In early 2020 during the pandemic lockdown, Kayley and I decided to sell our home in Washington and move back to Alaska. Our plan was to move back in the summer of 2021 since I was already committed to being a fly fishing guide in Washington in 2020. As the fishing season began to wind down, we met with a realtor and found out it was a great time to sell our house, so we decided to take a little road trip before heading back to Thorne Bay. We left Washington with our truck and travel trailer on January 19, 2021 and headed south to find warmer weather. Once we got to Arizona, we started to travel east towards Florida. On our way through Texas we had three tire blowouts and found out we had cracked an axle. We ended up stuck just outside of San Antonio for 9 days and left Texas with a new travel trailer. During our time in Texas, our fishing trip began. I found out that there was a trout stream of all things not far from where we were so I decided to explore. The Guadalupe River is in beautiful Texas hill country near Canyon Lake. While not what I am used to in a trout stream, the small river does produce some decent size rainbow trout. I used a 3 weight euro nymphing rod and was able to find a few small rainbows where riffles dropped into buckets. Not the fly fishing experience I thought I would have in Texas, it was still great to get on the water. After a quick stop in New Orleans, we made our way to Cape Coral, Florida on the gulf coast. We ended up staying in Florida for nearly a month and did some serious fly fishing. Our first Florida fly fishing experience was on the beaches of Sanibel Island in search of Snook. The beaches of Sanibel were beautiful white sand that you could hike for miles. We spent days hiking the beaches in the mornings using 8 weights with floating lines and Clouser Minnows. We found Ladyfish, Spanish Mackrel, speckled trout, and Jack Caravelle during our outings but not the sight fishing for Snook we were hoping for. Some local anglers later told us that it was still too cold even though the temperatures were in the 80s which was a strange concept for me being from the Northwest. We decided to try our luck on the water so we went out with a really cool guide in Matlacha named Joe Harley. Joe had a custom flats boat that we used to poll the shallows near the Mangroves in Pine Island Sound where we sight fished to Snook, Redfish, and Speckled Trout. Low numbers of fish was still a challenge for us even though we now had to mobility of a boat, but we did manage some nice Snook and a large Trout, but Redfish eluded us. Our next stop was Islamorada in the Florida Keys where we planned another guided trip with our hopes set on Redfish, Tarpon, and maybe even a Permit. Our guide John knew some great spots in the area and got us shots at some really great fish. Our very first stop hot us a look at a Permit that I failed to get a shot at and was unfortunately the only one we would see the whole trip. Our next stop brought us to murky flats near the Everglades that were rich with Redfish and Snook. The cloudy color of the water on this day made the fishing very challenging because we often would not see a fish until we were with 10 or 20 feet. Making a cast at that distance without spooking the fished proved to be very difficult. Finally we found a Redfish that turned away from us as we approached and I was able to put a cast to it. After a couple strips I was tight to my first Redfish. Unlike the Snook I had caught that had an aggressive, shaky, acrobatic fight to them, the Redfish pulled hard with h speed. The Redfish stayed low and would make hard runs. After we landed the fish we spent a few more hours taking short shots at more fish. Kayley had a good chance at one, and I got one more to eat but trout set and pulled the hook out of its mouth. After that we went in search of Tarpon. We did not hook a Tarpon on this trip but I had shots at a couple that were probably pushing 100 pounds and it was exciting. The first one I saw was about 30 seconds after we got to our first spot and I saw it broadside at about 40 feet. It spooked and I missed my shot, but the fish looked to be about 5 feet long and got my adrenaline pumping. I made casts at two other fish about the same size but never got an eat. I had some difficulty casting because these fish got me so excited I was shaking. When I go back to Florida I plan on spending much more time chasing Tarpon. While we were in Florida, it was bought to our attention that North Carolina has some good trout fishing opportunities, so we decided to go check it out. So we left Florida and went and spent a week near Bryson City, North Carolina...
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I started working at Gig Harbor Fly Shop in the spring of 2019, and I have been working as a fly fishing guide for cutthroat trout on Puget Sound during the 2020. During this time, Hood Canal has become favorite Sea Run Cutthroat Trout fishery in Washington. I enjoy the quiet peacefulness of the canal, and I find that I catch consistently larger fish on this piece of water than any other I have fished. On our trip out to the Hood this week, my wife and I found large fish actively feeding on baitfish and sand lance. We were fortunate to have a couple Hobie Outback kayaks so we were able to fish some otherwise unreachable water, but beach fishing can also be very productive in the area. When fishing the Hood Canal, I like to explore the northern beaches. I typically fish the west side of the canal where the highway north of the town of Hoodsport meanders along the water and offers a number of beach access opportunities. While I do fish this area year round, my favorite time to visit the area is late summer and fall. I like to fish with my Sage One 5 weight equipped with a non-weighted baitfish pattern and a slow sinking tip. Alaska is my home, and returning for a visit is always an experience that I will cherish forever. My 2019 trip to Prince of Wales Island, a remote island in Southeast Alaska was particularly special because it was my first trip back to the island in 8 years, and this is the place that first set my wife on our journey of moving to Southeast Alaska where we finished college and got married. After our short flight to Ketchikan we were greeted with beautiful clear skies for our float plane ride to Thorne Bay. My father in-law picked us up at the dock in his Kingfisher and minutes later we were at his newly built house overlooking the bay. Before we even settled in we were gearing up for some afternoon fishing on the Thorne River. It had rained heavy in Thorne Bay and we were told that the river was blown out, but we were too excited to be there to let that stop us so we hopped in the truck and headed to our first spot. The lower section of the Thorne River is easily accessible by road and with a bit of exploring, solitude is pretty easy to come by. As we had heard, the river was high and dirty, but it was still easy enough to see that is was packed with salmon. The river was full of Pinks. A bit of a disappointment because our target was Silvers, but good because it helped us to manage expectations (Sometimes during Silver season in Alaska I start to think I should be able to catch two fish at a time every cast) and set us up for some great adventures later on. We ended our first afternoon on a great piece of swinging water and I did manage to swing up a couple Pinks. Our second day was a family day on the boat doing some trolling. Not typically my style, but it’s a great way to be with family and we did find our first Silvers of the trip. The highlight of my day came when we were sitting still for a few minutes. I took the opportunity to climb up to the bow with my 8 weight and sneak in a couple casts. The bow of my father in-law’s boat is about four feet off the surface so I had a great view all around me. I got excited when I saw a couple of schools swim under the boat, and a few minutes later I was stripping in and a streak come up out of the dark and hammers my fly. After a good run, I got the fish to the reel and climbed to the back of the boat balancing on the gunwale while fighting the fish so I could get a net. The fish was a large Pink, but the experience was a lot of fun. Our next couple days we focused on adventure rather than time on the water for Silvers. One day we took an inflatable dingy into the bay and up the mouth of the Thorne River until it got too shallow for a motor, then we got out the oars and drifted and fished back out to the bay. There were some Dollies and Pinks at the mouth but the real fun was seeing how far up the river we could make it. The next day we hopped in the old Ford diesel that my wife learned how to drive in, and headed towards Coffman Cove. Our first stop was Staney Creek. We wanted to fish Staney because it flows to the west side of the island and we thought perhaps water clarity would be different because of less rainfall on that side. We walked well below the tide line in hopes of finding fresh Silvers coming in with the tide. After a halfhearted effort and watching Pinks jump around we decided to hit the road as we had a lot we wanted to visit. After a quick stop in the picturesque town of Coffman Cove we gave up the paved highway for logging roads and began our return journey south to Thorne Bay. This was an exciting moment for us as it was where some of our fondest memories from our previous trip took place. We spent the majority of our afternoon exploring the Luck Lake area. Here we found the creeks of Luck Lake as well as the lake itself literally packed full of Pinks. At times it almost appeared to be raining Pinks Salmon on the lake. We talked to some fellow anglers who had managed to find the occasional Silver in this sea of pink, we decided to give it the old college try. After immediately getting a few Pinks at the head of Eagle Creek we headed downstream where we encountered even greater hoards of Humpys, so we headed back up to the lake. Since the day was clear and sunny we decided to enjoy the lake for awhile. After taking in some sun on the lake and amusing ourselves watching dozens of Pinks fly through the air in front of us we decided to head to the north side of the lake and visit Luck Creek. Here we found more Pinks of course, but also numerous Sockeye and fresh bear sign. The chance of a bear encounter made the hike down to the lake very exciting, and for us a bit of a trip down memory lane. After a few casts we hiked back up the creek and reminisced about making the same hike 8 years earlier. As we headed back to Thorne Bay for the evening we made a quick stop at a creek that had been quite good to us on our previous trip, but we found the water to be extremely low and the banks full of rotting salmon. As we walked along the creek we found very fresh bear sign, which made us feel as if we were following a bear downstream, and since we left our bear protection in the pickup, we decided to high tail it out of there. We used the remainder of our trip to explore new spots on the Thorne River. We did end up finding a few Silvers here and there but never did manage to land one. Southeast Alaska is a beautiful rainforest with amazing fishing which is why we made it our home for four years and hope to make it our home again in the near future.
My wife Kayley and I visited Prince of Wales Island on a steelhead fishing trip for the first time in May 2011. At the time we were both attending college and I was working at Big Rays Fly Shop if Fairbanks. Growing up in the interior of Alaska, steelhead fishing was a unique experience for us. We rented a car in Ketchikan and took the ferry to Hollis. On our way to the inn we stayed at in Craig we saw many Sitka Blacktail Deer, which was exciting for us because it was the first time we had seen deer in Alaska. We decided to take the do it yourself approach to steelhead fishing by exploring the extensive road system on the island with our rental car. Our first stop was the Thorne River. We found easy access on the lower river and we did manage a couple of cutthroat trout, but did not have any luck finding the elusive steelhead. In the following days we explored the Luck Lake system and Staney Creek. We did see a few steelhead around but still had not convinced any steelhead to eat. With only two days left in our trip we were lucky enough to get some local intel on a creek that had received a good run of steelhead so we decided to go check it out. After finding access to the creek, we headed downstream. We saw a couple of steelhead but were striking out. We came upon a pool with a nice tailout that looked promising and began to make our way down. After a few minutes, bang. Kayley hooked up. The steelhead jumped and ran, and that's when we realized we didn't bring a net. The first time I tried to tail the fish it ran between my legs and I nearly went for a swim trying to get out of Kayley's way. We landed the fish on our next try and we were ecstatic. A little while later I hook another steelhead and we were so happy that we had finally figured it out. Catching a full grown steelhead on a creek that was less than 40 feet wide was an amazing experience. The fish would run hard downstream then jump and buck. For me the fight was like a cross between a rainbow trout and silver salmon. One of the hardest I've experienced. We spent our final days on this stretch of water and it produced five steelhead, a nice cutthroat trout, and a nice dolly varden. Although we were happy that we found success exploring the island on our own, we learned a valuable lesson on that trip. There is no substitute to local knowledge.
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