Homer Feeder King Nov 8 & 9: Report and Video

So I took a day off after watching the marine weather and drove down to Homer on Friday. For the past two years, I haven’t taken an vacation of more than a couple of consecutive days.  That means I have lots of time off in reserve…5 weeks I think.  Thats a lot of three and four day weekends which suits my fishing style perfectly.

Roll into Homer and hit the water around 10am.  I get hit almost immediately but I lose the fish dinking around with the gopro.  ARGH.  But the next one sticks and it feels like a good one.  Bouncing between 14 and 15 lbs on my boca grip scale.  Following the largest fish of the two days, I manage the smallest king of the trip.  After missing one more, I fish till 4pm and finish 2 for 4 on the day.  Not bad.  Given I can’t really move around much, I will take a limit almost any day…except today…since I have a proxy!  But no complaints!!




Day two I am on the water at 8:30am.  Within the first 30 seconds I have a pollock.  Release it and no more than 30 seconds later as I was lowering the bait, I hook my first king!  WOOHOO!!!!  Well the action wasn’t super hot, but I would say going 4 for 4 in 4 hours is pretty dang good fishing for kings.  All of the fish on day two ran 5 to 7 pounds.  Nothing huge but I’ve done crazier things to go catch a limit of 3 reds or 2 silvers.  Besides I consider the meat quality of the kings to be totally worth the effort.  Those of you that have experienced a super fat Columbia River Springer caught in the ocean have an idea.  These are even FURTHER away from spawning so the meat is rich and delicious!!!  Very much like toro or chu toro for you sashimi fans in my opinion


I did catch two of my kings on hand tied mylar tube flies.  It worked out pretty well and will be testing them again.  The other fish were caught on my needlefish hoochies I have been using of late.  Oh yeah, incredible (to me at least)…I went fishing WITHOUT BAIT!!!!  The sand lances are starting to show.  They were some of the larger ones I have seen.  But only half of the fish had anything in their stomachs.



So the video is a little longer than normal at 4min 43 seconds.  I added music since I didn’t know how to adjust the audio.  This is the first video I posted using iMovie so its a learning process.  I prefer the live sounds but until I can adjust the volume and such, I’ll add a soundtrack.  Bear with me.

But more than entertainment, it serves for me to see where I caught the fish and log other details like weather, tide, wind, etc.  I suppose I shouldn’t be sharing my super duper secret location…but heck, I haven’t run into very many people yet.  It really amazes me.  So that’s 13 kings for 19 hookups and a bonus chum salmon for variety points over four trips of which 2 were more like half days. 

I guess I hadn’t heard about this fishery for the longest time and even after I did, it was one of those crazy things the locals did in Homer when they got bored and lucked into good weather. Well that may be true in a way.  I would not want to have driven back into Anchorage Saturday night with a 26ft boat in tow! WOW the roads were SLICK in Anchorage…perfect all the way to Indian Valley.

Well I can’t believe I got another weekend of fishing on open water in November!!!!  I even caught some fish!!!  I can’t believe it…I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!!

Oh yah…here’s the video!!! 


P.S.  A short BONUS clip!  Haha.  I may just have to take out my 4wt floating line flyrod.  I was hoping and hoping and hoping that a King might emerge to smash the fly but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.  But it was fun to watch!

Thank you to all the Veteran's who we honor on this day off for me.  Testing the smoker on the Valdez Cohos and have been getting a few requests here in AK for some info on The Homer Spit fishery.  I was telling people to go get a charter.  they would learn so much more.  But this fishery, especially from a non-downrigger platform is different in this one location is different for a few reasons.  I don't typically give up spots too easily but I could use a few more folks fishing this area!  People are the best fish finders whether it be direct observation as you are on the water or even the reports that may come later.  Safety is a concern at times as well.

I definitely don't have the monopoly on ideas and a huge disclaimer that I write this with less than a dozen trips under my belt.  But the learning curve was pretty steep at the beginning so maybe this will help some folks out.  Let me know if I can add, delta, edit anything to make it more useful.

https://sites.google.com/site/kayakfishingalaska/the-prey/king-chinook-salmon/homer-winter-feeder-king-fishery---how-to

Nice report and videos. Can't wait until 2014! My good friend just moved back to AK and will be looking for action around Juneau. Definitely looks like some good fishing in Homer. BTW is that a PINK fishing reel?!

Nice report and videos. Can't wait until 2014! My good friend just moved back to AK and will be looking for action around Juneau. Definitely looks like some good fishing in Homer. BTW is that a PINK fishing reel?!

Haha..Busted.  Yah, it's my fiancee's Avet.  She knows my propensity to borrow her gear so when she wanted a news reel she got a pink one so I wouldn't steal it.  Too bad for her I am totally a function over form guy.  What's worse is that I am wearing her drysuit too!  Need to get my stuff serviced but lately it has become my LUCKY reel!!!!!  lol.

Ok, one more information piece as I was updating a website...

My No vise sand lance imitation.  I used it successfully this past weekend.  POLLOCK LOVED THEM!  lol.  But I did manage king and several hook ups with it.  Will be developing it further.  Hoochies seem to work fine, but there is always that little bit of extra satisfaction catching something on what you created...though its only a few steps more than slipping a hoochie on!  I plan to use it in a variety of applications here in Alaska.

https://sites.google.com/site/kayakfishingalaska/techniques-information/terminal-tackle/my-quick-no-vise-sand-lance-imitation-for-trolling


Since herring is sold as bait the most, everyone assumes that's the primary forage fish.  Not true in Kachemak Bay...

Looks like great winter spring action! I notice you were using deep six planers--how deep was the bottom where you were fishiing and what depth doyou think the planers were gettng down to? i would have been out this weekend trying for them down here on Vancouver Island but i was couch surfng with a nasty bug all weekend. Thanks for the vicarious fishing trip!
T2

Looks like great winter spring action! I notice you were using deep six planers--how deep was the bottom where you were fishiing and what depth doyou think the planers were gettng down to? i would have been out this weekend trying for them down here on Vancouver Island but i was couch surfng with a nasty bug all weekend. Thanks for the vicarious fishing trip!
T2

I was fishing in 30 to 120 ft. Using the 90 ft model my guess is I had at max 120 ft out fishing in the 50ft range. I use 65 lbs braid with a few yards of 40lbs flourocarbon top shot.

Most strikes were with about 60 ft of line out fish maybe 25 ft down. My preference is to fish deeper but with all the pollock I was trying to stay above them. In clear water I hear they move considerable distances to track down a flasher and lure.


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My personal pages...I'm not a guide.

Rudy, you are Da MAN!

You've been knocking em dead this fall.   

-Spot-

Rudy,  your net skills are so pro! I love your fish slaying videos!

Awesome report Rudy! Keep em coming

Love your fishing videos! I got to ask. What's up with the pink reel?

Love your fishing videos! I got to ask. What's up with the pink reel?

So what?? You got a problem with my pink reel???   Lol. Just kidding!!!  Answered above but for convenience...Haha.

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Haha..Busted.  Yah, it's my fiancee's Avet.  She knows my propensity to borrow her gear so when she wanted a news reel she got a pink one so I wouldn't steal it.  Too bad for her I am totally a function over form guy.  What's worse is that I am wearing her drysuit too!  Need to get my stuff serviced but lately it has become my LUCKY reel!!!!!  lol.


AlaskaKayakFisher.com
Guidesak.blogspot.com
My personal pages...I'm not a guide.

Glad your killing it Rudy ! Nice flies too. I'm gonna watch your vid and tie some up. I love fly tying, and it would be great to not buy bait.
It's been good living vicariously through your adventures. I have been overwhelmed with work as of late

Hey Matt!  I was getting worried about ya!!! Being busy is a good thing. You can choose to NOT be busy when self employed but more often it's a lot harder to get busy when there is little work. So we will take it as a good thing.

Here's my attempt at adding articulated bodies. "Look ma! No vise!  Lol. I'm a function over form guy so as long as I think the fish will hit them, I don't "pretty" them up too much.



Going to try and make it down with a first time kayaker Sunday. Hopefully weather will hold. Another victim though he'll be rough to convert. He's got a nice enclosed 26ft powerboat! 


AlaskaKayakFisher.com
Guidesak.blogspot.com
My personal pages...I'm not a guide.