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Alaska Steelhead Slideshow

Pacific Steelhead fisherman are a special breed. They will endure cold, windy, rainy weather high and blown out water in remote places just to hook one or two sea faring rainbows let alone land one. Many other fisherman think they are crazy until they hook into a pissed off chromer metalhead and they then understand the obsession and usually become consumed by it as well. To catch 10 wild native steelhead in a week is a heck of a trip in many of the famous pacific steelhead rivers in Oregon, Washington and B.C. There is one river I have grown to love however where 10 fish is almost to be expected and not in a week but in a day, morning or sometimes an hour!! The Karluk River is located on the Southwest side of Kodiak island and is the Emerald Isle's Largest watershed. It also has the state's largest steelhead run behind the situk but unlike the situk is much more remote and therefore receives much less pressure. The section of river we fish is sometimes refereed to as Madison River Number 2 because like many parts of the Madison that section of the karluk is basically a long big riffle. Many steelhead stage and rest in this section before shooting up through the rest of the river and into the lake. The Karluk gets a highly Cyclic run of steelhead being as low as 5000 (still a large run) and as high as 11,000 and all are 100 percent wild native fish. Here is a rundown of the incredible fishing my father and I had on ...

the Karluk.

October 14:

We take off from an ocean cove near the town of kodiak on a Dehavilland beaver float plane. It's a 45 minute flight and the whole flight is a trip in itself! Numerous rives, lakes and Mountains as well as eagles, bears, deer and goats make the time fly (no pun intended!) Before we Know it we are circling the river know as the green goddess. An appropriate name for the river in June, July and August but by now everything near the river is brown and the mountain tops are dusted with snow. A look from the air confirms some of the reports i had heard the water level is perfect and it is crystal clear. We land in a slower deeper section of the river near our Cabin. It's one of only two cabins on the river and both are owned by the local native corporation that also own the land. This means most people must tent the river which in october can be rough however it also means there are no lodges on the river and the natives take care of the land. No big crowds or litter to worry about here! We unload our gear into the small cramped cabin barely big enough for the two of us while talking fishing. I take my time knowing there is no rush here as there is plenty of water and fishing is good all day. We get everything in order with a few hours to fish. It's about a quarter mile hike along the slow deep water section of the river until we get to the faster stuff. I really start to blow through water fairly fast as I'm not really as concerned with catching fish and checking out as much river as I can. Rivers change and I don't fish this one much so I like to see what's going on. Even though I wasn't really effectively fishing I still hooked fish on the rig that proved most effective for the week, a 7 weight setup with a glo bug and a 10-mm free sliding bead above my split shot. The first fish wasn't very big but it jumped 5 times right off the bat and fought much harder that it's 22 inch long frame. After that I hook and lose 3 bigger fish in a nice seam I spot. That is the name of the game on the Karluk, holding water isn't obvious so breaking down and reading the water correctly is a must if you want to catch as many fish as possible. After walking down the river aways and looking at my watch I realize I have time for a few more casts. I proceed to put my fly behind a boulder at the head of a nice run and hook a blinding chrome metalhead that jumps twice right away and then peels off 20 yards into my backing. Then the real work began as the fish started to bulldog in the current and anyone who fights a steelhead in strong current knows it takes skill and especially patience to land one. I get the fish in that turns out to be a 29.5 inch buck, an above average fish. The fish here don't get as large as southeastern alaska steelhead and B.C. fish, the largest are usually 36 and a 32 is a real nice fish but they still fight like steelhead and on a 7 weight are as hard as fighting salmonid you will encounter. After I release the fish I hike back to our home for the week and get ready for the next day with a nice Warm meal and lots dreaming.

October 15

The next day we get up and walk down with tons of anticipation. Unlike the previous day I start to fish very methodically, I'm still covering water but not as fast and I'm casting to every spot imaginable. Obviously I work good looking areas like slicks, seams, slots and runs but I also cast to where there "shouldn't" be any fish. One thing I have learned about steelhead though is they can be anywhere even if it's a shallow fast spot with no structure. Immediately I start hooking fish but the first four are LDR's which is fine because I know there are plenty more to come and getting a good hookset on big steelhead with small glo bugs isn't exactly easy. Finally my fifth fish keeps tight and I land him and after that I go on a good streak of hook ups and landing and i beach my next 9 out of 12 fish by lunch. After lunch I decide to walk down some more while my dad fishes up high. I land a few more 28 inchers before I get to a real fast stretch. In a slick of that stretch I hook a fish that absolutely goes bonkers with jumps and then decides to run for the Shelikof straight! I am walking down the river casually following the fish as i don't want to fall in the fast water with lots of slick rocks. That changes a little when I casually look and my reel and realize all but 4 turns of my 150 yards of backing are off the reel!! Needless to say I pick up the pace a little bit and thank my lucky stars the fish start to tire out. After another good bout of bull dogging the fish comes in and let's me release him. A nice 31 inch blush buck. A few casts later while still reminiscing about that 31 incher an even bigger fish slams my blue glo bug and takes off. This fish didn't run as far or jump but it took much longer to land as it just sat on the bottom in the current as if to see if I could be patient enough. I was patient enough and landed what turned out to be the big fish of the trip, a very chrome 34 by 16 steelie. After catching a few more fish I head up to fish next to my dad for the last hour or so. He is fishing a nice deep run and since I have caught plenty of fish I go for a change of pace and rig up my spey rod which although has lots of big rainbow on it, is still looking for first blood on steel. Rigged with a 650 grain skagit line,10 feet of T-14 and a black and chartreuse leech pattern I begin to cast. Using a circle spey cast cover lots of water and my first two fish are old silver salmon. But my third fish was a steelhead as was my fourth and fifth. After the 5 fish it was time to go back after a great day. The total tally for me that day was 20 fish!

October 16

Today I start in search of new water right off the bat. I hike about an hour till I start fishing and the move immediately pays off. 2 steelhead hooked and landed on the first 4 casts. This part of the river is shallower than higher up and interestingly enough the next 3 hits I have are steelhead hitting my indicator! I then with my hands shaking with excitement put on a Pink Pollywog, a big pink deer hair dry fly. After a few casts with no sign of life my fly is drifting and like a big trout and 29 inch hen metalhead sucks in my offering and then the race is on. After landing that fish I decide to fish the fly like I would a mouse for bristol bay rainbows and swing it across the current so it makes a wake. The fish like this technique much more and like trout on a mouse absolutely hammer they fly! No need to set the hook here the fish do it themselves! Eventually it gets lighter and surface bite dies so I go back to my glo bug setup and continue to hammer fish. Anywhere there is a run amidst the shallower riffles there are steelhead. The day really goes by like a blur because I am having so much fun and couldn't really look at my watch as i would risk missing a fish. The final tally for the day was 28 fish landed although I hooked over 40 easy.

October 15

Once again I decided to head down river right away and once again the fishing is spectacular in the morning with pollywogs and the rest of the day with glo bugs. By 2 I had landed 18 steelhead. After than I was walking back upriver and took a misstep on the bank and fell in the river, completely filling up my waders. To say It was cold was a big understatement! I immediately kept walking and worked my way to the cabin to warm up and that took awhile lol. I didn't cast again that day but 18 fish by 2 in the afternoon aint to shabby!

October 16

To day I land 25 steelhead all on glo bugs as the wog bite wasn't happening for whatever reason. I also lost a very big male dolly varden that looked to be over 10 pounds, his stout green and fire orange body would have made a killer picture but the fish gods had other plans. I also saw my second bear of the trip this one at close range, about 20 yards or so. It was an adolescent male that was pretty curious. Constantly checking me out and playing with salmon carcasses, not eating the just rolling in them like a big dog.

October 17

Both my father and I have headaches and colds that day so we don't really fish. We could have probably but we had caught so many fish to that point we didn't really care and some serious rest sounded and felt good.

October 18

We are scheduled to leave at 4 so I fish from first light to 12:00 just to see if I can reach triple digits for the week and I do with plenty of lost fish to spare. I bring my tally up to 101 steelhead landed for the trip and my dad didn't keep count but caught 50 or so easy. As we are packing we look back at what great fishing we had and I couldn't bring myself to to say goodbye to the river and as it turned out I wouldn't have to that day as some bad weather rolled in and we were not able to fly back to kodiak so we spent one more night on the Karluk.

October 19

I finally have to say goodbye to the river but I guarantee It will not be the last time I am leaving the karluk after a great week of fishing!