I have found myself challenged by a perplexing conundrum brought to my attention by some exceptionally annoyed piscatorians haunting the fishing lagoon in search of amenable coho.
Yes, the silvers have slowly started to arrive in small schools accompanied by bait filching jacks, but, so far, they are mimicking snotty gourmet critics.
Once the tide change calms, the fish wander about the lagoon behaving like a group of pretentious tourists. They’ll dawdle along one side of the pond until they come to the conclusion that they might have missed something while cruising the other end and motor off to retrace their fading wakes.
Once their goal is attained, the dillydally repeats itself until apocalyptic boredom sets in and the process is repeated.
The really galling aspect of their current demeanor is that, as they replicate their hum-drum activities, they are blatantly rude. Exquisite enticements of roe, plug-cut herring, and mackerel fillets along with a plethora of flashy metal spinners are flatly ignored as they continue their orbiting journeys to nowhere.
What’s up with that? They are acting like throwback descendants of the baffling batch that drove us nuts back in July of 2003. The only way we could have nailed those &@$^*%+ was with skeet guns when they went airborne. Sadly, the obvious solution was profoundly frowned up by the authorities and those across from us at the lagoon.
Hopefully, things will heat up as more coho arrive but we sure miss that second run of kings and the rowdy silvers of August. Those hefty beasts would hit The Hole like they had migrated through an inlet cocktail of Monster, Rock Star and Red Bull.
Easy now, all is not lost. There are ways to pique their interest and we’ll talk about them a bit later.
It’s time now to take a look at the fishing report for the week of July 21- July 27.
Freshwater Fishing
Dolly Varden
Dolly fishing on the Anchor River was fair when the streams opened on the 16th, but has eased off somewhat. On the upside, there were some beefy dollies landed with a few tapping the tape at greater than 20 inches. Small spinners, beads pegged under a bobber, small spoons, and smolt patterned flies were getting their attention.
Sockeye Salmon
China Poot Personal Use dipnetting has been like playing a slot machine. The Poot seems to pay off just every few tides.
Saltwater Fishing
Halibut
Halibut fishing has been pretty steady in the area with some brutes being bannered by several charters on their Facebook pages. The steadily producing locales remain at offshore locations around the mouth of Kachemak Bay and beyond. Keep an eye on your tide book dates. Tides will be in high gear and might require ship anchors to keep your bait on the bottom.
Salmon
Finally, trolling for coho has been primo on the outer coast around the corner from Point Pogibshi.
As mentioned previously, coho have been slow to return to the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon and have been persnickety about when, where, and what they’ll strike.
Timing is everything with these fish. They become a bit manic when the tide rolls through the mouth and will smack eggs and bang Vibrax when excited (try the Vs with red bells if they are hitting eggs). Silvers are also prone to suddenly “go on the bite” in the early dawn hours. The frenzies don’t last long but it can be a circus ‘till it’s not.
Be sure to know your fish; a few pinks sneak in once in a while because they are lost and stone idiots when it comes to the accurate migration navigation. Compared to the hapless humpies, silvers are aeronautical engineers.
Trolling for silvers on either side of the Homer Spit has picked up to a certain degree as the return grows.
Chinook trolling has been spotty, but good, at times in spots throughout Kachemak Bay, including Glacier Spit, Bluff Point, around the corner from Point Pogibshi and in Cook Inlet.
Pinks are becoming more and more prolific and obnoxious in outer bay locations. Keep trying for kings in deeper water to avoid the bait snarfing autonomic nervous systems with fins.
Reds continue to show up near Tutka Bay Lagoon and China Poot Bay. Snaggers have been enjoying some success with boating the sockeye. Pinks are now in the mix in Tutka. No comment.
Emergency Orders
Emergency Order 2-KS-7-21-20 removed the annual limit for hatchery king salmon 20 inches or greater from Tuesday, June 16 through Saturday, Oct. 31.
Emergency Order 2-RCL-7-03-20 and 2-RCL-7-04-20 closed all Eastside Cook Inlet beaches to clamming for all species from the mouth of the Kenai River to the southernmost tip of the Homer Spit in 2020.
The latest fishing report from the Northern Kenai area should appear today, July 23, online at http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/sf/FishingReports/index.cfm?ADFG=R2.ReportDetail&area_key=5. Check it out and you’ll know a lot more than I do, at the moment.
Until next week…
Nick can be reached at ncvarney@gmail.com if he isn’t busy whipping up a secret sauce to soak his herring in. The humpy repellant is still a work in progress since they nixed his idea of miniaturized depth charges.
