Jwood 456
04-02-2011, 10:18 PM
Hi, I have a good experience to share that I had in the Yukon and Alaska in 2004.
The trip started off at the town of Watson lake Yukon. The fishing around Watson lake didn't seem the greatest though.
Later, I headed to for Whitehorse and decided to stop at Teslin. I fished the Teslin River and the action was non stop for a whole bunch of pan sized artic grayling. Boy that was a blast. When I got to Whithorse, I got into some awesome fly fishing. Lots of the lakes in the area were full of trout and arctic grayling. I fished the Whitehorse river near Whitehorse as well and I hooked this what looked to be an 8lb pike that unfortunately cut me off. The next stop was Dawson City.
When I was in Dawson city, I fished this remote tundra river an hour north of Dawson City. There are two things about that day I won't forget. I won't forget how the boreal forest quickly transitioned to tundra. Then the ultimate thing I won't forget about, is the 4lb arctic grayling I caught. This how it goes. I found this 10ft deep pit in this clear stream full of huge arctic grayling. I threw a fly in and right away, and then up comes this 2lb arctic grayling that strikes my weighted fly without any hesitation. Then right away, another one strikes. As I throw my fly in again, I see this hog of a grayling come up and slam the fly without any hesitation. It is a fairly lengthy battle as this fish is ripping 6lb line off of my fly reel! I finally get the fish in and decide to leave that spot alone and head back to camp. When I got back to camp, the fish weighed a good solid 4lbs and was very close to the 4.5lb Yukon record!:scared0015::sHa_shakeshout:
34117
After that, I headed to mountain surrounded Kluane Lake where there are some massive lakers with 60lbers commonly being sighted. Even the lake's name is the First Nation's name for "Big Fish Lake". I fished that lake and took the local advice and they said to fish 50FOW. I had no sucess and just read up last year that they are usually only caught in 30 FOW there. Boy talk about being lied to.:mad0030: Oh well, I will know how to catch them there next time at least.:sHa_shakeshout: Off to Hains Junction it was next.
I drove straight north of Haines Junction to this lake that was mainly 3ft deep. I decided to go the river inflow, and sure enough there was a 15ft deep pit. It was just fascinating seeing 10lb pike dart around in the weeds around the pit and see a whole bunch of small speckled trout suspended over the edge of the pit. I remember using a rattling plug and I saw this huge 10+lb looking lake trout swimming right towards my hook ready to bite it and throughout the day, I had a whole bunch of smaller lakers bite mine and my fishing partner's hook. The thing was though, that the fish were very hard to hook and got off every time they got to the surface. Soon after, it was off to Haines Alaska.
It was a cool drive on the way to Haines as the scenery changed from boreal forest to mountains, to the lush coastal rain forest. It wasn't much longer until I could see the town and the Lynn Canal where the Pacific ocean come inland a bit. The shore fishing was spectacular for non stop pink salmon action with 5 to 7lbers being the average size that were screaming 20lb line off of the reel! One day I decided to halibut fish, but wasn't very successful as I found out I was using the wrong bait and lures and that area is very hit and miss for even very experienced halibut anglers. I still did catch some sculption and small flounder though. Later on I headed to Skagway.
When I was in Skagway there happened to be a 30 degrees Celsius (88 degrees farenheight) heat belt. When it came to fishing, it was a cool experience and a sight I will probably never forget. When I was fishing out there, I saw seals and caught another sculption. When it came to fish at the Skagway pier, I saw the sight that I would not forget soon. It was of course when I was changing lures. Out of nowhere, I saw this huge what looked to be a 60lb Chinook swim by while I just froze there stunned. :confused::scared0015:
My fishing partner decided to put a fishing lure in front of the fish, and the fish was ready to bite it when at the last minute the fish swerved from the hook and swam out of the harbor. On the way back to shore, I saw these guys that had about 3 10lber halibut in their boat. Any way’s, later that day, I fished the local town pond with a creek running through it to the ocean. One of my fishing partners landed a 4lb salmon and had a huge salmon on that eventually wrapped the line around something and broke off.
The next stop was back towards home.:( Oh well, I looked forward to coming back to the awesome walleye fishing here in Alberta.:)
To sum it up, It was an epically awesome summer vacation. The fishing was world class, and another big part of the enjoyment was the quaint remoteness and awesomely spectacular scenery. There were lots of highlights and great memories that I will not forget about anytime soon.:sHa_shakeshout:
The trip started off at the town of Watson lake Yukon. The fishing around Watson lake didn't seem the greatest though.
Later, I headed to for Whitehorse and decided to stop at Teslin. I fished the Teslin River and the action was non stop for a whole bunch of pan sized artic grayling. Boy that was a blast. When I got to Whithorse, I got into some awesome fly fishing. Lots of the lakes in the area were full of trout and arctic grayling. I fished the Whitehorse river near Whitehorse as well and I hooked this what looked to be an 8lb pike that unfortunately cut me off. The next stop was Dawson City.
When I was in Dawson city, I fished this remote tundra river an hour north of Dawson City. There are two things about that day I won't forget. I won't forget how the boreal forest quickly transitioned to tundra. Then the ultimate thing I won't forget about, is the 4lb arctic grayling I caught. This how it goes. I found this 10ft deep pit in this clear stream full of huge arctic grayling. I threw a fly in and right away, and then up comes this 2lb arctic grayling that strikes my weighted fly without any hesitation. Then right away, another one strikes. As I throw my fly in again, I see this hog of a grayling come up and slam the fly without any hesitation. It is a fairly lengthy battle as this fish is ripping 6lb line off of my fly reel! I finally get the fish in and decide to leave that spot alone and head back to camp. When I got back to camp, the fish weighed a good solid 4lbs and was very close to the 4.5lb Yukon record!:scared0015::sHa_shakeshout:
34117
After that, I headed to mountain surrounded Kluane Lake where there are some massive lakers with 60lbers commonly being sighted. Even the lake's name is the First Nation's name for "Big Fish Lake". I fished that lake and took the local advice and they said to fish 50FOW. I had no sucess and just read up last year that they are usually only caught in 30 FOW there. Boy talk about being lied to.:mad0030: Oh well, I will know how to catch them there next time at least.:sHa_shakeshout: Off to Hains Junction it was next.
I drove straight north of Haines Junction to this lake that was mainly 3ft deep. I decided to go the river inflow, and sure enough there was a 15ft deep pit. It was just fascinating seeing 10lb pike dart around in the weeds around the pit and see a whole bunch of small speckled trout suspended over the edge of the pit. I remember using a rattling plug and I saw this huge 10+lb looking lake trout swimming right towards my hook ready to bite it and throughout the day, I had a whole bunch of smaller lakers bite mine and my fishing partner's hook. The thing was though, that the fish were very hard to hook and got off every time they got to the surface. Soon after, it was off to Haines Alaska.
It was a cool drive on the way to Haines as the scenery changed from boreal forest to mountains, to the lush coastal rain forest. It wasn't much longer until I could see the town and the Lynn Canal where the Pacific ocean come inland a bit. The shore fishing was spectacular for non stop pink salmon action with 5 to 7lbers being the average size that were screaming 20lb line off of the reel! One day I decided to halibut fish, but wasn't very successful as I found out I was using the wrong bait and lures and that area is very hit and miss for even very experienced halibut anglers. I still did catch some sculption and small flounder though. Later on I headed to Skagway.
When I was in Skagway there happened to be a 30 degrees Celsius (88 degrees farenheight) heat belt. When it came to fishing, it was a cool experience and a sight I will probably never forget. When I was fishing out there, I saw seals and caught another sculption. When it came to fish at the Skagway pier, I saw the sight that I would not forget soon. It was of course when I was changing lures. Out of nowhere, I saw this huge what looked to be a 60lb Chinook swim by while I just froze there stunned. :confused::scared0015:
My fishing partner decided to put a fishing lure in front of the fish, and the fish was ready to bite it when at the last minute the fish swerved from the hook and swam out of the harbor. On the way back to shore, I saw these guys that had about 3 10lber halibut in their boat. Any way’s, later that day, I fished the local town pond with a creek running through it to the ocean. One of my fishing partners landed a 4lb salmon and had a huge salmon on that eventually wrapped the line around something and broke off.
The next stop was back towards home.:( Oh well, I looked forward to coming back to the awesome walleye fishing here in Alberta.:)
To sum it up, It was an epically awesome summer vacation. The fishing was world class, and another big part of the enjoyment was the quaint remoteness and awesomely spectacular scenery. There were lots of highlights and great memories that I will not forget about anytime soon.:sHa_shakeshout: