After a long 11 hour fight, we arrived late Wednesday night in Anchorage. Followed by a short ride to our hotel, my fishing partners Dennis Keeling and Steve Mayfield both from Kingston and I prepared to turn in. Experience with each other’s sleeping habits; we came prepared with several sets of ear plugs. We knew that the chances of some snoring were good if not a guarantee.
Awaking to a clear sunny morning, we picked up our rental car and headed north. Locals told us that it had been raining for 21 days straight. We stop by Wal-Mart in Sarah Palin’s home town of Wasilla for supplies. Then headed north on Parks Highway 30 minutes later and several good viewing opportunities of Mt. McKinley, we were at our rental cabin at sheep creek. We unloaded all except what we need to fish and head the couple hundred yards up Parks Highway to sheep creek.
Upon arrival at sheep creek we were pleased to see it packed with pink salmon, locally know as humpies and not thought to highly of for table fare. We had the creek pretty much to our selves. We started catching fish immediately. After 30 or so minutes and several fish we got back into the vehicles and headed 10 minutes north up Parks Highway to Montana Creek in search of silver salmon also know as Cohoes.
Since fishing here for many years I had a routine that would save us time and 10 bucks every time we fished this spot. First I would drop my fishing partners and gear at the end of the campground closest to the fishing hole and then park the vehicle on the hwy about ¼ mile away. This seems like a lot of trouble, but paying 10 bucks once or twice a day adds up quickly and the exercise surly would not hurt.
There are two favorite spots to fish. One is a muddy bank with a slack water lagoon usual stacked with fish waiting to run up the river to spawn and the other is a more picturesque gravel bar at the mouth of the creek. I usually choose for the mud hole. This time was no different; the mud hole was stacked with pinks and chums (also known as dog salmon). There was so many that it was difficult to cast into them without fowl hooking one. After a while we got the hang of it and figured out if you throw to the edge of the school it would give you a chance to catch one in the mouth. Several times the fish would follow it to the bank before striking. That day I caught over 50 chum and pinks before catching my limit of two silver salmon. It was a great way to introduce Dennis into salmon fishing and by the end of the day all our arms and backs where tired.
After a few days of picking through the chums and pinks for a few silvers we decided to head north up Parks Highway to Cantwell, were we stopped to sample some wild blueberries on the side of the road. We headed east on Denali Highway in search of Dolly Varden char and grayling.
At our first stop we caught a few of the grayling, put compared to the salmon their fight ability and size was a little disappointing. So we drove several miles down the gravel Denali Highway enjoying the scenery and debating to stop and try again. After several miles we turned around and returned to the cabin.
Monday we were to pick up the RV that I had rented last October saving a hundred dollars per day making it only a few dollars more than the rental car. I would highly recommend the RV. We headed south on Sterling Highway to the Russian River. I received a phone call from a friend, who was up fishing from Harriman. He and his friend wanted to do a combination charter out of Seward the next morning and needed a few more people. With the memory of how good fresh halibut was, it did not take much convincing and we were in. We arrived late Monday night after catch limits of sockeye salmon (reds) on the Russian river. We stayed on the ocean in Seward at a camping ground. It probably was a beautiful spot, but it was dark when we got there and when we left.
The next morning we woke early and moved the RV to a parking lot near the j-dock marina and hurried to get something to eat at Subway. We all took our motion sickness medicines and boarded the boat and headed out.
Again it was a clear day and the 1 ½ hour ride out to the salmon hole was beautiful. There were Mountain goats on the bluffs and whales surfacing around us. Sea birds were everywhere and occasional porpoise guiding us. We stopped at an area they called the beach where large schools of sardines were being dive bombed from the sky by puffins and gulls and attacked from the deep by silver salmon. After getting the appropriate drift we got our 3 fish limit in 15 to 30 minutes. There were several boats there doing as well.
After a short ride to the captains rock fish hole, we changed our bait from a squid skirt to a hook with a piece of herring. After drifting across the 50 ft hump in 100 ft of water, we started catching the black rock fish. They look very similar to a red snapper, but black in color. In another 30 minutes we all had our 5 fish each limit and were off again to catch Halibut.
Because of the short notice on this fishing trip we did not come as prepared as usual. It was past lunch time and everyone was getting hungry except for the one of use that had a touch of sea sickness and from what I saw he should have been starving. The captain of the Sea Adventure was John McCloud and the first mate was Aaron Tompkins, both were good old boys from Georgia. They broke out the soy sauce and wasabi paste. They took a filet of salmon and deboned and then thinly sliced. After soaking it in soy sauce for 10 minutes, they passed it around with a little wasabi sauce. We all tried it reluctantly, but soon began to devourer it. This was the first time the captain had made it. Everyone loved it including the fellow that had been chumming earlier. He prepared another round and it was also eaten.
The first mate was changing out the fishing gear and about the time we arrived he had the heavier gear baited up with salmon heads and herrings. As in my past experiences with halibut, the bit starts out slow, but heated up as you put in your time. The first mate said it was because of the scent that was being left by our baits being on the bottom. I had been told this on other halibut fishing trips. Dennis wrestled up the bigger halibut, one 70 lbs and then one 50 lbs while I got the smaller ones 30 lbs and 40 lbs and everyone else was some were in between. An occasional ling cod was caught in the 40 lbs class.
We had limited out on halibut and I need a ling cod. After the bites had slowed we moved to a ling cod hole off shore a few miles and began to try to limit out three of us with jigging giant grubs on 1 lb lead head. I caught the first one which was under size and shortly after, caught the final keeper.
It was 4 o’clock and time to head in. We got to talking to the captain and first mate about hunting and fishing and their reasons for coming up to Alaska. Both the captain and first mate were great and it was their first year in Alaska and was looking forward to returning to Georgia to see their families, but would return next year. I would highly recommend them.
Arriving at the dock we off loaded the fish and took several pictures before the captain and first mate started cleaned them. My friends from Harriman got theirs done first so they could have them flash frozen. Steve and Dennis hung around rinsing and cleaning up the filets while I went back to the RV to cook chili for dinner. About the time it was done my fishing buddies showed up including the ones from Harriman. Everyone commented on how good the chill was. I think it was because we had nothing cooked for 12 hours. We finished up the food and headed back towards the Russian river.
We stopped at Tern Lake and spent the night. After awakening we drove a few minutes and were on the Russian River early. We caught our limits pretty quickly, our biggest competition being the several grizzly bears that kept moving us out of our fishing holes.
That afternoon we decided to go to Homer. We stopped by a friend and visited and then finished up the drive. We normally catch a lot of flounder or cod off the end of the spit on low tide. This time we did not do to well and were feeling the call of the Russian River. So by afternoon we were back on the Russian for an evening of fishing.
The next morning we hit the Russian River for the last time and then headed back north to Montana creek to see if the silvers had moved in. While we were south, the Montana creek area had some big rains that had swollen the steams, but was fishable. We never really got into the silvers like I had in the past but there was still plenty of fish to catch and one night I did my usual of cooking the less desired pinks and chums to give my buddies a chance to try them for their self. Everyone agreed that it was as good fish as we had on the trip and the leftovers were appreciated by some fellow camper from Italy.
The next morning we finished up fishing and headed back to Wasilla to get everything cleaned up and pack up our fish that we had frozen at a local butcher shop. After getting everything cleaned and packed. I could still detect a strong fish odor. I was getting a little concerned, because one of the rules from the rental company was no fish in the RV and there could be a $500 cleaning fee. One of the Styrofoam coolers had broke and leaked out under the RV, in its storage area. After a scrubbing and bleaching, followed by one whole bottle of Febreze, there was still a strong odor of fish. After a little more investigating, it was determined to be our back packs that we carried the filets from the river. So we washed and bleached them.
We headed to Anchorage for their weekend market to kill some time and sample some local favorites like rain deer sausage and smoked salmon cascade. Next I dropped the luggage and buddies of at the airport and returned the RV. They gave me a ride to the airport. I got my ticket and we shuffled around the frozen fish in the cooler to get the weight under 50 lbs. Two of us carried on a little less than 50 lbs of fish in soft side coolers. The fish from the two carry-ons and the 4 checked coolers was close to 300 lbs.
From past experience I have learned that paying the 30 dollar extra luggage fee is considerable cheaper than mailing it 2nd day or overnight. 50 lbs could be well over 200 dollars if mailed. Another money saver I mentioned earlier was renting your RV before the end of October the year before. If after August 16 you save 50%.
Take someone fishing, Greg
See more photos from Greg in our SOR Outdoors online gallery.