New NWSportsman Kayak Guy Columnist

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Todd Switzer (better known as Yaktrap around here) to the Kayak Guys column in Northwest Sportsman Magazine.  Todd was last year's AOTY winner and 2012's 2nd place finnisher.  He's an oceanographer by training and has been kayak fishing since 1971.

Check out Todd's 1st contribution to the Kayak Guys column in the July issue of Northwest Sportsman Magazine where he details the hunt for Baker Lake Sockeye.

-Spot-

Yup, great article...makes me want to get to Baker Lake even more. Congrats,Yaktrap on your column. Also, look for Spots comments in the camping portion of the mag...

Congrats on the new gig Todd. :-D

Thank you guys. I just got word from the editor to start working on the next one. Any suggestions? I was leaning toward kayak river fishing for lack of something more creative.

That would be pretty cool, not many people can run class 3 rapids and catch fish at the end.

The river topic sounds great. Would love to hear more stories/info about your combo fishing/camping trips....how often do you stay overnite while on the hunt?
We camp a lot,fish from base camp....taking the necessities on board and staying out sounds like a blast.
I'm sure whatever your topic,it will be quite interesting.....thanks

Great first column.  Both river fishing and camping and fishing sound like good topics.  Keep up the good work.

I did about 30 days of camp/fish trips last year, but only 3 so far this year. I think the topic is a bit specific for NW Sportsman, but I might be able to tweak it to work. For rivers I was thinking about all the class 1 to 2 rivers (entry to intermediate level) we have available. I don't want to encourage running class 3 with fishing gear for fear someone will take it on as a first trip.

I'm heading to Alaska near the end of the month for 11 days on the south end of Prince of Wales Island doing a solo trip. This year I want to head up small rivers into some remote lake systems and get a mix of fresh and salt fishing. The only way into these lakes is via float plane or small boat that can be portaged up small creeks. I've got a video system this year and will have the ability to record 10 to 12 hours of raw video. I hope to make a few videos out of it, maybe an article or two. Assuming I don't get chowed by a bear.

Got solar panels? 

I'm really looking forward to hearing more about your POW trip. Last summer, I stream fished POW for silvers with a retired ADFG fish biologist. We fished only the roaded portion of the island, with which he was extremely familiar because that is where they would do all their studies. He told me that the southern wilderness portion of the island was a real unknown. The silvers were a blast in those streams - if only the damn humpies didn't get it the way. My biologist friend estimated that we waded by over 1 million fish in 6 days of fishing up there.

I have scoped out a couple of FS cabins that appeared to be near both decent saltwater and freshwater fishing and were within a half day boat shuttle from Ketchikan. I have some ideas worked out on what I think might be good possibilities. I would be glad to share my limited knowledge and research if you are interested

Lee, I have a little solar unit that charges the I-phone. I didn't go big solar as 12v panels get bulky and spendy fast. I have a lot of battery capacity for ff and cameras, the math works out I should get 10 to 12 hours camera and 20+ of ff use. Went down to a Mark 4 pro in B/W that should draw 170 maH, and a new 10,000 aH battery. Didn't go blue brick, stuck with SLA system and the 8 lb block of lead which I shall curse dragging up and down the beaches.

I'm heading for Johnston and Kegan lakes for starters. No road access on the south end of POW. But a FS cabin/skiff/stove on Kegan that looks interesting. I found this document from ADFW I'm ignoring their advice - Don't go alone. Life would be pretty boring if I followed the rules 

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static-sf/Region1/guides/PDFs/pow_remote.pdf

Kegan Cove / Kegan Creek are the cabins I identified as my 1st choice for a home base. Trollers Cove is my 2nd. When are you going? I went the 1st week of September last year, but we should have gone a week later, when the rains started. The streams were way low for us, and the coho hadn't really moved in yet. Humpies were all over the place though.

Kegan Cove / Kegan Creek are the cabins I identified as my 1st choice for a home base. Trollers Cove is my 2nd. When are you going? I went the 1st week of September last year, but we should have gone a week later, when the rains started. The streams were way low for us, and the coho hadn't really moved in yet. Humpies were all over the place though.

Leave next week. Be there thru August 8th

My little goal zero charges straight to USB, holler if you want to try it out

Kegan Cove / Kegan Creek are the cabins I identified as my 1st choice for a home base. Trollers Cove is my 2nd. When are you going? I went the 1st week of September last year, but we should have gone a week later, when the rains started. The streams were way low for us, and the coho hadn't really moved in yet. Humpies were all over the place though.

I stayed at Troller's Cove like in 2006.  Kayak fished the area.  It was OK.  I've been to better.  We were there the first week in September.  Only 2 silvers were caught between 6 of us.  And no real schools of humpies, just a few pods here and there moving in on the local trickles.

I'd head further south, but if you do go to Troller's, let me know and I'll share what I learned about the area.

-Allen