As close to fly fishing in a bathtub as possible

[Silver Creek]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C05TrzVCEF8

[ScottP]

Talk about pocket water! - it's like icefishing, without the augers and tip-ups.

Regards,
Scott

[johnstoeckel]

That's pretty crazy! Do you have any idea where that is located? Also what kind of water is that? It appears to be relatively deep and certainly surprising that a fish of that size can survive (find enough to eat) in water that small. Wondering if it's a cave / cavern of some kind?

[Silver Creek]

That opening is a muskeg hole. Muskeg is vegetation in a bog or floating vegetation on a pond or stream. The water is interconnected under the muskeg.


Muskeg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Steven]

Amazing somebody can walk on that stuff.

[hap]

There are many places like that in AK. I have watched the floating matt increase tremendously over the last half-century on "Tern Lake" at the intersection of the Seward and Sterling highways. It is a tremendously productive lake for silver (coho) salmon and there are huge dollies and rainbows in it. It is closed to fishing because it is salmon spawning ground.

They changed the name of the lake many years ago... Mud Lake was not too appealing, apparently.

Anyway, the floating matts are anchored and you can easily walk almost anywhere on them. The reason for the distance casting on such a small hole was to get the fly there before walking over the fish put them down.

I have a similar hole I fish for salmon that is a bit smaller and you must sneak in to bow and arrow cast under the alders... It is outrageous what happens when the salmon jumps over the alders. Copious quantities of laughter are always involved...

[hap]

Just remembered a fish hatchery in Izhuit Bay on Afognak Island. They store their floating fish pens in a small cove near the hatchery. The web is taken off the pens so they are just floating frames made with large diameter PVC. The returning silver salmon spend a bunch of time milling around under the pens and we used to fish for them there.

Problem is a hooked fish can go to any pen it wants... And having your hooked silver jumping several pens away could be stressful! Saving marginal fly lines just for use there is mandatory... Lots of line-mangling nails and junk hanging off the pens...