Homer Elks Derby- some lessons learned. Non-Kayak trip

So I tried the Elks Derby in Homer from a powerboat.  I got greedy.  What can I say?  Well it turns out the advantage of the powerboat was that there were some rough weather.  But the results weren't much better than when I fish out of a kayak.

Ok.  So I know others have tried it and wondered "where are all the little kings Rudy keeps talking about."  Well I think I found the answer.  For some reason they LOVE the smaller Neddlefish hoochies.  First day, we ran two hoochie rigs and two herring rigs.  Tally for the day was 14 kings landed.  12 of them under 20"  90% of the small kings came on the needlfish hoochies.  Two big kings came on herring.

The fish didn't have needlfish in them.  They looked like capelin.  But the following day we run mainly herring. Only 5 kings landed on day two.  BUT 3 over 20".

Looks like the hoochies are deadly effective but they do seem to catch more little kings AND pollock.  Pollock hit the herring but not as often as the needlefish hoochies.

Also having a GPS plotter, I was amazed how many of the fish came from virtually the same exact spot even though we were covering miles of open water. 

So....

With this knowledge, I plan to fish my hoochies first.  If I have issues with pollock and small kings, I may take a single pack of herring. But I also am going to run something slightly bigger than the hoochies like a brad's cut plug or a coyote spoon. 

Weather looks good Saturday...marine weather.  Normal weather calling for SNOW in Homer Saturady and Sunday.  I LOVE fishing while the snow is falling on open water.  Just makes you feel a little more like living in Alaska!!!

So I was in the process of collecting photos and videos from the trip.  But here's an "in progress" clip from the weekend.  Despite the videos looking like decent weather.  We battled big seas both days on the run out and in to the port.  Crazy stuff.  Got snowed and hailed upon in anchor point and the pass driving!!! 




 

Be careful if you are planning to go down this weekend! 

Sweet! The kings like the bigger baits, and some structure. But fishing from a kayak is just as productive, very cool! I don't think it would be very hard to rig up a Brad's set up. so you could keep fishing them. Nice looking fish.

I went out on Saturday.....guess what.....I AM LORD OF THE POLLUCK. 

Still no king.  it was choppy, windy, and not much fun.  I could troll faster just drifting backwards than I could trying to go against the wind.

Intel from today says they are moving closer to spit. Bigger fish. 15lbs avg. heard from another kayaker he got a ten pounder by lands end Monday.

Still not sure what I'm doing this weekend.

Looks like I will be trying it out of a powerboat this weekend again.   The larger fish are still apparently holding just out of kayak range.  A few good catches reported out at "main street" hole.  Which is basically line yourself up with main street in Homer and fish 50 to 120 ft of water.  I think its about 3 miles past the green can.

So I know they should be there in November so I'll concentrate a little more off the kayak then.  This is too good of an opportunity to run multiple baits and test different depths against each other.  That's really the only major beef I have about kayak fishing, especially alone, is that its hard to test baits and setups side by side to see if one is better than another in a given situation. 

So, I will take one for the team and actually fork out fuel money ($100 a head last weekend) and try to learn something more about this fishery!   

The team is ever grateful for your sacrifice!

I'm just back from three days off the grid, canoeing and fishing my way around 22 lakes (and hauling gear over 21 portages) in the Swanson River area outside Sterling. Nothing to compare with your research out of Homer and those kings... but nice 15"-20" rainbows on ultralight tackle was just what I needed. My better half hunted birds; I fished. Didn't see another soul unless we're counting moose and swans. And that moon the last two nights was inspiring.

I hit the middle Kenai on Tuesday...from a raft. Just wanted to share this intel (picture)...  I caught a sculpin on the hook. Yeah. King of Sculpin.

Nothing much going on on the river--some guys had a few silvers, we got a couple small rainbows. But we just floated w/o stopping.

Now that takes some skill Jeff!  Pam, sounds like a great trip!!!

Weather blowing up for weekend. Will be watching over the next two days.