Just Kodiak Again...

Just returned yesterday from three weeks fishing Kodiak. It was a split between saltwater jigging with conventional gear mixed with a tiny bit of saltwater flyrodding, and quite a bit of freshwater flyfishing, mostly for dolly varden.

On "the other" gear I did manage to catch a few decent fish; halibut of 80, 100, and 155 pounds; several lingcod of over 50 pounds; and lots of assorted rockfish, including some very big yelloweye. A friend from California also caught a halibut of 115, and all caught monster lingcod. The trip included the "6Th Annual Once in a Lifetime Alaska Fishing Trip" for friends including the founders from Cameraland NY. Their focus is always large bottom fish and the weather cooperated enough to allow fishing all but one day on salt while they were here.

But the better fishing was on small streams and ponds for dollies and the occasional rainbow. The steams were full of salmon, but we stuck to the light rods and caught tons of dollies. At times it was literally fish on every cast and multiple hits if the hook-up did not happen. In some stretches the dollies ran an average of perhaps 14" with lots running to the 24" range or so. They had just been in the streams (sea-run fish come in about the first week of July) for a short month and because the salmon have not started spawning yet they were still not gorging on salmon eggs. Come fall these same fish will be obese after generous portions of flesh, roe, and sea lice.

The high point for me was the fact my son, 17, came to me begging because I was the holder of the hot fly. Small green stone flies were hatching almost continuously and I had tied a number my scud variation with green backing. It seemed they were keying heavily on green for several days and the scuds were absolutely unreal.

Extremely sparse and tiny Thundercreeks with bead chain eyes have always been a serious favorite for dollies and they worked, but were not in the same league with the scuds. When I get around to some pictures I will see about posting some.
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