A Fish for Kathianne

[NightTrain]

@Kathianne

This little guy was asking for you. Wanted to give you the eye.

20170811_125505.jpg


Seriously though, I've never seen a black salmon before. My son caught this today up through the canyon.

[Kathianne]

@Kathianne

This little guy was asking for you. Wanted to give you the eye.




Seriously though, I've never seen a black salmon before. My son caught this today up through the canyon.

Your son is adorable, but the fish? Eeek! That eye!

Off with the head, filet it, bet it's good eating!

[jimnyc]

@Kathianne

This little guy was asking for you. Wanted to give you the eye.

20170811_125505.jpg


Seriously though, I've never seen a black salmon before. My son caught this today up through the canyon.

That's a cool looking fish! I looked up "black salmon" and none of them really looked like that thing either!

[michiganFats]

Are you sure that's a salmon? That looks like a steelhead to me.

[NightTrain]

Are you sure that's a salmon? That looks like a steelhead to me.

Yep, that's a male Pink salmon, or a 'Humpy'. The small size and big hump on it's back is a dead giveaway. Its just the coloring that's unusual, but in a couple weeks it'll be bright red as it completes the spawning cycle.

[michiganFats]

Yep, that's a male Pink salmon, or a 'Humpy'. The small size and big hump on it's back is a dead giveaway. Its just the coloring that's unusual, but in a couple weeks it'll be bright red as it completes the spawning cycle.

There's a lot I could say about that fish but to the important question: are you river fishing? I've always wanted to do that but never have, all of my fishing has been either Great Lakes or inland lakes except for two days a long time ago in the Pacific and I was way out of my element there. If you are fishing a river what bait are you using? I use worms but I think the current in a river might render them useless.

By the way, I hope your son enjoyed catching that trout...

[NightTrain]

There's a lot I could say about that fish but to the important question: are you river fishing? I've always wanted to do that but never have, all of my fishing has been either Great Lakes or inland lakes except for two days a long time ago in the Pacific and I was way out of my element there. If you are fishing a river what bait are you using? I use worms but I think the current in a river might render them useless.

By the way, I hope your son enjoyed catching that trout...

Yep, that was on the Talkeetna River. It's glacial fed, so the water is pretty dirty from the silt off the glaciers... so the hot spots are where the small clear water creeks empty in. The salmon pull in to the clear water in the eddies to take a break, clean out their gills and after they rest up they'll all head out to continue their journey upriver.

Salmon stop feeding when they leave the saltwater and they ultimately starve themselves to death, so getting them to bite is usually from annoying them with a lure.

My favorite lure up the Talkeetna for salmon is a Pixee... I modify the hook to an oversized treble arrangement with a somewhat unorthodox strategy for hooking up. :
http://www.rapala.com/blue-fox/spoon...xee+Spoon.html

Right now there's all 5 species at that creek, yesterday we spotted an old King hanging out with all the other Reds, Silvers, Chums and Pinks. There are thousands of them crammed in that small stretch of river and the fishing was hot!

For trout I heavily favor a Vibrax : http://www.rapala.com/blue-fox/spinn...ic+Vibrax.html Vibrax have a small bell that buzzes in the water and the trout zero in on the sound. Bright orange works well, but my favorite colors for Vibrax is a silver/blue scheme.

The trout present are Rainbows & Dolly Varden (Dollys are technically not a trout but a Char, but I don't split hairs) and sometimes they'll journey out to the ocean like the baby salmon do. When a Rainbow returns from the saltwater, it's a Steelhead; and when a Dolly does it's an Arctic Char. I've been fishing the Talkeetna since '81 or so, and have never seen a Steelhead or an Arctic Char there... I think it's just too far from the saltwater.

There's a few Grayling in the river too, but they're getting more and more rare these days for some reason.