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October
6th, 2008 - Palin shirts arrived
Greg closed the shop (for the first time since May!!!) to fly out here for his week of fishing. Unfortunately, I see online that all the boxes finally arrived at the Post Office with the "Palin for Vice President" shirts and our fly shop logo hats. So... for those of you waiting patiently for this stuff to arrive, we close the IRA camp on the 11th and head back to town. So... if you still want them, I'll send them out priority as soon as we get back to town.
This was an odd day to say the least. We don't get thunder storms very often, but yesterday and today, they have been rolling through over and over. The temperature plunged and this was just about the most miserable day of "guiding" I have had in years. Fortunately, I did very little actual "guiding" today and spent most of my time fishing my butt off. Our last group of the season arrived around noon, so after lunch we hit the river. In a span of about two hours, I landed about 30 fish. This late into the season, two were red, two were blushed and the rest were nice and bright. Not too bad. Then I carried the coffee thermos around and acted like a guide for the rest of the evening. My fly of choice was the grey chinchilla bunny leech. I LOVE this fly!
October 4th, 2008 - A Grand Day Out with the Family
It has been hard keeping up on the blog this past month, with long days at the IRA camp and guiding. So... here is a long update with lots of photos:
Yesterday, I had the chance to bring Tanis along for an afternoon on the river. Teen and I were working together in the kitchen most of this week with our friends and clients, so Tanis helped us around the camp in the morning. Eden stayed behind at the cabin with her Grammy and they did chick things together. Tanis on the other hand had a spectacular day! It started with a beachcomb ride after breakfast where he found a Japanese Glass Ball with some great markings and a flat spot on the bottom. Then a few feet beyond, he actually found $15 in cash along the tideline!!! At lunch, our client Richard did something pretty astounding. He gave the little fart a Redington fly rod and reel! After lunch, it was time to break the rod in on some fish.
This was our first nice day in at least a week, so the river was VERY high. Too high for Tanis to wade to where the fish were holding. Richard again stepped in to make Tanis' day by handing off his rod to land a lunker of a fish. A few fish later and Tanis was exhausted. He and his mom stepped out of the water to rest and warm up a bit before fighting some more fish.
A guide in training - complete with
scowl! Ready to end the day and head back for dinner - halibut
cheeks!
Our group departed this morning, so after getting the camp prepped for the next group, we loaded the family up for our annual lure scavenge trip. We cleaned up the lures, flies and broken fishing line off all the tree branches we could reach. Tanis and Eden have their tackle box filled again. Then, we spent some time with the kids casting from the skiff as we drifted our way downstream.
Eden managed to hook into a beautiful bright silver hen and Tanis was gracious enough to land it for her...
We headed back to the cabin and put all my commercial fishing crap away for the season. As many of you saw, I had nets and totes strewn all over the yard. At least it gave some visitors out here a place to sit while waiting for the plane to pick you up... We had a little bon fire on this downright balmy October day.
Eden assisted me with filletting her fish, which we promptly ate for dinner tonight. Just look at that wonderfully deep - dark red meat. No dye here!
Eden hearing me say, "Wet feet gets you beat!"... What an amazing day. Other than a couple airplanes flying over during the day, you would have thought we were the last humans left on earth. I LOVE this time of year!
"A family that fishes together..." This has been a VERY busy year, but I am so thankful we have our opportunities to slow down and enjoy the amazing life we have here in Yakutat and on the Italio. Thank you for sharing it with us and for helping make our little fly shop project a success this first season.
More to come as the season continues...
-Bob, Teen, Tanis, Eden and Emma (who was not too thrilled about being picked up...)
September 28th, 2008 - Goodbye to our Goony Bird
We had to say good bye to our Goony Bird yesterday. When the Tsiu hit hard in late August, TransNorthern Air brought in one of their Super DC-3's, but they didn't last more than that first week. Throughout most of the season, we have been blessed with N777YA flown by Bush Air Cargo out of Palmer, Alaska. This beautiful bird was delivered on August 28th, 1944 as 43-48373 to the USAAF for transfer that same month to the Navy as 17259. She served her country till 1946, when she retired to civilian life with Wein Alaska Airlines. That is where she spent her working life till the early 1970's. She was transferred through many different owners until she was acquired by Bush Air Cargo a couple years ago.
Bart and Don were a true pleasure to have around the shop throughout this silver season. I sure hope they bring their incredible WWII plane back next season. We have even been talking about possibly taking their other DC-3/C-47 and painting it in classic "Invasion" colors for a static display here at The Hangar. In case you didn't notice... these are my absolute favorite planes. Duh! I only have one hour logged behind the stick, but it was truly an hour of absolute ecstasy! Sorry Teen...
An another note... Teen and I head back out to the Italio tomorrow to finish our guide season with Italio River Adventures. One of my business partners (Greg) will be covering the shop this coming week, then the shop will close for 6 days while Greg comes out to play on the river with us. If you are coming up between October 6th and October 12th, sorry but the shop will be closed. We'll be back in town on the evening of the 12th, so back in the shop October 13th. See you then!
September 25th, 2008 - Our first fishing season limps toward its end...
Well, I'm back in town for a few days before Teen and I both head back to the Italio for the last two weeks of our season. In the meantime, we'll have our good friend and business partner Greg in town to cover the shop through October 5th. We will be closed (for the first time since April) for a few days while Greg comes out to play on the Italio with us. We'll be back to town on October 12th, so we'll reopen the shop on the 13th. In other words... we'll be closed from October 6th to October 12th.
Traffic through Yakutat this year has been much slower than normal. The downturn in the economy has hit the small Alaska communities in a very big way this summer and Yakutat is no exception. We felt it out at Italio River Adventures too, but not as badly as some of the outfitters and lodges. Flight loads with Alaska Air didn't pick up till the second week of September and the loads dropped significantly a few days ago.
With all the doom and gloom, we can't be more thrilled with how the fly shop has done this first season. It has been such a pleasure to get to know so many of you. Most people managed to pass through Yakutat and spend their week fishing without ever knowing there even was a fly shop... Hopefully we'll be a little more visible next year though.
Teen and I have been learning a lot and we are still trying to work out the bugs of how to run a shop like this. We have a long list of items we still need to track down for next season (thanks to the great recommendations from our visitors) and we have plenty of merchandise just itching to fill your stockings for Christmas... :-) Our fly shop logo'd hats are finally arriving now that the season is over, so keep an eye out here for when we have the e-commerce site up and running.
I haven't had time to make blog updates lately, but i did try to keep the fishing reports as frequent as possible. Now that the fishing reports are petering out, I'll be back to the blog updates. I have a couple long tirades waiting to be expressed, so expect some hot debate here in the near future... I do want to thank everyone who has supported and encouraged us over the last several months. We stumbled a bit throughout the season, but we appreciate all those who helped pick us back up off the floor and pointed us back down the trail. Thanks!
-Bob
September 8th, 2008 - A Grand Day Out
It has been wonderful to have Tanis out with me on the river this week. Although I spent most days in the kitchen cooking for the camp, we slipped out occasionally to make some casts. Today, we were on the Akwe, fishing the estuary. It was a good day with a lot of fish moving in on the higher water. The New Italio was bordering on being blown out, but the Akwe was a pretty good - fishable level. It was however a little too deep for Tanis to navigate. His 9 year old legs aren't long enough to let him wade out very much.
The group was well out in the main current. The river this year has a waist deep trench along the Italio side, with a shallow ridge, then it drops off again into the Akwe's water. Most people seem compelled to wade out to their nipples when the fish should be right at their feet. Tanis tried to hang with the big boys, but ended up breaking down a bit. He will be flying back to town tomorrow and was so disappointed he wouldn't be able to catch a fish to bring back for his Nana and Grandpa (who are up visiting for the month).
The guys were all lined up way out in the main channel and catching good fish, but there were just as many fish passing in the trench right behind them. This trench has very little current, but was on occasion boiling with fish. I made a couple casts nearly touching the backside of the guys and hooked a big silver. Tanis played it, but lost the fight... So I hooked him another right behind the guys. He landed this one, so we kept it for Nana. We hooked and fought three more before Tanis hooked one entirely on his own. By this time, all the guys had either come back out of the river and fished from the shore, or had turned around and were casting back toward shore. We had the school surrounded and there was no escape!
Tanis has his fillet to take back with him, so he is happy even thought he doesn't get to stay out for another week. He needs to get back and do more school. He certainly wasn't getting any work done with me this week. Unless you count tying flies as art, fishing as PE and helping to cook and serve meals as Home Ec. Hey Teen, can he get credit for that? Science discussion of the week was:
Client: "What are those things on the fish?"
Tanis: "Those are sea lice."
Client: "They look like boogers. Are you sure they aren't boogers?"
Tanis: "No, they are sea lice."
Client: "How do you know?"
Tanis: "Boogers taste salty."
Gee, thanks Rob for THAT science lesson!!!!
September 5th, 2008 - We are accepting pre-orders for...
Yes,
you too can show your bent and demented Alaska-ness with your very own
Palin/McCain t-shirt. Who are we kidding anyway? Up
here, it is clearly our Governor that is on top of the ticket and
like I said in the blog a week ago, "Yes, we are
proud!" Now, you too can look like an Alaskan, so
long as you wear this short sleeve 100% cotton t-shirt outside in
sub-freezing weather just because the sun came out briefly... Along
with your shorts and Xtra-Tuf's.
It'll take a couple weeks for these shirts to arrive, but if you want one, send me an e-mail with the size of your choice and I'll get one in the mail to you as soon as they come in! They will cost $20 due to the small number I ordered and the rush to get them here...
In other news... It was a gorgeous day today, after some light drizzle in the morning. I'm in the kitchen at the camp most of this week, with Tanis out here to be my little slave laborer. Pat does breakfast, I do lunch, then we split the dinners. I have the first three of those. Today's lunch was pasta salad... so with an easy meal, Tanis and I headed out to the river for a little recreation. You know, to get us in the mood for boiling noodles. Tanis brought out a little baggy of flies he tied, with the limited selection of colors in his tying box. Mostly kelly green and orange - his two current favorite colors.
I bummed a fly off him, a pretty sharp looking combination of green marabou tail, orange chenille with yellow hackle body and a yellow hackle head. Tanis tied on a beauty of a fly with dumbbell eyes, black wing and a bright blue hackle head. Let me just say... two casts, two fish. This boy is obviously onto something with his creative patterns and color choice. We traded rods off a couple times, but still managed to land both fish right about the same time. How can you beat having a double with your son on two flies he tied? A couple follow-up casts with no interest and we headed back to camp to whip up a mega-batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and the pasta salad. Neither of us were hungry for the pasta salad for some reason... Sorry Teen, what happens at the cabin, stays at the cabin...
Tanis helped me start a nice bon fire in the fire ring at the IRA camp and while I was busy making dinner, Tanis was busy making deals. He had sold his entire baggy of flies and had $22.00 burning a hole in his pocket. I think he'll be ordering some fly tying materials from his mommy next time we call in on the VHF radio. You can probably pre-order some "Tanis Specials" too, but he doesn't check his e-mail very often. At least not while the fish are running!
September 4th, 2008 - Fixing my internet connection
My apologies for the lack of updates this past week or so. I started my Italio season and ran into a tech problem with my Starband satellite internet at the cabin. I came back to town to sort out the issue and they promise the account should be working again. So, we should have more regular updates. I head back out first thing this morning to the river and will have some fresh updates.
In shop news, Teen has been doing a great job running the show and keeping the doors open. Mark, my computer tech nerd business partner arrived yesterday to help out and give her some relief. His learning curve is even more steep than Teen's, so I am thoroughly enjoying hearing their updates and reading their e-mail questions each evening. I try to get online each evening, so don't hesitate to ask me questions too. Mark plans to have our web site functional within the week, so watch for that. He'll at least have the logowear part working, in case you were here when we ran out of the fly shop logo hats, etc. We also have a new shirt design that is being printed as I type. I'll post a picture tonight of our "Palin for Vice President" shirts... :-) It will take a couple weeks for them to come in, but we are accepting "pre-orders".
Moving on to the fishing report page...
-Bob
August 31st, 2008 - Politics... Yes, we are proud!
Boy, this weekend I started getting a LOT of messages from people throughout
the country asking my opinion about a certain female Governor. Yes, we are
proud, excited, thrilled... and at least a little disappointed that we now
may be searching for another public servant with this level of ethics, drive
and conviction. I have been listening a little this weekend to my XM news
channels (audio tracks of cable news channels) and I have to laugh every
time one of these idiot talking heads refers to Alaska as a "little state".
Um... just to let the news anchors and reporters in on a secret - the
pictures on the atlas are NOT TO SCALE! You can cut Alaska in half and make
Texas the third largest state. They probably think we are really an island
in the Caribbean, or isolated in northern Mexico right next to Hawaii...
Our population may be the third lowest of any state (not the lowest by the
way...), but the state itself is massive. The logistics of running a vast
area like Alaska, with its huge reserves of oil, minerals, wildlife, sea
life, environmental disasters, weather, the largest national park, the
largest national forest - makes most other Governor positions look like
leading a local city council. Governor Palin has been willing to take on her
own party and route out corruption and nepotism, slash budgets and
unnecessary spending - all while remaining an accessible and approachable
human being that anyone can relate to.
Accusations of her lack of experience seems a bit ridiculous coming from
people who support a candidate who is just a junior senator that spent the
majority of his first term in congress running for higher office. Yes, I
would feel comfortable having her "one heartbeat away from the Presidency"
based on her experience. I do not agree with a lot of her positions and
beliefs, but the person is one of exceptional character.
You don't vote for Vice Presidents. You vote for Presidents. Regardless of
which candidate you decide to vote for, Governor Palin is a truly unique
person in politics. Honesty, integrity... and she is a lot nicer to look at
than ANY of the other office seekers! OK, not a reason to choose a
candidate, but if you were riding the fence, I'd rather fall into her
yard... Except she'd probably have no problem shooting me if I looked like
an intruder... or a bear...
-Bob (this message was not approved by any candidate)
August 30th, 2008 - It's Official!
After a lot of paperwork and some hassles that came from a few places we
never expected... the hangar lease is now in Teen's and my name. This is a
tremendous relief to have behind us as we move into the fall fishing season.
In other words, the entire 38,000 square foot hangar building is ours. This
massive responsibility wasn't necessarily our goal, but after investing so
much money and time to renovate the fly shop portion, we couldn't risk
having the building change hands and put all that investment at risk. The
last thing we (or Yakutat) needs is for the hangar to revert to the kind of
management it had in the past.
So... this fall when I get back to town, our first priority will be to get
bathrooms back in. I have five bathrooms to put in, then we'll move on to
renovating office space that can start generating a little income to offset
our costs. The third phase will be to start renovating another shop space.
We have been asked repeatedly for services that don't really fit into the
"fly shop" keyhole. Things like:
* Rafts and foldable boats that can fit in the air taxi planes for remote
trips - this is especially cool with the float plane that Yakutat Coastal
has brought to Yakutat for trips into Situk Lake, Akwe Lake and other remote
float trips that haven't been possible before.
* Specialty campstove fuel cartridges that you can't find at all in Yakutat.
* Camping equipment for sale and rent
* Drift boats
* Aviation charts and support services
* More clothing, souvenir, jewelry and gift options.
Please keep feeding us suggestions for the kinds of things you want to see
out here. You have been so instrumental in helping us create this fly shop
and helping us make it a success. We are still learning every day and
enjoying the process. Boy, you don't have a clue just how little you know
until you start something like this. Our "project" just grew exponentially,
but we are so excited for what the hangar has to offer our community and to
our visitors. Thank you so much for your continued support. With some of the
"obstacles" we have encountered lately, you can't begin to know what your
calls and e-mail have meant to Teen and I. Thank you.
Bob
August 26th, 2008 - Life in Yakutat
This
isn't the message I wanted to type today, but I do want to share a
little bit with you about what it is like to try and do something nice in
Yakutat. I can't communicate to all of you enough how much your
support and encouragement over the past few months has meant to Teen and
I. For all of you down in "the United States" and for a
few of you right here in Yakutat, this fly shop adventure had been a
roller coaster of sorts, but we appreciate everything YOU have done
to build this shop. This is yours as much as it is mine.
We expected to be a little scary to some of the "Yakutat as usual" people around here, but so many have seen what we are doing and been inspired by it. Then... there are those "others". It was brought to my attention yesterday that someone had printed out a page of my blog, highlighted anything that could possibly be considered offensive (to someone looking to be offended) and posted this on bulletin boards around town. Surprisingly, I don't think I gave them a whole lot of fuel and they had to highlight things like "So... Gordy has been expecting a weak run..." and "...Fairweather Day, our annual community event/sometimes drunken brawl". Usually, my opinions are a little more obnoxious...
Well, Gordy has been predicting an off coho run. All indications were that it was a struggle 5 years ago that matched the other poor returns we have seen recently. He was in here a couple days ago and shared the "why he was wrong" explanation and he educated me on a lot of fascinating things about how these fish behave. If you have a chance to stop by the Fish and Game office and talk to Gordy about the salmon around here and our ever changing landscape, you will be in for a treat. This is such a complicated biological puzzle, no super-computer, let alone a human could have a glacier's chance in Arizona to master it all. Gordy does a pretty amazing job at trying - but he still missed it on this year's run... maybe... we will have to see how it all works out. But at the moment, it is shaping up to be a pretty good showing.
I will admit in hindsight that calling Fairweather Day a "drunken brawl" is unfair to the modern organizers. They have worked very hard to make it more of a family event and make the entire community feel welcome and involved. We were still called in that next day to jail guard, so in spite of the effort of many to make it a wonderful community event, it is still a "sometimes drunken brawl". As the person who gave me this sheet said, "we all say it, but you put it in writing"...
My hope is that this fly shop and this web site can be a positive influence for Yakutat, as well as a positive place for people throughout the country to come, learn, share and sometimes buy. Our philosophy of not jacking up prices so far has translated into building trust with our customers and I hope that I continue to earn your trust. Really, you have been my inspiration and I have so enjoyed learning from all of you that have called, e-mailed and stopped in here at the hangar. My life has been out on the Italio, not the Situk, so I thank you all for sharing with me and helping me to learn and grow.
In spite of the efforts of a small few (with emphasis on "small") to take my blog words and create controversy when none exists, I do plan to continue to share our experiences here, share opinions, laughs and photos. On occasion, I may air some of Yakutat's dirty laundry and point out some problematic issues around here that we can solve through the interesting dialog I have had with many of you. I hope you don't mind and will continue to give us your friendship and support, even though not everyone appreciates what we are doing here.
Change is scary and this fly shop - and our philosophy - is definitely a change for Yakutat. I don't intend to change our philosophy to calm the fears of people who have essentially been ripping people off for decades. In fact... Boo!
August 24th, 2008 - Back from my kayak adventure
Well, it has been two weeks since my last blog, so here is a rundown of what has been happening around here... Doug and Lisa arrived on the 9th and we headed out for our kayak trip to Hubbard the next morning. I had our gear and boats shuttled up to Haenke Island at the head of Disenchantment Bay, only to find out that the ice flows were so thick, my shuttle boat was unable to get all the way up there. Instead, or left the gear piled on the beach at the first wash around Point LaTouche. We had Mark with the Yakutat Charter Boat Company deliver us to the gear and we began the adventure there...
The view from our gear cache with Turner
Glacier in the background
As Mark departed, we checked the gear - a bear had paid us a visit, popping both water jugs, chewed up both my Therm-a-rests and apparently sucked on the Coleman propane bottles (not punctured, but really slimy). We started a fire and thoroughly burned the damaged gear so we wouldn't have to take it along, then loaded up the boats and paddled toward cooler waters.
Paddling off toward Haenke Island, the big rock blob on the
left, with Hubbard Glacier and Gilbert Point just beyond.
The view from our campsite on Haenke Island
Our first full day was a gorgeously sunny one. We made good use
of it, paddling along Hubbard's face, watching huge
calvings and getting sunburns.
This shows Gilbert Point - the point that Hubbard will press up against
and seal off Russell Fiord. You can see how far the glacier wraps
around the point now. When Doug and Lisa went with me on a similar
trip in 2005, we could easily see through the gap
unobstructed. Not anymore...
These photos show the far left edge of Turner Glacier. Turner is
also advancing and spreading wide across both flanks.
Sunset from our campsite, over Turner... the dark areas are
where the previous photos were taken at close up.
Paddling around in Beluga Bay on our last full day by the
glaciers. So sign of whales, which were out feeding along
Esker Creek - farther out in Yakutat Bay. 
Our last glimpse of Hubbard and Turner, just before we rounded Point
LaTouche and open ocean. 
The storm hit pretty hard on the last couple days of our trip. We
were fine at the Haenke campsite, but once we had to pack away wet
tents and gear, everything was soaked. We decided to paddle
all the way back to Yakutat in two days (one wet night) instead of three
(two wet nights). We had a couple hours of hard work paddling
through up to 12 foot swell. 
Our last day was calm and gorgeous once again. The fog rolled
in, making the paddle through the islands a dreamy experience.
Heading through Hatchet Pass, just about a half hour before reaching
the harbor and the end of our trip.
August 9th, 2008 - I'm heading out into the wilds...
Where is our summer going? My big kayak trip to Hubbard Glacier is already upon us and we head out in the morning. Sorry if I haven't responded to the photos for the contest that I have received and other messages. I'll be back next Saturday to try and catch up before I head out to the Italio for my own silver fishing. I will post some photos from the trip when I get back. In the mean time, Teen will be holding down the fort at the shop. Be nice to her!
By the way, the Forest Service did organize a river clean-up last week. Assisted by the Saltwater Inc crew (the company contracted to do a marine mammal study), they pulled a ton of junk off the Situk. They did a really great job, so hopefully it will inspire some of the fishermen to pack out all they bring in. Maybe a little more...
August 6th, 2008 - Rotten Eggs
With our jail guarding shifts this weekend, I was in a hurry to get the kids to bed, so I could get a couple hours of sleep before relieving Teen and the Cop Shop. You would think some things would be easier than they are. I yelled "Last one in bed is a rotten egg" and Eden beat her brother to bed... The she had a melt down because she wanted to be the rotten egg... At 5, I don't think she quite understood the concept. "OK, you can be the rotten egg too, just go to sleep!" Kids...
August 4th, 2008 - The Forest Service
I did a little editing on the last blog entry after talking with the folks at the Forest Service. The massive amount of of flagging tape garbage we packed out was not theirs, so my apologies to the guys at the Forest Service for implicating them. Fluorescent plastic flagging tape isn't a whole lot better than a trail of beer cans when hiking through a remote and picturesque place like Italio Falls. They have been packing out a lot of this junk as well, so... if you happen to be out and about on a bear trail with a roll of flagging tape, please keep it in your pocket, so it doesn't end up filling mine...
August 2nd, 2008 - Research and Development
After posting about the new shirt designs night before last, we received a couple orders already. Boy, this internet-thing is pretty cool. Sales aside, it is important to get out of the shop and do a little hands-on research. I don't get to play my get-out-of-jail-free card very often, but I do try to make the most of it when I can. Yesterday was definitely one of those days!
Tim is a young guy from Oklahoma here for the summer with Cross Timbers Forestry. He has been building a rod here in the shop for much of the past few weeks and it turned out spectacularly. The rod is a gift for his grandpa (Tim Sr.) and grandpa is coming up on Tuesday. The rod finished drying Thursday night, so of course we had to go out and test it Friday!
Here Tim is, wrapping the
all-titanium guides on his Sage Xi2 8wt 4 piece blank. I ordered a
couple blanks in my initial rod order because I needed to buy 24 rods for
the shop and two blanks were cheaper than complete rods. I had no
idea we'd actually be building rods like we are. Looks like we'll
have 4 rods under the shop's belt by fall.
So... where better to test out a new rod than the most spectacular and most dear place in my heart - Italio Falls. After a rather late start, we headed out to the end of the road to Harlequin Lake. With skiff at hand, we motored across through the icebergs to the trail head. From there, a three mile hike into the West Fork of the Italio, a short ford and on to Italio Falls...
It has been 4 years since I last did any trail maintenance. Boy, does it ever show. The Devil's Club was your basic nightmare to crawl through.
Armed only with a brand new fly rod, a 9 year old and a Weimaraner, we headed into the depths of the Alaskan wilds. Italio Falls is a beautiful obstacle that the sockeye have to climb to get into Italio Lake. The drop is about 8 feet, with a series of steps. The sockeye can only get over the falls if we have a flood This year, it flooded, so there were no fish holding below the falls. They made it up and over during last week's big flood. That is a very good thing for the health of the run, but made it tough to break in Tim's new rod.
As spectacular a setting as Italio Falls is, we were on the hunt for a fish. So... we wandered downstream about a half mile to the fork, where west meets east. There is a massively deep hole there cut into the bedrock from when the Yakutat Glacier filled all of Harlequin Lake and part of the melt flowed out through the West Fork. It was too deep to see into the bottom, but I had a few subtle strikes. I had Tim slide into my spot and in short order, he had a fish on. He landed this nice little Dolly Varden Char on grandpa's gift.
We all had a few strikes, but that was the only fish landed for the day. Good enough. Sometimes it isn't about numbers. It is about being in a heavenly place with your son, your dog and a good friend like Tim.
By now, it was getting late and we had a long hike back out, a jet-boat trip to the bridge and an hour drive back to the shop. It was a great day out in the water and in the forest that I love so much.
July 31st, 2008 - Online Sales - a little sales pitch here...
Well, our third month of operating comes to a close today and we still haven't figured out the shopping cart software for the web site. Sorry all who wanted to buy stuff online, especially since we sold out of the small inventory of shirts and hats in April. We do have more in stock for those original embroidered designs, plus some new screen printed designs. In addition to the "Proverbs 21:19" shirts, here are two more that we just finished...
The "wilderness" design:
This is in two colors for adult sizes and two colors for kids. The photo above came from the printer and the shirt colors don't quite match perfectly. But it gives you an OK idea of what they look like. These shirts are $13.00 for the kid sizes, $16 for adult small-Xlarge and $18 for XXlarge..
The "Kid" design:
So... we have regular camo and pink camo, plus heather
grey and navy for the kid sizes. The "I Play with my Food"
image is full-sized on the front of the kid shirts.
On the adult sized shirts, the
"I Play with my Food" logo is on the back, with the dead
fish and fly shop writing on the left breast. This was a fun one to
design.
Although we don't have the web site working yet, we have sent several orders out in the mail. If you missed getting a souvenir when you came, or need anything Simms and Sage makes, or if you need an unusual color of Glo Bug yarn, send me an e-mail to info@situk.com, or call between 8am and 8pm Alaska time (907)784-3087.
-Bob
July 29th, 2008 - Slow fishing, so some busy work in the shop...
With the exceedingly slow fishing this season, we have been keeping ourselves busy here in the shop. I thought you might enjoy a few photos of the family busily learning to tie flies around the table:
You have to appreciate the humble feeling when
you have to have your 9 year old show you what you are doing wrong.
Tanis and Eden both have a little bucket of flies they have tied on the
counter. When we sell one, they get 80% (the shop gets a 20%
commission on consignment sales, therefore...). Tanis has to
figure out what his commission is to get it and then divide up his
earnings between savings, tithe and what he gets to blow.
Well, Eden doesn't have to do that work, but still gets her
earnings from the forced child labor... And we get to count fly
tying as art for HomeSchool credit! Woo, hoo! He also
gets a little science and math in there too.
July 27th, 2008 - Family Fishing Day
On Friday, a couple Forest Service temps stopped in at the shop to ask for a donation for "Family Fishing Day", an annual event no one seems to bother planning more than a day ahead. Had I known, we would have been more involved with the event. Oh well. As it is, we closed the shop for a couple hours yesterday and took the kids fishing for Northern Pike on Post Office Lake - creatively named after the building it sits next to. Not necessarily the most picturesque setting for a fishing adventure, but it is plugged full of pike!
There
were a mess of local kids running amok in canoes, armed with little
spin rods and spoons. As Tanis and I walked across the church
parking lot with fly rod in hand, we were asked by several
people, "Are you going to fly fish?" Not too sure
why this would be such a shock, but as many of you know,
Yakutat hasn't really supported its fly fishing visitors very well in the
past.
We stepped to the shore just as a gaggle of hooligans came ashore carrying a 5 gallon bucket of writhing pike to get measured for the derby. Tanis and I paddled out into the middle of the lake and he demonstrated a pretty good casting technique, not so patient an actual fishing technique though and demanded to use the spin rod. OK Tanis, this is your day, not mine.
In short order, I was handing the fly rod off to him to fight our first hook-up. Shouts came echoing across the lake at a regular pace from kids in other canoes, "I got one", followed shortly by "he broke off". I had just ordered in a batch of Rio's knottable steel leader, which worked great to keep our flies from being sawn off by those razor-sharp pike teeth. Tanis wasn't able to land either of the two fish I hooked on the fly (a purple dumbbell bunny leech with pink hackle collar), but he did land one with the spin set-up. We had multiple other strikes including a couple that hit right on the surface as we were pulling out to cast again. These are a voracious fish species and the lake is plugged with them. Many of the dark lakes around Yakutat have pike populations, not just the infamous "Pike Lakes" that reside about half way between 9 Mile and the end of the road.
For
a drizzly day in Yakutat while the rivers are all a raging torrent of
mud, it was a lot of fun to hook a few fish in a matter of 10
minutes total on the water. Teen was calling us back to shore,
so that Eden could have a turn. There was also a long line-up of
other would-be fishers along the shore, so I didn't want to dominate
the boat usage. Tanis wasn't too thrilled after I made him release
his pike and everyone else got to keep theirs.
Eden was more interested in paddling the canoe than fishing, so we made a brief "spin" around the launch area before heading in for burgers and dogs. I had to leave early to get back to the shop, but Teen stayed on so Tanis could participate in the casting contest. I heard a couple remarks from the temporary Forest Service river rangers that they were amazed the event wasn't cancelled because of the rain. It was explained to them that if we cancelled kids events because of rain, we wouldn't ever do anything - this is Yakutat! And we had a great turn out for the event. Next year, we'll have a few fly rods geared up, so people won't be so shocked to see people catching fish with flies. I know we could have had a few hits on a mouse pattern skipped between the lily pads. Now THAT would have turned some heads...
A big thank you to the folks at the Forest Service who braved the sprinkles to leave the office. The kids had a great time and even a few parents did too. And who can turn down free food? If you happen to be coming up next year when this event happens, think about helping out for a day of something different. I know you probably have your own kid events at home, but it was a nice way to hook a couple pike and make some kids smile.
July 20th, 2008 - Campers
As you know, I'm usually on the Italio from May through November, so it has been interesting to watch how things unfold here in town and on the Situk. There is a very heavy camping contingent for the steelhead run, but virtually no pup-tenters throughout the salmon season. We see campers on the Italio, so I was finding it odd with the additional fishing pressure in town that there weren't more people floating the river and camping along the way at the good holes, or using the "official" campground at 9 Mile. Is it the fear of bears that keep people in the lodges in town, or just the need to be closer to the bar?
In April and May, there is literally no room up at 9 Mile - in the snow - for anyone else to pitch a tent. I myself am a fan of extremely remote camping and fishing, so I don't necessarily see the appeal of having dozens of tents clustered together along a road, but at least they are on the river and fishing long before anyone else can get there. I had several groups come and beg for pallets and boxes from the hangar, so I have been saving all my scrap wood for the next batch of campers to use as firewood. Since early May, I don't know of anyone who has camped out under the drizzle, so now I have a pile of wood no one seems to want to use. Just in case anyone wants to brave the bears and bugs out there, I have scrap wood you are welcome to take off my hands. Just stop on at the shop.
My next camping trip isn't till August 10th. I'll be paddling to Hubbard with the Levins again, a couple that asked me to guide them on their honeymoon 4 years ago for a really special and remote 9 day trip. Doug and Lisa are coming back for another Hubbard trip, so it will be just Teen and the kids in the shop from August 10th to August 17th. I did two Hubbard trips last year and I seem to be focusing my adventure trips there instead of Harlequin Lake to the Yakutat Glacier. As much as I love floating the Italio and fly fishing up at Italio Falls as part of those trips, there just isn't very much ice in Harlequin anymore. It is certainly a lot easier to paddle to the Yakutat Glacier instead of all the way to Hubbard. Both are amazingly dynamic with Hubbard advancing as much as 150 feet in a day and Yakutat gradually retreating as it slowly dies. Yakutat eventually will recede out of Harlequin Lake entirely and once up onto the bedrock, the silt will eventually disappear making the Dangerous into a clear stream. This is what has happened to the Akwe, now that it has been decades since the glacier has been down into Akwe Lake.
This is such a dynamic area, ever changing and evolving. I'll save my views on Hubbard and Russell "Lake" for another time.
July 18th, 2008 - Comments and Suggestions
I have really appreciated the comments and suggestions I have been receiving from you guys. As time permits, I will be implementing a lot of them. My sincere apologies to a few of you that I haven't responded to directly. When heading out to the Italio each week, I have fallen behind a bit and managed to miss a few that migrated up in my inbox. When I come back to town, there are enough fires to put out that I haven't been able to catch back up on those things. So... this will be my last week of commercial fishing for sockeye and I'll hopefully get to all those things I haven't been able to do thus far.
Suggestions range from specific products we need to sell in the shop, fishing reports for halibut, water temperatures and flows on the web site, bear reports, additional services like drift boat rentals, etc. With the exception of my week-long kayak trip to Hubbard the second week of August, I should have plenty of time to start working on a lot of these things before I spend the fall out on the Italio guiding. Please keep the suggestions and comments coming. The more you help, the better we can make this shop and better fill the needs of the fly fishing community.
Drawing on an envelope that arrived today
in the mail from Gary Hansen with a bunch of great input for the
shop. Thanks Gary! Drawings are appreciated, but
certainly not necessary when making suggestions... :-)
July 17th, 2008 - The Shop is at the Airport!
My
apologies to anyone who may be confused by the sign on the porch of my
house advertising the "new fly shop"... My house is the
one along the waterfront right above the main dock in town. A few
people have come up onto the porch looking for the shop to find a messy
residence instead. I am putting up the big sign that includes a map
to the hangar today, hoping it ends some confusion. Two fly
shop signs on the other hand may double the confusion though. The
fly shop is in fact at the Yakutat Airport, in the old derelict WWII
hangar. The hangar still looks like it should be condemned,
but we are here!
July 16th, 2008 - Some good reports
It appears that yesterday the bite was on. A combination of a good shot of fish moving in, light and weather conditions, etc. It didn't really matter which Hot flies people used, so long as the presentation was good enough. We had a run on flies here at the shop, with the last of my rainbows getting sold. The greens were also a hit yesterday, along with the standard red. As much as I appreciated selling Eden's first flies, they looked like they were tied by a 5 year old! The kids are busy tying up a batch of bi-color flies with red and green for a particular group.
July 15th - Part 3
This
was a really good day. I'm so glad I made it back from the river in
time to experience it. Gorgeous sunny day out, slow in the
shop until all of a sudden it was a zoo. The fishing was VERY good
in the lower river in spite of the crowds and it was the magic
"Hot" series of flies that were working. Good to get some
positive feedback including a report that within an hour of being
guided, the guide was begging for some of our flies off his
"dudes".
Then it happened. In the feeding frenzy over the fly drawers, they grabbed the "display" flies as well. Some Hot's tied with some unusual color combinations - in other words, we have ANOTHER PROFESSIONAL FLY TIER in the family! Yes, Eden, my 5 year old daughter has sold her first flies. Two more of Tanis' flies sold too. Thanks guys for making my day, let alone making their day. They got over it within moments of getting paid their "commission". I'm still enjoying it all though.
July 15th - Part 2
Good news! Greg at Yakutat Seafoods does have and is willing to sell fish direct. Price for FRESH sockeye in boxes of 50lb with three gel-packs is $3.00/lb. Also, he can sell 50lb boxes of local halibut for $11.50. I'm going to work on getting king crab legs, but I won't have an answer on that for a week.
Here is the catch... Sockeye are fresh Sunday PM till Wednesday AM. All local fish is shipped out by Wednesday. So... IF there is interest (and it looks like there will be), I will see about getting some chest freezers here in the hangar and we can stockpile some fish for throughout the week. Funny thing of course will be that frozen fish will be a bit more expensive than fresh due to the high cost of electricity here in Yakutat. Plus, it will be good for the fish to be pre-frozen before you fly home. They will stay frozen in the box for days in transit, where you may have spoilage issues with the fresh boxes depending on how far away you live.
Please e-mail me if you have an interest in getting pre-boxes fresh or frozen sockeye, halibut, or king crab.
-Bob
July 15th, 2008 - Sockeye for sale...
Well, I suggested people buy already boxed and frozen sockeye to take home and release the ones they catch... Of course I didn't bother to look into where to buy and who was selling... Now that we are getting asked this here at the shop, I'm looking into who you can buy from. I wasn't really planning to become a supplier through the shop, but the fish plant apparently doesn't sell directly to the public. They will however sell to me and I can resell it to the public if there is demand. I'm looking into it and will see what kind of price they will charge.
Right now, they are buying sockeye in the round (with guts and head) from the fishermen for about $1.50/lb. By the time you clean a salmon, you lose about 1/3rd of the weight, then tack on the money they will want to make on the processing and I would expect the price to be around $3-4.00/lb. I'll also look into halibut and see if we can get any other specialty items like king crab. Let me know if this is something you'd want to get and I'll get it.
July 11th, 2008 - Another tier in the family...
Tanis taught Eden how to tie a fly. Granted Hots are just about the simplest fly there is, but it turned out pretty good. And me without my camera today... It is on display in the shop.
July 10th, 2008 - First Hand Fishing Report
Early this morning, a group of nice people from Utah were waiting at the door of the shop for me to unlock. They needed to tie up some flies, so we sat around the vises for a half hour before they headed out fishing. Teen agreed to let me out this afternoon to play... I mean do some research. After our morning crew departed, Tanis took over at the vise and produced a handful of really good looking sockeye flies. Armed with my stock of "unique" Hot combinations, Matt, Garrett and I headed out along with a novice named Nick.
We arrived at 9 Mile a little after noon. There was a group of Germans already there fishing on and under the bridge. While I geared up and threaded nick's rod, a lady yelled "bear" (with a cute accent), then hid inside their rental car. Moments later, another in their group yelled that there were three bears and he climbed into the car too. Matt piped in with some comments back about Goldilocks, but I don't think anyone got it... The three scary bears wandered harmlessly off into the trees with no sign of the little fair haired girl.
Garrett - fresh from his rod building adventure stepped into the river first, but under the bridge. Matt told me to go ahead and hook one, so I positioned myself up above the bridge about 100 feet where there were a handful of fish scattered across the river. Doing the textbook sockeye process... roll-casting the line across the seam, mending upstream, letting the Hot fly sink while I let a little line out... I hooked a small fish on the 4th cast, fought him a little while, then he shook it.
I hollered at Garrett to get his butt out from under the bridge and come up where there were fewer fish, but we had some current he could use to drift through. He came up, but insisted on casting upstream over and over. After telling him a dozen times to cast at a 45 downstream, he said he had been trained to cast upstream... "OK, but how many sockeye are there in Utah? If you want to catch a sockeye, don't cast upstream like that."
Well, Garrett is Garrett and he isn't about to start learning anything at this point in his life... :-) So I went up and helped Nick on his technique. He seemed eager to try something new. Then I made a few more casts down below everyone and had two good genuine strikes, before Matt and I wandered upstream. We ran into the morning Utah crew in the parking lot and recommended they head upstream with us as well.
Matt landed two fish in Anne's hole including a gorgeous resident rainbow! I walked pretty far up, but saw the Utah group up around the next curve and decided to head back down and leave the river to them. There was not a lot of fish up there. A pod of about 30 sockeye in one difficult spot and I wasn't willing to change my set-up to try and reach them. I was determined to fish only with Tanis' flies from this morning, so just the unweighted Hots and my sink tip.
Back down to the bridge, Garrett and Nick had moved out of the good spot and were thrashing the water to a froth just below in the deep pool. Garrett had given up on using actual sockeye flies and had some awful splitshot-yarn ball thing happening. Not what I wanted to watch, so Matt and I continued downstream. Not many fish down there either, but spotted 5 guys down on a curve with the deep pool Matt and I worked two weeks ago. Unfortunately, they weren't actually fly fishing... just throwing their "fly" and cluster of split shot out, waiting three seconds and yanking. We sat down to observe for a bit and they became nervous.
Mr. Red Hat brought in a small sockeye hooked in the ass, but tried to lead it around the corner out of sight. I hopped up and crossed the river to exchange a few words. By the time I arrived, he had his fingers through the gill, but then bent down and released his illegally caught dead fish. We have only 14,000 sockeye in the system and we need a minimum of 30,000 to keep the run alive. They had a lovely pile of dead snagged fish at their feet on a stringer, so they didn't exactly get my "nice" side.
Back across the river, Matt and I sat observing their wonderful river ethics. Even received a nice hand gesture from Mr. Red Hat not very well concealed. Gee, that sure hurt my feelings. Anyway... they didn't look like they were having a whole lot of fun snagging fish. In fact, long before I said anything, they looked like they knew they were jerks and were miserable about their choice of actions. Matt made the comment that people would never ever think of doing this in their home water. Why on earth would they come here and do it in ours? I did cross back over and say to the one guy who acted like he cared that I would be happy to teach them to actually catch sockeye in the mouth. It is a lot more fun getting them to take a fly in the mouth than in the ass.
We wandered back to the bridge to find Garrett unsuccessfully trying to "line" sockeye in the pool. He insisted it was a great technique that would work. He had released two fish already - that he had snagged in the tail, but it was only a matter of time before he would accidentally snag one in the other end too... Um... is that any more fun than what Mr. Red Hat was doing? OK Garrett. At least you released them.
Another two vanloads of people arrived and I was done. I called down to Garrett I was ready to go, but Nick had hooked into a sockeye and was fighting it. Garrett stepped in to help land it - by grabbing the line and dragging it to shore. OOPS! It broke off. Another problem - Nick borrowed my rod, so it has 10lb tippet on, not 40lb cable... Hey, did Nick just hook a sockeye in the mouth, doing what you are supposed to do to catch a sockeye - with an actual sockeye fly?!?! With a fly my 9 year old son tied this morning??!!??!!
Did I mention sockeye do bite, if you use something that looks like what they might eat in the ocean and present it like their food would look like in the ocean? Amazing. I do get really tired of hearing how they don't bite and the only way to catch a sockeye is to snag them (or line them which is snagging in the mouth by the way). Like I said, I would be happy to give some pointers to anyone interested in getting sockeye to bite. The morning Utah group hooked several upstream and several more just above the bridge where I hooked mine earlier - using red Gamakatsu #4 hooks and a little tuft of red Krystal Flash, or about 4 strands of the rainbow flashabou. Those are the two patterns they have been using this week with great success.
The biggest problem with sockeye here is that Fish and Game has the most liberal bag limit for the most difficult salmonid to catch. If we had a two fish limit (like we do for silvers - the easiest salmonid to catch), most people would feel they had a successful day. As mentioned before, some people have been catching as many as 8 an hour on hot flies presented well.
Or, you can keep glancing over your back in constant fear that Goldilocks will see you dragging them to their death by the ass. I think I'd take the mouth hook every time over that. But then again, this is my home water and I treat it with the respect it deserves.
July 8th, 2008 - Bob's Blunder
Thank you Jim for pointing out my boo boo. So... those great new bible quote shirts have a typo. Sure glad they sold so well... it is Proverbs 21:19, not 20:19. OOPS! So if you bought one, let me know and I'll send you the corrected ones when they arrive in a couple weeks. Or, there are the typo ones for a discount... maybe I should call them the "special limited edition" and charge double... :-)
But... on a better note, two of Tanis' flies just sold!!!! Both he and his mom are "commercial tiers"! After a pretty disappointing day (learning I wasted a thousand dollars on misprinted shirts), this really made it all OK and put things into perspective. A good reminder of what is important.
Proverbs 20:19-- "He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flatterith with his lips" Um... great advice, but for our fly shop shirts? Maybe a lesson there in blabbing about where the good fishing spots are...?!?!
July 1st, 2008 - Back from the Italio...
Fishing on the Akwe was very slow this week, but life on the Italio is always a joy. As told below, there wasn't "enough room on the plane" for Tanis, so the poor guy had to fly out in the Cross Timbers helicopter:
Tim and John took Tanis on an aerial tour of Tanis Lake and Tanis River, where they say a half dozen brown bear and even three wolves out on a gravel bar. It was one of those incredible opportunities that come along once in a VERY long while and I'm so glad they were willing to make this little guy have such a special day. Then it was back to his WWII obsession filling sandbags for his foxhole:
My next bit of news is that we had more merchandise delivered today. My "bible quote" shirts arrived and have been a big hit already...
Teen doing her best Vanna immitation
Close-up of the back quote and front pocket logo
While supplies last... :-)
June 28th, 2008 - I'm heading out to the Italio for a few days...
Commercial fishing opens tomorrow on the Akwe again, so I am flying out in a few minutes to do my "rape the land" thing. I'll be back to town on Tuesday for a fresh fish report. Tanis wasn't able to come out with me last week and was pretty upset, so this week we were making sure he would be on the river with me. Yesterday, Tim with Cross Timbers Forestry offered to fly him out in the helicopter and to give him a aerial tour of Tanis Lake... This morning, I broke the news to him that there wouldn't be enough room in the plane for him... he was trying to be strong, but still on the verge of crying... then I added, "so you'll have to fly out with Tim in the helicopter!" Don't you just love being a parent and torturing small children? :-)
June 24th, 2008 - Teen held down the fort, while I played at the Italio!
Commercial
fishing opened on the Akwe River this past Sunday, so I flew out to
the cabin Saturday morning to get everything ready. I had very low
expectations for our opening week, with the extremely late
runs. Well, I wasn't surprised by the dismal outcome. It
was the second worst opening week for a commercial opener I have ever
had. We had some amazingly gorgeous weather throughout the
weekend, which helped make for an amazing time on the water,
regardless of how the fishing was. This is a very special time of
year out on the Italio, with animals everywhere, the
wildflowers in full bloom and the promise of returning salmon by the tens
of thousands. I did at least get my lawn mowed, between taking
naps and checking the net.
Young bears are running around everywhere. Thus begins another "training" season. I will be working with the young bruins to teach them that people are to be avoided in hopes that by fall, they will leave the sport fishermen alone and stay away from people. It doesn't always work perfectly, like last year when we had a couple aggressive ones that learned to associate people with food. Let's all plan to be more careful this fall with our catch, our lunches and our garbage to keep the bears wild and not habituated to people. I didn't see any moose, but there were fresh cow and tiny calf tracks everywhere each morning. The massive exodus of silver salmon smolt continues, so we had a pretty good survival rate this winter from last fall's spawn. I also had a visit from two guys staying in the Forest Service cabin, who remarked about being beaten at chess in 7 moves by some 9 year old the night before...
While waiting for my flight "home" to the cabin, we had some rod building lessons from our resident fly tying, rod building and all-around fly guru Matt. Garrett finally started wrapping his Sage VT2 with advice from Matt and sarcasm from me.
Before I left for "paradise", I did get our new road signs up. Keep a look-out for this sign directing you to the fly shop...
The Hangar only has two tenants at this stage, but we will be making more progress on the renovation throughout the summer - taking a break in the fall - then resuming renovations through the winter. I hope to have an additional shop open by next spring in time for the 2009 steelhead run. Tentative name would be "The Yakutat Adventure Company" with tents, camping gear, boat rentals (including drift boats) and anything else to support the needs of visitors to Yakutat. I have received a LOT of requests for additional services and products - many of which are needed, but don't quite fit into the "fly shop" category. Camping gear was a big area neglected locally that we will try to fill with the new shop.
Please don't hesitate to give me suggestions for the kinds of things you need for your trip and we will do all we can to bring those products and services to Yakutat. Most of you haven't been shy about making suggestions, so please keep them coming. These are your shops, so please help me make them the best they can be for your needs.
-Bob
June 19th, 2008 - Slow, Time for some Catch-up in the Shop
With the late run, the bump in traffic hasn't arrived like we expected. Slow sockeye fishing has made for another slow week in the shop, so we're catching up on some work around here. We did get a visit from a couple guys from Spain this morning, who will be flying out to the Raven cabin at Middle Situk tomorrow. After having visitors from all over the world already this spring, it was time I mounted the pin maps. Too late for Paolo and his group from Italy to leave their mark, at least from here on out we'll be able to see where all our fellow fly fishermen hail from.
Teen had the honor of course to poke the first pin in her home town of Melbourne, Australia, followed by Tanis and Eden putting the pin in for the Middle Italio River, Alaska. Two lonely pins down and hundreds to go. Make sure you leave your mark when you come into the shop! They will be in the hallway down toward the bathrooms.
June 14th, 2008 - I Finally Did It!
I promised "Big" Garrett that I wouldn't "say" a word, so instead I'm typing it... I finally beat him at chess here in the shop. OK, probably not the "big news" I think it is. Oh well. Make sure if you meet him, you give him a healthy ration of crap about it. He sulked out of the building and hasn't been back.
Thank you to those of you who have sent in photos. I'll be working on getting some added here and I obviously need to get the contest rules written... Make sure if you send me a photo, you are the one who took it. If not, have that person send me a message saying it is OK for me to use it. Thanks!
-Bob
June 9th, 2008 - Some Shop Happenings...
While
Matt was covering the shop recently, he had a chance to visit with a
guy from New Jersey. When he returned home, he sent in a
couple of his salt water flies for us to see. Matt and I have been
discussing around the vise some good saltwater fly fishing options around
here. Something that is totally neglected in Yakutat! Matt is
looking forward to trying these 7" babies for silvers out in the bay
come August.
Besides the Ankau Salt-chucks (home to the ultra-creepy mega-clam worms) and all the silvers that call that home in the fall, there are a multitude of small streams that enter Yakutat Bay. Access is limited to boats, unless Hans at Yakutat Coastal leaves his floats on the 185 into the fall. On my many kayak trips in the bay, these streams are teeming with salmon throughout August and September, while being too far out of the way for most of Yakutat's visitors. I love getting into the salmon in the salt - just off these creeks and streams, as well as hiking upstream for a more traditional day of fly fishing.
There was a "fad" recently where people wanted to catch a halibut on a fly rod just to say they did. OK, well what ever floats your boat. Fighting a halibut regardless of what kind of rod reminds me of trying to bring up a sheet of plywood from the bottom. Maybe an old tire on a good day... There are several species of rock fish that don't live at extreme depths that would be a kick to get into. Depths of 20 feet to the surface in fact. No one is doing THAT, so it may be worth taking a day to plunk around the rocky outcroppings and reefs to see what happens.
There are a lot of untapped species in and around Yakutat that would be a lot of fun on a fly rod. Sand Sharks are thought of as a garbage fish (especially when you are trying to target halibut in the midst of a dogfish school), but they'd be a blast with a 10wt. The way they follow a fellow fish all the way to the surface, you could have your own little feeding frenzy with a few of these flies and a steel leader.
Well, why not? On those really crowded days on the river, why the heck not go out and do something unusual - far away from the elbows of everyone else? There is a lot of great fishing to do around here that doesn't include the Situk and Italio.
June 6th, 2008 - Yet another day off...
I had the opportunity to head out to the Italio yesterday, so I left Teen to watch the shop. As you'd expect, there were all sorts of fun things for her to deal with... Nothing like hopping into the fire. The power went out and when it came back on, we had lost our phones and internet access. She struggled through trying to get credit cards to work, while the state arrived to ask questions about the hangar doors that she couldn't answer. Teen left the shop in Matt's hands while she ran to the post office. While she and Eden were gone, a moose cow appeared over by the terminal and in the excitement of cars and tourists, she trampled one of her two calves and really went nuts, charging cars and the people around the airport. Matt kept Tanis locked inside, but they were able to see her from the shop windows. Fun, fun, fun. There was also a bear involved at one point trying to get at the calves. Quite the fun little afternoon.
I on the other hand thoroughly enjoyed a day of peace and quiet. I flew out with the helicopter crew and they dumped me off on their way to Dry Bay. I opened the cabin up and cleaned up the mess left by Satan's minions (squirrels). I had a long list of things to do, but made sure the first thing was go down to the Akwe and see what things looked like. WOW! The mouth has moved even closer to the IRA camp! I suspect we only have about 10 more years of existence before the Akwe consumes our business completely out there. Yikes! The river was really flooded from this small shot of rain we just had and from the snow melt. There wasn't the slightest sign of fish and not a single seal in the mouth. Not a good sign.
The Middle Italio was plugged full of silver smolt. We haven't been seeing smolt flipping everywhere like we used to, so it is wonderfully refreshing to see so many in the river again. Let's hope the wet and warm winter we had helped the survival rate and our struggling run will recover. Time will tell... we have to wait another 4 years to see what happens. I did find one glass ball with markings, so the trip was a success.
Then I decided to lay down and take a SHORT nap. OOPS! I woke to the sound of the helicopter landing in the yard 4 hours later. Garrett hopped out and spent the afternoon helping me get my skiff out and ready - just in case I commercial fish later this month. I'm not holding my breath with the late and weak runs. I'm hoping the fly shop produces enough that I won't have to, but that is up to you... :-)
We had a great evening roasting chicken over a beach fire, perfecting Garrett's double-haul and exploring some of my "secret" fishing holes. We were casing over empty water this time of year, except for the millions of smolt flipping and flopping everywhere. They didn't bite...
The helicopter arrived the next morning to whisk Garrett off to another day of battling Devil's Club, then returned to bring me back to town. It was my first trip in a helicopter and it was GREAT, although I have to admit flying the DC-3 was still my favorite aviation experience. It is hard to ever top that!
-Bob
May 28th, 2008 - Taking a day off...
With the "post steelhead" lull in full swing, I finally took a day off and closed the shop. With the sun shining and the winds calm, we packed up the family and hit the bay in our kayaks. Leaving Sandy Beach by the big dock, we paddled out into the bay toward the Ankau Inlet.
We paddled down the long narrow channel with the tide coming in to give us a little help. Under the Ankau Bridge and into the salt chucks... We landed at the far end, hiked through the trees to the outside beach of Ocean Cape and had a great bon fire and hotdog roast. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera in the kayak, so no photos from the beach.
At the top of the tide, we headed back to the boats for the paddle home. On the way back out, we encountered some wildlife in the Ankau... "Clam Worms" swimming along the surface of the still water by the HUNDREDS. The name "Clam Worm" seems harmless enough, but these are no ordinary worms! These are EXTREMELY high on the creep-factor scale.
Clam Worms usually live burrowed into the mud and eat algae and small invertebrates. They are also usually pretty small from a few inches to a foot or two in length. Well, isn't Yakutat fun? Our Ankau Clam Worms grow to more than 4-6 feet in length! And are predators that will go after much larger prey. Covered with little undulating "fins", these creepy critters look like a gigantic swimming millipede and have a proboscis clamp that they extend out their mouths to grab hold of prey and drag inside to digest.
They are also solitary creatures that live in the mud. Well, yesterday they were neither! They were all swimming enmass on the surface. Not scared of anything, they came right up to the boats and would pick and peck along the side, swimming along side us for quite a ways. It seems yesterday they were up to the surface "socializing" because - like so many critters this time of year - they are mating. Nothing like being surrounded by a few hundred 4-foot long horny worms to really give you the willies! I have a couple movies of them, but those are way too creepy to show here!
It was an amazingly beautiful day to be on the water, especially witnessing our little creepy worm sex show. A little hazy, but you can still make out St. Elias on the horizon as we paddled back home. The whole trip was just under 10 miles of paddling, but the kids (and Teen) held up great. Eden hasn't been up for the challenge of kayaking yet, so this was a great test trip and wonderful family day. Tanis is actually capable of being helpful on occasion, so is making a good paddle partner for his mom's boat. Paddling one way between Sandy Beach and the end of Ankau only takes about 1 1/2 hours, so three hours total on the water and about two hours of beach time. It was a very good "day off" from the shop. Well, "day off" is relative, since Tanis and I held court till 11am before heading home.
Next day off? Probably in November... Our parents keep harping on us that we need to get away from the shop and not think about "work". Um... I get to sit in a living room more comfortable than my house and talk about fishing! What am I supposed to do on my day off? OK, maybe I could actually GO FISHING, but they probably wouldn't count that as not working anyway. I don't think I can win with their way of thinking... Sounds good to me.
-Bob
May 26th, 2008 - OOPS! She is now a "professional"
Teen's brief adventure in fly tying turned suddenly into a "career" when we noticed two of her flies were missing! Someone bought them! She only tied 4 black krystal buggers last week with Matt's help. Little did we know someone would scoop a couple of them up with the rest of their flies and buy them... Had I realized what happened, I would have made a big embarrassing deal out of it. Oh well. She and Tanis will just have to tie more up. I wonder how they fished?!?! No way to find out, since we didn't realize they were buying "those flies" when they plopped them on the counter. :-)
May 22nd - My New Toy
The last time the fly shop rooms were
occupied, it was the early '70s by the Weather Service and the
FAA. I remember as a kid that every day at noon, they would
set off the old WWII air raid siren. So... I managed to find
my own WWII original air raid siren (don't you just love the internet!)
and as of yesterday, we have been irritating all our airport
neighbors at noon with it. It is one of the smaller
"neighborhood" hand crank sirens, so it isn't really
really loud. Loud enough to be fun though. If you happen to be
loitering around the hangar around noon, you are welcome to be the
one to irritate all the airport tenants... :-)
May 13th, 2008 - Part 2
Well, this was the perfect day to forget the camera at home. Matt has been teaching fly tying classes - to Teen!!! She is how on her 4th Black Krystal Bugger of the evening and the first one entirely on her own. She has now mastered the art of the whip finish! Expect to see these "masterpieces" on Ebay, or at a fly shop near you. I am so enjoying how she is participating in this whole "fly shop" thing. We have been somewhat uncertain of what will happen come September when I need to be on the river guiding. Perhaps, you will be able to call upon "Expert Fly Tier - Teen Miller" for advice...
May 13th, 2008 - Pinewood Derby
We closed the shop early the past two nights - for Mother's Day (so I can continue to have a fly shop) and last night for the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Eden was invited to participate and as it would happen, her jewel encrusted hot pink race car beat the snot out of Tanis' battleship grey sportster. I can't find the camera, so no photos. Sorry.
May 5th, 2008 - Tying lessons around the table.
Mat, our resident tying expert was kind enough to give Tanis a few pointers this evening. We'll have Tanis' "Green Lion" fly on display here at the shop. I'm sure you can even purchase one of them from him. Every 9 year old has a price...
May
3rd, 2008 - Orders are arriving at last.
My big Simms order arrived today, so we have plenty of fleece and good Gore-Tex jackets for what ever weather comes in the next few weeks. I sold out of virtually everything I initially ordered last weekend. My new toy also arrived... My chess table as seen in the photo!
My goal for the shop was to create a place where people would feel comfortable coming and spending time, not just spending money (although that has been nice too...). Please feel free to come and have a cup of coffee, use the internet, tie some flies, or just relax and visit. This is your shop, so please enjoy it.
-Bob
May 2nd, 2008 - The run is on the up-tick
This has been a slow start for our first season, but at least the fish have started to show at long last. Our first two weeks in the shop were "deathly slow" and I was beginning to wonder if this little fly shop adventure was a really poor decision. (We sold three hats and one t-shirt in two weeks!). These last two weeks have confirmed my initial hunch - that Yakutat has room for some quality services. Thank you to everyone who has come by to visit, drink coffee and share some river tales.
I have to admit my learning curve has been a steep one. The slow start made me hesitant to over-buy merchandise (even had I been able to afford to), but at the moment, we officially have three XXL t-shirts and four total Glo Bugs... Orders are enroute, so we should be fully stocked within a day or two on many of those things. It will take me a bit longer to figure out how to manage inventories properly, so again, thank you for all your patience and support.
I didn't want to get into the rental business, however the airlines had a bit of a "challenge" connecting baggage with passengers last week. Yes, I sold a couple rods as a result, but that isn't how I want to make my sales. So... we will be acquiring a fleet of Sage rods and reels for rent. It is going to be too late for this year's steelhead run, but we'll have them in place before the salmon hit in earnest in another month.
Teen and the kids have been able to spend most of their days here with me helping to stock the shelves and build pegboards, which is yet another reason I started this business - to spend time with the family. Just make sure you don't hesitate to kick Tanis off the Internet Cafe computer if you need to check e-mail. He can watch his WWII "Dogfights" shows any time! I hope to have the fly tying table cleared off shortly too, as we get the remaining boxes of goodies out into the fresh air.
Building Updates:
No, we still don't have a working bathroom in this whole 38,000
square foot building, but with any luck, we will before
sockeye arrive. For those of you interested, we will be doing
off-season storage starting this year. Rather than hauling your
Yakutat gear back and forth every year, consider loading it into a
container for us to stack and store till the next time you arrive for
another trip. It is one of the most often asked questions, so
I think we have it figured out. We'll buy a bunch of fish totes and
you can essentially rent the box. We'll stack them in the hanger
there they will stay dry and secure. If you are interested,
just ask.
I had more I wanted to update you on, but my brain is mush today. Last night as we were heading to bed, the phone rang... Someone had been arrested and since I am the local jailer... I haven't been to bed after jail guarding all night. Do me a favor, don't get arrested this summer! I have too much to do here, instead of babysitting adults... :-)
-Bob
April 25th, 2008 - Traffic is Increasing
Fishing may be slow, but it has been a pleasure to meet so many new faces here in the shop. The jet has been either late or cancelled every day this week, so if you have idle time waiting, feel free to come loiter here. Hot coffee and free internet access either wireless, or through two computers at the far end of the shop. I don't have the fly vises set up yet, but once I do there will be a few of those around the big table by the heater.
Speaking of internet... Paul installed our HughesNet satellite dish this week, so we finally have high-speed internet. Still building more displays (I need a couple more pegboards and another large shelving unit) and more merchandise arrives almost daily. Working on getting signs up on the road, so people can find us. Pleasantly surprised this week with the number of people that have stopped by. Still trying to grow our merchandise selection for the fly gear as well as adding some nice jewelry for you guys to take home to bribe more fishing trips out of your wives... :-)
Don't hesitate to give me some pointers and advice on what you want to see from this shop. I'm looking into quite a few other manufacturers for tying materials, reels, fish porn (fishing books, DVD's, etc) and hopefully by summer, we'll have some brand new and totally accurate maps and aerial images. I know this isn't exactly news, but nothing exists off the shelf for Yakutat, so we are going to create our own maps from new satellite imagery.
Besides the shock w