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Kodiak. Hordes of fish. Huge brown bears.
Sitka black-tailed deer. Herds of buffalo on the island.
It’s a paradise for the salmon fanatic, the avowed hunter
of halibut, and the trout connoisseur content to pursue incredible numbers
of Dolly Varden and steelhead. It is a place of immense beauty but
challenging and constantly changing weather.
Located some 250 air miles southwest of Anchorage, Kodiak
Island is the second largest island in the United States and home to several
unique communities—Old Harbor, Larsen Bay, Karluk, Akhiok, Ouzinkie, and
Port Lions being just a few. Opportunities for the well-rounded traveler
abound. Boasting of spectacular coastal scenery, accessible and varied
wildlife-viewing excursions, and several areas of historical and cultural
import, the island also serves as a major hub for Alaska’s commercial
fishing fleet and as a staging point for goods heading by ship to the remote
communities of southwest Alaska. The city of Kodiak is home to the largest
U.S. Coast Guard base in the country. And of course, there is always the
island’s renowned freshwater angling, which begins in popular roadside
rivers like the Pasagshak, American, and Buskin and extends to more remote
waterways like the Karluk, Ayakulik, or Uganik rivers.
This adventure brings us to Kodiak in late August to
experience a smorgasbord of fishing with a slant towards saltwater silvers.
Like can often happen with a Kodiak adventure, it evolves into far more than
that.
 We arrive on Sunday evening and get everyone to the
appropriate hotel before going out to explore some of the road system
fishing. Mike LeNorman, sales director for ERA Aviation, Mike Moberly of
Spenard Builders Supply, Scott Vrolick and Chad Campbell of ACS, and myself,
Melissa and Wayne Norris, Alan Powers, and Rick Birch of Fish Alaska
magazine are the players in the first three days of this fishing theatre.
All of us stay at the Buskin Inn except for Melissa and Wayne, who stay at
Best Western Kodiak Inn.
The following morning we split into two groups. Wayne,
Melissa, and Mike LeNorman travel to Saltery Creek by four-wheelers with
Grif of Salty Fly Safaris. Their trip is incredible, from the scenery to the
wildlife to the fishing (See the sidebar in this article for more details).
Mike M., Scott, Chad, and myself spend the day with Dan
Busch of Kodiak Island River Camps. Dan’s company caters strictly to fly
fishermen and offers opportunities like weeklong packages on Kodiak for
salmon or other fishing adventures targeting steelhead on the Karluk River.
We will target pink and silver salmon arriving directly from the saltwater
and experience some of the road system rivers.
Dan Busch is a retired high school teacher and has been on
Kodiak for over 30 years. He is a very patient person and a good teacher and
was perfect for the task of teaching Mike, Chad, and Scott to flyfish. At
the beginning of the outing, I wasn’t confident that they would catch a
salmon with a fly rod, but by the end of the day, double and triple hookups
were common.
We begin the day at Myrtle Creek and wade out into the
salt flats where the river begins. Our task has many similar characteristics
to bonefishing in that we are instructed to wade out into the shallow water
and look for finning fish before casting to the front of the school. We use
sparse flies that imitate shrimp as well as the Alaska staple of egg-sucking
leeches and other streamers. Leaders are about eight feet long and taper
from 20 to 10-pound test. We do not need to use weight as the water is only
about three feet deep on average, and we cast and retrieve at a moderate
pace, using foot-long strips. Action is fairly slow and after landing three
fish in 30 minutes, Dan decides it is time for us to move on.
My opinion of pink salmon fishing before this day ranged
somewhere between love and hate. I love that most anglers can find success
in catching pinks and that these salmon fresh from the sea are fine to eat
(I especially like them smoked). I hate that it can sometimes seem
impossible to catch other species because of the sheer number of pinks.
After this day, my opinion of this often-overlooked sport fish climbed
several rungs toward admiration, as the action was steady and sometimes
sizzling, and pinks fresh from the salt fight for all they are worth.
We finish the day fishing in the saltwater at the
confluence of the Olds River and Kalsin Creek. Wading and casting are
phenomenal here—flat, firm sand bars with minimal rock and lots of snag-free
territory to cast flies. Between the four of us we catch and release in the
neighborhood of 50 dime-bright pinks. Everyone has a new appreciation for
flyfishing on this day.
Day two dawns with high winds and lots of rain and foils
our plans to put eight anglers on the saltwater between True North
Adventures and Kodiak King Busters. Instead Wayne, Alan, and I drive to the
north end of the road system to try our luck with the pinks flowing into
Monashka Bay. We spend two hours in a downpour steadily catching fresh pink
salmon. We are again able to wade several hundred yards from the spot where
Monashka Creek runs into the bay, nearly into what looks to be open ocean.
Occasionally one of us will hook and land a starry flounder when our lures
linger too close to the bottom.
Alan and I throw 8-weight, 9-foot fly rods and floating
line with an 8-foot leader tapered from 0x-3x Froghair fluorocarbon. We use
Teeny nymphs and find that the #6 pink and white and the red and white in
the same size both work very well. Wayne casts a variety of spinners and
spoons with a medium-action baitcaster. He lands fish with Mepps Flying C’s
in both pink and green and has additional luck with the Blue Fox Pixie and
Vibrax in similar colors. All lures are K-I ounces. The three of us see
non-stop action and land 60-plus fish in the two hours we froth the water. I
think that the important part of the equation was to have a medium speed
retrieve in either fishing application—just enough to cause the fish to
strike.
Wayne and I wrap up the day fishing by catching Dolly
Varden in the Buskin River. We fish above the “Beaver Pond”—a well-known
local spot with fairly swift water that often produces silver salmon. Using
4-weight, 9-foot fly rods, floating line, and long leaders tapered to 3x or
6-pound test, we are able to catch Dollies on single beads in the 6mm size.
Color does not appear to be that important this day, but size makes a
noticeable difference. We start the fishing with 8 or 10 mm beads, and after
catching zero fish, switch down to 6mm. The action is continuous and we land
about 20 Dollies, mostly in the 12 to 16-inch class with an occasional fish
reaching 20 inches.
On day three, the weather is slightly more cooperative,
but with winds hitting the island from several directions, it makes it
difficult to travel through open water to get to productive fishing grounds.
Roger Aulabaugh of Dutchman Charters agrees to go for a boat ride with us,
and Alan, Rick, Melissa, Wayne, and myself meet him at slip F11 in the new
boat harbor. We know that we will not be able to experience the fishing
opportunities afforded anglers on a nice day in Kodiak, but we want to spend
some time with Roger and figure the worst day of fishing is still better
than the best day of working.
Roger uses a 28-foot Bayliner with a 454 Merc Cruiser to
charter four anglers or groups of six on sightseeing tours. It is a very
comfortable boat that cruises at16 to 18 knots with a big cabin that we
enjoy on the 30-minute ride through the chop to troll between Woody and Long
islands. Roger is a retired Fish and Wildlife officer and has been on Kodiak
Island for 16 years and chartering for six. From May through September he
offers charters for king salmon, silver salmon, halibut, lingcod, and
yelloweye snapper. One of the highlights of 2003 was having a client fight a
350-pound halibut for an hour and 15 minutes, and then release it.
We troll two rods—8-foot Ugly Stick Tigers, 12-30-pound
class, with Quantum Iron IR 320 baitcasting reels spooled with 25-pound Ande
monofilament—using a flasher and hoochie on one rod and a Luhr-Jensen Cop
Car Coyote on the other. The silvers have been sparse so far this year and
the combined rough water and slow fishing send us back to the harbor early.
We had hoped to be able to spend some quality time with some of the members
of the Kodiak Charterboat Association, but weather hampers this quest.
There’s always another trip to Kodiak.
Thursday, day four, dawns sunny and calm. It is a
delightful reprieve from the past three days. We are now accompanied by
Carlos Rosan and Sean Lindemood of ACS and Charles Clement of the South
Central Foundation and Wilson Duffels of Nana Corporation. Rick stays on
Kodiak with me and the rest of the original group heads back to Anchorage.
Sean and Rick will stay in Kodiak and fish on the saltwater with Kodiak
Island Charters while Carlos, Charles, and Wilson accompany me to Quartz
Creek Lodge.
Harvey Flying Service will transport us to the lodge in
their Grumman Widgeon. Steve Harvey has been flying around Alaska since he
was a boy, and from the way he handles the Widgeon, it is clear that he has
countless hours of experience. The flight is smooth and the visibility is
good and we are treated to an aerial tour of Kodiak.
As we approach Quartz Creek Lodge from the air, it is
obvious that crowds won’t be a factor. Sitting on the hillside above a
secluded bay, the lodge offers a 180-degree view of mountains and water.
Dave and Pam Pingree built the lodge to fulfill several needs—to provide
both a family atmosphere and a high-end fishing experience. We will spend
one day fishing the Uganik River for salmon and Dolly Varden and half a day
trolling the saltwater for migrating silver salmon. The lodge is comprised of a main building that is the
central meeting and dining area as well as the home of the Pingree
family—Pam, Dave, their two boys, Levi and Aaron, and three girls, Beth,
Faith, and Amy. Three cabins and a bathhouse with two full baths as well as
an additional building with a Banya complete the operation. One of the
cabins is occupied by John, Pam and Dave’s business partner and a certified
fishing fanatic. The other two cabins house three people each. To provide
each guest with the best experience possible, Quartz Creek Lodge likes to
limit the amount of people staying at the lodge to six at any one time.
We move our luggage from the plane on the beach to the
lodge and quickly don our river angling gear. After a 30-minute ride in one
of the lodge’s saltwater boats, we moor the boat to a buoy about one mile
from the entrance to the Uganik River and the five of us jump into a Naid
(inflatable boat) to make the final run into the river.
Dave assures us that the river will be full of pinks,
chums, and Dollies and that the silvers have been slowly entering the river.
This is an introduction to flyfishing for Carlos, Wilson, and Chuck, and
they are quickly (within five minutes of fishing) rewarded with Dolly Varden.
In fact, Wilson landed a nice 18-inch fish on his first cast. By day’s end,
the five of us have landed over 100 Dollies and a handful of pinks and
chums. The fish are not leader shy. We pegged 6mm beads and used the
appropriate amount of split shot to bounce the bead along the bottom. The
Dollies are incredibly aggressive, and we are able to catch them on the
surface by waking our beads. I’ve never seen an egg swim upriver, but these
Dollies don’t seem to care. We are also treated to some of Kodiak’s famous
bears, and see six, including a sow and her three cubs, on the river.
Back at the lodge, we enjoy a fantastic dinner of silver
salmon, halibut, and fresh tanner crab as well as a salad harvested from the
garden. The Pingrees are allowed to harvest tanner crab and a five-minute
boat ride from the lodge puts you on the crab pot site. Thus, when I say
that the evening meal of crab was fresh, I mean that they were alive 45
minutes before we ate them.
The following morning is as beautiful as the day before,
and we pile into the saltwater boat after breakfast and head out to troll
for silvers. After a 45-minute boat ride, we find ourselves trolling at 2 to
2.5 knots near Noisy Island. We use downriggers to get Hot Spot mini
flashers in front of blue or green hoochies to 35-60 feet. Dave uses 8-foot,
3-inch Ugly Sticks and Ambassadeur 6500 C3s spooled with 25-pound Tufline
spectra to troll for silvers. Action is steady and in the three hours we
spend fishing, we hook 15 silvers and land 12. Fish range from 6 to 17
pounds. We are also treated to whale spoutings and get close to a sea otter
that the Pingrees have affectionately named Fred.
We are picked up at the lodge by Andrew Airways in their
DeHavilland Beaver. It is a very well kept plane, and like most Beavers in
Alaska, it allows enough room to get all four of us comfortably in the plane
in addition to all of our gear. It’s another blue-sky day, great for flying,
and we are treated to spectacular aerials on our flight back. In addition to
providing transportation to fishers and hunters, Andrew Airways provides
flight-seeing, bear viewing, and cargo transportation on the Alaska
Peninsula, within Katmai National Park, and on Kodiak Island.
As in many Fish Alaska magazine trips, we were able to
experience a diversity of fishing opportunities, meet some great people, and
create memories to share for years to come. Kodiak is one of those
destinations that will provide an interesting fishing outing to virtually
all anglers, and one that we will regularly visit.
Marcus Weiner is a publisher of Fish Alaska magazine.
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