07/01/2005
Little Susitna River — I guided a morning group of 4 guests who caught 4 king salmon, the largest of which weighed 31 pounds. 3 kings were caught on Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters, and the remaining king was caught on a K-13 Kwickfish. Water was good in color, but rising.
07/02/2005
Deshka River and Susitna River Tributaries — I guided a group of 4 guests who caught 7 king salmon, 4 of which they released and 3 which were kept. 6 king salmon were caught on K-15 Kwickfish and 1 king salmon was caught on a Spinning Cheater. The largest king salmon weighed 53 pounds, and is currently, the largest taken on one of my guided trips this year.
Little Susitna River — Greg Acord guided an afternoon group of 4 guests who each caught a king salmon on the Little Su.
I`ll be guiding another group on some of the same streams again tomorrow. Check back in the evening if you would like to know how we do.
07/03/2005
Deshka River and Susitna River Tributaries — I guided a group of 5 guests who caught 10 king salmon. 5 kings were released and 5 were kept, the largest of which weighed 46 pounds. All of the fish were caught on K-15 Kwickfish or Spinning Cheaters. Most of the king salmon are getting dark colored as they prepare for spawning later this month, but if a person is sellective there are still some nicer fresh kings to be caught.
Little Susitna River — Looking at the USGS water charter I see the Little Su remains considerably higher than normal for this time of year, but it has dropped and cleared up some during the past couple days. I have not heard of anyone catching chum or silver salmon from the Little Su yet this year, but I will predict that some of our guests fishing the Little Su will start catching chum salmon and or silver salmon within this week.
07/04/2005
Susitna River Tributaries — I took Frede, my brother-in-law, and 4 nephews fishing for about two and a half hours before our family 4th of July picnic. Frede caught the only two king salmon. She caught and released a fish of about 18 pounds, then caught and kept a king salmon of about 32 pounds. Both fish were caught on K-15 Kwickfish. 2 of my nephews also had bites, but did not catch the fish on K-15 Kwickfish.
I`ll be guiding a morning group tomorrow, so check back in the evening if you`d like to know how we do. We`ll be fishing primarily for kings, but may get into some chum salmon as well.
07/04/2005
Susitna River Tributaries — I took Frede, my brother-in-law, and 4 nephews fishing for about two and a half hours before our family 4th of July picnic. Frede caught the only two king salmon. She caught and released a fish of about 18 pounds, then caught and kept a king salmon of about 32 pounds. Both fish were caught on K-15 Kwickfish. 2 of my nephews also had bites on K-15 Kwickfish, but did not catch the fish.
I`ll be guiding a morning group tomorrow, so check back in the evening if you`d like to know how we do. We`ll be fishing primarily for kings, but may get into some chum salmon as well.
07/05/2005
Little Susitna River — I guided a group of 4 people who caught 2 king salmon, 1 sockeye salmon, and 1 chum salmon. Both king salmon and the sockeye salmon were caught on K-13 Kwickfish, while the chum salmon was caught on a green Spinning Cheater. The water level continues to drop on the Little Su, but remains higher than normal. We released the smaller darker king salmon and kept the larger one which weighed 39 pounds and was in good shape.
We have multiple trips booked for tomorrow, so check back late in the evening if you would like to know how we do. We are trying to schedule mostly one trip per guide per day now, but still have some space available to fish either the Deshka or Little Susitna during the week, and space to fish some of the Parks Highway tributaries of the Susitna on this coming weekend, so give us a call if you would like to fish for king salmon before the season closes on July 14. You can reach us at 907-746-2199.
07/06/2005
Deshka River — I guided a group of 4 guests in the morning who caught 9 king salmon and 3 jack king salmon. All of the fish were caught drifting corkies and salmon eggs.
In the afternoon I guided a group of 3 guests who caught 1 king salmon and hooked and lost a second king salmon. Afternoons can be tough on the Deshka this time of year especially when the water is warm and that was exactly how this afternoon turned out. We did not start getting bites until right at near the end of the trip. For most of the trip we did not see many salmon surfacing, either. As in the morning the fish were hooked drifting corkies and salmon eggs.
Little Susitna River — Greg Acord guided an afternoon group of 4 guests who caught 2 king salmon and 1 chum salmon.
WE`ll be guiding some trips again, tomorrow, so check back late in the evening if you would like to know how we did.
07/07/2005
Little Susitna River — Greg Acord guided a morning group of 2 guests who caught 1 jack king salmon, hooked and lost a king salmon and had one other bite they did not hook.
David Dickson started a morning trip and had motor trouble, so we turned that group of 3 guests over to Kevin Hartman to guide — I`ll try and post results to that trip when I find out how they did.
David Dickson guided an afternoon group of 2 guests who caught no fish.
Instead of guiding the afternoon group I took the broken down motor and boat into Greatland Welding in Palmer where it was repaired, then I drove it to a lake for a quick test, then out to the river where David Dickson too it for a longer test ride — boat and motor are now operating fine once again. While running the boat along the river we saw a salmon roll, so we stopped and fished for a few minutes, and I caught a small king salmon while casting a #5 Silver and Black Flashtrap Spinner.
I`ll be guiding a group to the Deshka River in the morning — check back tomorrow evening for the results of that trip.
07/08/2005
Deshka River — I guided a group of 3 guests who caught 3 king salmon and a jack king salmon. One of the salmon caught today was getting dark, but when I fillet them all of the salmon were in good shape — two of th fish were chrome bright — so there is still some of those fresh ones available. We fished several different holes and only hooked one king salmon which was lost, then made one last stop where all the salmon were caught. People are getting out and taking advantage of late king salmon fishing opportunites on the Deshka, and since there were boat loads of people fishing most of the better spots I wanted to fish that may have been why we could not catch any king salmon for so long earlier in the morning. For those who may not know the Department of Fish & Game has extended the king salmon season on approximately the lower 2 miles of the Deshka River until July 13. This will allow anglers fishing near the mouth of the river an opportunity to catch and keep king salmon in the Mat – Su Valley after most of the other king salmon fisheries have closed. Fishing for king salmon will also be allowed at Eklutna Tailrace until December 31. I expect anglers will catch a few bonus keeper king salmon out of both of these fisheries as a result of these new regulation changes, however, before long Mat-Su Valley salmon anglers will be focused primarily on silver, chum. pink, and sockeye salmon.
Willow Creek — On our way back upriver, we stopped by the mouth of Willow Creek and saw several large kings near the mouth of the creek, but not near the numbers of king salmon that were available there last weekend. At the mouth of Willow Creek we also saw 3 schools of chums salmon, which were the first salmon other than king salmon that I have seen there this year. Willow Creek opens to king salmon one last time on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before the end of the king salmon season. Willow Creek, like the rest of the Susitna River tributaries between the Deshka and Talkeetna Rivers will then open to fishing for all species other than king salmon on July 14.
07/09/2005
I attended Ben Sanderlin`s wedding along with Frede today, and did not fish.
07/10/2005
Deshka River and Susitna River Tributaries — I guided a group of 3 guests who caught 3 king salmon which they released and 3 king salmon which they kept and also caught and kept 1 chum salmon. All of the fish were caught on K-15 Kwickfish, and the king salmon that were kept weighed 34, 34, and 37 pounds — nice large fish. It was a bonus to catch the nice fresh chum salmon and it fought good considering it was landed on 30 pound test line. The chum weighed about 10 pounds.
I`m planning to fish the Susitna River System again tomorrow, so check back in the evening if you would like to know what we catch.
07/11/2005
Deshka River and Susitna River Tributaries — I guided a group of 4 guests who caught 5 king salmon on salmon eggs fished along the bottom with corkies. Three of the kings were getting dark, but 2 of the kings were bright chrome and in excellent shape. The next two days will give anglers the best opportunity to catch Deshka River king salmon, while the full 17 lower miles of the Deshka remains open to king salmon fishing. Also the first 3 silver salmon were recorded through the Deshka River Weir yesterday, so there are a few silvers available at the Deshka. The lower 2 miles of the Deshka River will remain open to king salmon fishing this year through July 31, however, at this time most of the guides fishing the Deshka have been catching king salmon below Deshka River Weir, but above the 2 mile area that will remain open. I have space available for groups of 4 people on both July 12 and 13 if you would like to fish the portion of the Deshka where most of the kings are currently being harvested. If you`d like to fish with me on the Deshka one of these days, call us at 907-746-2199.
Little Susitna River — David Dickson went fishing to check out conditions on the Little Su today and caught a silver salmon and a king salmon. He caught both fish on a #5 chartreuse Flashtrap Spinner. This is the first silver salmon taken from one of our boats this year, and we expect parties who are good at casting and retrieving spinners should be able to catch chums and/or silvers in the next few days. King salmon season is also open on the Little Susitna through July 13. Give us a call if you would like to fish with us in the next week on the Little Su — 907-746-2199.
Upper Cook Inlet — Commercial fisherman have been catching sockeye, chum, pink, and silver salmon on recent opennings, so I expect more of these smaller salmon will be showing up in the rivers daily.
07/12/2005
We did not fish and I spent part of the day working on one of our new boats.
07/13/2005
Today was the last day for king salmon fishing on Little Susitna River — but we did not guide any fishing trip. David Dickson will be guiding a trip for silver salmon, chum salmon, and sockeye salmon Thursday, so check back late in the evening if you would like to know what is group catches.
The lower 2 miles of the Deshka River will remain open to king salmon fishing, and there are still king salmon jumping around in that ara. Silver salmon are also starting to arrive in the Deshka, with a few silvers swimmiing upriver past Deshka River Weir both today and yesterday.
07/14/2005
Little Susitna River — David Dickson guided an afternoon group of 4 guests who spent the trip casting spinners, but did not catch a salmon. This was our first trip of the season where the group was focusing on catching other salmon than king salmon. David said in some spots he could see salmon close to the boat, but they could not get them to bite. David and I will both be guiding small groups Friday morning and I anticipate the groups in both boats will catch salmon.
At this time runs of silver salmon, chum salmon, and sockeye salmon are all starting to enter the lower river, and we have guided trips scheduled for the next several days, so check back frequently for our latest updates. Note: water levels on Little Susitna River have now dropped to nearly average levels for the first time this summer.
07/15/2005
Little Susitna River — I fished with a two guests today and we caught 5 chum salmon, 1 king salmon, and hooked and lost several other salmon, one of which looked like a sockeye. All of the fish were hooked while casting with Flashtrap Spinners. Spinners patterns which produced for us were #5 Silver and Black, #4 Orange, and #5 Silver and Pink. There did not seem to be a lot of fish, and we had to fish hard for most of the bites. Some other guide boats out today came back with a few early silvers, but as far as I could tell everyone was fishing hard for the fish they caught. We definitely had more action and saw more fish surfacing than during a typical king salmon trip, but fishing should get considerably better a little later in the month.
David Dickson guided two guests who caught 1 chum salmon and hooked a couple more salmon they did not catch.
The water level on the Little Susitna River continues to drop, although the water remains quite dark colored with limited visibility. David Dickson and I will both be guiding trips tomorrow, and I expect we should catch more salmon than we did today.
Susitna River tributaries — I talked with Ron Wilson and he took a fun fishing trip of his own today, and caught 1 silver salmon, 1 chum salmon, a few pink salmon, and some rainbow trout.
07/16/2005
Little Susitna River — I guided a group of 3 guests who were primarily interested in catching numbers of salmon, so we fished on some good schools of chums and they caught 7 chums and also hooked but lost several other salmon as well. 5 chums were caught on Flashtrap Spinners — #5 silver and pink, #4 silver and black, and #4 orange. I also fished a bit and caught 1 chum on a flashtrap spinner. In addition the guests also caught 1 chum on a K-13 Kwickfish and 1 chum on a Magnum Wiggle Wart.
The river dropped a bit more this morning, but looking at the USGS water chart from the upper Little Susitna River I`d guess the water level on the lower river should stay about the same for the next 2 or 3 days.
We have guided fishing trips scheduled for the next several days, however, I will be camping for the next two or three days and may not post our next fishing report until Tuesday.
07/17/2005
Little Susitna River — Nathan Drake fished with 2 guests and they caught 1 silver salmon, 2 pink salmon, and 5 chum salmon while casting with spinners.
David Dickson guided 1 fisherman who did not catch a salmon.
07/18/2005
Little Susitna River — David Dickson guided an afternoon group of 4 people who caught 1 silver salmon, 2 chum salmon, and 1 red salmon on Flashtrap Spinners.
07/19/2005
Little Susitna River — David Dickson guided an afternoon group of 3 guests who caught 4 chum salmon, 1 silver salmon, and 1 pink salmon on Flashtrap Spinners.
07/20/2005
Little Susitna River — I guided a group of 4 guests who caught 1 silver salmon and 5 chum salmon. #5 Silver and Black and #4 Orange and Silver Flashtrap Spinners each caught salmon.
David Dickson guided a group of 4 guests who caught 4 chum salmon on Flashtrap Spinners.
Dave Osgood guided a group of 5 guests who caught 2 silver salmon and 1 chum salmon on Flashtrap Spinners.
The river water level continues to drop and is starting to get shallow over some of the upstream riffles. We`ll be guiding a couple groups on Thursday and should have reports posted for both trips tomorrow evening.
07/21/2005
Little Susitna River — Dave Osgood guided a morning group of 4 guests who caught 2 silver salmon, 1 sockeye salmon, 1 pink salmon, and 6 chum salmon on Flashtrap Spinners.
David Dickson is guiding an afternoon group of 4 guests who caught 1 silver salmon, 1 chum salmon, and 2 pink salmon on Flashtrap Spinners. David said they were fishing on schools of salmon most of the time, but they had trouble getting the fish to strike.
We`ll be guiding a morning trip on Friday so check back in the evening if you`d like to know what we caught.
If you would like to book a trip give us a call at 907-746-2199
07/22/2005
Little Susitna River — Dave Osgood guided a morning group of 4 guests who caught 1 chum salmon, 1 king salmon, and 2 pink salmon.
David Dickson and I spent most of the day building spinners and preparing for future fishing trips.
David Dickson and I will both be guiding trips Saturday, so check back in the evening to see how our groups did
07/23/2005
Little Susitna River — I fished with one guests in the morning and we caught 2 silver salmon, 6 chum salmon, and 1 king salmon. All the fish were caught on Flashtrap Spinners with the #4 silver and black and working well at the start of the trip and the #3 black pattern producing the bulk or the fish after the sun got higher in the sky and the temperatures warmed up.
David Dickson is guiding an afternoon group and I hope to post the results from his trip later this evening sometime.
Some of the other guides fished downriver this morning and caught more silver salmon and it looks to me like the silver salmon fishing is just starting to kick into a higher gear for downstream morning trips. So I expect our fishing reports will quickly start showing significantly higher silver salmon catches.
I also had a report today that a friend of mine fished the Deshka River yesterday and everyone in the boat limited on silver salmon (new this season anglers are allowed to keep an additional silver salmon when fishing tributary streams on the Westside of the Susitna River like the Deshka). I have limited availability, but will be guiding Susitna River tributary silver salmon trips for $120 per person. Give us a call at 907-746-2199 if you`d like to get in on the fun!
07/24/2005
Little Susitna River — I guided a group of 3 guests this morning who caught 3 king salmon, 1 sockeye salmon, about 10 pink salmon, and maybe 5 chum salmon. They were mainly interested in catching a number of salmon so we fished upriver and focused on numbers of fish rather than going downriver after the sivlers. All the fish were caught on Flashtrap Spinners with #3 black, #4 silver and black, #5 silver and black, and #5 Orange all producing salmon.
I guided an afternoon group of 3 guests and we spent about half of the trip downriver attempting to catch silvers without catching anything, so we made an abrupt change and headed way upriver and caught 1 legal sockeye, 1 snagged sockeye, several chums, and several pinks. All the fish were caught on Flashtrap Spinners.
David Dickson fished with an afternoon group of 2 guests and they caught 2 nice silver salmon.
Monday I will be guiding a trip to Big Susitna River tributaries,so check back in the evening if you would like to know how we do.
07/25/2005
Susitna River tributaries — I guided a group of 4 guests who each caught a limit of silver salmon. Most of the silvers were caught on salmon eggs and corkies, but a 3 were also caught on Flashtrap Spinners.
Littl Susitna River — David Dickson guided an afternoon group who caught 3 chum salmon on Flashtrap Spinners. The Little Susitna River is now dropping to a very low water level — unless substantial rain materializes in the next day or two expect low water for a while.
07/26/2005
I guide a morning group of 4 guests who kept 2 silver salmon and 6 chum salmon and in addition caught and released several more chum and pink salmon. #4 silver and black and #3 black Flashtrap Spinners were the hot lures.
David Dickson guided an afternoon group that I need to record results for.
07/27/2005
Little Susitna River — Dave Osgood guided a morning group of 2 guests who caught 2 silver salmon and a bunch of chum salmon on Flashtrap Spinners.
David Dickson guided an afternoon group that I hope to record results for later.
07/28/2005
Deshka River and other Susitna River tributaries — I guided a group of 4 guests who caught 6 silver salmon, 1 king salmon, and several pink salmon. We were casting bait and spinners to large schools of silver salmon at the Deshka, but could not get many of them to bite. Like usual we saw several eagles and also saw half a dozen beavers and a porcupine along the Susitna River.
Little Susitna River — David Dickson guided an afternoon group of 2 guests who caught 1 silver salmon and some chum salmon.
07/29/2005
Little Susitna River — I guided a group of 4 guests who kept 2 silver salmon and 3 sockeye salmon and also caught and released several chum salmon as well as several foul hooked sockeye salmon.
Greg Acord, Nathan Drake, and David Dickson all guided groups I`ll try to get results from later.
07/30/2005
Little Susitna River — I fished with a group of 3 guests and we caught 4 silver salmon.
David Dickson guided a morning group of 4 guests who caught 9 chum salmon and 1 silver salmon.
David Dickson guided an afternoon group of 4 guests who caught 2 silver salmon and 7 chum salmon.
Greg Acord guided a morning group who caught 1 silver salmon and a bunch of chum salmon.
07/31/2005
Little Susitna River — I fished with a morning group of 3 guests and we caught 7 silver salmon and a chum salmon and quit fishing a hour and a half early.
In the afternoon I guided a group of 5 guests who caught 4 silver salmon.