Flipping for Sockeye

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Hi Blog!

As you know, this is our second RV trip to Alaska. The first time through, we checked off a number of tourist type activities like the bus ride in Denali National Park and the riverboat ride in Fairbanks. This time around, we wanted to do some things we hadn't done before, like watch the Mount Marathon Race on the Fourth of July in Seward and fish for salmon on the Kenai Peninsula.

After leaving Seward, we based ourselves at the Diamond M. Ranch RV Park, halfway between Soldotna and Kenai on the banks of the Kenai River. Having only fished for salmon once before in the Gaspe, Quebec, we decided to go with a guide. The campground made all the arrangements.  All we had to do was show up at the boat launch at 4:00 a.m. We both realized when our alarm clock went off at 2:50 a.m. that this was the earliest we had ever set an alarm -- even including when Dave was a paperboy!

By 4:05 a.m. we were speeding our way up the Kenai River toward Skilak Lake. The first question we had for our guide, Nolan, was: Why did we have to come out so early?  The answer: competition! The Kenai River is running very high due to the warm weather. The extra snow melt has filled the river from bank to bank, hiding the numerous gravel bars that fisherman normally use when they fish for salmon when wading. If we wanted a good place to fish, we had to get there early.

As soon as we arrived to "our" gravel bar, Nolan set out to teach us the finer points of Flipping for Sockeye. 

After a few flips, it was fish on! Dave had honors of landing the first fish.

The few 16 inch trout we caught this season did not prepare us for over 32 inches of fighting fury.

On this particular day in July, we had our choice to drift for a King Salmon or flip for Sockeye Salmon. If we chose the King Salmon, we would each only be able to catch and keep one fish. We'd spend most of our time on the boat. By flipping for Sockeye, we had a chance to get out of the boat and wade. We'd also be able to keep three fish each!

While we were flipping away, momma merganser came and paid us a visit.  In fact, she was returning with her brood to fetch one duckling that had failed to follow her when she abandoned "our" sandbar on our noisy arrival.

When Sockeye enter the Kenai River, they only have one thing on their mind - spawning. They are no longer feeding. In order to catch them, you have to find the current they are swimming up, and pull a hook in their path, right across their mouth. Since they swim with their mouths open, you can then hook and land them. 

Here Kathy took a turn with the salmon fly rod, and it looks like she has a fish on!

Fly fishing for salmon adds a certain sporty quality to the fishing. If you don't handle the rod correctly, you'll lose your fish. Thanks, Dick Bergey for all those fly fishing lessons!

It may not be as big as Dave's first fish, but it's definitely a keeper!

We never really saw dawn today. It remained cloudy and overcast most of the time we were fishing. However, we knew it was getting later since the number of boats that passed us increased -- each of them looking longingly at the tiny bit of gravel we had staked out.

Sockeye are not aggressive biters, so the common method of catching them is called “flossing”. The idea is that, if you lay your line low in the water, the salmon will accidentally pick up the line in it's mouth as it swims. At this point, you “set the hook," which draws the hook into the corner of the fish’s mouth. You only work in a small area, flipping your weighted hook out to 10:00 and pick it up at 2:00. 

In order to keep a fish, you must hook it in the mouth.  Hooking any other part of the salmon is a foul and the fish must be released. We had a couple fouls we released and we let one go because it was much smaller than the rest. We also released a pink salmon that was not our prey.  

By 11:00 a.m., we had caught our limit - 3 sockeye each!

We left the gravel bar behind and took a scenic boat ride to Skilak Lake in order to clean our catch.

Once we reached the lake, this loon noticed us and came over to take a closer look.

It didn't take long for the seagulls to find us. Anything that wasn't worth keeping was turned over to the seagull armada.

Did you know the name sockeye comes from a poor attempt to translate the word suk-kegh from British Columbia's native Coast Salish language. Suk-kegh means red fish. 

Once the fish has been filleted, you can really see the bright red color.

Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Thank you Nolan for teaching us how to flip for Sockeye Salmon. We especially like the tip about the door mat making the perfect fish cleaning station!  We can apply this to our Trout fishing, as well.

Once the cleaning was done, we beat a hasty retreat to the boat launch. From there, we drove directly to a fish processing company. When they weighed us in, we had 20 pounds of sockeye fillets. We kept one fillet for dinner and had the processor shrink wrap and freeze the remaining 17 pounds!

If you are looking for a great salmon fish guide don't hesitate to call Nolan at Northwest Connection Sport Fishing 360-480-3738. 

Here's wishing you tight lines!