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Flies for Goodnews River Silver Salmon

October 9, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

This silver salmon took a marabou streamer.

Within a certain set of parameters, silver salmon will eat ANYTHING.

OK, that requires a little explanation. Within any group of silvers (and probably any other species of fish) there is a range of aggressiveness. For example, if you find a school of 100 silvers, 10 will eat almost anything you throw at them (Please keep in mind I am making these numbers up, based on six seasons of observations. It could be more, or less.). Another five or so might eat if you show them your best fly, perfectly presented. The rest won’t eat anything, regardless of what you try. You need to find another group of fish once the bite stops. Yes, they are still there, but no, they won’t eat any more.

Most fly fishers love a surface bite. If you want to catch them on top you need to try a surface fly as soon as you find some fish. Get the aggressive ones before they all wise up!
Some folks like clipped deerhair flies, some like poppers. I think that for ease of tying combined with ease of casting you can’t beat a craft foam gurgler. Tie it on a #2 Mustad 36890 salmon fly hook or equivalent in pink or orange, with a cerise marabou tail and a cerise Estaz body. It’s a five minute tie that’s good for 15 or 20 fish before it’s torn apart.

A flock of salmon gurglers awaiting use.

The fish will eventually refuse to rise. Switch to a streamer.

My favorite is what I call the silver salmon Clouser Minnow. Tie it on the same hook as above, or on a Mustad 3407. Use a 1/30th ounce lead eye. Use wig hair (or bucktail) for the wing, and tie in a Puff-like head around the lead eyes with Estaz. Effective colors include cerise, hot pink, orange, purple, blue, black, chartreuse, and various combinations of these colors.

Silver salmon Clouser Minnows- effective and easy to tie.

Yes, the salmon will take a fly tied with synthetics.

The short list includes one more pattern, the marabou (or bunny strip) tail fly. Same hooks, same lead eye. Tie in a tail of marabou (or bunny strip) in one of the above mentioned colors. Tie in a piece of Estaz and wrap it around the shank to the lead eye. If you want to get fancy, add sili-legs. Again, it’s a five minute tie that will catch a lot of fish before they tear it apart.

When getting a bite gets more difficult, sili-legs often do the trick.

Of course, the cerise bunny leech that was described in the blog about king salmon flies is always in good taste, too.

You could go crazy tying articulated flies that take 30 or 40 minutes each. These fish ain’t that fussy. The above flies will cover almost every situation you find yourself in when fishing for silvers. Try this short list of Flies for Goodnews River Silver Salmon when fishing for silver salmon anywhere.

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2012. All rights are reserved.

 

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Flies for Goodnews River King Salmon

September 29, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Flies for King Salmon

This is the first in a series about flies used on the Goodnews River, Alaska.

Goodnews River king salmon typically rest in seam water that’s six to eight feet deep. There’s always a strong current. If you want to catch one with a fly rod you usually need a fast sinking fly line and a fast sinking fly.

Before my first trip there Bob Stearns allayed my fears about what to tie by telling me, “Those fish have never seen a fly before, never seen a fisherman. They will eat almost any well-presented fly.” Of course he was right. Most of the time the fish are way less fussy than the fisherman, and a heavy Clouser Minnow will often work as well as anything else.

That having been said, the old standard fly was a cerise-colored bunny leech tied on a size two Mustad 36890 hook, with a 1/30th ounce or heavier lead eye.

Bunny Leeches

Pink (cerise, actually) bunny leeches ready for deployment.

KingSalmonBunnyLeech

This hen king salmon took one of those simple bunny leeches.

Articulated flies (see how to tie one here) have become all the rage since I started working at the Goodnews River Lodge six seasons back. They take longer to tie but help prevent short strikes. You can tie big, crazy flies this way. For weight some tyers use lead eyes, others use tungsten cone-shaped beads. Both work, so use whichever you prefer.

ArticulatedFly-KingSalmon

This articulated fly, tied with both rabbit and Arctic fox zonker strips, was eaten by a king salmon.

On the Goodnews only single hook artificials are allowed, so you must break off the bend and point of the forward hook. Use an inexpensive iron for this work (I use a 2/0 Mustad 3407). Alternatively, purchase a special hookless hook made specifically for tying articulated flies.

Most guides at Goodnews like an octopus-style hook for the trailer, with sizes ranging from 4 to 1/0, the tyer’s personal choice. A larger hook is less likely to fail under duress. Some of us dress it, others leave it naked, again, a matter of preference.

KingSalmonArticulatedFly

Another king salmon falls for an articulated fly.

Effective colors include cerise, purple, hot pink, black, blue, orange, chartreuse, and combinations of these. Flash material is in good taste, and a rattle is easily tied in on the forward hook before tying in the dressing.

That is all you need to know about tying Flies for King Salmon.

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2012. All rights are reserved.

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Filed Under: Fishing Tips, Flies and Fly Tying, Goodnews River- Alaska Fishing Report · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

The Twelve Best Photos from Goodnews River Lodge 2012 Season

September 8, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

We hear a constant chorus of honking, migrating geese as we clean up camp and put it away for the winter. Put another season in the books at Goodnews River Lodge. We had epic rains the last several days and sent our last guests out on a flooded river. The silver salmon were still biting. Then it was pull the boats, close down camp, and get me out of here!

The Photos:

An evening view from Lookout Mountain.

 

Kevin Rogers prepares for a day’s fishing.

 

Faith blowing bubbles at camp.

 

Head guide Jeffrey Dann in a whimsical moment.

Jeffrey Dann’s best quote this season- “I’m allergic to alcohol. Every time I drink I break out in handcuffs.”

 

Pacific salmon die after spawning. Hopefully this grisly-looking chum salmon produced lots of offspring.

 

The sun rises over the tundra at the Goodnews River Lodge.

 

Jeff Arnold, guide at Goodnews River Lodge.

Jeff’s best quote this season-  “Why does everything up here have to be so goddamn hard?”

Aaron Kirschen hikes across the tundra.

 

Lois Harris, looking glamorous with a morning’s catch of silver salmon.

 

Son Alex near the peak of Tsuktulik. The Goodnews River lies below.

 

Chuck Trover caught this prime king salmon on a streamer fly.

A happy Chuck Hunt (his normal state!) with a fine rainbow trout from the Goodnews River.

 

A couple of other notable quotes:

“Where’s my fishing rod?” -Curly Bob, after he threw his $1500 fly outfit in the river to chase a dying salmon.

“It was rigged properly!” -Idaho Dave, after a 10 pound silver salmon took his fly line when the backing-to-fly-line connection broke.

The season was awesome, incredible place, unbelievable fishing, outstanding people. I’m looking forward to being home, but I will look forward to returning to Goodnews next season, too.

These were the Best Photos from Goodnews River and that is this year’s last Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Report from me. See you in Florida in two weeks!

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- go fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2012. All rights are reserved.

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Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report

September 3, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

2012 Goodnews Season Wrapping Up

Next week- my 10 best photos from 2012 Goodnews!

The last week of the 2012 Goodnews season arrived. Our current crop of guests go home on Wednesday. Then it’s clean up, put up, and get out, always a bittersweet time. That having been said, I am quite ready to get home. I miss Susan, and my mom, and Richard, and son Maxx, and all my friends and relatives. See you all soon!

I had a fish counter today, Patrick, a Scotsman currently living in New Zealand. Patrick carefully tallied the number of silver salmon he caught. He used a fly rod for most, got about six on a gurgler, a dozen or so on streamers, and the balance of 23 on a spinning rod. We won’t discuss missed strikes, fish that jumped off, broke off, etc. I thought the morning was slow. The last spot of the day, a favorite of mine on the middle fork, was spectacular and the day saver.

silver salmon, goodnews river alaska

One of Patrick’s 23 silver salmon.

Bill Kirby, Ulf Erickson, and Sir Thomas Tait are some of the other current guests, some of my favorites. I was fortunate enough to fish with Ulf yesterday, along with first-time Goodnews guest Fred Novak. Eighty-five year old Fred is a feisty guy, a quick wit with a joke repertoire, a wonderful guy to have in the boat. Again, we fished silvers and had quite a lovely day.

In the last group was Steve the Geologist and Dr. John, both Texans. Doc had many Alaska trips under his belt. Steve was an Alaska rookie, and had never touched a fly rod before.

About five minutes after leaving camp Steve caught his first Alaska fish, a 12 pound silver salmon that ate a DOA CAL jig. Doc enjoyed himself by watching Steve get fish after fish, hooting and hollering while doing so. That’s what I call a good friend!

Later in the week I took them way up the river for dollies. Steve was now an accomplished fly caster, having gotten numerous silver salmon with some of the other guides. We gurgled and streamered dollies all day and got some nice fish, several pounds in some cases.

dolly varden

Steve the geologist with one of many dollies he caught upriver.

Another upriver trip is scheduled for tomorrow. I suspect it will similarly be a smashing success.

Fish Story of the Week-
On Wednesday the new guests came. Lance and David, from Idaho, fly fishers both, fished with me for silver salmon that afternoon.
David hooked a silver that took him into his backing. When the fly line was almost on the reel the backing somehow got wrapped around the reel handle. The fish chose that moment to surge. The fly line and backing parted ways, and the fish made off with the fly line. You just can’t make up this stuff.

Of course David started yelling. “Hurry! Go get it!” The anchor and 50 feet of line are out. The motor is trimmed up. There are seven salmon already on two stringers, hanging in the water. We are not going anywhere in a hurry, regardless of how fast I go.

By the time we’re under way the fly line is gone. David starts thinking out loud whether or not he has another fly line. “Don’t worry,” I say. “If we don’t find it someone else will.”

We search for the line for less than five minutes when I spot it, long and skinny and bright green, strung out parallel to the shoreline about 15 feet off the bank. We idle over. I pick it up. The fish is still on!

Somewhat rested, the fish is ready to resist. I fight him on an expensive, bright green handline, and David nets him when the fish is next to the boat. We get the entire fly line back, as well as catching the fish.

Less than five minutes later, the line is properly re-rigged, the salmon is on the stringer, and David is fishing again.

Son Alex does a water ballet while fighting a silver salmon.

And that is this year’s last Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report from me. See you in Florida in two weeks!

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- go fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2012. All rights are reserved.

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Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report

August 28, 2012 by · 4 Comments

Silvers Already on the Downswing?? Rubber Raft Hatch Going On

Autumn, still a month away on the calendar, is in full swing here. The Arctic terns and swallows are already gone. Geese fly over in formation, honking loudly, heading south. The chums and most of the kings are dead, the pinks and sockeyes are dying off, and even a few colored-up silvers are being caught.

We are still catching plenty of silver salmon here on the Goodnews River. Perhaps, just perhaps, I’ve been spoiled by past runs. This run is weaker than recent ones and we actually have to do some work to find and catch them. C’mon! This is the Goodnews!

That having been said, fishing is excellent by any yardstick you could use, except for past runs here. Fish counters (and I am not crazy about fish counters) have been hitting 15-20 salmon by lunch.

Afternoons have been a little slower because all the spots got beat up in the morning. Still, 20 or more salmon a day is not bad by any standard except for our own history of excellence. silver salmon catch, goodnews river alaskaDollies- dollies are definitely slowing down. Dolly trips need to go way up the river to find success. The fish are more scattered now that most of the early salmon have finished spawning. You can still find and catch them, it just takes more effort.

dolly varden, goodnews river alaska

David Harris with a dolly varden.

Rainbow trout- again, more effort is required to find them. Flesh flies have been very successful. John Wilhelm got a nice fish while out with me fishing for silvers. The wayward rainbow hit a fly not intended for it.

rainbow trout goodnews river alaska

John Wilhelm with a beautiful rainbow trout.

Bears- Never showed up. I’ve seen only three all season, all running for the nearest bushes. I don’t miss fighting them off with rocks while I’m trying to clean fish, but it would be nice to see them fishing again. Maybe next year they’ll be back.

As close as I’ve been to a bear this year- Goodnews River, Alaska.

Rafters- Rafters fly into Goodnews Lake to float the river. We see them every year, and try to maintain a good relationship with them.

There are an extraordinary number of them on the river this year. They must get in each other’s way. They certainly get in our way sometimes.

Today there were nine rafts between camp and Upper Landing, about eight miles upstream. Everyplace I wanted to fish this afternoon was occupied. I know we don’t own the river, but sometimes it does seem a bit excessive.

Mosquitoes- crappy, rainy, windy, cold weather equals no bugs. We have not had any bugs to speak of this week, thank goodness!

And that is this week’s Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- go fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2012. All rights are reserved.

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Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report

August 20, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Silvers Coming On Strong

The run of lovely weather we enjoyed earlier this week got completely blown out by a low pressure system that blasted in last night. Winds gusting to over 35 knots and intermittent heavy rain greeted our anglers today.

The salmon loved it.

Gary Vasquez used a Dolly Lama fly to fool at least 20 silvers this morning, all in a single spot. This afternoon we had to hunt for a few here, a few there, but with the wind blowing like it was no one went very far and we were all fishing in already-fished-in holes. It was wonderful fishing, no matter how you slice it.

Reports are in that silver runs on other Alaskan rivers are weak enough to warrant heavy restrictions or even river closings. No such problems here. The silvers are coming on strong.

silver salmon, goodnews river alaska

Dean Moel and his daughter Linda Shimerda caught this silver salmon double on the Goodnews River.

The dollies have moved up the river, following the groceries. The chums have spawned out and are dying by the thousands, creating a stink along the river and a feast for flesh-feeding trout and dollies. Those trout and dollies also spend time behind spawning pink and king salmon. Finding them has been a bit more difficult this week than it was just 10 days ago.

Dolly varden, Goodnews River Alaska

Janie Axton with a Goodnews River Dolly varden.

Yesterday afternoon a chance cast with a Mepps Flying C spinner netted an eight pound dolly by an upriver bluff. Eighty-seven year old Dean Moel, a World War 2 veteran and survivor of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, ended up getting eight or ten beautiful, fat dollies. We also got a load of silver salmon. He is a true American hero and it was awesome to spend a day with him.

A few beautiful grayling were caught earlier this week as well. Don Dahlgren of Oklahoma City got one while mousing. Janie Axton, also from Oklahoma City, got an even bigger one on an egg-sucking leech. Both of them, and their spouses, also got loads of nice dollies and a few rainbows as well.

Arctic grayling, Goodnews River Alaska

Janie Axton again, this time with a big grayling.

pink salmon, goodnews river alaska

John Axton stayed busy with a bunch of dollies, a few rainbows, and this pink salmon.

Fish Story of the Week-
The above-mentioned Don Dahlgren and his lovely wife Alice spent a day with me on Monday. We ran about an hour upriver, intending to target trout and dollies. When we got to the first spot Don jumped right out and started wading the flat, casting a gurgler. Alice wasn’t rigged up, so we were still in the boat while I rigged her tackle.

A dolly quickly cooperated with Don. When he went to unhook I the dolly wriggled free, firmly planting the hook in the web of skin between his thumb and forefinger. He waded back to the boat, visibly concerned, hook obviously embedded in his hand.

Checking out the problem I assured him it would be easy to remove. Thirty seconds later the hook was out of his hand, and he was soon using the same fly to catch more dollies.

A few minutes later Alice and I were out wading too. I heard a splash and Alice was down in the water, trying desperately to get up. You can’t move fast enough I these situations, but I got there as fast as I could and Alice was soon upright. Fortunately she was well dressed and only her sleeves go wet.

In spite of the real shaky start we had a wonderful day, with lots of trout and dollies and a nice grayling caught.

Rainbow Trout, Goodnews River Alaska

Capt. Paul Souza (USN, Ret.) got this beautiful rainbow trout while fishing for silver salmon. Nice accident!

And that is this week’s Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- go fishing!

John Kumiski

Home- Spotted Tail Outdoors and Travel

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2012. All rights are reserved.

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Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report

August 12, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Silvers and Dollies and Pinks, Oh My!

The silver salmon run is picking up steam here on the Goodnews River. Boats whose captains pick the right spots are logging 25 and 30 fish days. The less fortunate souls have to hunt for two here, three there, none at this other place. One good thing about silvers is that if they are there they bite immediately. You don’t need to waste time fishing where they ain’t.

silver salmon goodnews river

Orlando’s Don Boardman with a fine silver salmon.

Fly casters generally use floating lines and weighted streamers in cerise, orange, chartreuse, blue, black, or some combination of those colors. When the run gets near the peak, gurglers and poppers will work, exciting fishing, but we’re not quite there yet.

Spin fishers usually use either Pixie spoons or Mepps Flying C spinners, although of course other lures will work. My favorite go-to lure, when I absolutely want to catch some fish, is a 3/8th ounce leadhead jig equipped with a soft plastic curly tail. I prefer those jigheads made by DOA because of the stout hook and the eye-catching eyes, but other heads work too. I also like the DOA CAL tails. They hold up fairly well to the toothy attacks of the silvers, and the elicit those attacks with startling regularity.

silver salmon on jig

Jigs are deadly on silver salmon.

Buzz Livingston borrowed one jighead and a couple of tails from me and boated 18 silvers in two hours while out with Kevin Rogers. Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout!

A staggering number of pink salmon are in the river. We don’t usually target pinks, but catch loads while fishing for both silvers and dollies. They annoy a few anglers when they’re fishing for silvers but I appreciate the bent rods. They are usually a hoot when caught while fishing for dollies because they give an excellent account of themselves on a six-weight or smaller. They are handsome little fish. I really like them.

Likewise dollies are everywhere. Some are getting their spawning colors, which are breathtaking. When you get a four or five pound fish with the spectacular colors of a spawning dolly you understand why you come to Alaska to fish. While streamers and beads are more effective, I still prefer to fish them with a gurgler. The visual aspect of the follows, misses, and occasional hooked fish are all part of fun of using the floating flies. Besides, how many dollies do you need to catch?

Dolly varden in spawning colors.

Mike got this beautiful Dolly in Barnum Creek.

Dead and dying chum and pink salmon are seen everywhere. Flesh flies will be effective on trout and dollies. We’re getting to the time of year when the river will start to stink badly at every bend.

Dead salmon are everywhere.

Long Fish Story of the Week-
Bob and Gennie Johnson, part of a four-couples group, were out fishing with me. Bob had some money riding on the big fish of the day.
I was working with Gennie, who was happily catching dollies. Bob had walked about 200 yards downstream, where he was casting a streamer fly for silver salmon.

Bob bellowed up to us, “Big Fish!” Fine, I thought, just beach it on the gravel bar. He clearly had some other idea though, because he kept yelling at us. So Gennie and I interrupted her fishing, trudged back upstream to the boat ,and got in. I pulled the anchor and proceeded to row downstream.

The water got shallow and the boat grounded, necessitating disembarking and pushing until it began floating again.

In the meantime not only had Bob beached the fish, he had unhooked it and gone back to fishing. He neglected to kill the fish, which did not wish to suffocate on the gravel bar. It flopped its way back into the water.

When Bob noticed his fish was escaping he took immediate action, throwing his fly outfit (Abel reel, Loomis rod) into the river so he could run down the fish. He was successful in this.

About this time we finally arrived on the scene. Bob was almost panicked because he could not find his rod and reel. Hell, the current is strong and the outfit could have been half a mile downstream already. Fortunately he was using a floating line, which he finally spotted. Rod and reel recovered, we got a photo of the fish.

All’s well that ends well!

silver salmon goodnews river

Bob got the fish, and even found his fishing rod.

And that is this week’s Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- go fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2012. All rights are reserved.

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Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report

July 29, 2012 by · 1 Comment

King Salmon Season Ends, Dolly Varden the Fish of the Week

July 25 was the last day of king salmon season. No more cha-wee-cha! We still see them and of course flies and lures meant for other species get attacked by kings.

Several of our anglers made the most of the last days of king season. Jeff and Mike from Missouri wanted to go fly fishing for kings, at which we spent the morning. Jeff didn’t get one, but Mike got two big ones, beautiful fish which were both released.

King Salmon Mike

One of two king salmon Mike got tossing flies.

Then they wanted some dollies. We traded the 10-weights for five-weights and went dolly fishing. I showed them how to skate the gurglers and they proceeded to catch fat dollies until Jeff said, “Can we got catch some rainbows?” We changed flies and locations and they got four nice ‘bows on black streamers before suppertime. Quite the day they had.

Rainbow Trout Mike

Mike got the big trout this day too, a lovely fish of about five pounds.

The Barnes family from Toledo is currently visiting us. I fished Annette and Hannah, mother and daughter. Hannah wanted to try to get a slam, difficult because so few silvers are around. She got a nice king first, then we tried sifting through pinks and chums for hours, looking for that silver. We didn’t find it, and my fishermen have yet to get one.

king salmon Hannah

Hannah got this king salmon first.

pink salmon Hannah

She took this pink salmon on a Pixie spoon.

Chum Salmon Hannah

She took this chum salmon on fly. But the silver salmon eluded her.

The Gretkierewicz family, mostly from the Detroit area, is also visiting. Yesterday patriarch Dr. Paul and son Russell fished with me. We were looking for grayling and rainbows, but what we found were zillions ( not really but it seemed like it) of big dollies. At first they were tossing a Pixie and a Dardevle and raising complete havoc with the dollies.

Dolly varden Russell

The Fish of the Week, the Dolly varden. Russell G. got this beauty on a Dardevle, and then got several more on gurglers.

Neither of them had ever fly fished before. I talked them into trying and set Russell up with a six-weight and a gurgler. He was soon tossing solid 40 foot casts and catching even more than he had been with the spoon. Dad was a little more difficult, but he also managed to get his first fish on fly.

OK, run status update-
kings- slowing down a lot. Season is closed now.
sockeyes- slowing down a lot. we’re still getting a few bright fish but you have to work.
chums- seem to have peaked. Lots still around.
pinks- everywhere, lots of pinks, fun on light tackle.
silvers- just getting started, about a half dozen caught so far this week.
blueberries- coming in very nicely. Ate a bunch today while hiking across the tundra.

And the Fish of the Week is the Dolly varden! There are tens of thousands of dollies in the river with a lot of fish over five pounds. Catching a dolly pushing ten pounds is not unusual- Russell did it on both spin and fly tackle yesterday. I put one of his dollies next to a silver salmon and they were exactly the same size. Fast fishing for beautiful, delicious fish, what more could you ask for?

There is no fish story of the week this week. I didn’t have anyone do anything very weird- no fires, no smacking someone with a fish. I’ll have to be more diligent next week…

That is this week’s Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- go fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com/

|All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2012. All rights are reserved.
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Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report

July 14, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Tsuktulig, Faith’s Birthday, Cha-wee-cha, and More

Word of the Week- Cha-WEE-cha! That’s a phonetic spelling for king salmon in Russian. I would write the word in Russian if I could remember how the Russians spell it in their very different from ours alphabet. More on the Russians below.

From the Inbox, an email from Nick Collantonio, a repeat Lodge guest for many years: “I enjoyed both weekly reports from the Goodnews. In each report was my pick for the Comatose Angler Award for that week: wading-shoes-on-the-wrong-foot-guy and dropped-spool-in-the-water-guy. Having established myself as a comatose angler in Florida, Alaska and Ireland, I take an interest in those who follow in my footsteps, and I take satisfaction in knowing that on the day that the award was first presented at GNRL I had landed three species of Pacific salmon in comatose mode — silver, pink and king — 60% of a slam.

“Seeya in two and a half weeks.” -Nick

Wednesday was Faith’s seventh birthday. The party was a gala affair. She got a Hello Kitty book, a set of fly tying tools, and a pair of waders, and several other gifts. I considered making and giving her drumsticks, a gift that keeps on giving. I also considered Mike and Kim’s sanity and held off, at least for another year.

Faith and Hello Kitty

JA- always ready for a party…

Is that Elton John?

Taylor, the fun guy.

Monday son Alex, Taylor Melville, and I took a day off to go mountaining. I was optimistic when we left but by the time we got to Tsuktulig it had clouded and the top wasn’t visible. We decided to go anyway.

We found a mostly clear path across the tundra, a fairly clear path through the trees, and then it was on to the summit. I am slower than I used to be. That may be a good thing, come to think of it, at least in some areas of endeavor.

We had lunch near the summit. I was uncomfortable. You could only see about 100 feet and it was steep down in every direction but one. I had no intention of going up on that knife edge just then.

Already at the top, we weren’t pressing our luck by going there.

As we headed down we got below a break in the clouds and had some incredible views.

Alex, on Tsuktulig.

The boys going wild on the mountain.

Alex and Taylor- the intrepid mountain crew.

We even had enough gas left after getting down to stop and do a little fishing on the way back to camp. We got one bite between us. I lost the fish.

At the beginning of the week I spent a couple days doing king salmon/sockeye salmon splits. Bob Wohlborn and Cary Campbell combined for a king salmon double with two fish that together easily hit 50 pounds. We then got 15 sockeyes.

King Salmon Double

Bob and Cary did some damage.

Wednesday the Russians arrived, nine of them from St. Petersburg. My first assignment was with Mikhail and Dennis, father and son. They spin fished, but they were among the best anglers I’ve run into anywhere ever, just awesome. They tuned up eight kings on Wednesday afternoon, and four more on Thursday. Sadly it has been cold and rainy since they got here (high of 46 Fahrenheit today) and I have not been carrying the camera in the boat.

Last night I took Aaron the chef and Will, chief bottle washer, fly fishing for chums. The fish were right where they were supposed to be, and both guys had a great time. There are again stupid numbers of chum salmon in the river.

Fish Story of the Week: Today Nikita and Pavel graced my boat. As already stated it was cold, rainy, and windy. Pavel’s gloves were crap and Nikita didn’t have any. He asked me as best he could (which was good enough, since I eventually figured out what he wanted) if I had an extra pair of gloves. I did, a nice fleece pair with the fold-down mitten top, a wonderful thing during the Alaskan summer. I gave them to him.

Of course they got wet. While we were in for lunch he put them on the propane heater I his cabin. My son Alex was walking by a short time later and heard the smoke alarm. My gloves were on fire.

Nikita showed them to me after lunch. He was very apologetic, as you could imagine. We made up and were fine!

My mittens- up in smoke.

Nikita and Pavel took three big kings, all on plugs. One salmon weighed eight kilos as measured on their scale. Nikita likes a lot of drag on his reel. He locked down on my Ambassadeur and pulled the hook off of two plugs. It was an entertaining day in spite of some very crappy weather.

Spo-cee-bo for reading…

That is this week’s Goodnews River Lodge, Alaska Fishing Report.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- If you can’t come fishing here, at least go fishing!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2012. All rights are reserved.

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Goodnews River, Alaska Fishing Report

July 8, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
king salmon, goodnews river

Larry Hillis took two salmon like this one day this week.

Goodnews River, Alaska Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 7/7/12

Phalanxes of fish swim up the river, wakes visible even through the fog. Eddies are packed with salmon. They roll like miniature tarpon, jump like crazed mullet. The air temperature swings wildly, sometimes changing 40 degrees in 12 hours. It’s summer on the Goodnews River.

The king salmon are running in the Goodnews River, which apparently is having the best run of any river in Alaska. The numbers of fish have not been huge, but the size of the fish has- there are very few jacks. More fish are in the 35- to 40 inch range than below that size. The fish of the week in my boat was caught by Larry Hillis, who got two 36 inch kings on the same day, using an articulated purple fly on a 300 grain line. Larry’s best fish of the week was taken with another guide, a 42 inch beauty.

The chums and sockeyes are pouring in by the thousands. Chums take almost any small, brightly colored fly quite readily. Since they run between eight and twelve pounds, a fly caster with a seven- or eight weight can have a field day, easily catching 20 or more.

Pink salmon are in the mix. This is supposed to be a “pink year” but the main part of the run has definitely not hit yet.

Sockeyes don’t strike lures or flies very well. Most of those caught are not hooked in the mouth. Most salmon connoisseurs prefer sockeyes for the table, though, so we go sockeye fishing fairly regularly.

sockeye salmon, goodnews river

The Aronson brothers and their uncle Paul all limited out on sockeye salmon, a fine mess of fish.

Trout and grayling fishing dropped off this week for reasons that remain unclear. We have had some nasty weather. Perhaps that has affected those species. I’m sure it will get better. Trout fishing here is consistently excellent.

rainbow trout, goodnews river

Son Alex caught this nice rainbow this week. A flesh fly did the trick.

Dolly varden catches have been sporadic. They have not started entering the river in any numbers yet.

Fish Story of the Week- Jeff Arnold reported that one of his fishermen was complaining all morning about how much his feet hurt. His fishing buddy finally told him, “It’s no wonder they hurt- your wading boots are on the wrong feet!” When Jeff looked the guy’s boots were all splayed out like a duck’s.

In general fishing has been pretty darn good, as evidenced by this photo of the Trover family-

a day's catch, goodnews river

The Trover family took some salmon home- one day’s catch on the Goodnews River.

We had a nice evening and some of the staff hiked up Lookout Mountain-

goodnews river lodge

Goodnews River Lodge, as seen from Lookout Mountain

That is this week’s Goodnews River, Alaska Fishing Report.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- go fishing!

John Kumiski

Home- Spotted Tail Outdoors and Travel

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2011. All rights are reserved.

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Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Goodnews River- Alaska Fishing Report · Tagged: , , , , ,
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