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Well I started my trip on Sunday of last week, arrived at 9am to a dead calm beach, filled to the brim with fly and gear fishers alike. I geared up, tied on my fly, and walked an hour down the beach to a small school, i had all to myself. After a few casts with a small shrimp pattern, i hooked into my first ever pink, a nice 5 and a half pound beauty. After a short fight I pulled her in and quickly released her, which I would do with the next 15 fish I caught out of my little school over the next two hours. After a quick break for lunch, I was back out, my school had dispersed long ago, and the wind was up, so I only landed two. Went back in and was asleep by 930, as there was an early mornings were to come in the next days.
Woke at 430 Monday, was in the boat at 530 and off to the secret grounds. Good day of fishing, landed about 18 and saw 3 black bears up by our packs, so we had to stay a little later than we had hoped haha.
Woke at 4 Tuesday, and was in the truck at 5, had an hour hike ahead of us along the beach in full gear to get to the secret grounds. There was a huge school in front of us as we arrived, at one point we, all 5 of us, were into fish 15 casts in a row. We started trying to find what wouldnt catch fish, I was using a bare red hook, caught fish, a friend used a size 12 caddis pupa and caught fish, and another used a size 16 chronimid under an indicator, no joke and caught fish. A perfect day of fishing.
Wednesday night was a late start do to a little bit of parting around the fire the night before due to the great fishing and stories from everyone else's day. Went out on the beach at cluxewe to a gongshow, so I went off on my own to a sandy bar away from the fish and hooked into a few dollies, flounder, and a 6 pound hali right off the beach, we ate well that night haha. We checked the crab traps and had 12 so that night we had a meal of surf, surf and surf. Crab, Salmon, and Sole.
Thurseday was back out to the secret grounds by means of a long walk, made it there by 630, saw a black bear fishing the estuary, so we let him fish for a few hours while we ate breakfast on the beach, and watched the sun rise. It was a slowwer day due to the wind, but still landed over 10 hooked close to 25 a piece. And headed home to a dinner of sockeye and halibut both caught fresh that day, and of course crab.
Friday was a day of tying, tied up close to a hundred flies, gave close to 50 away as word got around of my secret weapon fly. Went out on the beach and caught mostly bull heads and flounder as i kept changing my retrieve slower and slower as the fish became finickier and finickier. So we cooked the flounder up and ate those and had another late night.
Saturday morning woke at 7 and was in the boat by 8 and off to the grounds. It was dead calm and we watched many large herring balls underneath of the boat get broken up by small schools of coho flying threw them. We also witnessed a large bod of humpback whales pass by not feet from the boat, as you'll see in the photo's below.
When we arrived, we were the only ones on the beach, not for long but we took advantage of this. Today would be the best day of fishing bar none that I have ever had in my life, i lost count of how many fish I landed after 15, and that was at about 1130. Many people showed up that day, numbering 22 people and boats by the time we left at 4, but that didnt seem to matter, with my secret pattern and our ability to outcast most of the other people there, we swamped the competition, 4 fish for there 1.
At about 3 oclock, I was deep in the estuary, and the fishing seemed to be dropping off, when, out the corner of my eye I saw a large "v" shape darting through the school at a clip and a half. I judged where the shape would be and made my cast, no sooner had my cast hit the water when there was an explosion, and I saw the most jaw dropping site I'd ever seen. It was a coho, 20 lbs easy, 4 feet out of the air, with my fly in stuck in its lower jaw. I stood awe struck for what felt like 5 minutes as it fell slow motion, followed instantly by the sound of a drag not set tight enough. I tightened it 5 clickes, then another 5 clicks, then 10 clicks, and my heart was stating to drop as I could see the spool, so I locked the drag down, and you wouldnt hav know it. I must have had mabey 20 feet of backing, when, deep in the estuary now, he turned an ran straight at me and towards other anglers lines, so I yelled "coho" and all but one guy moved aside and let me play him, but this one ****head kept hucking his barbed treble hooked buzz bomb towards my fish, at which point other anglers started to go ballistic, slinging all types of words together, until he finally pulled his gear in with a few nice words of encouragement for me haha.
All the while this was going on I was to hand stripping my line at my feet trying to keep up with this beast. just as I got him into range to see him,he gave me the 2 biggest head shakes I've ever felt in my life, and shot of in the other direction, cutting my fingers all the way. My heart sunk for the second time when he went under a submersed rock self, filled with metal debris and rocks covered in barnacles. I then felt the worst thing I've ever felt in my life, nothing, nothing at the end of my line. When i got my line back onto my spool and examined it, the first 5 feet of my line hade been severed on the rocks and debris
. So we packed up and headed for home, me in a bad mood, but that wouldn't last long, after see another pod of whales on the way home and spotting a grizzly on the shore.
We arrived back at camp at about 5 and feasted on the 19 crab caught that afternoon and sockeye, while sitting around the fire, telling stories of the one that got away and feeling worse and worse about having to leave the next day.
I got out first thing in the morning only landing 2, then having a pancake breakfast and clearing out camp for the 8 hour bud ride home. Even though it had to end, it was a great trip that I'm glad to have gone on, and cant wait to head out in september for the coho and again next year hopefully, for 2 weeks. I hope the photos i added show up alright for everyone
![Cloud Sky Water Ecoregion Wood]()
![Cloud Water Sky Azure Beach]()
![Water Sky Atmosphere Lake Horizon]()
![Sky Horizon Landscape Morning Asphalt]()
![Water Sky Water resources Fluid Fin]()
![Water Sky Atmosphere Ecoregion Afterglow]()
![Cloud Water Sky Mountain Lake]()
![Water Sky Water resources Plant Fog]()
![Water Sky Coastal and oceanic landforms Natural landscape Lake]()
Woke at 430 Monday, was in the boat at 530 and off to the secret grounds. Good day of fishing, landed about 18 and saw 3 black bears up by our packs, so we had to stay a little later than we had hoped haha.
Woke at 4 Tuesday, and was in the truck at 5, had an hour hike ahead of us along the beach in full gear to get to the secret grounds. There was a huge school in front of us as we arrived, at one point we, all 5 of us, were into fish 15 casts in a row. We started trying to find what wouldnt catch fish, I was using a bare red hook, caught fish, a friend used a size 12 caddis pupa and caught fish, and another used a size 16 chronimid under an indicator, no joke and caught fish. A perfect day of fishing.
Wednesday night was a late start do to a little bit of parting around the fire the night before due to the great fishing and stories from everyone else's day. Went out on the beach at cluxewe to a gongshow, so I went off on my own to a sandy bar away from the fish and hooked into a few dollies, flounder, and a 6 pound hali right off the beach, we ate well that night haha. We checked the crab traps and had 12 so that night we had a meal of surf, surf and surf. Crab, Salmon, and Sole.
Thurseday was back out to the secret grounds by means of a long walk, made it there by 630, saw a black bear fishing the estuary, so we let him fish for a few hours while we ate breakfast on the beach, and watched the sun rise. It was a slowwer day due to the wind, but still landed over 10 hooked close to 25 a piece. And headed home to a dinner of sockeye and halibut both caught fresh that day, and of course crab.
Friday was a day of tying, tied up close to a hundred flies, gave close to 50 away as word got around of my secret weapon fly. Went out on the beach and caught mostly bull heads and flounder as i kept changing my retrieve slower and slower as the fish became finickier and finickier. So we cooked the flounder up and ate those and had another late night.
Saturday morning woke at 7 and was in the boat by 8 and off to the grounds. It was dead calm and we watched many large herring balls underneath of the boat get broken up by small schools of coho flying threw them. We also witnessed a large bod of humpback whales pass by not feet from the boat, as you'll see in the photo's below.
When we arrived, we were the only ones on the beach, not for long but we took advantage of this. Today would be the best day of fishing bar none that I have ever had in my life, i lost count of how many fish I landed after 15, and that was at about 1130. Many people showed up that day, numbering 22 people and boats by the time we left at 4, but that didnt seem to matter, with my secret pattern and our ability to outcast most of the other people there, we swamped the competition, 4 fish for there 1.
At about 3 oclock, I was deep in the estuary, and the fishing seemed to be dropping off, when, out the corner of my eye I saw a large "v" shape darting through the school at a clip and a half. I judged where the shape would be and made my cast, no sooner had my cast hit the water when there was an explosion, and I saw the most jaw dropping site I'd ever seen. It was a coho, 20 lbs easy, 4 feet out of the air, with my fly in stuck in its lower jaw. I stood awe struck for what felt like 5 minutes as it fell slow motion, followed instantly by the sound of a drag not set tight enough. I tightened it 5 clickes, then another 5 clicks, then 10 clicks, and my heart was stating to drop as I could see the spool, so I locked the drag down, and you wouldnt hav know it. I must have had mabey 20 feet of backing, when, deep in the estuary now, he turned an ran straight at me and towards other anglers lines, so I yelled "coho" and all but one guy moved aside and let me play him, but this one ****head kept hucking his barbed treble hooked buzz bomb towards my fish, at which point other anglers started to go ballistic, slinging all types of words together, until he finally pulled his gear in with a few nice words of encouragement for me haha.
All the while this was going on I was to hand stripping my line at my feet trying to keep up with this beast. just as I got him into range to see him,he gave me the 2 biggest head shakes I've ever felt in my life, and shot of in the other direction, cutting my fingers all the way. My heart sunk for the second time when he went under a submersed rock self, filled with metal debris and rocks covered in barnacles. I then felt the worst thing I've ever felt in my life, nothing, nothing at the end of my line. When i got my line back onto my spool and examined it, the first 5 feet of my line hade been severed on the rocks and debris
. So we packed up and headed for home, me in a bad mood, but that wouldn't last long, after see another pod of whales on the way home and spotting a grizzly on the shore.We arrived back at camp at about 5 and feasted on the 19 crab caught that afternoon and sockeye, while sitting around the fire, telling stories of the one that got away and feeling worse and worse about having to leave the next day.
I got out first thing in the morning only landing 2, then having a pancake breakfast and clearing out camp for the 8 hour bud ride home. Even though it had to end, it was a great trip that I'm glad to have gone on, and cant wait to head out in september for the coho and again next year hopefully, for 2 weeks. I hope the photos i added show up alright for everyone
