Thursday, September 11, 2008

Fishing trip




Well, back from another week on the Copper River Delta fishing for silver salmon. As always, it was a very good time. The fish were in and running large for the most part. They were also picky and a few days were slow as a consequence. The moody nature of salmon seems to make up a bit for their abundance, in terms of fishing difficulty. Frequently, they're also fairly challenging to land and my strike-to-landed fish ratio was not great.

A couple of young bull moose:


The closest we came to a bear- these tracks were about four hours old, as the tide had this area covered with water until that time:



It doesn't look like a huge bear, but he's got a decent sized track:



A 14 1/2 lb coho, my largest to date and the first fish of the trip for me:



Sunrise at the Cordova Rose Lodge, where we've stayed these last half-dozen trips:


The Rose is very fisherman-friendly and a comfortable place to stay.

The trail into one of the fishing spots:


Now its time to think about birds and big game.

4 comments:

Andrew Campbell said...

That's some beautiful country -- looks like a heck of a trip. Great shots of the moose and bear tracks. Any birds worth chasing in and around Cordova?

best
A.

mdmnm said...

Thanks, Andrew,

They have spruce grouse up there and the Cordova Rose Lodge used to organize saltwater duck hunts, but the guide they used quit. We usually see geese, cranes, and ducks.

Was back out here in NM this past weekend on a day hunt, but got blanked on grouse. The dog did well at staying in range, though he decided to chase rabbits at the end as the light was fading, the bunnies were out, and no birds were found.

Langdon Cook said...

Nice motor on that silver. I'll be trying for one of those in a couple hours on my local sewage pipe, the Duwamish, as soon as the tide turns.

mdmnm said...

Good luck, Finspot!

I envy you your local access to salmon fishing. Berries, fiddleheads, and other neat things, too. On the other hand, I'd probably melt in all that rain if exposed for much longer than a week.