I’ll admit it, I’ve been slacking. Ever since my incredible holiday in Oregen, I’ve managed to get out fishing a few times, but have not been writing. I even missed a deadline or two for “Been There Fished That” in Whats Up Yukon, which I hate doing.
In either case, here is my attempt at a quick report, just to get my writing mojo going again. Prior to my departure, about a month ago now, I hit Tarfu for some early Pike action and maybe some Lakers. Polarized glasses are a double edged sword in that you can usually see the fish, but it drives you nuts, when you seen them and they don’t take. Pike in Tarfu were stacked up and suspended in the water, like a gator ready to pounce on innocent prey, but they just would not take. Lure after lure, top-water props (frogs, poppers, plugs, spinners), and in- water spoons were within inches of these predators but nothing would entice any action. Trolling for Lakers was a bust too, the usual 20-30 foot water, slow troll produced zero hits for about two hours with three dudes rod’s in the water.
The beauty in all of this, were the abundant and poor cousin to our other sport fish…the grayling. Don’t get me wrong, I love and respect grayling, but when you have your big gear all rigged up and an expectation to get into a 15 pound toothed snot-rocket, the feisty little one pound wonders are a bit of a downer. As we were trolling down the lake, working the shoals looking for trout, we could see some fish rising and busting about a 100 meters away. Getting to this one spot around the island we realized these were Grayling rising on killer hatches. There were hundreds of them, rising in waves, sipping up the millions of midges and other entomological critters. It was sight fishing at its best. Calls out, “here they come again…3 o’clock” and three dudes would cast into the busting frenzy. At least 2 out of 3 would hook up. I pulled out the trusty 6 weight (a bit big I know, but I was looking for Pike as well) and started throwing dries into the invading pods of grayling. Within a few seconds, a grayling would snap it up and I had a live one on. We anchored in the middle of a channel and casted 360 degrees around the boat with multiple hook-ups. It was some rare, crazy action. Some times little things come in small packages!
On another note, I was gettting geared up for some Yukon Salmon fishing and went in to see Glenn at Sports North the other day. I am not that experienced at the relatively finicky art of spawn sacks and drift fishing. Glenn gave me a great tutorial and has some innovative tips and tricks that go against what you might hear out there. He’s got all the gear at the store for tying these things and the weights, tubing, yarn, swivels and other things that you need for a rig like this. If your nice, he may even show you how to rig it. Personally, I find this fishing a little frustrating, but it is very productive. You have to be prepared to lose your rig a few times, if you are doing it correctly. My problem is that I get a bit of buck fever on the water and don’t do that well with stream side tying and rigging. Best to do your prep in advance or you’ll end up like me feebly tying up my rig while everyone else is hooking into some.
Also think about angler etiquetter for combat fishing. There are some rules, especially when squished into an area like at Tatchun Creek or Haines for that matter. Drift rigs require special care as it needs to be done in unison with the people fishing left and right of you. Think of it as a coreographed dance with a couple of partners, when one casts upstream you cast upstream and let it float the same distance, etc… There are some rules to this game, so follow them or you may end up with a tangled rig, a pissed off neighbour, or a hook in the eye. If you want a primer on Combat fishing, have a look at the great videos by the Anchorage Daily News, Fishing Dude Jim. Under the features section, he’s got a couple of videos that explain drift rig combat fishing etiquette (part 1 and part 2).
Remember to take a kid fishing!
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