06/01/2006
Little Susitna River — I guided a morning group of 5 guests who caught 4 king salmon. The two smaller salmon were released and I would estimate weights at 5 and 22 lbs. The two larger fish were kept with the largest fish weighing 43 lbs. Two fish were caught on an old style silver and green magnum Wiggle Wart, one fish was caught on a Green Rainbow pattern Spinning Cheater, and one fish was caught on an E-chip plug.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 guests who caught 2 king salmon weighing 26 and 12 pounds. One king was caught on a Green Rainbow Spinning Cheater fished behind a jet diver, and the other fish was caught on a chatreuse striped K-15 Kwikfish. Water visibility seemed to be about 18 inches.
06/02/2006
Little Susitna River — I guided 4 people in the morning who caught 2 king salmon. The first salmon was caught on a Green Rainbow Spinning Cheater and weighed 33 lbs. The second salmon was caught on a K-15 Kwikfish which was metalic blue with a chartreuse bill and tail. The water was up a bit and muddier than yesterday and the group only got one other good bite — on the same Kwikfish.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 guests who did not catch a king salmon. One nice king salmon was briefly hooked on a magnum Wiggle Wart in blue pirate pattern. The group also had wo additional bites — one on the same
Wiggle Wart and another on a Spinning Cheater. In addition the guests felt fish bump their lines several times, so we know they were in some of the holes we fished, but we could not coax any other bites.
06/03/2006
Mat-Su King Salmon Derby — I had a day off from guiding today and took a look at first week results on the derby web page located at http://www.matsukingsalmonderby.com Few people evidently entered salmon during the first week, as every one who entered a king salmon caught from my boat won at least one derby prize. Anita Bilek took first place honors in the adult division with a 41.5 pounder, Mike Prebonich placed 3rd place in the adult division with a 15.7 pounder, and Frede Stier placed 6th with a 10.5 pounder and also won the Adult Division weekly weight match. Taylor Nufer took second place in the Youth Division with his 21.1 pounder. Congratulations and thanks for fishing with Fishtale!!!
06/04/2006
Susitna River Tributaries — I guided a group of 4 guests who caught 2 king salmon weighing 30 and 38 pounds. One king was caught on a K-15 Kwikfish plug and the second fish was caught on a Green Rainbow Spinning Cheater with a plastic squid fished behind a jet diver. The water in the Susitna River and tributary streams had dropped since the last time I fished it.
06/05/2006
Little Susitna River — I guided 4 people in the morning who caught and kept 4 king salmon weighing 10, 14, 22, and 36 pounds. 2 of the fish were caught on a metalic blue and chartreuse K-15 Kwikfish and 2 were caught on a Spinning Cheater with a rubber squid trailer fished behind a jet diver. The water dropped again and looks like it will continue to drop. Fishing conditions remain good at present, but if the water continues to drop I imagine the fish will become skitish.
In the afternoon I guided a group of 2 guests who caught 2 king salmon weighing 23 and 28 pounds. Both fish were caught on an orange and black Spin-N-Glo fished behind a jet diver.
06/06/2006
Little Susitna River — I guided 4 people who caught 4 king salmon, 3 of which they kept. The kept kings weighed 16, 23, and 24 pounds and I estimated the released fish weighed about 18 pounds. One person on the trip did not land a salmon. Two kings were caught on a #2 orange and black Spin-n-glo and 2 king salmon were caught on a metalic blue and chartreuse K-15 Kwikfish. The water continues to drop and is now below normal level for this time in June. There was also significantly more fishing pressure on the river today.
Mat-Su King Salmon Derby — results from week two of the derby were posted at http://www.matsukingsalmonderby.com today, and three more guests fishing in my guide boat caught weekly prize winning derby fish. Carl Gottardi caught the 4th place adult division fish weighing 32.4 pounds, Mitch Bustemante caught the 1st place youth divison fish weighing 38.9 pounds, and John Bourgue caught the adult division weight match winner at 14.9 pounds. Jeff Chon, who will be guiding trips for us later this season also caught the 3rd place adult division fish while fishing from my guide boat. Anita Bilek continues as the overall adult division leader with a 41 pound king salmon she caught during the first week of the derby. Congratulations to all, and thank you for fishing with Fishtale.
06/07/2006
Little Susitna River — I guided 4 people who caught 3 king salmon weighing 16, 23, and 24 lbs. All 3 king salmon were caught on the same metalic blue and chartreuse K-15 Kwikfish plug. The river continues to drop and is now at an excellent level for casting, although we have still been spending our trips backtrolling. We saw 2 cow moose this afternoon along the river, one of which was missing hide on both ribs an looked like it may have been trying to keep a bear from eating its calf — unsuccessfully I might add.
06/08/2006
Little Susitna River — I guided a group of 3 guests this morning who caught 2 king salmon the largest of which weighed 27 pounds and the smaller one I think weighed 23 pounds. Both fish were caught on an orange Beau Mac Spinning Cheater fished behind a jet diver. The third person in the party also hooked a couple king salmon, but did not manage to land one.
In the afternoon I fished my great uncle who is now 100 years old was the only one in our family group who managed to catch a 32 pound king salmon. The salmon he caught struck the same orange Spinning Cheater that produced fish in the morning. The rest group hooked and lost a few more king salmon in the afternoon, but had difficulty getting bites as the salmon seemed very skittish in the dropping and clearing water. Expect the water level to continue dropping unless we receive some significant rain soon. As I was leaving in the evening lots of vehicles and boats were coming into the Little Susitna River Public Use Facility to fish for the evening.
06/09/2006
Little Susitna River — I guided a group of 4 guests in the morning who caught 2 king salmon weighing 23 and 30 pounds. Both king salmon were caught on K-15 Kwikfish. The remaining members of the group also had a few bites, but did not manage to hook any fish. There was quite a few people fishing along the river in the morning.
I guided a group of 2 guests in the afternoon who caught and kept king salmon weighing 20 and 9.5 pounds. The larger salmon was caught casting a #5 chartreuse Flashtrap Spinner and the smaller salmon was caught backtrolling a Beau Mac Spinning Cheater. The water is at an excellent height for casting for king salmon, although we are primarily continuing to backtroll to increase the chances of most parties catching salmon. If I had a group of good casters who wanted to cast and retrieve or cast and drift fish, I would not hesitate to use those methods.
06/10/2006
Susitna River Tributaries — I guided a group of 4 guests who caught and kept 4 king salmon weighing 26, 27, 31, and about 17 pounds. All of these kings were caught on the same blue and chartreuse K-15 Kwikfish. In addition, one member of the group also caught 2 silver salmon sized king salmon on a size 15 Stingfish plug before he caught and kept his larger salmon. This is the first time I`ve fishd the Susitna system this week, but water levels remain low on the Susitna River and it`s tributaries, and have even dropped since last weekend.
06/11/2006
Little Susitna River — I guided a morning group of 4 guests who caught 2 king salmon which weighed 17 and 18 pounds. One fish was caught on a K-15 Kwikfish and the other was caught on a #2 orange and black Spin-n-glo. There were good numbers of fish in the area, but the challenge was getting them to bite, especially later in the morning.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 guests who did not catch any king salmon. One guest had a big pull down while fishing a black K-14 Kwikfish, but did not manage to hook the salmon. Some of the other guides were out in the afternoon as well and had better results, but the most bites I heard of any guide boat drawing in the afternoon was 2. I believe this weekend will turn out as the heaviest fished weekend on the Little Susitna king salmon season this year.
06/12/2006
Susitna Drainage — I guided a morning group of 6 guests who each caught a king salmon, although one guest released the only fish he caught. The kept fish weighed from about 17 to 35 pounds and were primarily caught on K-15 Kwikfish.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 guests who each caught a king salmon weighing about 16, 26, 35, and 37 pounds. All of the afternoon fish were caught on Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters fished behind jet divers.
06/13/2006
Susitna River Drainage — I fished with friends in the morning and all of us caught king salmon, although I released the small one I caught. The other kept fish weighed 14, 25, 39, and 32 pounds and were all caught on Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters fished behind jet divers.
In the afternoon I guided 4 guests who each caught and kept a king salmon, once again all of the kings were caught on Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters fished behind jet divers. The fish weighed 21, 25, 31, and 35 pounds.
06/14/2006
Susitna River Drainage — I guided 4 guests in the morning who caught and kept king salmon weighing 43, 28, 28, and approximately 20 pounds. 3 of the king salmon were caught on Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters fished behind a jet diver and the remaining king salmon was caught on a orange and black magnum Wiggle Wart plug.
In the afternoon I fished with family and friends and all 5 of us caught and kept a king salmon and one person also caught and kept a sockeye salmon before harvesting her king salmon. 3 of the kings were caught on Spinning Cheaters fished behind jet divers and the remaining 2 king salmon were caught on a silver and chartreuse K-15 Kwikfish. The afternoon fished topped out at about 25 pounds although we did not bother to weigh any of them. We also caught a few small king salmon of about 5 – 10 pounds which we released.
06/15/2006
Susitna River Drainage — I guided a group of 5 guests who each caught and kept a king salmon. The salmon weighed from 8 – 42 pounds and were caught on a magnum Wiggle Wart, K-15 Kwikfish plugs, and Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters fished behind jet divers. It was raining and the streams were rising when I finished fishing, so it will be interested to see how the conditions change for tomorrow`s trips.
06/16/2006
Susitna River Drainage — I guided 5 guests who caught 5 king salmon weighing 9, 17, 22, 27, and 42 pounds. 4 king salmon were caught on K-15 Kwikfish and 1 king salmon was caught on a Beau Mac Spinning Cheater fished behind a jet diver.
I guided an afternoon group of 3 people who caught and released 3 small kings of about 5 pounds and caught and kept one 26 pound king salmon. 2 kings were caught on Spinning Cheaters and 2 kings were caught on K-15 Kwikfish.
Tomorrow is the weekend, so I expect people to be out extra thick on the rivers looking to catch some king salmon.
06/17/2006
Little Susitna River — I guided a group of 5 guests who caught 2 king salmon weighing 27 and 45 pounds. Both kings were caught on the same K-15 Kwikfish plug. In members also hooked, but lost one king salmon on the same Kwikfish, and one king salmon on a magnum Wiggle Wart. The water on Little Susitna River had risen significantly and was quite muddy, but seemed clear enough to catch salmon readily, if I could have found a good group of them that had not been worked over. I only saw one salmon roll during the entire trip, and I suspect the one I saw was a sockeye and not a king salmon. According to the USGS water chart, the water on Little Susitna River should continue rising for the next day or two.
06/18/2006
Susitna River Tributaries — I guided a group of 5 guests who caught 4 king salmon — 1 on salmon eggs fished under an ESB Bobber, 1 on a spinning cheater and salmon eggs fished behind a jet diver, 2 on K-13 Kwikfish plugs — all fish were caught at Deshka River. In addition to the fish caught the group also hooked but lost several additional fish. The largest fish kept on the Deshka weighed 15 pounds. The water was higher and cooler than it had been previously on the Deshka making for better mid day fishing conditions. The Deshka River king salmon weir count has been climbing steadily over the past several days and there are now more than 12,000 kings past the weir.
06/19/2006
Susitna River Tributaries — I guided a group of 5 guests who each caught and kept one king salmon. All the salmon were caught on K-15 Kwikfish and the fish weighed 9,14, 20, 20, and 30 pounds.
In the afternoon I fished for a while with a couple family members and a friend. We caught 4 small king salmon approximately 5-10 pounds and one larger king salmon that weighed 34 pounds. 1 king salmon was caught on a Beau Mac Spinning Cheater and the remainder were caught on K-15 Kwikfish.
06/20/2006 — Second 2006 Coho Salmon Caught!
Little Susitna River — I guided a morning group of 4 guests who each caught and kept a king salmon. The kings guests kept weighed from 16 – 24 pounds, and two kings of about 10 pounds were also released. 3 kings were caught on Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters fished behind jet divers, 2 kings were caught on a Stingfish plug, and 1 king was caught casting with a #5 chartreuse Flashtrap Spinner.
In the afternoon I guided a group of 4 guests who caught 3 king salmon, the two kings larger — approximately 16 and 25 pounds — were released. The king kept weighed 9 pounds. In addition, one of the guests also caught and kept an 8 pound silver salmon — our first silver salmon of the seaosn caught from Little Susitna River (note the silver salmon caught back on April 27 of this year from Eklutna Tailrace). Today 1 of our king salmon was caught on a K-15 Kwikfish, 1 king salmon was caught on a Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters backtrolled behind a jet diver, and 1 king salmon and the silver salmon were caught on a size 15 Stingfish plug.
The Little Susitna River is dropping and clearing at this time.
06/21/2006
Little Susitna River — I guided a group of 4 guests in the morning who caught 5 king salmon 4 of which they kept. 1 king salmon was caught on a Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters and 4 kings were caught on K-15 Kwikfish plugs. The salmon weighed 33, 27, 19, and about 13 pounds. One of the group members also caught and kept a sockeye salmon before catching his king salmon. The sockeye struck a K-15 Kwikfish. There was lots of fishing pressure in the morning.
I guided an afternoon group of 3 guests who caught 2 king salmon. The smaller fish of about 10 pounds was released and the larger fish which weighed 28 pounds was kept. 1 king salmon was caught on a Beau Mac Spinning Cheater and 1 king salmon was caught on a size 15 Stingfish plug. The fishing pressure was much lighter in the afternoon, however, after finding salmon we had trouble getting them to strike.
06/22/2006
Little Susitna River — I guided 4 guests who caught 3 king salmon wieghing about 5, 20 and 28 pounds. One king salmon was caught on a Beau Mac Spinning Cheater, one king salmon was caught on a K-15 Kwikfish, and one king salmon was caught on a size 15 Stingfish. It rained during the entire trip, but the water was still in good shape when I left the river.
06/23/2006
Deshka River — I guided 5 guests who caught 10 king salmon. One smaller king salmon was released and the remaining 9 were kept and averaged about 20 pounds. 3 king were caught on salmon eggs drifted under ESB Bobbers, 2 king salmon were caught on K-15 Kwikfish, and 5 king salmon were caught on Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters and salmon eggs fished behind jet divers. The water was high and cool from recent rain and the salmon were biting well for us.
06/24/2006
Susitna River Tributaries including Deshka River — I guided a group of 5 guests who caught 6 king salmon and kept 5 of them weighing from 22 – 32 pounds on Tibutaries of the Susitna River. Since we still had plenty of time left we boated to the Deshka River where the limit is now 2 kings per person and 4 people each caught an additional king salmon to fill out their limit. K-15 Kwikfish produced all the kings before we travelled to the Deshka, and at the Deshka all kings were caught on Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters with salmon eggs fished behind jet divers. The Susitna and Deshka Rivers were even higher than on Friday and the fish were once again biting well for us.
06/25/2006
I guided a group of 5 guests who each caught and kept a nice king salmon. The fish weighd 34, 34, 24, 22, and 19 pounds and were caught on K-15 Kwikfish.
06/26/2006
Susitna River Tributaries — I guided a group of 4 guests who limited on king salmon with a couple of fish about 20 pounds, one about 25 pounds, and one slightly over 30 pounds. Two the fish were caught on K-15 Kwikfish and two of the fish were caught on Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters fished behind jet divers.
In the afternoon I fished and caught a nice bright salmon of about 25 pounds on a K-15 chartreuse and silver Kwikfish.
06/27/2006
Deshka River — I guided a morning group of 4 guests each of whom caught 2 king salmon. The largest king salmon weighed about 25 pounds. One king salmon was caught on a K-15 Kwikfish and the remaining king salmon were caught on Beua Mac Spinning Cheaters and salmon eggs fished behind jet planers.
In the afternoon I guided a group of 6 guests who did not even hook a king salmon. It was hot and sunny and the water is dropping and warming.
06/28/2006
Deshka River — I guided a group of 4 guests who caught 2 king salmon weighing about 20 and 25 pounds. Both kings were caught on Spinning Cheaters and salmon eggs fished behind jet divers. In addition, 3 members of the group briefly hooked several other salmon that came off before being brought to the boat. We were on a good group of salmon most of the trip, but had difficulty getting many bites. Weather was warm and sunny.
06/29/2006
I guided a morning group of 4 guests who caught one 20 lb. king salmon on a magnum Wiggle Wart. The water has been dropping but still has a good bit of color to it. We cast Flashtrap Spinners in several holes where we saw salmon jumping, but could not coax them into striking. A couple silver salmon were also caught along the river today by other anglers.
06/30/2006
Deshka River — I guided 4 guests who each caught one king salmon. The largest two kings weighed about 20 pounds. Two king salmon were caught drifting salmon eggs under ESB Bobbers, one king salmon was caught backtrolling a Beau Mac Spinning Cheater with salmon eggs behind a jet diver, and one king salmon was caught backtrolling a magnum Wiggle Wart. We had a rather rare sighting of a seal in the Susitna River near Susitna Landing at the start of our trip.
Silver Salmon update — Upper Cook Inlet commercial fishermen have been catching a large number of silver salmon for this early in the season — even the Northern District setnetters caught over 200 silvers on the June 29 commercial openning, so I feel confident in predicting a strong early run of silver salmon into the Little Susitna and Deshka Rivers. Silvers have been dribbling into the Little Su for a while now, but keep checking our fishing report page to learn when they start arriving in catchable numbers.
Little Susitna River — Greg Acord told me that in addition to catching 3 king salmon of about 20 pounds today, his group also caught an early arriving chum salmon — it will be the first day of July tomorrow, and species that start showing up in July are starting to show up in Little Susitna River catches.