It was time to leave Cooper Landing, and the friendly confines of "Camp Yuppie Fisher". It was time to head for Homer. That's Alaska not Simpson. We had pre booked a Halibut trip out of Homer, the "end of the road" as Alaskans like to refer to it, but were a little concerned about the weather. We had heard of trips cancelled the same day we went Silver fishing with Alaskas' very own "guide from hell" --Oscar the apron wearing Grouch. The trip was set up for Friday,and since this was Thursday, we had a full day to run amok, unchained, and unsupervised on the Kenai Peninsula. What to do? Hmmm... I know!! Let's go find somewhere to fish!! There was a lot of real estate between Cooper Landing and Homer and that meant alot of rivers, streams, and creeks.Before leaving "Camp Yuppie Fisher" we asked around if anyone had fished much on the rivers between Soldotna and Homer, and evidently most of the Kenai guides were "homers" and didn't fish many waters that didn't feed off their home river. We grabbed maps and hoped to find a river that had a little better Silver run going on, since the Kenai run had not really showed up yet. Other than that,we would just explore the 120 miles between destinations. Off we went in the Chevy Malibu fishmobile we had rented, in search of our own Alaskan river. The problem with doing your own self guided fishing trip in an unknown territory, is the "scout time" involved when trying to decide the where's and how's. Past rivers like the Kasilof(too big), the Ninilchik(too small), Deep Creek( too fishless), we would hop out and check out fishability of each river that had looked hopeful on the map. Finally we reached the Anchor river, and this one looked juuusssst right. Plenty of access, fish present, and a nice managable flow of water. AND the Silvers were in!! Not alot of Silvers, but they were there. So were Pinks and rumor has it, some Steelhead. Greg and I found a nice access point and saw a few fishermen working a nice pool filled with Salmon. Then I saw a fly fisherman walking back upstream with a chrome bright Silver dangling by his side and had my usual reaction. With big eyes and the excitement of a Labrador retriever I ran to meet the fisherman halfway back and gave him a hearty greeting. I refrained from wagging my tail and sticking my "muzzle" up the backside of his waders, although I am not above that if it means I am going to catch chrome bright Silvers!! Anyway, the fish was at least twelve pounds, and I had already used my stealth CIA like moves to shift my eyes from fish to fly in order to unlock the mystery of the Anchor river Salmon hatch. It's usually much more fun to feel like you have covertly discovered what to use on an unknown river, so when the fishermen said: " use any green wooly bugger or pink fly", I felt my James Bond glow fade away. That was enough chit chat for me. I was off to the car to get suited up for battle. Greg decided he was going to scout out what the back of his eyelids looked like, so I would be stalking Silvers solo. I waded across the Anchor river,spying on Salmon that were moving up over the shallow rocks just below the big pool, mainly Pinks were heading up, but I could spot several Silvers in the big pool. The three or four fishermen that were working the pool were tossing lures, and occasionally they would snag a Pink. I walked upstream about fifty yards above the big pool and decided to work the far bank where I had seen some Salmon rolling. About sixty yards further upstream another fly fisherman had hooked into a nice fish, and when I saw bright silver leaping from the water I knew what it meant. It meant I was getting impatient--and I hadn't even casted yet! I tied on the new "rock star" of our Alaskan fishing trip-Pink Floyd- and within minutes had...what else.....a nice Humpy hooked. That was nice, but I was after PURE SILVER BABY!! I decided to go "green" and pulled out a green leech pattern that works pretty well for Steelhead on the North Umpqua in Oregon. For about thirty minutes I had nothing, even though I was casting right over the slot where all the fish were rolling. The Anchor river this time of year is more of a large creek and is easily wadable and quite fisherman friendly. In fact in most places if you happened to snag a branch or get hung up on a rock, you could wade right over and pull yourself free. Not wanting to lose one of the few "green flies" I had--I exercised this option a couple of times. I worked the slot up and down and then suddenly my line stopped. Like any Steelhead fisherman would do I set the hook. Watch out!! The line came tight and this time there were shoulders pulling back beneath the surface. Then the line peeled off in the direction of the underwater bearer of broad shoulders, and then out of the water flew the prettiest sight, a big beautiful Silver. Tail dancing across the surface once and then twice, I held tight and let the rod and reel do it's stuff. It reminded me of Steelhead fishing and for the next fifteen minutes I was in fishing bliss as I fought that bright Salmon. This fish was worth the price of admission. If I had only caught one fish in Alaska, I would have wanted it to be this fish. Self guided, existing fly out of my fly box, chrome bright fish on a river I had no idea had even existed before this afternoon and best of all, no grumpy burnt out guide around to get uptight and start mentioning tipping!! Now I knew why most people like to catch Silvers up on the rivers in Alaska,especially on flys!! By the time Greg figured out the inside of his eyelids pretty much look the same in Alaska as they do anywhere, I had a nice bright twelve to fourteen pound Silver clubbed and on the rocks. I don't smoke, but if I had a cigarette right then and there, I might have lit up--I was that satisfied!! Whatever that means? I fished for another half hour and caught another Humpy, but the fishing had slowed down and most people had left already. I was O.K. with that also--because this was a bonus fish and we were headed to Homer for some Halibut fishing... to be continued... |
