I was bleeding), and straightened the snap swivel on the end of my wire leader. Mother of all things that are evil!!!

Fish Off :(

REPORT: Well the football game didn't look like it was worth watching (my error as it turns out) so I headed to the local lake to see about dinner for tonight. A few other groups were out on the lake on this calm sunny day so I picked a spot around some previous holes and baited up. Fish were there and hitting instantly. Shrimp and single eggs worked equally well. Took about an hour and a half and I had my 10 fish limit for the table. Everyone else was doing the same, even the little kids were hauling them in. Plenty of ice. Must have been around 24 inches at least. More cold for another day or two. Then planning on heading out to Stormy and search for lunker pike for a few days.

REPORT: Hit Cheney from 5pm to 1030pm. Dropped the underwater camera in someone's hole after they left and saw nothing, so we moved and punched holes until we found fish. LOTS of stickleback in the water, the trick is finding a place where you dont have a ton of stickleback in your hole. With shrimp and glo-jigs a couple feet under the ice in about 10 feet of water with weed bed beside us, we both managed to catch 2 each. Watched a school of those sticklebacks have a big rainbow go right through the middle of them with his mouth wide open. The fish are there, just gotta find the right spot and depth. Tight lines.

REPORT: A lot of boats strung out along The Bluffs again yesterday, but I think the kings forgot to show up again.

I talked to a guide friend of mine down there when I was getting ready to head out in the morning and he'd connected with three pretty nice kings all in about one spot the day before and he was headed there again. I thought I'd give it a try again, too, but didn't see much action. About 20 minutes after I dropped the cameraless downrigger down to about 55 ft. I watched my rod dance for about 3 seconds and then stop. I kept trolling for a minute or so after, but then got suspicious and pulled my line up and sure enough I'd been stripped. Of course there are black bass in the area and possibly some of those lingering halibut, and a lot of birds, so who knows what it was. Then I got another little rod dancing about an hour after that, but when I brought my line up the herring was still there. The rest of the day was a big zero. I passed my guide friend around 2 or so and he hadn't connected either.

Right now the wind is out of the north at Flat Island at 26 knots and at the end of The Spit at about 17 knots so it looks like a good day to watch the playoffs.

[AOJ: I wondered if you were getting out with the wind forecasts. Just a bit of wind here today. But sunny so I'm going to head to Sport Lake and see about rustling up some dinner. Watch the 2nd game on a 5.5 inch B&W 12vdc TV while sitting in the truck watching the tip ups. HEHEH Oh and snacks with hot coffee too. Geez, am I getting so old that I have to resort to that?]

REPORT: I live in Anchorage and am trying to find information about fly fishing on Prince of Whales Island.Can only find charter ads on the web and have seen about every Alaska fly fishing website there is. It's been very difficult. We are going in the end of July to the middle of August, and will be looking to catch trout and dollies. Anybody have pointers or know of a source? Would greatly appreciate it, I will post lots of pictures anyway, P.O.W. is an awesome place.

[AOJ: There is an AOJ reporter that comes from Switzerland each summer and samples various places around the state. He has spent a considerable time vacationing and fishing down in SE and I believe POW Island too. Send me your email address and I'll see if I can get you hooked up with him. webmaster@alaskaoutdoorjournal.com]

REPORT: Spent 6 hr on two separate trips with nothing to show. Multiple holes drilled, many locations, depths and lures. Weather is usually good but this lake sucks for winter fishing. Go anywhere but here!

[AOJ: Hmmm, that's strange. In June ADFG stocked 9300 6.6 inch rainbows and 650 12.2 inch rainbows. Hard to believe they have all been caught by now. Maybe it was the moon phase or the barometer. Anyone else still taking fish from Cheney?]

REPORT: Had to take advantage of an almost spring like day out on Kbay today. I went out with a couple of friends today and was pretty psyched to be able to try two lines out plus the camera downrigger line. We got a hint that heading for The Bluffs might not be a bad idea. When we pulled up off Bluff Point in about 100 feet of water there were 4 or 5 boats in the area all trolling in a pretty small area. We dropped two downriggers down and one line with a planer and proceeded to troll through the same area. We kept an eye on the other boats and in a few hours didn't see much action and after a while all of the boats dispersed over a really large area. We passed pretty close to a couple of charter boats in that time and conversed briefly with them about how things were going, but only one of them had even caught a single king.

But we persisted and finally at about 3 or so we were talking and I glanced back and the rod with the planer on it suddenly started dancing and it was FISH ON! A few minutes later we had a nice little 9 pounder lying in the fish box. In my excitement I forgot to get a picture of it, unfortunately.

We kept at it for about another hour, but couldn't connect again and headed in.

REPORT: Hello,

Can anyone give a trail condition report from Ayeshire Road on Knik to both Figure 8 and Flathorn Lakes? In the past this time of year the trail can become pretty beaten down and leave a lot of exposed ground making it pretty poor on the environment and not usable (if we are all doing our good part for the environment). I would sure appreciate a trail conditions report if anyone has attempted a recent trip to the lakes.

Carvels

REPORT: I have fished Jewel Lake for the 3-4 years and have never seen a pike. I caught a 17in. rainbow there last summer, and have also seen for myself some very, very healthy rainbows in the water and jumping. So I hope the F&G read that, I don't want them poisoning my favorite lake. How can we anglers have our voice heard?

[AOJ: First, not to worry. The ADFG won't make decisions based on heresay, rumors or conjecture. So rest assured, any unfounded comments on these reports will be taken very lightly although not necessarily ignored depending on the information. The "proof is in the pudding" as they say so should someone discover pike in a lake which is not already confirmed as having a population they should bring the fish to ADFG. ADFG periodically initiates test net sampling in all of the stocked lakes in Southcentral as part of their research and monitoring of the ecosystem to insure the fish in the lake have enough food and remain healthy, etc. Its during these samplings that they usually discover an "unknown" or undocumented presence of pike. Should someone contact the department with a fish from a new lake, its likely some test netting would be conducted sometime during the season to make a confirmation since lakes are not sampled every year due to the labor intensive effort it involves.

As far as the decision to poison a lake with rotenone to rid those waters of northern pike, there is a public process involved allowing an extended comment period so the public can give their 2 cents before any extermination is conducted. This period is announced in the ADFG News Releases (Example: PUBLIC INPUT SOUGHT) that I frequently post here on AOJ to get the word out.

Anglers should always be vigilant and on the lookout for northern pike in waters which to date have no confirmed catches. They may show up at any time and one should not assume that because that angler has caught one then ADFG probably already knows from others reporting them. Be the first to report and you may help stave off the destruction of the existing fishery.]

REPORT: Well I was hoping to start the New Year with a bang, but I guess I'll have to be happy ending the old year with one instead, and make a New Year's resolution to catch more fish this year.

Due to lack of gas and the gas dock being closed I had to stay pretty close to home. I headed across to the Anisom area and trolled back and forth there for almost 4 hours and didn't catch a single thing. I had one charter boat near me for about 45 minutes of that time and since I was only about 50 yards behind them the whole time I could easily see they didn't catch anything there either.

Looks like we might have some weather moving in with small craft advisories and gale force winds all over the board, but hopefully there might be a window of opportunity to take advantage of tomorrow.

[AOJ: Oh I guess your new handle could be Diehard Dave~!]