Valdez. Sep 3, 2011 cohos

First time in Valdez in nearly 30 years.

Spent most of the day by Mineral Creek. Slow but consistent. Hooked 8 landed 6. On the way back in, saw jumpers right by the kayak launch so cast a vibrax on my ultralight and landed 5 in an hour. So 13 total, kept 6 .

Mainly herring behind a dodger. But blue body silver blade vibrax did great near shore.

Very nice! Great job 

Day two. Started at 8am. Limited by 1pm though it should have been earlier. The trick today was fishing in under 20 ft of water right by shore. I pulled a wiggle wart and vibrax spinners and it worked well.

Did catch a few with the standard planer, dodger, and herring down about 40 ft in deep water.  Deep cuz my sonar died. Ack.

Slow but fun. Now for the 6 hr drive back!

Two day total.

Is envy the worst of the seven deadly sins?  Hope not, because your reports fill me with it.

It's not the best video.  My new mount had some aiming issues (read: operator error) and the rain didn't help anything.  But here's a clip with the different ways I managed cohos this weekend. 

1) Conventional trolling gear with pink Lady Planer, Dodger, and whole herring. 
2) My Ultralight with a #5 silver blade/ Blue body Vibrax
3) Fire Tiger Mag Wiggle Wart
4) Power mooching/Trolling set up with whole herring.

The only rods I didn't break out this trip were my 4 wt fly rod and 9 wt fly rod.  Next time!

Collateral cost of trip: Sonar died, filet knife, utility knife, pliers, small bag of weights.  Total Cluster F&^K in terms of gear over the edge.  I have no idea why this weekend. 

Oh yeah, the mag wiggle wart is currently hanging hooked into my dry suit punched completely through.  Last fish of the trip and got me as I was trying to subdue the fish.  So now I have to remove and patch the two tiny holes properly.

Having said that, NO COMPLAINTS!  Had a great time!  Very kayak friendly.  Definitely on my places to hit next year!