5/15/08 - Weekend gunkholing - Sitka, Tenakee, Chatham
Little Norway trip canceled (crap weather for a departure anyway.) Delayed a few hours to clear the whitewater breaking over the top of the breakwater, then took the family to Sitka via Freshwater Bay and Tenakee... Didn't do much fishing, but what little we did was a blast...
Tenakee is lit up with dollies slashing salmon fry all along the beach. I would swear I saw some steelies a ways up some of the drainages near the harbor, and there are small tom cod hanging out under the dock eating anything that sinks too close to the bottom (like my 5wt line when I was re-spooling it after a tragic Galvin-spool-popping-off-the-frame incident.
I think the most fun I've had in my life goes like this:
1) Catching my first dozen dollies off the dock in Tenakee 30 years ago.
2) Teaching my 4-y/o son how to cast and not hook himself or others so he could catch his first 2 dollies and 4 tom cod.
3) Sight fishing for dollies with the 5wt - running up and down the dock with a gaggle of little kids with Tweetie Bird and Barbie fishing rigs... the best part was the ego boost I got when they saw me cast (in my usual horrible fashion)... you'd think those youngsters out there had never seen a fly rod before!
Picked up (and put back) one 4lb. Arrowtooth Flounder in 400' south of Hanus Reef. Slow morning, but even my wife got out of bed to fish in her socks and PJs! (She's made me swear not to post the pic!)
Oh, FWIW, the commercial talk in Sitka is that they're still not seeing any worthwhile kings close to town. The offshore boats are doing okay, but the inside trollers are struggling a bit looking for fish.
-Case
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