On day 3, Greta and I had a plan the night before to go out to Ankau lagoon and fish the bridge along with everyone else targeting the low tide, and hoping for some fresh coho salmon to bite our slow rolling cut plug herring. When we woke up, the rain was blowing sideways, and the thought of standing on a 50 foot high bridge over the salt water lagoon with wind and rain whipping at our faces just didn't sound that appealing, so we had our breakfast at the lodge and discussed strategy.
The low tide was to occur at 8:00 am, and we figured that a walk out to the upper Tawah Creek may produce while also providing a bit more protection from the weather. I've been fishing Yakutat in late September for 10 years now, and this morning's winds and rain were some of the strongest I've experienced in that time. We geared up, parked at the bridge at what everyone calls the Christmas tree hole and walked roughly 300 yards on the West side of the creek to an area that has historically produced well for me over the years.
Our thought was that this area was roughly 2 miles upstream from the mouth of the Lost river and about a mile up stream from the confluence of the Lost river and Tawah Creek. On the Skykomish river, I've always found that you can pretty much count on Steelhead showing up at Reiter Ponds fish hatchery ~36 hours after a big rain. The logic being that in high water, the fish swim at roughly 1 mile per hour and Reiter ponds is roughly 36 miles from Puget Sound and the mouth of the Snohomish River system in Everett. Greta was in great spirits considering the weather, and we set up a gauntlet at 8:00 am at what we now call the 300 yard hole and just started swinging spinners across the creek.
If our logic was correct, a fresh run of Coho salmon should be coming through that area at around 10:00 am. The weather was relentless, just pounding us with wind and rain for the full 2 hours, but again, Greta was a trooper, and kept her line in the water swinging spinner after spinner across the narrow grass bottom creek in hopes of getting her presentation in front of a salmon in transit. Over these past 2 years of severe high water, I've noticed that the fish do not hold up in the normal holes like they do in lower water years. On the contrary, they seem to swim straight to the head waters the minute they get in the fresh water and never slow down.
After 2 hours of keeping constant pressure and presentation of orange blue fox vibrax and Mepps spinners swinging across the creek, sure enough at 10:00 am we had our first fish on with a nice 12lb hen hitting the Mepps and putting up a great fight with 3 solid runs. I really wanted Greta to continue to keep the pressure on the creek but we were both excited to get this fish on the line, and she gratefully worked her way toward me to help land the fish and get it on the stringer. One in the box...
We traded places, and about 15 minutes later, I had a 2nd strike this time from a nice 12lb buck right on the far side of the creek, again on the orange Mepps spinner. I handed Greta the rod and watched her masterfully fight the fish and it's 3 solid runs on to the bank where I attempted to help but found the fish to be more like a greased pig. Thankfully, we were able to land this one too and like magic, the rain and wind stopped, and the sun came out to support our happy walk back to the van with 2 fish in our packs.
We arrived at the bridge, and thought - let's give the Christmas tree hole a shot. I went to the north side of the bridge while Greta went to the south. The north side was a bust with little room to cast etc...and another guy showed up and was providing commentary standing on the bridge. I went up to join him, and watched Greta as she cast a #5 tiger striped orange Vibrax spinner across the hole and into the "Christmas tree". I called down... "I'm sorry Greta, I think you may lose that one." She didn't flinch, she masterfully worked the spinner out of the tree, let it drop into the hole then let it swing through and under a bunch of structure when the next thing I knew she was hooked up with yet another beautiful chrome hen about 12-13 lbs.
I hurried down to help her land the fish in one of the most technical and difficult landing spots on the creek, and although it wasn't pretty, and we had to deal with the commentary from the guy on the bridge about how lucky we were, and how we needed a gaff hook etc... we landed this fish too and now Greta had 2 beautiful chrome coho salmon to take back to the lodge for her fish box along with my 12lb hen.
I watched Greta exercise her mental toughness and fortitude that morning and go from a casual fisherperson to a full on pro. The morning was epic and one that I will never forget. We enjoyed the afternoon catching and releasing several salmon up high on the Situk at 9 mile bridge again...and we still had a day and 1/2 to go. What a trip so far...
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