Little Su 8-26

I fished for Silver salmon on the Little Su today. I took four clients up river from the landing on a foggy and cool morning run. We found groups of fish, 15 to 250 fish schools. The fish were very reluctant to bite and were not very aggressive. I was just plain miffed at why we were not able to catch more fish. This was a group of very good fisherman that were willing to try fly fishing, spinners, eggs and plugs. We put in a full day of fishing to catch 5 Silvers, one bright fish, three in good shape and one that had turned pretty red. A few of the fish would follow the lures but never commit while others woud move out of the way of everything including eggs. I am guessing that with the low numbers of fish in the river these fish have seen just about everything that can be trown at them. It may also be that the low water is warmer and the fish are lethargic, whatever the reason the catching was poor today. This will likely be my last salmon trip of the season, I have a pike trip on the 8th-9th and will post our results after the trip. I will start writing again next spring when we pick up the ice fishing and early salmon trips.

Pike Fishing 8-17

I took two clients pike fishing today. The weather was very good with the exception of heavy fog on the river in the morning. We caught over 30 pike and had at least that many other fish on but lost hem for one reason or another. We did not catch any of the huge lunkers but had a fish that looked to be in the high 30" to low 40" range follow our lures three times. The fish looked to be very healthy and fat. The fall feeding should be starting and we have a few weekends left for either day trips or overnight Pike fishing trips.

Little Su 8-14

I fished the Little Susitna River this morning with three clients. We used both eggs with bobbers and mepps spinners. Of the eight fish we landed 7 were on spinners and only one on eggs. We fished several spots catching one at each until we found a large school of fish that were willing to strike and complete our limits. There are more fish in the river every day but the numbers are still much lower than I expect for this time of the year. I visited with another guide and he thought the mid point of the run was just now hitting, based on a surge of smaller fresh fish, the river and the fishing would be consistant for the next couple of weeks. We caught a few fish today that were turning red and are seeing more red fish in the holes every day although I saw fish brought in from down river that had sea lice on them today. We have openings for fishing in the afternoon and weekends this week.

Little Su 8-12

I fished with three guests this morning. We left the landing at 8am at the request of my guests and fished above the landing. We limited out on silvers in about four hours. We missed several bites using bobbers but boated six very nice fish all between 8 and 12 pounds. The fish are starting to turn slightly red up river but I saw several fish at the landing that were caught down river with sea lice on them. The water remains higher than it has been but fishing conditions are still good. Today was the busiest I have seen the river all silver season and there were several close calls between boaters on the river today and yesterday. If you go out watch the blind corners for other boaters.

Little Su 8-9

I fished the Little Su this morning with 5 clients, 3 adults and two young ladies ages 8 & 10. These young ladies had a great time with the silvers and were very tired after fighting the fish in the current. They had fish that ran hard and went to the air often. There is nothing better than taking kids fishing when they are catching fish. We had a great outing with everyone limiting out on Silver Salmon and one fresh Chum Salmon. We were fishing from the anchor in a hole down river and floating cured salmon eggs behind a corky. The fish were not biting hard, a slow take with a steady pull that gets increasingly heavy. We hooked a fish approximately every 15 minutes as they were moving up the river in small schools and milling around in the hole. We had several other bites but either missed them or lost the fish during the fight. All told we hooked close to 20 fish this morning. One of the clients was casing into the current and bouncing his eggs down stream after I pointed out fish moving along the inside of the corner of the hole. He was content trying something different from the rest of the party and hooked all of his fish using this method. The fish were all very bright silver with the exception of one large male that had a hint of pink on the upper portions of his back and side. The water is still higher than it had been last week but is rapidly dropping according to the USGS flow data. It appeared to have dropped 6" by looking at the newly exposed sand bars while we were fishing this morning. The clarity is pretty good, it is still a bit dirty but I think this helps keep the fish from spooking both up and down river. Best of luck I hope to see you on the river.

Lake Creek 8-5

I spent the weekend working on my cabin near Lake Creek and talked with a lodge owner and watched the fisherman at the mouth of Lake Creek. The silvers are being caught very consistantly in Lake Creek in the confluence and up in the clear water. We watched for 20 minutes and must have seen 15 fish landed between 10 groups of fisherman. The upper and lower portions of the creek are also producing some nice rainbows according to the lodge owner. We did not venture up the creek so I have no way of verifying this report but this time of the year generally produces rainbows there. The Yentna came up close to 30" over the weekend and there was alot of debris floating down Sunday, I cleand my outboard 7 times from Lake Creek to the shortcut. The Big Su was clean and I only saw one floating tree from the shortcut to the landing.

Little Su 8-6

I fished two groups of four today on the Little Su for the first day of bait. All of the fisherman and fisherwomen limited out on Silver salmon that were in excellent condition, not a red fish in the boat all day. The fishing was better in the am but there are fish to be caught in the afternoon, it just takes time to locate them in the holes later in the day. We used bobbers, dead drifting beind the boat on the anchor during both trips. We also did a bit of casting and side bouncing to break up the day but this did not produce the strikes like the bobbers did. The water has come up 6-10" from the recent rain but it looks like it will be dropping imediately according to the gaging station on the upper river. The fish count at the ADF&G check station was 376 when I left the river. If I recall correctly it was over 600 last year the first day of bait. We have openings this week and are having consistant catches with of silver salmon.

Lake Creek 8-2

I visited with a guide that fishes the Lake Creek area. The silver fisherman are doing well as are the floaters coming down lake creek. The mouth has seen lots of activity from fly in groups and they were reportedly all catching nice fish on their trips. The floaters are catching lots of rainbows and a few salmon in the upper reaches of the creek. I was told it should only improve over the next week.

Little Su 8-3

I fished this morning with my wife and two friends. We left late and got to the river at 8:30 am. We fished until 12 noon and landed seven fish. We caught 6 silvers and one sockeye. The water was a bit lower than two days ago and there appears to be lots of fish in the river. I would guess this weekend will offer great fishing for any angler. I am off to Lake Creek and the surrounding area for some Silvers, Pike and Rainbow fishing this weekend but will have a report of the Little Su on Monday after the first day of bait.

Little Su 8-1

I fished two groups today, both had fly fisherman in them and everyone caught fish. The first was a group of six, two fly fisherman and the other four were their family, they used spinners. We kept a full limit of silver salmon and let several chums and two pink salmon go. The water was higher than it had been and was dirty. The fly fisherman did very well in the faster holes where they could dead drift their flies. They used a wide variey of flies and colors. The family did very well on spinners, we used Mepps #5 in Orange and Chartruse. The spinners worked the best in the holes that were slower moving.
The second group was two gentlemen from Conneticut that wanted to fish for two hours. They landed several chums, silvers and pinks. They declined to keep any fish but between the two of them they landed approximately 20 fish in two and a half hours of fishing.