114 replies to this topic

[LordMykiss]

I think more research is required in this matter before any vote is called! Pick any 5 rivers and report back Dec 1, 2014!!

do we classify it by when it was caught? colours? size? sex? you need to be more specific!! cause when i go to the river and CATCH a fish i will get very angry, i only go for one specie and anything else dares to touch my bait, I throw a tantrum and throw my gear into the water!

[BowSlayer]

lol, i almsot pi$$ed myself reading you post, klik.

[LordMykiss]

[Knuguy]

do we classify it by when it was caught? colours? size? sex? you need to be more specific!! cause when i go to the river and CATCH a fish i will get very angry, i only go for one specie and anything else dares to touch my bait, I throw a tantrum and throw my gear into the water!

 

I'll draw up guidelines by Feb, which we can they argue about until April or so!!!

[DILLIGAF?!]

When the water opens up its going to be my MISSION to catch a brown or brookie

not saying you won't catch browns now but the odds of catching them are pretty good during and after the salmon runs. i don't know the science of it but I was catching browns on my early steelhead hunt. they tend to mix with the salmon and slowly disappears as soon as steelhead starts to enter the rivers...and one more thing. browns seem to come in groups of 2 - 4. I haven't seen a lonesome brown. If you catch one...your next catch will most probably be a brown again.

[Diana Danger]

not saying you won't catch browns now but the odds of catching them are pretty good during and after the salmon runs. i don't know the science of it but I was catching browns on my early steelhead hunt. they tend to mix with the salmon and slowly disappears as soon as steelhead starts to enter the rivers...and one more thing. browns seem to come in groups of 2 - 4. I haven't seen a lonesome brown. If you catch one...your next catch will most probably be a brown again.

What about Brookies?

[DILLIGAF?!]

What about Brookies?

check your pm...

[Shawarma]

do we classify it by when it was caught? colours? size? sex? you need to be more specific!! cause when i go to the river and CATCH a fish i will get very angry, i only go for one specie and anything else dares to touch my bait, I throw a tantrum and throw my gear into the water!

 

 Please tell me which waters you're throwing your gear into so i can go get it. Thanks.  

[TRINIBOY]

I've been fortunate to catch salmon in saltwater,lake and river and find that the pure strength and determation to get off your hook once caught cannot be beat. Bows I find give a better account of themselves in the rivers in apposed to the lake. What would I choose? I've have to go with the salmon without a dought.

[GoodenTight]

I am a steelheader. That being said, by the time Sep rolls around and my Rods been hung up for May, June, July, August, you'd have to be institutionalized to come to the assumption I wouldn't be out chasing those boots.

 

Mid September, say you were to tell me a fresh wave of boots entered Trib X and a fresh wave of chromers entered Trib Y. It doesn't take a scientist to figure out where 95% of us would end up, and I think that is the best comparison of "apples to apples" given the question you were asking.

[DILLIGAF?!]

If you base it in this forum then it will always be to each his own...but a good example i would suggest check the september salmon run....and then check the opener....I fish for salmon during the early run then switch to brown when salmons turn to zombies...and sadly once in a while i still catch them. but during this times most of the people i meet in the water fish salmon for roe and guess what they'll do next...

 

needless to say.

some anglers fish for salmon so they can fish their beloved steels...

 

but i fish for both. and sometimes i do miss the salmon fight...

[Knuguy]

I am a steelheader. That being said, by the time Sep rolls around and my Rods been hung up for May, June, July, August, you'd have to be institutionalized to come to the assumption I wouldn't be out chasing those boots.

 

 

Aug is the best time for salmon on some rivers.

[GoodenTight]

I was out for it KNU for sure. Just easier to type Sep than "Mid August specific by date when the first run comes in" lol

[FrequentFlyer]

I was out for it KNU for sure. Just easier to type Sep than "Mid August specific by date when the first run comes in" lol

 

pier casting pedestrian dodging lol  strange people that exercise and write in pitch black

[Diana Danger]

pier casting pedestrian dodging lol  strange people that exercise and write in pitch black

 

 

I was out for it KNU for sure. Just easier to type Sep than "Mid August specific by date when the first run comes in" lol

 

 

can i tag along one time this year? sounds like a blast...

[FrequentFlyer]

can i tag along one time this year? sounds like a blast...

absolutely, we had dozer out there one night, he knows what i mean lol

[Diana Danger]

absolutely, we had dozer out there one night, he knows what i mean lol

 

now its starting to sound like a party!

[FrequentFlyer]

now its starting to sound like a party!

 

 

haha can't forget the teeny boppers making out behind the lighthouse lol

[AKnook]

Without a second thought I prefer steelhead and wild resident rainbow trout fishing to any other species.  I target salmon here in AK every year and thoroughly enjoy it.  I drive hundreds of miles to chase the salmon runs and devote a great amount of time chasing after them.  I have caught 50lb salt water chinook, and all other pacific salmon and it’s a blast. 

 

Out of all the salmon species the sockeye fights the best bar none.  The kings are brutes and hold down low if they aren't ripping drag.  The sockeye rips drag up and down river with multiple aerial acrobatics thrown in the mix.  It is outstanding. 

 

But my joy in fly fishing is at its peak when on a river chasing rainbows and steelhead.  These fish are difficult to catch.  Not always the case but harder than salmon.  I love going after them throughout the different stages of the year.  In the spring time I chase after them with smolt patterns, nymphs, sculpins and leeches.  When the salmon enter the rivers I use beads, and flesh flies.  Rainbows fight hard and love jumping out of the water.  This is exciting to watch getting your adrenaline going all the while trying to keep tension on the line so you don’t lose it.  When you catch a monster bow hold on tight.

 

This is a long post but I have a slow day at work today and I have rainbow fishing on the brain since I will be hitting the Kenai River this coming Saturday. Here are two of my favorite moments fishing for wild resident rainbows this year both on the same river on the same day at that.

 

I fished a new river this year which is exciting in its self, but I could not believe the amount of rainbows and quality rainbows at that. And to boot no one else on the water.  The first spot my buddy and I fished held many spawning sockeye salmon.  In this time of the year (fall) where there are spawning salmon there are rainbows.  Look for a small school of salmon and drift a bead or flesh fly.  Sometimes you can see the rainbows behind the salmon but deep in the cover of overhanging trees.  I had already caught a few small fish when I noticed a large dark shadow dart off from under a cut bank no doubt eating a drifting egg.  I drifted my bead in its feeding lane and bam!  Fish on.  I fought him for a few seconds when all of a sudden (and this is no joke) this fish jumps at least 4 feet out of the water at an angle and goes over a tree limb.  My line is over this tree limb and under a log in the water.  I hope the fish is still on my line as I walk out into the water to untangle my line but of course the line caught on a snag in the log and snapped off the fish.  Although I didn’t fight this fish very long it was surreal to see this fish jump that high.  My buddy who has never caught a rainbow at that point couldn’t believe what he just saw.  I didn’t even land this fish nor was it the largest rainbow of the day and it overshadows some very nice catches this year. It was colored beautifully as I got a good look at it in the air.  Rainbow fishing at its finest.

 

A few hours later and about a mile down river to another stretch holding some spawning chum salmon we decide to stop and fish this bend.  Many nice fish were caught on this area with my buddy catching most of them and for sure getting the rainbow bug. 

 

We fished this bend hard and I even waded to the other side of the bend to fish numerous times so what happened next was not expected.  I got back to where we started fishing and began to fish the same bend going toward the crossing area where I headed to the other side.  I noticed a couple chum salmon holding right in the path I took to cross to the other side about ten minutes prior.  I drifted my bead through them and felt tension.  I immediately set the hook and feel some good weight and head shakes but it didn’t move. This is what a spawning salmon feels like so I figure I unintentionally flossed a chum.  As I begin to reel to snap off my line this fish bolts down river with extreme energy.  Yea, this was no salmon.   

 

I see this huge rainbow trout jump out of the water three times as I frantically try to maintain tension.  This area is infested with many overhanging trees and shrubs that I knew I would lose this fish if he went toward them.  Of course that is exactly what it did.  It headed downstream into the cut bank taking me to my backing on my reel.  As he went into the cut bank under all the overhanging branches I got onto my knees to make sure my line was free of the branches.  I actually somehow managed to move him away from the cut bank into the open water and fight him back up to where I hooked him only to have him repeat what he had just done and again taking me to my backing.  Unreal! I am fighting him all this time on my knees!  I finally bring him out again and into an area I could land him safely. 

About an hour prior to this my buddy went to net a decent fish of mine and managed to knock the fly out of the fish’s mouth.  Seeing him with the net ready to scoop the fish I tell him that I will guide the fish into the net.  I was confident it would be landed as I fought him out a sure snap off area and the fish was just a few feet from my buddy.  I eased the fish into the shallower water where the net was (still on my knees) only to see my line shoot upward and the fish bolting back into the depths.  The line falls all around me.  Defeated I just sat there on my knees. 

 

I couldn’t believe what happened.  I lost a behemoth rainbow.  This was a fish of 30 inches or greater.  We are talking a steelhead size resident wild rainbow. I saw him clear as day a foot from the net, not to mention when he jumped three times.  It was flawless and full of energy.  My buddy was in awe of this fish as he was the closest to him seeing his magnitude.  He didn’t say much to me as I remained on my knees.

 

I tried to pick my brain to see if there was something I could have done differently.  I concluded that I fought the fish well and that it just spit the hook. I didn’t horse him to the net, the hook just dislodged. I would have done everything the same.  He took me to my backing twice and should have snapped or wrapped around a log or branch.  Although I didn’t land him it was still a success for me.  I have never hooked into a resident rainbow this size and may never again but I will sure as hell be back to that area this coming spring and fall chasing after him.

 

That is why I love rainbow fishing.  That one fish has been on my mind since that day.  I relive it all the time while looking at the photos of the day with other fish.  I have caught many salmon and lost many as well but I know if I get back out there I can catch a salmon.  I can’t say that about rainbows with confidence. 

 

In the end it is whatever someone enjoys fishing for.  The passion I feel fishing for rainbows can be felt by someone else fishing for bass.  Everyone has their preference; the only one that matters is the one you hold. 

[IR4J]

Hey AK... I wish I was you man... Great post, maybe Ill find my way up to Ak someday