Whiskey Gulch 6/25

Headed down the Peninsula for a couple of days early this week and ended up at Whiskey Gulch. Was hoping to hit a couple of sockeye on the upper Kenai on the way down and back for the freezer, but that thing was cleaned out over the weekend with the increased bag limits. Oh well I guess.

Whiskey was pretty good. Made it in time to fish the mid day low tide on Tuesday, and managed to bring 3 halibut into the kayak, including my first every yak halibut. Wasn't big, about 6 pounds or so, but I'll take it. Caught it's twin about ten minutes later, which I released, and then found a slightly larger sibling about 30 minutes later. Right on 30 inches, hopefully that will finally get me on the scoreboard for AOTY. The two smaller ones I picked up on a metal jig in about 55 feet of water, and the larger one hit a herring rigged on a circle hook.

Conditions were great. Almost no wind, slight overcast, and the water was smooth. Beautiful day.

I went out again for the next low cycle at midnight, and caught one more small halibut, which i let go. Was hoping for more, but wasn't to be. Great night on the water, great sunset over Redoubt, and even saw a couple of humpbacks off in the distance waving their tails. A pretty nice day of fishing.

Nice!!!! Dang it I'm stuck in Denver. Did you see any reds jumping. I hear reports they are thick in the ocean from Ninilchik North....

Thanks for sharing!!!!


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Nope, nary a disturbance on the surface. I packed a flasher and some red hooks along just in case, but never got any indication that it might be worth dragging them around. And I wasn't marking anything that looked like large groups of sockeye moving through. Sure would be fun to hook one up out there in the salt though.

Hope you get a chance to go hit the South Platte or the Arkansas while you are down that way. I've spent many pleasant days with a fly rod in hand in those parts. Safe trip back.

Good for you, Westslopecutt.  Nice report.  And it sounds like the conditions were awesome.  What a summer we're having, huh? 

The high water on the Upper Kenai allowed lots and lots of first run reds to elude the gauntlet of hooks.  I need to look at the escapement numbers, but I'm guessing that we'll see that they've surpassed the goals there. Likely increased limits on the second run too if that's the case.  The water is dropping nicely now, and that makes a float from gravel bar to gravel bar so much more appealing.  But for reds, I'd rather dip them straight out of the salt.  Premium quality there. Sooner or later, one of us is going to dial in on the sockeye runs in the salt.  I tried the Resurrection River run this year with no success.  Maybe next year. My money is on Rudy to crack the code.

Hope to chase some halibut from Deep Creek on Sunday-Monday.  Your report has me chomping at the bit...

I think you are spot on about the sockeye in the salt. It's going to require dedicating some time, being wiling to go out and not catch anything for a while, and a little shot of creativity too. Something needs to be tweaked on the flasher/bare hook method, its just a matter of figuring it out. Or abandoning it altogether and trying something radical. There is something out there that will work.

Have fun down there this weekend, I hope the good weather holds out for you.

Great report, nice fishies! I'd take a couple of those!

I caught a sockeye once while backtrolling a little plug for silvers.

Sockeye occasionally do eat fish. And I've heard of people catching them while trolling for feeder kings.

I might try trolling a little plug around

Nice job at whiskey btw. Seems like fishing has really bogged down there.