Posted on August 30 2009
Photo: Cameron Miller
Well, once again this week showed us why fishing silvers and rainbows on the Kanektok in late August is one of the best fishing trips on the planet.
Quite a few new guests joined us this week from all over the states. Surprisingly the only return guests this week were Rich “Smokey” Little, who once ran our fish smoking program, Gordon Hynes, Matt Hynes father and friend of Andrew Bennett, Kevin Riley. The rest of the guests this week joined us for some downright obscene fishing for silvers, rainbows, dollies, grayling and even some late season fresh chum.
This week has always been a great time to put the graphite to as many silvers as you would ever like to catch and this year was no different. We did start to see the first of the blush and red silvers stacked up like cord wood in every side slough and soft water spot on the river. Thousands of silvers make the journey up the Kanektok each fall to find a nice spot in some side channel to lay a few thousand eggs. On the way up we do our best to catch a few hundred of them as they slowly make the journey. This week we may have caught a few thousand! We had insane fishing overall with some really large fish caught as well.
Trout and dolly fishing was quite good this week even through the rough weather. The fish don’t know how windy it is or how much rain is coming down so they just keep eating, as they did this week. Some really large ‘bows were caught this week by quite a few different guests. Anyone that put in a little time was rewarded with a whole lot of leopard rainbow love! And dolly love as well.
Speaking of dollies, they are now in full spawning colors and make for some spectacular photos. Most people are left speechless after holding the first colored up dolly they have ever seen. It is one of the wonders of the animal kingdom that this fish comes in from the sea totally chrome and then transforms into something out of a sci-fi movie.
The weather this week was not the best and is probably payback for the last couple years being so nice in late August. We had a little bit of everything this week – wind, rain, clouds, sun, fog and some bugs in between. Fortunately our guests came prepared for everything that Mother Nature threw at them, and they spent a ton of time out on the water getting the best that the Kanektok could offer during the last week in August.