Situk River Fly Shop River Reports and General Information

November 22nd, 2011 - Looks Like our Final Fishing Reports for the Winter Steelhead Season

The last out-of-town fishermen are departing on today's jet, so it is looking like this will put an end to our 2011 fishing reports. Unless there is suddenly something to report on of course... Here is what Kelly and the Michigan guys e-mailed me two days ago from their last day on the river:

"We hit it hard all day and did well on our last day!! Landed 5 between 8 and 14 lbs. All on big leech patterns. Black and white dolly llama was king for the week. We loved the Situk river and will be back next fall and getting to those cabins next year. Thanks for all of your help and putting up with my complaints about that road. Will send you some of our photos when I get back to my computer. Road was in great shape yesterday. Kelly."

Our two Fairbanks guys who enjoyed a few really quiet days out at the bridge after the last snow dumping were back out there every day after the road reopened, but are leaving on AS flight 61 in a couple hours. They just left the shop after warming up with some coffee. A long week sleeping in their rental car, but they had a good time. They landed many silvers and dollies, but went without touching any steelhead until yesterday. It took a walk all the way down to the Old Situk confluence to finally stick a steelie and land her. They hooked several others through the week, but weren't able to land them, plus also hooked some of our resident rainbows as well.

We woke this morning to about 8 inches of heavy snow and the Weather Service is calling for up to 20 inches by tonight. That will close the road again and with no rental cars stranded at the bridge, the road won't be plowed again till spring. Unless you have snow machine access, this'll close the river to fishing for the season. Unless there is some miracle warming trend that melts away 4-5 feet of snow all of a sudden... Don't hold your breath...

The two guys "trapped" out at 9 Mile were "rescued" yesterday by Pate Construction. Their rental car came from the Pate yard, so if the car was going to be returned this year, someone was going to have to go and get it... So, there is a one-car-wide path back out to 9 Mile as of yesterday and that has reopened the river to limited fishing opportunity. Unfortunately, through their ordeal in the winter wilds of Alaska, they didn't want to wander far from the bridge just in case someone came by... So they didn't hook a single steelhead through the 3-4 days of being buried by the river alone... OOPS!

But... Kelly and his group from Michigan (were supposed to be in one of the Forest Service cabins) have been trapped on the town side of the snow. To entertain themselves, they walked over to the lagoon from their room at Blue Heron and managed to land several silvers on flies there. Some of them chrome-bright too. Now that the road is open though, they made a run into the Situk yesterday afternoon and sent me this brief report when they got back:

"We finally made it to river and got to fish a couple hours. Got one nice chrome steelhead and some dolly's. Road is in great shape and no problems. Hitting it hard tomorrow. Kelly."

They fly home tonight, so it will be a limited amount of time on the river. It is just a single lane out there, so if you run into an oncoming car, someone is going to have a long trip backwards till the other can pass. Beautiful partially sunny day today, but there is some snow in the forecast through most of the coming week. I doubt anyone will be flying in for a quick fishing trip this Thanksgiving, but conditions are back to being pretty good, now that there is restored river access.

With the snow coming this week, I'm probably not going to be flying out to the cabin for the holiday, so expect the shop will basically be open, just in case someone is looking to punish themself with a cold and miserable steelhead trip.

As unfortunate as this may be... I think it is time to consider the 2011 fishing season over. There are good numbers of winter steelhead coming into the river, but access has essentially come to an end. Last night, our "Winter Storm Warning" was actually a winter storm. 3 feet (or more) of heavy snow fell overnight, closing the road access to the Situk. The town is trying to dig itself out of the mess, but it is going to take a couple days. The state does not do ANY plowing out to 9 Mile or the lower landing in the fall and winter, so this dumping is not going to go anywhere. But... there are two young guys out pup-tent camping at 9 Mile (they arrived yesterday before the storm did and were warned of what was expected), however double the forecasted snow fell on us making things a whole lot worse than expected.

There is also a single guy in one of the cabins who had floated down in an inflatable kayak. No idea at this point how he or the two campers are going to get out. It the state has to plow their way out to "save" them, well... then we may have another chance to hook a fish or two... I think the season is over though. If you were looking to come up in the coming weeks, unless you have access to a snow machine, you likely won't be reaching the river. At this time, there are no local snow machine rentals in Yakutat, so that is unlikely to be an option for you.

Kelly, who sent me the report yesterday called to say they had a great day, landing 5 steelhead including a big 38 incher. Looks like they were able to get dialed in on what works, but then we were hammered by the storm and today they can't get out to the river again. In addition to the 5 steelhead, they caught many silvers and almost "too many" dollies. They had a great day just before the world ended officially.

I just received an e-mail from someone out fishing right now... They were supposed to be in the cabins this week, but couldn't get a flight out there and are fishing from the road. Here is the brief message:

"It took a couple days but I finally got a real nice steelhead today! We walk to mouth of little Situk the last two days and just been crushing the dolly's and red Coho. That walk sucks in the snow thru the bear tracks! Kelly"

We have a winter storm warning from the weather service for tonight, with 6 inches of snow expected here in town. Beautiful (but cold) sunny day today though. Gage height is dropping to 284 right now and will continue to drop. Historic average for now is right around 250. Water temp is at 34.5F. Brrr! Looks like this will be the last reasonable week for targeting steelhead, unless we get a significant change in the weather. I doubt that'll be happening. It just seems like a good cold snowy winter is here to stay.

Yesterday, we woke to about a foot of new snow - very heavy and wet. Then it warmed up, rained a little, packed things down, etc. This morning, we woke again to snow, but only another 2-3 inches. Again, it warmed back up. The roads are a sloggy mess, but you can still access the river with 4-wheel drive. We have had a couple new groups pass through, but they hadn't been out fishing yet. One group was renting one of the FS cabins, but they were not able to fly out there. They will be fishing from the road at 9 Mile, unless one of the jet-boat guides is able to take them down to the cabins.

Gage height is running a pretty steady 350 CFS even through the snow and sleet. Flow continues to drop very slowly over the past three days. Water temp is running right around 37 degrees. Pretty cold. That's about all the info I have at the moment though.

I have a good thorough report off the river from someone who's opinion I trust impeccably. But... we have very thick heavy snow falling and my internet connection has been failing throughout the day. This may be more brief than I want it to be...

The river is still running high, although not unfishable. Generally cold and miserable conditions with the cold drizzly rain of the past few days. Now it has turned to dinner-plate sized snowflakes and sticking quickly. This is the kind of snow that can close the roads in a hurry, although we only have three inches so far though. The forecast is saying accumulations of just one inch, so that is already wrong... It is supposed to warm up again and turn to rain for the next few days, with colder temperatures hitting Monday evening. We'll see...

The guys who just left the cabin have been out there through low and high water and have done well. Centerpin guys fishing primarily with beads. No problems hooking fish, but landing them in the higher, swifter current has a challenge through most of their week. My previous report said that there were no dollies. These guys have been hitting a lot of dollies including some really nice 8+lb'ers. Not seeing the resident rainbow populations they normally expect to see this time of year though. Targeting steelhead that are trailing the spawning silver salmon was successful, with steelies rolling for beads and eggs. Still real good visibility in the water and they said real good numbers of fish now throughout the areas they hiked to each day. They said they saw only two other fishermen on the river - once.

It is cold with water down into the upper 30's now. The gage at the moment is showing 38 degrees, or 3.4C. Gage height is running 383 CFS at the moment, which is not bad. It spiked back up to near 600 CFS a couple days ago, but we've seen a steady drop since the last real rain spell. Just a really light and cold drizzle most of the time since then that hasn't added to the flow.

Overall, the conditions (if you don't mind being miserable, but you're a steelheader, right?) are pretty good. Good numbers of fish have come in over the past week and the water has dropped significantly from last week's 1600 spike to 440 back to 600 and now down to the upper 300's. Access IS STILL OPEN to both roads for the time being. Today will be a slow slog on the roads, but when this turns to rain, it'll wash off pretty quickly.

If you are still coming, eggs and flesh are what's in the river now. Beads (especially big beads) are working will. Look for the salmon schools and drift egg patterns below them. The steelhead and dollies are gorging themselves on the salmon eggs. Expect 10-20 dollies for each steelhead though, depending on where you are and your methods. Some mighty big fish have been hooked, if not necessarily landed... But don't expect to see anyone else out there. Had a report of a sow and cub mid-river a few days ago, but little bear activity now. They are moving on to other things.

Last night's forecasted snow did NOT show up, but sleet continues to make a sloppy mess of everything around here. Access is still reasonably open to the river, with some reports of an occasional steelhead being caught at the upper end. Fishing is far from good, but there are some winter steelhead in the river now. My guess is that we had some numbers arriving, but the big floods of last week pushed them up and out of the river. Now that the river has dropped significantly, there are some new fish trickling in, but it is pretty slow. Reported yesterday that there is a LOT of white flesh tumbling down the river. No dollies in the area below the bridge. A couple steelhead were caught, one group of silvers was seen. Nothing spectacular, but there are fish if you are willing to cover some ground and work for it.

Air temp is just above freezing, with sleet and rain falling off and on. Water temp is right around, or just above 4 degrees C.

1-3 inches tonight, 2 inches tomorrow. Reports of fresh chrome-bright silvers throughout Tawah Creek, specifically at the lower bridge. Some people have been fishing it the past few days. Situk is still VERY flooded after the storms of last week. The gage had popped up to 1600 CFS, but has come down to around 700 as of today. Gorgeous clear night and morning, with the high clouds moving in in the early evening. The air temp did NOT get above freezing today. The air is cold! The ground is cold! I was thinking this wouldn't be able to stick, but things froze pretty hard last night and the morning sun didn't give any warmth.

Fishing the Situk for steelhead was a struggle yesterday with the continuing high water. It is dropping fast, but still high and a little turbid.

Just had a group depart who has been out with Frank all week. They said they did "OK" depending on the storm and flooding conditions. If anyone would be able to get people into steelhead this time of year, it would be Frank. Before the storm, they were able to land 5 or so, during and after the storm... not so much. The water really came up and was very opaque. In other words, there are a handful of steelhead in the river. Hitting one will take some effort though. Two groups arrived off last night's jet, one that'll be guided and one on their own. Tomorrow, another group arrives in the Forest Service cabin. That is "crowded" for this time of year, but odds are none of them will see each other more than once...

Yesterday's storm brought heavy winds, but not a tremendous amount of rain. The river was still high, but we saw our first sub-freezing temperatures last night after the storm blew itself out. Some surface ice forming in the puddles and marshes, which can help slow the runoff a bit. Beautiful sunny day today (which tends to happen after really intense storms). Thick layer of frozen hail and freezing rain on all the road surfaces. Melting fast since the core ground temperature is still warm. Don't expect anything to stick in the coming week even if it does fall. Snow is in the forecast on Friday, with nighttime temps in the teens over the next couple days.

Water temp on the Situk gage has dropped to a pretty steady 5 degrees C. Two days ago it dropped below 4C, but it is back up again. These back-to-back intense storms have been followed each time by a beautiful sunny day between. The marine forecast is still calling for more 50+ knot winds tonight, the plain text forecast is saying calm... I guess they have their bases covered... It'll be one of them.

With 12.6 foot "scheduled" tides this past week - compounded by a 60+ knot storm, we experienced some massive tidal surges. Many of the camps down at Strawberry Point (eyesore of a tent camp village at the mouth of the Situk) flooded out, causing some damage. My own eyesore camp on the Italio survived, but a lot of logs pushed into the trail making it tough to get in and out with the plane and/or ATV. The massive push of water topped the outer dunes for most of the coast from the Middle Italio to the Ahrnklin Inlet. There are no silvers left on the Middle and Old Italio Rivers after this event. I would expect a handful to trickle back in over the next couple weeks, but not enough to bother targeting.

There are still a lot of silvers in Tawah Creek and the Lost River. The Situk's silver run has for the most part run its course. I have heard third hand that there are a few steelhead starting to show up in the Situk now. I know of two groups planning to arrive in the next couple days. They won't see a lot of fish, but they will have some to cast to. A handful of late silvers, plus quite a few dollies and resident rainbows that have come out of the lake to feed on salmon eggs. Situk water temperature is now right at 5 degrees C, which is where it needs to be for the steelhead to come in. This should be the trigger to get them moving into the system in the coming weeks.

We are having occasional snow flurries mixed in with heavy rain squalls and occasional hail. Nothing is sticking yet and even if we did get a snow storm through, the ground is still too warm for it to stay around long. We have a 50 knot storm forecast for tomorrow morning, with mixed rain and snow throughout the coming week.

Today, we are getting hammered by a nasty storm, with 45 knot winds and heavy rain. The plan was to stay out at the cabin another day, but with this forecast to arrive Tuesday morning, we flew back to town. Conditions out on the Italio were perfect for our last day of salmon fishing for the season - and we had to leave it after just a short stint of phenomenal fishing. The AM tide was an 11 footer at 11:33am, so the wall of water pushed us out of the Old Italio in a hurry. But not before we hooked a dozen or so fish on nearly every cast. Most of the fish we landed were still chrome bright, with a few nasty looking dark fish. With this storm, any remaining fish in the Italio will push up into the spawning grounds.

Still haven't seen or heard of any steelhead on the Situk. This is a warm storm, so water temperatures are still higher than normal for this time of year. As soon as we see signs of the winter run coming in, I'll let you know...

A local friend went out to the lower Situk and had a great day with fresh chrome-bright silvers. They had about 100 or so in front of them. Two days ago, I flew out to the Italio again and over a couple hours I managed to hook about three dozen. Out there, half the silvers where blushed or red, with half still fresh and bright as a nickel. Good salmon fishing continues! I'm heading out today to "close out the cabin", which will entail another few hours of fishing... The Old still has a good concentration of fish in two holes, so that's where we'll be tomorrow morning. A storm is supposed to hit on Tuesday though, so we'll be cutting our trip a day short coming back tomorrow night.

Still no word of any steelhead on the Situk, but it is still early for the winter run...

I just "officially" returned to town after my fall guide season on the Italio. There are thousands of silvers still coming in, with a wonderful late run and zero people here fishing. This is a wonderful time to be on the water here in Yakutat. The first two weeks of October were beautiful, with low clear water, lots of fish and mostly sunny skies. Pretty unusual for a Yakutat Fall. Yesterday, we were hit with our first significant rain in half a month, but it still only brought the water levels up to average. Here is the water gage:

I'll be heading right back out to the Italio for some more personal fishing time through the next couple weeks, but Teen'll be here to cover the shop while I play. We are still waiting on the winter steelhead to start showing. Water temperature on the Situk is still slightly above the 6 C degree mark where Brian (Fish and Game biologist) said we needed to be below before we'd see fish returning. According to him, we're looking for water consistently between 4 and 6 C degrees as the window for winter steelhead to come into the fresh water. Here is the current temperature gage:

There isn't ANYONE here fishing, so reports will be few and far between from here on out. Probably just my own scattered fishing trips to report back on. I'll try to keep you posted on the winter steelhead timing this year. Last season, we saw great fish numbers the last two weeks of October. No sign of that as of yet. With the salmon runs all running late (and continuing to run late), my guess is we won't see significant steelhead till later into November this year.

During our two sunny dry weeks in October, we did not have any hard frosts - even with our clear nights. An occasional white ATV seat in the morning, but still very warm for what we should normally see. Warmer air temperatures, thus warmer river water. That seems to be pushing things a little later this year.

I just popped in briefly for a night between groups. Here is a quick update, since Teen has been a little less diligent this year on river reports in my absence...

The Situk continues to have a spectacular run, even though it should be seeing a dramatic decline by now. Some of the lodges are already shutting down, with the town essentially empty for the last week. Really good fishing with hardly any people on the river now. If you have the ability to squeeze in a trip in the next couple weeks, it'll be well worth the efforts. River has been low this week with the clear skies we had. Three straight days of cloudless skies dried up all that flooding we had earlier in the week, making wading and sight fishing easy. Thousands of fish are still coming in on every tide, although at the moment, the huge 12 foot tides mid-day make fishing the bottom end a little bit if a challenge.

The Tsiu still has exceptional fishing, although the commercial fishery there this fall was a bust with the extreme flooding. Planes couldn't land out there for much of the month, so they often couldn't fish with the nets. Escapement was very good in other words... The other west-side rivers also continue to have strong late runs, including Yahtze, Yana, Spoon and others.

Now for the Italio... The Old had about a week of really good fishing, but still less than what we'd expect to see on a typical year out there on the flats. The huge tides we have this week are pushing sea water up to the grass in the distance, allowing the schools to make it up into the tributary creeks to spawn. In the coming week, I don't expect there to be many fish on the old until it has time to have the fish stack back up in the lower holes (until the next big tidal trend does this again...). Overall, the Old Italio had a below average run this year. The Middle Italio started off slow and really didn't pick up significantly until the third week of September. In recent days, the fishing was as good as it has ever been, with the late run finally arriving enmass on these big tides. With a 12 foot tide at 1:30-2pm, the landing strips get submerged for most of the evening. Sea water (and at least three seals) was all the way up into the Spruce and Alder holes, but fishing was pretty amazing anyway. Lots of popper action on the surface as the fresh water returned on the outgoing tide. The water level is low, so sight fishing is at its best (except the hours of the massive high tide of course).

We have not been able to fish the New Italio and Akwe Rivers for nearly a month due to the high flooding this fall. With the limited mobility of the Ryman Cabin renters, we felt it best to leave the few fishable spots over there to them. On the few dry breaks we had this month, fishing on the Akwe was very good. Most of the time, it was a struggle in the high water. Weather turned yesterday and we've had a couple inches since the clouds rolled in, but the forecast this week looks pretty good for fishing out there. Akwe's run is just as late as everywhere else...

Fly-out pressure out on the Middle Italio was pretty awful mid-month with the Situk as flooded as it was. We had one group that left a pile of carcasses in front of my cabin right as the problem bear started his antics. I cleaned and hauled the debris downstream away from my cabin and the runway, so we did NOT train the bear... I didn't have the chance to advise the group of a better disposal technique and if they did it more over the next couple days, the flood corrected the problem and flushed anything else out. Maybe the culprits too... Some may not care about attracting bears to my cabin - that doesn't affect them, but with children living there it sure does affect me. So if for purely selfish reasons you decide that attracting a massive flock of seagulls to the departure end of a beach landing strip right before YOUR plane arrives... Please try to dump your carcass and gut pile farther downstream away from the place your plane will have to climb out through - AND - my cabin. Win, win.

We had a reprieve from our two day storm today. Those who couldn’t fly out, seemed to have their opportunity to river away from town.
We were overcast and pockets of drizzle, but a good break.

We have been busy in the Fly Shop, so for those not seeing the daily update, I apologize, I didn’t even get to the computer to write.

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River Report:

Situk River – the river has risen, but still fishable. Those floating are seeing good numbers all the way through the system.
Commercial Fishing has been extended through 12:00n Thursday.

Lost River – Those who have come through the Shop before the storm said fish are being caught.

Italio System - All reports say it has been AWESOME!!! Daily limits have been coming back to town on all fly outs.

.TONIGHT...SW WIND 20 KT. SEAS 14 FT. RAIN.
.THU...S WIND 20 KT DIMINISHING IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 12 FT. RAIN IN THE MORNING.
.THU NIGHT...E WIND 15 KT. SEAS 12 FT.
.FRI...NW WIND 25 KT. SEAS 10 FT.
.FRI NIGHT...S WIND 20 KT. SEAS 10 FT.
.SAT...E WIND 25 KT. SEAS 8 FT. S SWELL. RAIN.
.SUN...E WIND 20 KT. SEAS 7 FT.
.MON...E WIND 25 KT. SEAS 7 FT.

We woke to sunshine and a light layer of early morning cloud cover. Just gorgeous, and cooler in the air too. Looks to be a mild day watching for the change to come. Lets take a look at what is instore, courtesy of our local weather office ....

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AKZ017-182000-CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA-INCLUDING...YAKUTAT
636 AM AKDT SUN SEP 18 2011
.NOW...
SKIES DOMINATED BY HIGH LEVEL CLOUDS WITH PATCHY FOG IN LOW LYING AREAS. NORTHWEST WIND 5 TO 10 MPH. TEMPERATURES IN THE MID 40'S GRADUALLY RISING THROUGH 12 PM.
-----------------
Marine:
PKZ051-190100-CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO ICY CAPE-
400 AM AKDT SUN SEP 18 2011
.TODAY...N WIND 15 KT. SEAS 6 FT. SW SWELL IN THE MORNING.
.TONIGHT...W WIND 15 KT BECOMING SE LATE. SEAS 6 FT. S SWELL.
.MON...SE GALE INCREASING TO 35 KT. SEAS BUILDING TO 11 FT.
.MON NIGHT...SE GALE TO 45 KT. SEAS 19 FT. RAIN.
.TUE...SE WIND 30 KT. SEAS 19 FT. RAIN.
.WED...SE WIND 25 KT. SEAS 19 FT.
.THU...S WIND 20 KT. SEAS 15 FT.

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Received a lovely letter from Bob and will have a "Bob's Blog" message for you shortly, so click the link on the left hand toolbar.

Tsiu River:
They are at the end of the run. The DC-3 has been in and out so not sure if they are hauling fish or just gear back from the commercial fishermen.

Situk River:
Continues to do very well through out the whole river. Those doing a day float from nine-mile bridge to the lower landing are seeing positive numbers

We are overcast with sun breaks and intermittent rain showers. From the look of things we will see our next storm system coming through Monday-Wednesday.

.REST OF TODAY...SE WIND 20 KT. SEAS 8 FT. SW SWELL.
.TONIGHT...E WIND 15 KT. SEAS 7 FT. SW SWELL.
.SUN...NE WIND 15 KT. SEAS 8 FT.
.SUN NIGHT...S WIND 15 KT. SEAS 9 FT.
.MON...SE GALE TO 45 KT. SEAS 16 FT. RAIN.
.TUE...SE GALE TO 35 KT. SEAS 21 FT.
.WED...S WIND 25 KT. SEAS 18 FT.

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FISHING REPORT:

Tsiu River:
From the reports (Sport fishing and Commercial fishing), we are hearing that Tsiu River is at the end of their run.
Commercial Fishing should finish up this week, and some have already pulled their gear and come back to town with the anticipated weather change.
The DC-3 is schedule to depart for Anchorage, its home base, on Friday, but may go as soon as Monday.

Yana River:
A group that flew there yesterday said the fishing was great and to be aware that there is a resident bear who like to fish, and like to check you out.
No report of aggression, just very interested! Oh, and also entertaining has he catches his dinner.

Situk River:
Fishing reports continue to be very positive. All those choosing to float the river have had success all the way down the river.
For those walking from the lower landing, a report remarked that the gravel bar just above the weir, around the Rodeo hole has offered much enjoyment and sore arms.

Italio River System:
Fly out fishermen reports say they are doing well and enjoying themselves. They are catching their daily limit.
Bob called yesterday and said that it still feels like a late run, still bright Pinks coming in, and fishing is good for Coho if you are on the pod.
More fish coming in with each new tide.
Still a lot of traffic out there between those who overnight and those who fly in daily.

Akwe River:
Report said that the catchable fish are in the shallows. Has been a harder year. Thought also is a later run there also this year.

Thursday, September 15, 2011
Good Afternoon. Well as you can see we’ve still had some moisture, but has certainly tapered off compared to the last day or two.

Situk River:
All reports that came through yesterday afternoon, from those floating the Situk, said it was AMAZING, fish were lively and happy to hook up.
That surprised me since by 10 a.m. we were over 1200 DCFS!!! What a relief to hear how well people were doing!

Reports from the LOST River is slow to nill at this time for hook ups. This was the report from a group who worked around the Lost Bridge area for 4 hours.

Italio System:
If you are on the fish, they you do very well. Coho run seems to be late, they are still seeing bright Pinks/Humpies moving in.
A reminder if you are looking to be AWAY from people, you might want to check into the air taxi’s and look at other options.
For now the crowd at the Middle Italio come from Ryman’s cabin, the Forest Service, Italio River Adventures, campers and daily fly outs….
So it is jam packed.
Bears: There is one who is NOT afraid out there. Head’s up!

Tsiu River:
River has been very flooded. Those who have stopped by, coming in for Derek’s Tsiu River Lodge, have caught fish but it’s been work to catch them.

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AKZ017-160157-CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA-INCLUDING...YAKUTAT

.NOW...CLOUDY SKIES WITH SCATTERED RAIN SHOWERS HEAVY AT TIMES WILL CONTINUE THROUGH 5 PM. EAST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH. TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWER 50'S WILL REMAIN THROUGH THE PERIOD.

AKZ017-160100-CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA-INCLUDING...YAKUTAT

.REST OF TODAY...RAIN...DIMINISHING IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS AROUND 54. EAST WIND 10 MPH.
.TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN. LOWS AROUND 42. EAST WIND 10 MPH.
.FRIDAY...RAIN DEVELOPING IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS AROUND 52. EAST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...RAIN SHOWERS. LOWS AROUND 41. EAST WIND 10 MPH.
.SATURDAY...RAIN SHOWERS LIKELY. HIGHS AROUND 54. EAST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.
.SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. LOWS AROUND 43. HIGHS AROUND 54.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN. LOWS AROUND 44.
.MONDAY AND MONDAY NIGHT...RAIN LIKELY. HIGHS AROUND 55. LOWS AROUND 44.
.TUESDAY...RAIN LIKELY. HIGHS AROUND 52.
.TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY...CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN. LOWS AROUND 44. HIGHS AROUND 53.

We must be in Yakutat, it’s been pouring and blowing all night into this morning. It continues to rain and when you compare the gauge from yesterday to today.. OUCH!

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Marine Forecast:

PKZ051-150100-CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO ICY CAPE-
400 AM AKDT WED SEP 14 2011

.TODAY...S WIND 15 KT DIMINISHING IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 11 FT SUBSIDING TO 9 FT IN THE AFTERNOON. S SWELL. RAIN IN THE MORNING.
.TONIGHT...S WIND 10 KT. SEAS 7 FT. S SWELL.
.THU...S WIND 15 KT. SEAS 8 FT. SW SWELL. RAIN.
.THU NIGHT...SE WIND 20 KT. SEAS 8 FT. SW SWELL. RAIN.
.FRI...SE WIND 25 KT. SEAS 10 FT. SW SWELL. RAIN.
.SAT...SE WIND 15 KT. SEAS 9 FT.
.SUN...SE WIND 30 KT. SEAS 6 FT.

Woke this morning to wind and rain, yep the system has arrived and our two sunny days are now history.

It’s been quiet in the shop today so no new reports on the river. That must mean fishing is doing well?

Marine Forecast:

PKZ051-140100-CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO ICY CAPE-400 AM AKDT TUE SEP 13 2011

.TODAY...SE WIND 25 KT. SEAS 8 FT BUILDING TO 12 FT. RAIN.
.TONIGHT...SE WIND 30 KT DIMINISHING LATE. SEAS 13 FT SUBSIDING TO 11 FT LATE. RAIN.
.WED...W WIND 20 KT. SEAS 11 FT. S SWELL. RAIN.
.WED NIGHT...SW WIND 10 KT. SEAS 8 FT. S SWELL. RAIN.
.THU...SE WIND 30 KT. SEAS 10 FT. RAIN.
.FRI...SE WIND 25 KT. SEAS 12 FT.
.SAT...SW WIND 15 KT. SEAS 10 FT.

Monday, September 12, 2011

River Report
All rivers are reported to have a good strong Coho run coming in.

Situk River:
From all who came through the shop today, “Incredible fishing this morning, have NEVER seen it like this! Our arms were so sore we had to sit down and rest.”
So if you aren’t here yet, you’re missing out! This is the report, even with the commercial fishing nets in the water!

Italio System:
Incredible fishing. Seem to be quite a few fly out groups there, and count in the number for campers and the Forest Service cabin.
So if you are heading out there, expect not to be alone.

Yana River:
The group that came through said they haven’t seen it this good before. Very pleased with the number of Coho in the river.

Be aware:
Commercial Fishing is extended and will be open from 1:00 p.m., Monday, September 12 to 5:00 p.m., Monday, September 12.

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Weather:
We’ve just come off two wonderful sunny days. We’ve seen some morning frost on the low laying flora.
From the forecasts, we are in for a change and won’t be seeing sunshine for sometime…. So expect overcast, rain, and some wind.

.TONIGHT...SE WIND INCREASING 25 KT. SEAS 4 FT BUILDING TO 8 FT LATE. RAIN LATE.
.TUE...SE WIND 30 KT. SEAS 9 FT BUILDING TO 12 FT. AREAS OF FOG IN THE MORNING. RAIN.
.TUE NIGHT...SE WIND 30 KT. SEAS 13 FT. RAIN.
.WED...S WIND 25 KT. SEAS 11 FT. S SWELL. RAIN.
.WED NIGHT...S WIND 10 KT. SEAS 8 FT. S SWELL. RAIN.
.THU...S GALE TO 35 KT. SEAS 10 FT. RAIN.
.FRI...SE WIND 20 KT. SEAS 11 FT.
.SAT...S WIND 10 KT. SEAS 10 FT.

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Sunrise/Sunset:

Weather Forecast:

AKZ017-132000-CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA-INCLUDING...YAKUTAT

Situk River:
All report today say that the fishing is “ON!” They are low in the water, but plenty there!!!
Commercial fishing nets went in at Noon today and will be there until Wednesday, at Noon.
Those floating the river are seeing Coho/Silver’s just below the bridge all the way to the lower Situk take out.
Water has come down 200 dcs.

Italio System:
All reports are saying that fishing is good. Those at the mouth for the inbound tide are doing well.

We are enjoying a partly sunny day. We are watching flocks of sand hill crane and geese go by the airport.
Maybe that are telling us something? Let’s head to the satellite view and weather forecast…

AKZ017-120631-CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA-INCLUDING...YAKUTAT

.NOW...
HIGH LEVEL CLOUDS WILL CONTINUE TO DOMINATE THE AREA THROUGH 10 PM. LIGHT WINDS. TEMPERATURES IN THE MID TO LOWER 50'S GRADUALLY DROPPINGTHROUGH THE PERIOD.

AKZ017-121600-CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA-INCLUDING...YAKUTAT

400 PM AKDT SUN SEP 11 2011
.TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLEAR IN THE EVENING THEN BECOMING MOSTLY CLOUDY. PATCHY FROST POSSIBLE LATE. LOWS 36 TO 42. LIGHT WINDS BECOMING NORTHEAST 10 MPH LATE IN THE NIGHT.
.MONDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. PATCHY FROST POSSIBLE IN THE EARLY MORNING. HIGHS AROUND 63. NORTHEAST WIND 10 MPH.
.MONDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN. LOWS AROUND 48. LIGHT WINDS BECOMING EAST 10 MPH LATE.
.TUESDAY...RAIN. HIGHS AROUND 57. SOUTHEAST WIND 10 MPH.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...RAIN. LOWS AROUND 49. SOUTHEAST WIND 10 MPH.
.WEDNESDAY...RAIN. HIGHS AROUND 56.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...RAIN LIKELY. LOWS AROUND 47.
.THURSDAY...RAIN LIKELY. HIGHS AROUND 54.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...RAIN LIKELY. LOWS AROUND 46.
.FRIDAY...RAIN LIKELY. HIGHS AROUND 53.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...RAIN LIKELY. LOWS AROUND 45.
.SATURDAY THROUGH SUNDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN. HIGHS AROUND 53. LOWS AROUND 45.

Teen will resume her "in town" reports, but let me pipe in with a report from out on the Italio system...

We had a really nice early shot of silvers out in the Middle Italio about two weeks ago, but then the rains hit and those fish pushed up and out of sight. The past week has been a bit hit and miss, stumbling onto a good pocket here and there, but the next day that pocket would be empty and they would be holed up somewhere else. The upper holes have filled in considerably with sand - more and more each year. The best fishing up high has been on the flats between the old holes, rather than in the holes where you'd expect the fish to be...

Nothing has been holding in the hole in front of my cabin. Been watching from a distance quite a few day fly-out fishermen standing there beating the empty water to a froth. The hole has shifted about 150 yards lower, so no point fishing directly in front of my cabin at all now. There is a grass blob right along the edge of the water along the landing strip. THAT is the place to stand if you intend to fish while waiting for the plane.

There are 4 slots down at the mouth that have been holding fish, but usually not at the same time... The mouth of the Middle Italio has been very spotty this year so far, with high water and boiling sand. We are still seeing humpies about 1/3rd of the fish coming in fresh. Very strange to still have all these sea-liced pinks on every tide.

The Old Italio did have a few fish come in, but they have also been about 25% pinks. Not a lot of silvers there yet, but that should pick up in the coming week or so. We have only fished the Old once and it wasn't quite worth the long drive down there (yet). With this storm that just passed, the New Italio and Akwe have been very flooded and difficult to fish. The rains have subsided now and the rivers are all dropping much faster than I would have expected. Tomorrow is supposed to be a lot like today - showers. That will help to drop the flows even more and improve the fishing over what we have been seeing this week. Not a lot of fish and with so much water, they just seem to scatter everywhere. You can catch plenty, but it'll take some searching to locate where the small pockets have settled.

Big changes to the river this year, so expect a learning curve. The Middle is practically a new river this year...

LABOR DAY: Monday, September 5, 2011 1424 AKDT

RIVER REPORT:
We are seeing a lot of rain right now. Heavy and constant!
The wind has started but hasn’t picked up to gusting yet.

Situk River:
It has been a hard morning to catch Coho on the Lower Landing with the added water,
and being so murky in color. Most of those I’ve spoken to who are braving the weather
are taking their heavier sink tip with them and some extra split shot.

CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA- INCLUDING THE CITY OF...YAKUTAT

...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 10 AM AKDT TUESDAY...

* WIND...STRONG EAST WIND WILL INCREASE TO BE 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 45 MPH. WIND DIRECTION WILL SHIFT TO THE SOUTHEAST BY LATE MONDAY NIGHT.

* TIMING...WINDS WILL BE STRONGEST WEST OF YAKUTAT MONDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING THEN SPREAD OVER THE CITY OF YAKUTAT BY LATE MONDAY THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING.

A WIND ADVISORY MEANS THAT SUSTAINED WIND SPEED OR FREQUENT GUSTS WILL OCCUR BETWEEN 40 AND 60 MPH.

THIS STATEMENT WILL BE UPDATED BY 400 PM AKDT MONDAY OR SOONER IF CONDITIONS WARRANT.

AKZ017-060100-CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA-INCLUDING...YAKUTAT

.REST OF TODAY...WINDY...RAIN. HIGHS AROUND 56. EAST WIND 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 25 MPH INCREASING TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 40 MPH LATE IN THE AFTERNOON.
.TONIGHT...WINDY...RAIN...HEAVY AT TIMES. LOWS AROUND 49. EAST WIND 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 40 MPH.
.TUESDAY...WINDY IN THE MORNING...RAIN. HIGHS AROUND 53. SOUTHEAST WIND 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 40 MPH DECREASING TO 10 TO 20 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...SHOWERS. LOWS AROUND 50. SOUTHEAST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.
.WEDNESDAY...SHOWERS. HIGHS AROUND 54. SOUTHEAST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...SHOWERS LIKELY. LOWS AROUND 48.
.THURSDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF SHOWERS. HIGHS AROUND 58.
.THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT...RAIN LIKELY. LOWS AROUND 49. HIGHS AROUND 57.
.SATURDAY THROUGH SUNDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN. HIGHS AROUND 57. LOWS AROUND 49.

AKZ017-060000-CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA-INCLUDING...YAKUTAT

MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH RAIN...RAIN MAYBE HEAVY AT TIMES. EAST WIND 15 TO 20 MPH GUSTING TO 25 MPH IN EXPOSED LOCATIONS WITH STRONGER WINDS GUSTING TO 40 MPH WEST OF YAKUTAT. TEMPERATURES NEAR 50 DEGREES GRADUALLY RISING THROUGH 4 PM.

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FLY SHOP: We’ll be open LABOR DAY from 6am-8p.m.
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River Report:
If you are arriving in early this week, be sure to see the weather and marine report below.
Reminder, layering will keep you warm, but a good Simms® Jacket will keep you dry and protected J
We are in for some moisture to say the least!

Situk River-
Those who fished early did very well. Those fishing later in the day had a harder time.
With last nights rain the river did come up some.

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WEATHER and MARINE FORECAST:

AKZ017-051300-/X.NEW.PAJK.WI.Y.0050.110905T2100Z-110906T1800Z/CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA-INCLUDING THE CITY OF...YAKUTAT

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN JUNEAU HAS ISSUED A WIND ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM MONDAY TO 10 AM AKDT TUESDAY.

* WIND...STRONG EAST WIND WILL INCREASE TO BE 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 45 MPH. WIND DIRECTION WILL SHIFT TO THE SOUTHEAST BY LATE MONDAY NIGHT.

* TIMING...WINDS WILL BE STRONGEST WEST OF YAKUTAT MONDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING THEN SPREAD OVER THE CITY OF YAKUTAT BY LATE MONDAY THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING.

A WIND ADVISORY MEANS THAT SUSTAINED WIND SPEED OR FREQUENT GUSTS WILL OCCUR BETWEEN 40 AND 60 MPH.

THIS STATEMENT WILL BE UPDATED BY 500 AM AKDT MONDAY OR SOONER IF CONDITIONS WARRANT.

AKZ017-050843-CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA- INCLUDING...YAKUTAT

.NOW...OVERCAST WITH RAIN...HEAVY AT TIMES...THROUGH MIDNIGHT. SOUTHEAST WIND 10 MPH WITH OCCASIONAL GUSTS TO 20 MPH.

AKZ017-051600- CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA-INCLUDING...YAKUTAT

...WIND ADVISORY FROM 1 PM MONDAY TO 10 AM AKDT TUESDAY...
.TONIGHT...SHOWERS IN THE EVENING...THEN RAIN LATE. LOWS AROUND 46. SOUTHEAST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH BECOMING EAST LATE.
.LABOR DAY...WINDY...RAIN. HIGHS AROUND 54. EAST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH INCREASING TO 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 40 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON WEST OF YAKUTAT.
.MONDAY NIGHT...WINDY. RAIN...HEAVY AT TIMES. LOWS AROUND 50. EAST WIND 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 40 MPH.
.TUESDAY...WINDY. RAIN...HEAVY AT TIMES. HIGHS AROUND 51. SOUTHEAST WIND 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 40 MPH...WINDS DIMINISHING IN THE LATE MORNING.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...RAIN. LOWS AROUND 50. EAST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.
.WEDNESDAY...RAIN. HIGHS AROUND 51.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN. LOWS AROUND 48. HIGHS 51 TO 57.
.FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN. LOWS AROUND 49. HIGHS AROUND 56.

A STRONG MOIST WEATHER FRONT WILL MOVE ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA FROM MONDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH TUESDAY AFTERNOON. THIS FRONT WILL PRODUCE RAIN THAT WILL BE HEAVY AT TIMES ACROSS THE PANHANDLE. THE

GREATEST RAINFALL EXPECTED WILL BE FROM MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY WITH AMOUNTS RANGING FROM 2 TO 5 INCHES WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS. DURING THIS TIME FRAME GUSTY WINDS ALONG WITH THE SATURATED GROUND WILL INCREASE THE CHANCE OF MUDSLIDES NEAR STEEP TERRAIN. THE RAIN WILL CONTINUE TO BE HEAVY OVER THE FAR NORTHERN GULF AND OVER THE FAR SOUTHERN PUBLIC ZONES INTO WED.

THE GROUND IS VERY SATURATED FROM RECENT WEATHER SYSTEMS AND MOST OF THE RAINFALL WILL RUN OFF INTO THE SMALL STREAMS AND RIVERS. THIS WILL PRODUCE RAPID LARGE RISES IN WATER LEVELS WITH A HIGH PROBABILITY OF MINOR FLOODING ALONG SMALL STREAMS. PEOPLE WHO LIVE NEAR STREAMS THAT FREQUENTLY FLOOD IN THE AUTUMN SHOULD REMAIN ALERT.

THIS STATEMENT WILL BE UPDATED AT 500 AM AKDT MONDAY OR SOONER IF CONDITIONS WARRANT.

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MARINE FORECAST:

We came through a storm yesterday and have added to our water level once again.
Forecast is calling for rain, heavy at times, so expect the river to swell and flow swiftly once again this next week.
With the higher tides, watch if you plan to cross the lower Situk to be sure you can cross back over.

You can see how the river is reacting from yesterdays storm and added rainfall, by the gauge below:

CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA-INCLUDING THE CITY OF...YAKUTAT 431 AM AKDT FRI SEP 2 2011

...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 7 PM AKDT THIS EVENING...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN JUNEAU HAS ISSUED A WIND ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 7 PM AKDT THIS EVENING.

A WIND ADVISORY MEANS THAT SUSTAINED WIND SPEED OR FREQUENT GUSTS WILL OCCUR BETWEEN 40 AND 60 MPH. THIS STATEMENT WILL BE UPDATED BY 4 PM AKDT FRIDAY OR SOONER IF CONDITIONS WARRANT.

AKZ017-030100- CAPE FAIRWEATHER TO CAPE SUCKLING COASTAL AREA-INCLUDING...YAKUTAT 737 AM AKDT FRI SEP 2 2011

.TODAY...EAST WIND 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS INCREASING TO 45 MPH THIS MORNING ESPECIALLY WEST OF YAKUTAT. CHANCE OF RAIN IN THE MORNING...THEN RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS AROUND 55.
.TONIGHT...EAST WIND 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS AS HIGH AS 45 MPH ESPECIALLY WEST OF YAKUTAT. RAIN. LOWS AROUND 48.
.SATURDAY...SHOWERS IN THE MORNING...THEN RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS AROUND 55. EAST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.
.SATURDAY NIGHT...SHOWERS. LOWS AROUND 49. SOUTHEAST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.
.SUNDAY...SHOWERS. HIGHS AROUND 54. SOUTHEAST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...SHOWERS. LOWS AROUND 49.
.LABOR DAY THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT...RAIN LIKELY. HIGHS AROUND 57. LOWS AROUND 49.
.WEDNESDAY...RAIN LIKELY. HIGHS AROUND 54.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...RAIN LIKELY. LOWS AROUND 48.
.THURSDAY...RAIN LIKELY. HIGHS AROUND 55.

Situk River - we’ve had a number of groups come through doing very well on the lower Situk.
With the big swing of the tide, from low to high, there are decent fish (Coho/Silvers) moving in.

Favorite Flies: black, purple, blue (darker colors). Again, Pinks will pull pinks J
We have a favorite in the shop: black egg sucking Bunny Leech with a red head (Just ask!), also in deep purple with the red head.

Bear sighting:
One group saw three so far. All were going about their natural business, but still keep an extra eye over your shoulder.

Remember, the berries are done so it is normal for bear to look to the river for their food source this time of year. Remember you are the guest here.

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Situk:
River continues to drop making for ideal fishing conditions.
Lower river still holds the majority of new Coho/Silvers.
Hot Flies: Darker colors: Purple, Blue, Black (Hareball Bunny Leech & Egg Sucking Leach).
Weather: We haven’t seen but intermittent sprinkles in the last 2 days which has been favorable for anglers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where: Lower Situk. Hiked from the lower landing up past where the weir would usually be.
Fishing conditions: Outstanding! Coho/Silver, and some Pinks (Humpies).

Favorite Flies: Egg Sucking Leech (black with red sparkly head), Hareball Leech (pink, black)

Tsiu River:
Yakutat Commercial Set Gillnet Opening Announcement:
Tsiu River will be open from:
(Nets will be in the river): Tuesday, August 30, 0900 – Wednesday, August 31, 0900
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(Nets will be out of the river): Wednesday, August 31, 0900-Thursday, September 1, 0900
*** If you are going to plan a Fly out to the Tsiu, this is the day to do it (WEDNESDAY) ***
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(Nets back in the river): Thursday, September 1, 0900 – Friday, September 2, 0900

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(Nets back out of the water): Friday, September 2, 0900 ---
Another good day to choose a Tsiu Fly out

Thank you Teen for doing the detailed reports while I'm gone. Just popped back into town briefly, so here is my much less detailed report...

Reported from a group doing OK on the lower river. They caught 20+ large dollies and about 50 pinks, but struggled to land any silvers. Another group floated the river and reported that there were no silvers in the upper half of the float, but the lower half had good numbers. A third group said they did just fine on silvers on the lower river... A wide variety of reports probably due to a variety of skill level and experience.

Teen had some reporting of her own before I showed up. Her group said a float group reported humpies and dollies the first 4 miles of the river. At the halfway point, that's where the cohos start showing. Any pockets of slack water held silvers. They caught all the way down from there. Current is very swift and flooded. Pretty silty and murky further down, but clearing up on the upper part and around 9 Mile. A sow and cub at the bridge that is woofing at people. "The cub has been crying..." I have no idea what the heck she means by that! Probably had his porridge eaten because it was just right...

Out on the Italio, we started to see a trickle of silvers about 4 days ago. This week started out all pinks, but gradually by yesterday we only hooked one single pink and a couple dozen silvers. No silvers to speak of in the upper part of the river yet, but they are down at the river mouth. The Middle Italio has a later run than the Situk, so I wouldn't expect much there for another week or so. This early handful is very promising, if not quite yet enough to sustain much fly-out pressure. Zero fish in the Old Italio yet. Some silvers were showing two weeks ago in the New Italio and Akwe Rivers, but the storms so blew out both rivers that fishing was pretty much non-existent there the past week. The folks at the Ryman cabin essentially were trapped into fishing one small back eddy where they were hooking a mess of pinks that were trying to get some relief from the raging current.

Just coming off 17 foot swells, but the seas aren't supposed to calm down till Tuesday. Hard time catching halibut, but silvers are an easy success trolling. No reports from the Lost or Tawah. Tsiu has a lot of water (the DC-3 couldn't land there due to the flooded strip), but everyone is catching lots of fish and doing great.

Weather Service was reporting 2 inches of rain during the first storm, but we had in excess of 8 inches over those two days out in my rain gage on the Italio. Weather cleared briefly before we had two more separate storms pass through getting another 10 inches over the course of the week. This has finally flushed out all the moss and algae. The water out there is clearing up quickly after each successive storm. Seems the Situk isn't clearing up quite so quickly.

Situk River:
We just had two separate groups come through ready to depart for home on the jet. Both groups floated the Situk from 9-Mile Bridge to the lower Situk take-out.

Upper 4 miles have plenty of fish and the water is pretty clear, then the water becomes silty and muddy.

The rest of the float has fish but harder to locate, they were found under the brush holding for the water to come down.

Their observation: that the people on the lower river were catching, but definitely takes work. Coho were being caught.

Confirmed: pink flies for Pinks (Humpies). Coho: purple, blue, black

.TODAY...E WIND 35 KT BECOMING 30 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 17 FT SUBSIDING TO 14 FT IN THE AFTERNOON. RAIN.
.TONIGHT...SE WIND 25 KT DIMINISHING LATE. SEAS 14 FT. SW SWELL. SHOWERS.
.SAT...SE WIND 30 KT. SEAS 14 FT. RAIN.
.SAT NIGHT...E WIND 30 KT. SEAS 11 FT. RAIN.
.SUN...E WIND 30 KT. SEAS 11 FT. RAIN.
.MON...W WIND 15 KT. SEAS 9 FT.
.TUE...W WIND 15 KT. SEAS 6 FT.

Amount of daylight for today 14 hours and 43 minutes.
A loss from yesterday of 5 minutes and 12 seconds.

57°F
Pressure:	29.88" steady (1011.9 mb)
RelHum:	64%
Skies:	Mostly cloudy
Winds:	E at 7 mph

.NOW...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH PERIODS OF RAIN. SOUTHEAST WIND 15 TO 20 MPH GUSTING TO 25 MPH IN EXPOSED LOCATIONS. TEMPERATURES IN THE HIGH 50'S GRADUALLY DECREASING THROUGH 10 PM.

We received another night of solid rain. It tapered off during the day and this afternoon has just been continually overcast but only spotty showers. The rivers are still high, but fishable as long as you are heavily weighted.

For those who are seeking Coho, ocean charters are probably still your best bet. For those who aren’t particular and plumb happy with a Humpy (Pink), you’ll enjoy your time at 9-Mile Bridge and down at Sawmill Cove, also known as the “log dump” where the pinks are happy to play.

Situk River:
A group that floated today said they came down in record time due to the height. Their guide reported that the river has come down 2-3 feet since yesterday.
Lower River is flooded and swift.
9-Mile Bridge is flooded, swift.

Tsiu River:
High than normal but reports from those who came through from Deriek’s Tsiu River Lodge had a ball catching their limit of Coho. Reports were that Humpies were barely seen.
Favorite Fly colors: Purple, Blue, Black (Bunny Leech & Egg Sucking Leech). The Lodge has some favorites too J

Tsiu Commercial gill-net Fishing Announcement starting Sunday, August 28th:
The Tsiu River will remain closed but may open on short notice when weather and flooding diminish.

End of Report 8/25/2011 1910 AKDT

River & Weather Report:

We are wet, wet, and more wet here in Yakutat. It’s been raining continuously throughout the day, and this is on top of an already wet week. Rivers are above normal now… see charts below.

Situk River:
9-mile Bridge: Water is high and moving. Mostly humpies (pinks) that are just starting to turn. Plenty of fish there. Report of a sow and cub around the bridge.

Lower Situk:
Fish ratio is 90/10 humpies (Pinks) to Coho (Silvers). River is flooded and swift.
River condition at the lower end is causing some anglers a challenge to hook up. Fish are there, but you might have to try under the brush, which is cumbersome on your fly line.

Temperature, air, degrees Celsius

Most recent instantaneous value: 10.6 08-23-2011 18:00 AKDT

Create presentation-quality / stand-alone graph.

Gage height, feet

Most recent instantaneous value: 67.30 08-23-2011 18:30 AKDT

Create presentation-quality / stand-alone graph. Subscribe to WaterAlert

Discharge, cubic feet per second

Most recent instantaneous value: 764 08-23-2011 18:30 AKDT

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Daily discharge statistics, in cfs, for Aug 23 based on 22 years of record more
Min (2007)	25th percen- tile	Median	Mean	75th percen- tile	Most Recent Instantaneous Value Aug 23	Max (2002)
56	148	275	293	368	764	874

Gage height, feet, RADAR

Most recent instantaneous value: 67.29 08-23-2011 18:30 AKDT

Temperature, water, degrees Celsius

Most recent instantaneous value: 11.6 08-23-2011 18:00 AKDT

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YAKUTAT WEATHER REPORT, SUNRISE/SUNSET, & TIDES:
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Current Yakutat Observation 06:53 PM AKDT Tuesday August 23
53°F	Rain/Fog
Pressure:	29.55" falling (1000.8 mb)
RelHum:	89%
Skies:	Cloudy
Winds:	E at 6 mph

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Sunrise/Sunset:

Amount of daylight for today 14 hours and 54 minutes.
A loss from yesterday of 5 minutes and 11 seconds.

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Yakutat Bay Tides:

Low tide:        02:55 a.m.      1.7ft
High tide:       09:45 a.m.      6.1ft
Low tide:        02:13 p.m.      4.5ft
High tide:       08:38 p.m.      8.4ft

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.TONIGHT...SHOWERS IN THE EVENING...DIMINISHING LATE. LOWS AROUND 48. SOUTHEAST WIND 10 MPH BECOMING LIGHT AND VARIABLE.

.WEDNESDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SCATTERED SHOWERS. HIGHS AROUND 58. LIGHT WINDS.

.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SCATTERED SHOWERS. LOWS AROUND 48. LIGHT WINDS.

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I just popped back into town briefly after a week of fishing on the Italio. Teen will be handling the river reports through mid-October, but I'll get this last one in before I fly "home" again.

We'll start with the bay - Sawmill Cove is chocked full of jumping salmon. This is the prime time to plunk along the shoreline and cast out into the salt, or rent one of Leonard's Landing's skiffs to putter around looking for schools. Tremendous numbers of fish in the bay!

Situk was doiong great, till the big storm hit a couple days ago and blew the river out. Very few pinks now in the lower river. Definitely changing over to the silver season! Big muddy water at the moment, so bigger heavier flies. Or use the sink tip to help get down. At the peak of the flood, the fishing was bad. It definitely is improving again as the water drops out. More rain in the forecast, but that isn't all bad news. The water table is very low, so the rain is soaking in quickly. Water dropping much faster than when the ground is saturated (obviously).

Tsiu is hitting its peak right now. Ideal time for trips out there. Italio and Akwe are still too early. Mostly pinks still there, with just a handful of silvers starting to show in the New Italio. NO SILVERS at all in the Middle and Old Italios. The run seems a little late there.

East has quite a few silvers already. Lost and Tawah have a few, but still mostly pinks there. The earlier rivers are doing well (Tsiu and Situk), while the later run rivers (Italio, Tawah) are still not seeing good numbers of fish yet. But that'll change soon enough.

Fish and Game took the weir out about a week ago, so no more accurate counts on the Situk. But... before they did, they had an official count of 90,043 sockeye - a great run. Kings came in at a mere 240 large fish - but that does exceed their forecast. Steelhead totals ended up at 7,417 for the season, which is far less than I was expecting based on what I personally saw hiking in and reports from the upper half of the float.

At the moment, we are still primarily seeing pinks, but the silvers are starting to show well in the rivers. The Situk right now seems to be about 2/3rds to 3/4ths pinks, with 1/3rd to 1/4th silvers as of mid-month. There is a group of about 50 silvers immediately below the REL Bridge (Cannon Beach) on Tawah Creek, but remember the bridge is closed to fishing within 50 yards. Not quite enough silvers in Tawah yet to turn on the other access points, but that will be coming in the next week or two.

I flew the Italio and Akwe yesterday and unfortunately did not see a single fish in the Old or Middle Italio Rivers yet. The New Italio and Akwe have fish in nearly every curve of the rivers, but I suspect those to be mostly pinks still. It'll take a couple more weeks before the silvers start to show up there in any legitimate numbers.

I did hear that the East River is already seeing a few silvers, but the only real good option right now for a fly-out trip is the Tsiu. The run is starting there in earnest and is the best bet for having a really good day of silvers. Situk definitely has enough silvers to fill your daily bag limit and a lot of humpies to make the day fun.

Looking out in the bay, you can see fish jumping everywhere. Trolling for silvers has been very good and this is the time where you can look to wander along the shoreline and cast out and hook a few anywhere a small fresh tributary dribbles into the bay. I haven't heard of anyone fishing out at the Ankau Inlet yet. Those fish should be coming in any time as well. Still just a bit early for the run to hit, but that doesn't mean you don't have great fishing right now. Humpies just about everywhere (Middle and Old Italio excepting) and silvers showing in about half our streams.

At the moment, we have some sockeye still coming in, a few early silvers starting to show and... Pinks EVERYWHERE! Reports of a lot of resident rainbow getting caught down to and below 9 Mile, so they have come out of the lake to feed. Really good silver fishing in the bay right now, but they have not really come into the rivers yet in big numbers. Just a trickle so far.

Sockeye still being caught in the upper river above 9 Mile and a real reward for those rare few willing to hike into Situk Lake. Italio and Akwe are filled with pinks, but no silvers have shown there at all yet. We are back in town, so I should have more regular updates on the fishing reports from here on out... Thanks for letting us close for the past week for some family time at the Italio.

The weir count as of a couple days ago topped 81,000 sockeye, so Fish and Game has opened the Situk/Ahrnklin to commercial fishing "until further notice". Even with that... we are still averaging about 1,000 sockeye through the weir daily. We are seeing large numbers of pinks coming in and I'd estimate we have about 2/3rds sockeye to 1/3rd pink inside the lower river. With pinks being so much more voracious, you'd think there are 90% pinks, but there are still a LOT of sockeye to be caught if you do it right. Also, a handful of silvers have been caught inside the river as well, so a real variety of fish in the system.

Still no fish at all on the Old and Middle Italio Rivers. The New Italio and Akwe are still teeming with sockeye and pinks, although we have crossed the line to more than 50% pinks out there. The East River continues to have a good run of sockeye with far fewer pinks than the other systems. That is probably the best fly-out option at the moment.

We FINALLY had a storm come through this past Sunday/Monday. The first significant rain we have seen in months! It blew the rivers out briefly, but the Situk has settled down to about 220 CFS, which is right in line with normal for this time of year. A very good fishable level. The boost in water flow did drive the large numbers of fish upstream and into their spawning grounds, so the lower river areas are showing significantly fewer fish than a week ago - if only because the fish had been trapped in the low water. Now they have moved on, but we are still seeing good numbers moving in still.

Probably the best thing to do right now is to hit the saltwater with flies. GREAT numbers of silvers are showing in the bay, along with the clouds of pinks. In the next couple weeks, wander along the shoreline of the bay past Leonard's Landing, or around the Log Dump and cast out into the salt anywhere there is a small stream trickling into the bay. Even if the stream is too small for fish to climb, there will be a school sniffing the fresh water out, so throw some big baitfish, or articulated bunny leeches out there and strip like crazy!

Incredible sockeye fishing continues through this weekend, although we are starting to see pinks in the river. Still not a lot of pinks, but they are being caught now. According to the fish plant, 65% of the sockeye caught last week were female, so the run is maturing and should be starting to decline. We are still averaging in excess of 2,000 sockeye through the weir every day with some days topping 5,000. As of July 13th, 53,000+ fish had passed through the weir, while approximately 35,000 sockeye had been caught so far in the commercial nets.

Talking to Gordy Woods - the Fish and Game biologist, the low commercial catch compared to escapement is due to the prevailing westerly winds we have seen throughout the season so far. The fish both in the Situk/Ahrnklin Inlet and out in Yakutat Bay can easily avoid the nets due to extremely clear ocean water as well as unusually warm water temperatures along the shoreline where the nets are usually set. Most river systems of the area are seeing unusually high returns for sockeye this season compared to recent years, including the Situk, New Italio, Akwe and East River.

Although we should expect to see a slowdown in the coming week or so, there are still a tremendous number of fish coming in and still out in the ocean. Expect another great week in the coming days!

Out in the salt, I have had reported more silvers this early than has been seen in a long time. They have NOT hit the rivers yet! Pinks do not seem to be early, so this showing of silver salmon in the bay may be a strong run, as opposed to just an early run... All the rivers are VERY low right now. Little or no rain is expected in the immediate forecast. Low/clear water is great for fishing when dealing with sockeye, but hard on the overall run health.

I'm heading back out to the river in an hour, so I'll report again on Tuesday when I return from fishing...

Yakutat contact: Brian Marston, Yakutat Area Management Biologist (907) 784-3222
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July 5, 2011

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced today that the bag and possession limit for sockeye salmon on the Situk River will be raised to 6 per day/ 12 in possession effective 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, July 6, 2011. The escapement goal range for sockeye salmon on the Situk River is 30,000 to 70,000 fish. As of July 3, 2011 more than 30,000 sockeye salmon have been counted through the Situk River Weir. Average run timing data for sockeye salmon on the Situk River indicates that 60% of the run is still to come, and the escapement goal range will be exceeded. Increasing the sockeye salmon bag and possession limits will increase harvest opportunity for sport anglers and will not put achievement of the escapement goal in jeopardy.

Commercial sockeye harvest regulations have also been liberalized for the Situk River.

For further information, anglers should call the Division of Sport Fish, at (907) 784-3222

Current Sport Fish Area Fishing Report by Brian @ Fish & Game:

June 27, 2011

Freshwater Angling

Situk River- The Situk sockeye salmon run is in full swing now. Sockeye are spread out all up and down the river. Limits are coming out of the lower river and up at 9 mile bridge. The Situk is at a lower than normal flow rate so early morning and late evening anglers are catching easier limits, while afternoon anglers may find that the fish are spooky. High tides bring fresh fish into the lower river holes.

The preseason Chinook salmon estimate is very low this year and Chinook sport fishing is closed on the Situk River until escapement goals are reached. Any Chinook salmon
> 20 inches caught while fishing for other species cannot be removed from the water and must be released.

Dolly Varden are still common in the Situk, and a few steelhead can still be found in the Oxbow area.

The Lost River and other Yakutat area streams – Akwe and Italio rivers both have sockeye in the lower stretches. Fish are not moving fast up those streams due to lower than average water flows, but good fishing can be had on the lower holes and glides.

East Alsek River has sockeye also but the fish seem to have progressed early up stream in that area and are on the spawning beds.

Marine Angling

Halibut angling was good last week with the hot clear weather. Anglers even in small boats were able to get large fish.

Chinook trolling is still productive in some areas but fish are getting spread out. Some larger Chinook did come in last week to patient anglers targeting those fish.

For further information, anglers can call Brian Marston at the ADF&G, Division of Sport Fish in Yakutat, at (907) 784-3222.

Very bright sun once again and warn temperatures. We did get a little rain yesterday and it was enough to raise the CFS some more, but now it is falling fast. The weir count is up over 17,000 now. Had a report from one group that fished above the bridge ALONE and had a wonderful time. Fish are definitely spreading out throughout the system, so the fishermen can as well, even though so far they are not...

Great report today from out on the East River as well. Big batch of fresh fish pushed in by the thousands. No one seems to be having any problems hooking up.

Halibut has been pretty slow according to reports. Yesterday was a blustery day with big seas on the bay.

Been out on the river the past week, so sorry about the lack of updates... I'll see if I can get Teen to do reports again while I'm gone.

Reports of exceptional sockeye fishing in the lower river. More than 15,000 fish have gone through the weir now and one report that the fishing above the bridge has been exceptional already as well. More pressure this week, as more people have been arriving. Most pressure has been limited to the lower river, since early in the run the fishing is usually better down there. With more than 3,000 fish going through the weir in a day, the fish are spreading out throughout the system and therefore the fishing pressure can spread out as well. Expect the incoming fish to slow Monday and Tuesday each week, as commercial fishing opens in the estuary. Water levels are extremely low, but a little rain last night has brought the flow rate from 120 CFS to 160 this morning.

Other rivers in the area are also showing very good early runs. The Akwe is experiencing a good push of fish, however the flow is so extremely low that the fish have not been able to move upstream very far. They are essentially trapped in the first few miles of the river well below the grass islands. The New Italio is showing one of the strongest runs EVER, with more sockeye heading up past our boat parking area than I have seen in my life. But... about 1/3rd of the fish are already blushed and/or dark red. I think the run is going to be quick, with the fish already very mature.

East River is expected to open for commercial fishing in the next week or two. Right now, it has a tremendous number of sockeye coming in. Much more than in recent years. Another EXCEPTIONAL run in another exceptional fly fishing river!

We have had approximately 5,000 sockeye through the weir so far and still have that many or more in the one mile below the weir. EXCELLENT fishing in the lower river right now, with very low clear water and not a lot of fishing pressure. With 5,000 fish for the entire river above the weir, 9 Mile walk-ins and float trips are still pretty sparse. The best fishing by far is within easy walking access of the lower landing. Unfortunately, that also means ALL of the fishing pressure is in the lower river as well.

Fly-outs to the Akwe and East River have been productive and are a good way to get away from other fishermen. Saltwater charters for halibut and kings have been productive as well, although some have come back without reaching their limits.

A third hand report from Fish and Game said there were as many as 6,000 sockeye below the weir. A couple days ago, they had 1,500 sockeye go through in one night! Water is still low and clear, but that isn't a bad thing for sockeye. You can approach them without spooking and if they do spook, they settle right back into the same spot immediately. VERY good conditions right now, considering how early it still is. 3,113 total through the weir so far, so I wouldn't bother fishing the upper river yet. The lower river below the weir is where it is at right now. Remember, the "Old Man's Hole" rules went into effect as of June 16th, so no fishing below the train trestle ruins unless you are an old man.

They show 11 large kings through the weir, but going back through the past several years, that is right about what it usually does as of this date. 2009 has 902 total kings, but 18 through the weir as of June 16th. 2008 had a total of 413 for the run, but not a single king had passed the weir until June 20th. Here's hoping the dismal run they are expecting exceeds the forecast and we get an opening this year...

We came back to town from our short trip to Dry Bay. No new reports off the river, but the weir has seen just shy of 1,000 sockeye through. The bad news is that the steelhead count is tapering off at right around 7,000 downstream fish though... So much for my glorious 10,000 guess... There may be another thousand or so still in the river that are yet to come out, but things are shaping up to be a mediocre year count-wise... Interesting...

As soon as I hear something from the Situk on run strength this week, I'll let you know. I have heard that there are already as many as 5,000 sockeye up in the spawning grounds of the East River... The East is about 50 miles down the cloast from Yakutat to the southeast (just in case you don't know where the East Alsek River is... HINT: part of Dry Bay...) Consider a fly-out trip there if you are coming in the next few weeks.

I am getting in more river time than I usually do this time of year! For good reason, the fishing is pretty darned good right now. The Situk usually sees a nice early shot of sockeye, but then slows down again before the main push of the run hits in earnest. Well, we are seeing hundreds of fish coming in and hanging down low in the river right now. There are also several dozen kings mixed in with the sockeye and everyone I know has hooked up inadvertently on a king or two as well. The low expected number of kings could prove to be wrong... Kings can come back after a range of years and the run that never showed in 2010 may potentially come this year - just a little bigger. Let's hope we see some large kings through the weir in the coming weeks so they can open the run up for us...

The upper half of the float is pretty barren at the moment, with most of the steelhead flushing downstream. The last couple miles above the weir is filled with steelies right now, making for a great milti-species combination trip. I'm heading back out Thursday for another first-hand report, but several locals have been taking advantage of the great conditions we have right now.

Yes, we did get a little rain this week, but yesterday was back to sun and clear skies. Today is mostly overcast, but still dry. More rain would be nice, but the conditions for awalk-in at the lower end are really pretty nice right now. And it seems like things are just getting a little better each day... The upper river and around 9 Mile is a bust right now though. A handful of steelhead still up there and pockets of dollies and resident rainbows, but most of the fish are at the lower end.

The steelhead weir count as of June 5th was 5,728, so by now we are over 6,000 through with lots more to go. I'm still leaning on a 10,000 run, so we'll see how close I am. They have counted 132 sockeye through and only 1 large king so far. Most of the salmon are still in the lower holes and don't seem to be in any hurry to move up to the weir in this low water. Makes for great fishing as I said...

The steelhead have flushed down out of the upper river almost completely now, with most of the float devoid of fish. There are still handfuls of fresh fish moving in and scattered pockets throughout the system, but with these bright sunny days, you'll be hard pressed to find them in the upper half of the river. Dense clouds of steelies in the last couple miles above the weir though, as they are ready to depart for their return to the ocean. There are a couple small groups here targeting steelhead, but not many people out fishing.

A couple good sized schools of sockeye are hanging around below the weir. They aren't nearly as skittish as the steelhead, so a bit easier to approach them in the sun. Just a couple large kings mixed in with the sockeye. Yet again, a reminder that targeting kings this season on the Situk is prohibited. You must release incidental catches immediately without removing large kings from the water. Small jack kings don't count as "kings", since they are sterile and won't be successful spawners anyway, so those may be kept. Check with Fish and Game for the latest info regarding the treatment of kings and bag limits. Just in case last year's run that never came comes this year, they may reopen king retention later in the season.

The past couple days, we have officially had the "change". Several hundred steelhead have been heading south through the weir each day, beginning the exodus. We had been essentially in equilibrium with just as many still coming in as going out, but now they are leaving enmass. Not to say that the run is over though... 50+ new steelies a day are still coming in.

The sockeye are arriving now too. A handful of kings as well, but deliberately targeting king this season IN THE SITUK is worthy of a ticket. The Akwe and East are still fair game, along with saltwater angling for kings. Sockeye are already arriving in good enough numbers to catch them below the weir. Fishing pressure this time of year is always light (even more so this season), but the transition between steelhead and salmon is far from a "lull". I only know of two fishermen who have actually set out to target sockeye so far and both have been successful every time they tried. Looks like we'll be seeing either a good salmon run, or at least an early one from this early showing.

Water is still extremely low and warm. Overcast today and yesterday, but several straight days of sun before that. We need rain!

We've had a little rain and a little sun. Not enough moisture to bring the river up, but it hasn't dropped any farther either. The weir has counted a whopping three sockeye through and two large kings. Not exactly "the big arrival", but they are starting to trickle in. Steelheading is still very strong, with about 50-60 in and 50-60 out each day. Not really losing any yet with incoming and outgoing in balance.

Still little if anyone fishing. A few came off the jet yesterday, but some left as well. We won't see any fishing pressur eto speak of until the bulk of the sockeye run arrives at this point.

We have a storm arriving today. Rain started a couple hours ago. The river flow had dropped to 143CFS, but will now come up a bit. Two guys left this morning on the jet and gave a great report... This was their first time here and were thrilled with their week. Struggled initially as they worked to figure things out, but they did great after the brief learning curve. A couple just in for their first trip are waiting for the their friends to arrive. They went up around 9 Mile and had a few hook-ups, but nothing landed. They definitely fall into the "struggle" category, even though they saw "a ton" of fish.

Sorry, those are the only two reports I had in today. Yesterday a local friend went out after work and did well landing three in short order. There aren't any other fishermen to speak of though. Two fancy jets on the ground, but they haven't slummed it in the shop. Otherwise, who else is here? Anyone? Hello...?

I finally made it out to the Situk last night. We were at the bridge for a few minutes and saw two guys fishing (and landing one) immediately below the bridge. Didn't see anything immediately above, so we walked upstream to the first curve. There were a handful on redds in the flat sections and at least three dozen in the hole. Water was very low and clear, so easy to see them. One group of 6 guys walked up beyond us to the West Fork and they said they did pretty well up there. One tent at the parking lot, but they were breaking it down and were gone before we left. One tent in the trees below the boat launch, but otherwise, that was all the people we saw at 6pm on a gorgeous evening. Clouds were just starting to roll in, but we still had shadows. I'll blog tomorrow about our actual fishing experience.

Still plenty of fish in the upper river, although most reports are that the majority have flushed down below the bridge. Had very good reports from the floats in recent days. Many more fish throughout, instead of the dead zone we had been seeing mid-river. Very good reports from fishing the lower landing and the lower hike-ins. Even with the bright sun this week, most people were still landing several. Best results were early in the AM (as in 3-4 AM starts...), or evening after the sun went below the tree tops.

One report from a guide that the whole season has been slower than normal. This doesn't match most of the reports coming in from the public as well as from other guides, but figured I had better post the outlier report as well as the usual good ones. The ADF&G weir counts page isn't showing any counts yet, so I'll make a call tomorrow and see if I can get that info for you. Fishing is still really good and should continue to be so for another couple weeks. Lots of fish on redds, lots of fish already done and working their way downstream, but also lots of fresh sea liced chromers coming in still too. Hardly a soul here fishing now.

Just a quick reminder... the targeting of king salmon on the Situk is closed this season due to a low return forecast. That will mean there will be virtually no one here from now till the peak of sockeye in mid-July. Other area rivers like the Akwe (where I still commercial fish and would love to keep hidden from you guys) and the East have good fly fishable king runs and are open for retention this season.

They put the weir in last week. Just heard that yesterday's count was 20 fish up and 10 fish down... That's a good ratio...

After a balmy day yesterday, the Situk water temperature topped 50 degrees. The fish in the upper river are starting to drop down below the bridge. No dead-zone now - the float has continuous fish from the bridge to tidewater. The flow gage error has been corrected and now the gage is showing 153 CFS. Very clear and cold water, with extremely skittish fish. Another gorgeous sunny day today and expected for the next couple days. Forecast is calling for a chance of rain by Tuesday night.

With water this warm, we have a majority of fish on redds, or already done with their business. Some fish still trickling in, but it is looking like the run is finally winding down. There'll be a lot of fish throughout the majority of the river for the next couple weeks though. We have seen a slight increase of pressure on the river the past few days, but pressure is still very light.

Not a lot of people this season (except for the one "ferry" weekend), but a lot of groups - those who had experienced how good this run was - came back multiple times. Some as many as four times! Now that we are on the downslope and business through the shop is dropping dramatically, time for me to retrieve my gear from the cabin and get my butt out there before it is too late!

With so few people here fishing right now, reports off the river are few and far between. Early this morning, we had two separate groups come through and both reported tremendous numbers of fresh spring fish just now arriving at the lower landing. After a slower week for incoming fish, we now have another major push. This year's steelhead run is showing incredible legs!

They said the first couple miles of the float are packed with fish, although a higher number of them are on redds this week. Above the bridge is even more packed all the way to the lake. Don't forget that the river is open for two miles above 9 Mile Bridge, then it closes for two miles, the reopens for the remaining mile+ to the lake. On the float, the "dead zone" from the couple days last week where the fish stopped coming in seems to have blended in with the rest of the river and other schools. No dead zone anymore, but mid-float is not as fishy as both top and bottom ends.

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, but we have overcast and showers now. River is low, but the flow gage malfunctioned yesterday. The 154CFS reading doesn't sound correct (we've been seeing showers at least every other day):

You can see the error/correction in the gage from yesterday...

Temperature is very warm:

Spikes up over 9C (48.5F) when the sun comes out, then drops back down to 6-7C (42-45F) for rain and overcast. Water temp is matching our air temperature very well, with no snow to melt and keep the water temperature lower.

Just had a third report off the river... guys who came off the river earlier in the day yesterday didn't see the large numbers of fish at the take-out. There were plenty of fish, but they came off while the sun was still out and the tide had yet to push in. Yesterday, one of the weir workers for Fish and Game came through and said they were only seeing 15 or so fish through the weir each night. With the low water, we could be seeing the fish come in with the tide and settle right back out again without moving upstream in the thin clear water. If that is happening, then this is the IDEAL time to hit the estuary where the Situk dumps into the Ahrnklin Inlet. Actively strip big bunny leeches, or saltwater baitfish and prawn patterns at low tide, when the fish are schooling up waiting for the tidal push.

Had a good rain last night, but the sunshine is back and looks to be here through most of the week. Supposed to be some occasional showers, but I haven't seen 'em. The river reports are all about the same. So I do have some saltwater reports... Halibut is pretty mediocre right now, but king trolling in the bay is excellent.

"Last Friday below the 2mi marker was simply a dream fishing day, like nothing I've ever seen or experienced in all my years of steelhead fishing. That was simply the most amazing day of steelhead fishing that I've ever had. I wish I would've had some young kids up there to fish with, they would've had a ball. One year when my daughter's old enough I'll bring her down there to fish. "

"Sorry we didn't make it in except for the day we arrived. The fishing was good for us all week, one of our best years. We saw a lot more fish in 2007 but it may have just been the timing. we caught almost as many fish this year though but there were a lot fewer people this year. We caught most of our fish on jigs under floats or fly casting beads."

On Saturday, the sun brought the water temperature up to 48 1/2 degrees F (9.2C)! If that didn't trigger spawning, then I don't know what would... Saturday and Sunday were beautiful sunny days, but we turned right back to drizzly rain showers last night and all day today. Temperatures dropped right back down again and we have great numbers of fresh fish coming in again too. Pretty consistent reports of the two day dead-zone of fish moving up the river, from those two days late last week where the fish suddenly stopped coming in. Just as suddenly, the started coming in again... Flow is just above 200CFS and has been really steady through the storm and through the sun too. About 50 below normal, but really nice to wade and/or float. Blindly drifting under the bobber is still the most successful method, but with so many fish, sightfishing individuals and groups is just about as easy as it gets right now.

The sunny days made fishing tougher, but not everyone struggled. A couple groups still did quite well (and another group complained about only LANDING a meager 20+ fish between the three of them on their slowest day... that was "struggling"!?!?). Several glowing reports that even in the horrible conditions of warm sun... there were so many fish that there wasn't room for them to hide... As I mentioned, there are a lot of fish on redds, but still under half of what is in the river are spawning - with more fresh chromers coming in on every tide. Anyone who has been "challenged" hasn't had the problem of no fish in front of them... The only complaints have been getting the large numbers of fish to bite what they were throwing at the time. You know - frustration that they would rather not see the fish than to have so many fish ignore them...

Averaging just 4 drift boats a day on the river. Just a couple campers at 9 Mile. Little if any fishing pressure at all right now, when this should be the peak week for traffic. If you can make it up for a quick last minute trip, I highly recommend you try. The rooms around town are empty and so are the seats (out of Juneau anyway) on the jet. I don't think I have EVER recommended people drop what they are doing and come up here like this... No, really! Read through the river reports archive and find one single time I have pushed like this!

The fishing conditions are really the best they have been since we opened the shop. Ordinarily, my fishing reports are pessimistic at best. I don't think anyone would ever accuse me of "overselling" the conditions out there. So... I feel a little embarrassed about being so effusive about my fishing reports of late. Forgive me for spending so much space here bragging about how the Situk has the absolute best steelhead run on earth... At the moment, there is no debating that question. It is. Period.

Gorgeous sunny day today, although I did get a couple good reports off the river. There are so many fish that there isn't room for them to hide... Nice numbers moving into the river again yesterday, so the bottom end is good again too. Tremendous fish up above the bridge, a dead zone mid-float where the couple days without incoming fish left a gap in the river... They'll be spread back out again though soon enough. Averaging 5-7 boats a day... a couple groups camping their way down... seeing only a couple other people up on the hike above the bridge... Pretty amazing fishing conditions.

When this latest storm rolled in, the bite turned off instead of on like I would expect. We had an increase in the flow of about 50 CFS to around 240, which also brought up the turbidity. THAT turned the bite on... Incoming fish dropped to a very few for a couple days, but they seem to be coming in again with the higher water, but still at a pretty slow rate. The spring fish have really pushed upstream, so the lower half doesn't have anywhere the numbers as the upper half. Still... there are a lot of fish this year. Not a record by any stretch, but this is by far the best run since we have been open here at the shop.

All reports are that there are few fishermen out there. 7 seems to be the number of drift boats each day, with a couple camping groups working their way down the river slowly. 9 Mile is vacant again. We should be expecting 30+ boats a day this week, but they just aren't here this year. Such a great run and few people to take advantage of it. Instead of seeing more groups, we're seeing the same guys coming back multiple times with a week or two between trips to take advantage of the near ideal conditions.

Weather forecast is for the sun to come out tomorrow, but cloud right back up and have showers through much of the weekend and coming week. Can't beat that for steelheading.

Where'd all the people go? The river is pretty devoid of fishermen, but the fish continue to come in. Mid-day, black and smaller profile flies are the ticket. Just about anything early and late. No, I don't have any 6 inch pink rubber worms! It's a fly shop!

Maybe 5 boats a day during the peak week? Almost all the campers are gone, just a group or two down at the lower end... Really quiet considering this is such a spectacular run.

For those who have read my reports in the past, if anything I can't ever be accused of overselling the size of the run... This is a great run!

No changes in conditions to report... Still lots of fish, still overcast with drizzly showers. Really good conditions! No real stand-out flies, everything seems to be doing OK. Traffic on the river increased dramatically, but has gone back down a bit. This is a really good run and all the variables seem to be working in our favor this year for a really good run.

Some comments... Someone who has been coming for 17 years thought it was the strongest run they ever saw... We have definitely had better runs, but this is a good one for sure. The weir should be in place sometime this week. Above the bridge, it is about 4:1 winter to spring fish. 1:4 in the lower river. Good solid runs of both, with "hundreds" of fresh fish still coming in on each tide.

Dollies have finally arrived, along with the resident rainbow coming out of the lake too. The flow gage was broken all week, but finally came back online yesterday. Flow hovering right around 190CFS. Water is cool, but there are a lot of fish on redds now too. Most are not yet.

The rain arrived right as predicted (shock), along with some wind and cold. Sleet was falling this morning when I drove in, but just a light drizzle all day. Not enough to effect the water flow level, but the gage is broken and can't tell anything anyway. More fish reported as digging redds, but many more fish in general... Fresh ones coming in by the hundred(s) on every tide.

Crowded river especially up at 9 Mile. The ferry brought in a big wad of fishermen as well as the increased numbers coming off the jet. Majority of pressure is up at the bridge. Still not that many drift boats, but those are increasing too. We can see 30-40 boats a day during the peak in early May, but there isn't anything close to that right now. Much of the ferry traffic and sudden increase will be gone after the weekend. This is the big weekend for Anchorageites to descend upon us and they didn't disappoint. Pressure will be heavy in the coming week, but a lot of what we have over this weekend will clear out and lighten up. At the very least, it will spread the pressure out over the entire river as we increase the boat traffic and lose some of the campers at the bridge.

Sunday is supposed to be overcast, but dry. Then through most of the week, we'll be seeing rain or showers. Tremendous numbers of fish right now. Looking like a superb run. Can't wait to see how long it lasts. This is such a huge improvement over last year at this time!

I'm usually such a pessimist, so you know if I'm this excited, we have some pretty good conditions!

Sorry for the lack of reports this week... Been busy around the hangar, if not so much in the shop.

The winter lake fish flushed out enmass on Wednesday, so there are a tremendous number of fish in the river right now! Three days of sun did knock the top off the bite through much of the week, but it also warmed the water up to 7.5C (45.5F). The fish that didn't go into hiding were definitely on and aggressive. Success pretty much depended on experience. Those that know the river well didn't have any trouble finding fish. Those that aren't familiar with where the fish lay and hide didn't do so well until late in the evening when the sun went behind the trees. With the warm water also came behavior change, so there are fish digging redds. Be aware of that and try to let them do what they need to do (obviously). There really is no shortage of fish to work, so there is no reason to feel desperate to get some action...

The ferry came in yesterday and a lot of people came off it. The planes have been bringing in a lot of people as well, so expect the river to be very crowded in places. Oddly, we still aren't seeing all that many drift boats. Most of the pressure seems to be walk-ins, especially in the 9 Mile area. The 2 Mile Closure is in effect, so that does limit access upstream of the bridge, but... The river reopens for the stretch immediately below the lake, so if you hike up beyond the closure, you can get to some fishing solitude. Not many people are willing to hike beyond the closed area to fish. Although we have virtually no snow... the road to the actual lake trail is not passable. You'd have to hike the river to get up there.

We have a thin overcast right now, with increasing clouds throughout today. Increasing chance of rain tonight with real rain coming tomorrow (Saturday). Sunday changes back to showers with the standard "mostly cloudy, chance of rain" for the rest of the extended forecast. The water flow dropped through this little sunny spell, but not too much. We were still running at about 180 CFS last time I checked, so not too bad. Another batch of precip will be great through the weekend though.

Looks like a really good run this year and we are approaching the peak in the coming week. Odd timing for some of the runs, even though it seems like the spring steelhead run is right on time, the winter run was about a month late in coming out of the lake. We are having the major herring spawn the past two days, which is two weeks late. As we covered before, the herring in Sitka was late, then we had a spawn here that was a week early. That wasn't the main spawn though, so turns out we have a split run for the steelhead and the herring in the bay. Looking ahead toward the coming salmon runs, no idea what this will mean for the run timing. The ocean temperatures are still below average, so expect kings and sockeye to be a bit behind schedule Only time will tell though.

The weir will probably be put in this coming week, since we are seeing spawning activity.

The sun is out... The fish aren't. Lots of fish in the river, but the bright light and distinct shadows are pushing the fish under cover again. Early AM and evening are the best times for fishing right now. Sun expected again tomorrow, but the weekend is calling for more rain, which will be a good thing. The flow is dropping, so we need to maintain consistent rain due to the lack of snow.

We've had some erratic reports through the past several days. On Sunday, I had four groups through the shop on their way home that said the lower 3-5 miles of the river were devoid of fish. The 5th group - longtime people who I trust - said the lower end was pretty good... I told him of the previous 4 reports and he looked at me like I was an alien... He did great in the lower river.

So... with a few contradicting reports, the upper river is better than the lower river, but we do have good fish throughout the entire system. Still not seeing the winter fish yet, but we have 60 degree weather right now and I can't imagine the lake is going to remain frozen for much longer.

Yesterday's storm brought the CFS up to 311 before it slowly started dropping again. We have about 270 right now, so conditions are nearly perfect. Water is still pretty cold with morning lows dropping to about 35 degrees, but rising again today to around 38. Light scattered showers throughout today, but we are expecting a dry day tomorrow (Easter), then rain again Sunday night. Through the week, the forecast is calling for showers, which would be perfect to maintain a good water level. Turbidity did come up, but it still isn't too bad.

Early morning report that in the higher water, fresh fish were streaming in through people's legs down at the lower landing. They weren't slowing to look at anything the guys were throwing, but they were coming in by the hundreds (according to the excited report). Expect the fish to start slowing down up about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile above the landing.

We are starting to see a lot of people coming off both jets, so there will be more pressure on the river this week. This is the time the campers start to descend upon 9 Mile, so I'd expect the upper river to be more crowded than the lower river. Still not a lot of drift boats coming down, but the numbers are increasing too.

Flies? Well, we're seeing a lot of fresh steelhead that haven't been fished over, so there isn't anything that is "off". Throw the whole box at them and I think you'll do well with just about anything right now. No redd diggers yet, so stick with the smaller profile flies for the most part.

With the rains, I'm expecting the lake to finally release the bulk of the winter fish sometime this week. That's what I was guessing early on, but then we saw the little shot of colored fish a couple weeks back... that didn't materialize into the winter exodus. Now, it seems like the conditions are conspiring to have great incoming spring fish in the next week, with the addition of a couple thousand winter fish all at once.

Be careful what you wish for... We have our rain. Cold and miserable out there today - exactly what steelheaders want! The river has gradually been coming up throughout the day, but as of 4pm, we are still only at 170CFS. Still well below our normal average for this time. The water is a bit murky from the increased flow, but not muddy. Just enough to make stalking the chromers easier, while still being able to spot them.

No fresh reports off the river today, which usually means the fishing is good. Several new groups arrived on today's plane, so we are starting to get more pressure. With the higher water, that will not make a significant impact. The fish are pretty dispersed throughout, so we don't have people on top of each other. We did last week, since there were just a few big schools and a lot of pressure on them.

Rain is supposed to continue through tomorrow, but Sunday is expected to be dry. Then the rain returns Sunday night, with "chance of rain" throughout the extended forecast. This should bring the river up to where it needs to be, then scattered showers will help to keep it there. Should be a good week.

5:30pm Update: CFS went up to 207 as of now... That's a pretty big spike for an hour and a half. It is raining, blowing and nasty outside, so expect the river to flood. Too much of a good thing...

What a difference a couple days makes... Here's how the past two days have gone:

Yesterday - Overcast moved in, if not much in the way of rain. The river remained low at 99CFS, but without the bright sun, the fish moved in again. A nice fresh batch came in on yesterday's tide. Also, the fish throughout the river came out of hiding! There were fish scattered pretty evenly throughout the river earlier in the month, but the past week or so, they were nowhere to be seen. Basically, the fish were still everywhere in small groups, but they were so tight inside cover that they weren't being seen. They are back...

Today - Last night and this morning, the rain finally fell. Still not a whole lot, but enough to bring the river up to 130CFS now. Some turbidity stirred up, but the water is still clear enough to sight fish. More fish have been streaming into the river today and the bite is back on. Water temperature is peaking right around 38 to 40 degrees. Cooler than we were seeing over the past week, but well within the range it needs to be. Here's the water gage:

Conditions are improving nicely right now and with perfect timing. We still don't have very many winter fish in the river, but the lakes around town are starting to break up. Situk Lake will be doing so as well in the next week or two. Especially if we see more rain and higher water levels.

Not many people on the river. The guy at the Forest Service cabin today said he is only seeing 3-4 boats pass per day TOTAL, and he is alone through the middle river. Most of the pressure was down at the bottom end. We still have another week before we should start to see crowding issues, so the coming few days will be nearly ideal for fishing. If you are coming this week, sorry... you'll have some really good conditions.

We finally had a little light rain this morning, then the sun came out much of the day. 4pm now with light rain starting again. Not enough to effect the river flow (right at 100CFS), but they are still calling for rain tomorrow and Friday. That will change everything (for the better). Almost no traffic through the shop today, which is usually the sign that fishing picked up... Still not a lot of pressure on the river, but a handful more people get off the plane each day.

The sun continues, with water continuing to drop. Three days ago, a group left after having what they called "the best week they have ever had"... WOW! They must have had some pretty mediocre trips... or they were one of the handful of groups that found their big pod and sat on them for days. There are fish here - pretty much everywhere - but with the long shadows and bright sun, the small pockets are in deep cover and staying invisible. There are a few scattered large groups - one of 100 or so and a couple 50ish groups.

As of yesterday, we are seeing more fish up above the bridge, so the hike-ins are improving. Still not seeing the big lake exodus of winter fish. Running about 2/3rds:1/3rds ratio of spring to winter fish in the upper river. Almost exclusively spring fish throughout the float. Big full moon tides this week have helped bring some fresh fish into the Situk, but a lot of them have settled back down into the estuary as the water drops back out. We need rain! There are fish down in the estuary, so conditions may be good to throw some big streamers and baitfish patterns in the estuary.

And on that note, the weather is supposed to change tonight, clouding up with scattered showers tomorrow. Thursday and Friday are calling for some real rain (mixed with snow), so that is the precip we are in dire need of. Let's hope it comes! If it does, the fishing situation will be completely different in just a matter of a day or two.

No significant reports of Dolly's in the Situk yet. With the fishing so slow on the Situk, a lot of people have been hammering the cutthroat on Tawah Creek and even a handful of steelhead have been caught there. The bite was good initially, but they have been targetted so much that they are getting pretty jaded already.

Another beautiful sunny day today. Bummer! The water continues to drop and will be below 100CFS by tomorrow. The water temperature yesterday topped 42.5 degrees F, then dropped back down to 36 F this morning. We are still getting fresh fish moving in with reports of a school of 75 fish in one batch down in the lower end. Otherwise, the fish that have been in the river are hiding in deep cover and pretty easily spooked.

The forecast is still calling for precip mid-week, but they have changed it from "chance of showers" to real rain as of Thursday night. That's what we need right now. It is a beautiful day on the water, even if the sun and low flow are making it a little more challenging. Drifting the deeper runs from a distance would increase your chances, instead of stalking up close and spooking the fish away. Glo Bugs and yarn are the mainstays right now, with no need to resort to the really strange stuff, like the Dolly Llamas. No fish on redds yet.

Full noon this weekend, so we have big tides. With the low water, that is probably helping to push the new fish in. Don't expect them to settle down anywhere below the weir hole though. They don't want to loiter for long down in the bottom end. We are still not seeing any more winter fish in the upper river. Just the couple dozen that have been up above the bridge for a couple weeks now. The 2 mile closure is in effect to protect the fish on redds, even though they aren't yet in that mode.

.TODAY...AREAS OF FOG IN THE MORNING...THEN SUNNY. HIGHS AROUND 47. LIGHT WINDS.
.TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLEAR. LOWS AROUND 29. LIGHT WINDS.
.MONDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGHS AROUND 47. EAST WIND 10 MPH IN THE MORNING BECOMING LIGHT AND VARIABLE.
.MONDAY NIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS 24 TO 30. EAST WIND 10 MPH.
.TUESDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGHS AROUND 46. LIGHT WINDS.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SCATTERED RAIN SHOWERS AND SNOW SHOWERS. LOWS AROUND 32.
.WEDNESDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SCATTERED RAIN SHOWERS. HIGHS AROUND 44.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN AND SNOW. LOWS AROUND 34.
.THURSDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN. HIGHS AROUND 45.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...RAIN AND SNOW LIKELY. LOWS AROUND 34.
.FRIDAY...RAIN LIKELY. HIGHS AROUND 46.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN AND SNOW. LOWS AROUND 33.
.SATURDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN. HIGHS AROUND 47.

We have a common theme today - the fish are not evenly distributed anymore... Long barren stretches of the river with small pockets of fish scattered. The water has dropped to the point where drifting the river in a boat is more of a challenge. Heck, just getting a drift is getting to be a challenge.

Gorgeous sunny day today, so that isn't exactly going to help. CFS is 120 today and dropping as every molecule evaporates in the sun. Bright sun is sending the fish into deep cover, so fewer fish are being seen. Forecast is calling for scattered showers Wednesday, which is far enough away that it probably won't happen.

Still not seeing any more winter fish out of the lake, so my thinking is that the few that were seen in the upper river are not out of the lake. The fish from the past couple days that were coming in were on the move and didn't want to stop to play. We do have fish, but less than ideal conditions right now. Oh, to have some wet and miserable weather! Darn this sunny sky!

A beautiful sunny and warm day today, which is bringing up the water temperature nicely... unfortunately, we don't have the snowpack to keep the river flowing, so we are also watching the flow gage dropping and dropping. Flow at the moment is 133CFS with water temp 4.5C (40.1F).

Last weekend, the temperature dropped and we received a coating of wet snow. That cooled the water down to the point where the bite turned off and slowed down the incoming fish. As the week progressed, it warmed back up again, so the bite improved and more fish came in over the past couple days.

Fishing was pretty good overall considering the low water conditions, but those fish that were in the river were hammered pretty hard. Since about Wednesday, we have seen increasing fishing pressure. I have been getting reports of people using eggs through the slow period this week. We now have a full-time trooper here and if this is your preferred fishing method, expect to have a real bad trip this year. I have no idea why on a catch and release fishery like this anyone can be so desperate that they have to cheat to catch fish they have to release anyway. There is a long-standing tradition people have of treating the Situk unlike how they would respect their home waters. Well, newsflash... this is my home water. It will be my pleasure to help increase the expense of your trip with a few tickets, if you think abusing our resource is a great way to spend your vacation.

Yep! Warmer water, so more fish coming in and they are much more active than they have been recently. Looks like a great week coming!

Looks like the weather is warming up, with rain off and on all night last night. Highs are supposed to reach into the mid and upper 40's through the rest of the week and that is showing in the river water temperatures. After last weekend's cooler temps, this should wake the fish up again and start seeing better numbers of fresh fish coming in. I haven't seen anyone through the shop today, which usually means fishing picked up...

Although we have had a few colored up fish in the upper river, we have not seen a big push of fish out of the lake. Possibly the fish we are seeing up there are the fish that overwinter in the deeper holes of the river and we're still a week or two away from seeing the main push of the winter fish out of the lake. All the lakes around town are frozen solid, so Situk Lake has a ways to go before the ice there will break up significantly.

Short-term forecast through this comming weekend is calling for mostly cloudy skies with scattered rain showers. Highs 45-47. Great fishing weather. The water has been bone-chillingly cold with snow flurries through the past several days, so a warming trend is welcome news.

Classic spring weather... wait a few minutes and it'll be completely different. Too warm for most of the snow to stick, but the roads to the river are a mess. Very cold water has made catching a bit of a challenge. Nice fish numbers, but the incoming fish have slowed down a lot. Traffic on the river has picked up the past few days, but we are still far from crowded. Everyone seems to be doing "OK", but not a lot of real highliners on the river right now.

We had another couple inches of snow fall last night and scattered flurries all morning. About 4-5 inches on the ground where it hasn't been rained off, or plowed away. The roads are still drivable though, so access to the river is fine.

Incoming fish slowed down yesterday which may be due to the drop in water temperature (again). Water is reading 1.5C (34.7F) and the flow is hanging in right at 200CFS. The sun comes out briefly, but another dark snow cloud is just about to hit. Winds aren't as bad today, but yesterday and Friday were pretty miserably cold on the water.

A lot of fish came streaming in on Friday's morning tide, but there are fewer coming in yesterday and today from the reports I have heard. Nice numbers of fish throughout the system for this early in April, but the bite the past couple days has slowed way down. They just don't seem as interested as earlier in the week last week. Again, may be due to the cooler water temp.

Primarily, people are using the standard fair right now, with no real standout fly. Yarn balls and Glo Bugs for the most part. A few people are getting off the jet every day, but the river is still far from crowded. Nothing is holding until they swim up to at least the Rodeo Hole.

A storm moved through yesterday and dumped nearly a foot of very heavy wet snow starting at around 1pm and continued through most of the night. It turned to rain today, so everything is a thick sloppy mess. You can still get out to the river easily enough with 4 wheel drive, but it is a slow slick slog.

Once this mess melts off, expect a big spike in the flow rate. Right now, the gage at 9 Mile is malfunctioning and not giving accurate readings:

Obviously, we have some ice and snow piled on the temperature gage, so we aren't getting an actual water temp reading right now.

We had some great fishing reports yesterday (for this early in April). All spring fish in the river, nice numbers moving in each day. Below the Rodeo Hole tends to be barren, but it gets fishier and fishier the farther up you go. It was miserable out there once the storm hit. Winds were blowing about 35knots, with a sloppy wet sleet that was coming down so fast that even that piled up pretty rapidly. It was hard to stay warm with so much wet and wind with an air temperature of 33 degrees. The skies are brightening up right now and the rain has stopped for the moment. The cancelled the evening jet once things started to deteriorate.

.TODAY...RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS. NO ACCUMULATION EXPECTED. HIGHS AROUND 40. SOUTHEAST WIND 10 MPH.

.TONIGHT...RAIN SHOWERS...POSSIBLY MIXED WITH SNOW. LOWS AROUND 32. SOUTHEAST WIND 10 MPH.

.SATURDAY...RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS...DIMINISHING IN THE AFTERNOON SNOW ACCUMULATION UP TO 1 INCH. HIGHS AROUND 40. LIGHT WINDS BECOMING SOUTHEAST 10 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON.

.SATURDAY NIGHT...CLOUDY. SCATTERED RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS. LOWS AROUND 30. SOUTHEAST WIND 10 MPH.

.SUNDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SCATTERED RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS. HIGHS AROUND 40. EAST WIND 10 MPH.

.SUNDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SCATTERED RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS. LOWS 24 TO 30.

There was a nice push of spring steelhead that came in the past couple days. Yesterday, there were good fish in the lower river. Pretty barren below the Rodeo Hole, but above that, pockets of fish in every hole. Only two guys stepped off the plane yesterday to fish, but a few more came in today. Very few people in town so far - possibly due to my doom and gloom reports from a couple weeks ago... Looking pretty good right now. Everyone I have talked to has caught fish.

As for other reports - the king trolling is doing really well right now. Lots of kings in the bay. Also, lots of herring throughout the bay as well. They continue to spawn in some locations. Eulachon are in the river mouths right now as well. A tremendous amount of feed in the ocean.

Weather-wise, we have been seeing scattered showers throughout the week, with occasional snow flurries (that don't stick due to the warmer ground temperature) and frequent sun breaks. Daytime temperatures are in the mid-40's, night drops to near freezing and we can have a light coating of ice on the stairs. Flow rates are dropping slowly, but still at 137. Water temp in the Situk is averaging 2.5C, but tops out each day just shy of 4 degrees. Still pretty chilly, but warm enough to get some feisty fish to move in.

Multiple reports coming in that we are seeing fish throughout. Not any big schools - mostly groups of 6 or less, but a couple bigger 20+ groups at around the 5 mile mark. Also, good numbers of fish from 9 Mile down to about mid-river.

Not many people here yet. One group came off today's plane, otherwise, I think there are only two groups on the river through this past weekend. Catching is slow, but everyone seems to be hitting a couple each day. Mostly chrome bright fish, but there are a handful of red ones scattered around. I don't think that means they are coming out of the lake yet in any great numbers. With how solid the lakes are around town, I'm still expecting the winter fish exodus to be late in the month.

A sunny day today, but we have had pretty consistent drizzle through the weekend. The flow came up and is hovering right around the perfect historic average for this time of year - between 150 and 200 CFS:

Turbidity came up significantly with the first rains in months. I'd expect it to stay murky until we either get the silt thoroughly rinsed out, or it dries up again. The water temperature did come back down, but it is slowly inching its way up again:

Overall, conditions in the coming week are looking pretty good. The water is great right now and a few steelhead are coming in on every tide. Great early April conditions. No snow up at 9 Mile in the camping area. There was a light dusting early this morning of slush, but it melted off before we were up.

The water level has officially reached the historic average... Water level looks good. Check!

Water temperature is still averaging just under 3 degrees C. Brian at Fish and Game says that we will see the big push of steelhead when that average reaches 4 degrees, then we'll see them digging redds when it reaches 6 degrees. I'm anxious to keep a close eye on that through the coming year.

I have a first hand report from a local, who went down yesterday to watch what happened as the tide started in. He did see one good group of fish pushing in. Also on Brian's report page at ADF&G yesterday, he reported that people have seen fish already up at 9 Mile. All good signs! Last year when I first floated the river on April 1st, we had less than 100 fish in the river. From the daily observations this past week, we have more than that in the river this year already, even though things were looking pretty late at first.

Brian Marston at Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported that on Sunday March 27th, "someone" said they spotted wakes moving into the river down at the lower landing. You can take third party reports any way you like... But on Monday (yesterday), Brian himself saw two pods of fish moving in. He estimated them to be between 5-10 fish in each group. One fish turned tail and headed back down to the estuary though...

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day of at least 52 degrees. The water temp peaked at just over 40 degrees. Last night was clear, so it dropped right back down to 34 degrees though. It clouded back up and we are back to a little drizzle. Flow is at 52 CFS at the moment. Should be between 150 and 200 CFS this time of year. Similar low water levels to 2009.

I know we are expecting a couple groups to arrive in the next few days, so here is what the weather is calling for:

.WEDNESDAY...RAIN. HIGHS AROUND 43. NORTHEAST WIND 10 MPH SHIFTING TO THE SOUTHEAST IN THE AFTERNOON.

Just received word from Fish and Game that there are a few fish starting to trickle in at the lower end. Confirmed there are "fish" in the river. How many? No idea. But this is the first word that there are steelhead starting to arrive.

The weather dried up last night, but we are back to rain again all day today. Conditions improve daily! CFS topped off yesterday at 51, dropped down a few points and is back up to 51 again as I type.

I think the gage at 9 Mile has finally emerged from the ice and is now working...

With last night's rain, we are UP TO a whopping 50 CFS, but that's definitely better than the 30 that we had yesterday. The rain is supposed to continue... A good outlook for the coming week.

.TONIGHT...RAIN. LOWS AROUND 37. EAST WIND 10 MPH IN THE EVENING BECOMING LIGHT AND VARIABLE.

SUNDAY NIGHT...RAIN. LOWS AROUND 33. LIGHT WINDS BECOMING SOUTHEAST 10 MPH LATE.

Tanis and I drove out to the river and we have good news to report. The lower landing area is completely ice-free now. What a change a week has made! Big tides and warmer weather combined to break everything up and wash it out. Not all good news though... the river is terribly low! Walked up to the train tressle ruins in my tennis shoes without getting anywhere near water...

Then we drove up to the bridge. There is some ice still protruding out into the river from the bank, but most of the ice is gone upstream as well. The ice conditions are just fine on the river now, but we are still in dire need of rain. No fish swimming around under the bridge, but we still have anotjer week or two before we should start seeing any fishermen. Conditions are improving, so that's good news. Not perfect yet, but we are still supposed to get some more rain in the current forecast. Let's hope this drizzly weather holds and we get some more moisture.

After one day of drizzle last week, we were back to clear sunny skies, but without the deep cold at night. Today, we clouded up and it is snowing right now. The forecast is calling for low 40's through the week with a "chance of rain". In other words... they have no idea what is going to happen.

Roads are all clear and open. The river is still frozen over. I'll let this weather come through and either tomorrow or the next day, I'll drive out and see what the river looks like again. At least this change is for the better... some moisture in the air and forecast. That's a change from what we've been seeing most of the past month+.

From todays forecast... It is mostly cloudy today - the first clouds we've seen in a month! Let's hope they are right!

TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF SNOW THROUGH THE NIGHT. LOWS 22 TO 28. EAST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.

TUESDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF RAIN IN THE MORNING. HIGHS AROUND 40. NORTHEAST WIND 10 MPH.

TUESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SLIGHT CHANCE OF SNOW. LOWS 23 TO 29. LIGHT WINDS.

I received a call yesterday from the State of AK DOT saying that the upper road to 9 Mile was open. They had completed the plowing to the bridge. They were also clear that just because it is open now, doesn't mean it will stay that way after a heavy snow...

The road is in great shape. Nice and smooth, freshly sanded. If we ever see any rain, expect the car-eating potholes to return though. Very low water, but looking upstream, the river was mostly ice-free. The slow moving water of the bridge hole was a different story. Surface ice solidly frozen from bank to bank.

Looking downstream, the ice thins and opens up once you get past the riffle and have some current to keep the water from freezing. In the slow/still portions of the river, the ice is 6-12 inches thick.

The campground doesn't have much snow. Just 6 inches or so of hard crust covering most of it. Some bare patches already opening up in the areas with direct sunlight.

Back on the road to check out the lower landing again. We have had a week of sunny skies, but without the deep nighttime cold to harden the river ice even more. The lower road is completely plowed as well, with sand over the top.

Lost River has thawed out quite a bit. Remember that this area is inter-tidal, so on the big tides, it can push brackish sea-water up past the bridge. Solid ice above the bridge (even though the first photo looks like water, it is solid thick ice), with the river opening up for most of the way downstream.

Last week when I was out here, we had big full moon tides that were pushing the sheets of ice around and breaking them up. The past week has been very small tides, allowing the ice to solidify. The river upstream as far as you can see is SOLID ice. No breaks, openings, or visible surface water. Even the open leads and gaps from last week have frozen solid with dark clear ice.

The ice thickness ranges from 6-12 inches. Solid enough to skate on. You can see in these last two photos where the ice extends way up onto shore from the tides a week ago, but also from the river water level dropping in the dry, cold weather. The river is terribly low and getting lower.

The river does open up about 100 yards downstream of the take-out. From there all the way to the estuary, it is ice free. You do have some water flowing, but it is under 50 CFS by my estimation.

We need rain and badly. Without a change in the weather, the steelhead season will be in for a slow start. Here is the forecast as of today. They are calling for rain or snow by Wednesday, but they have been calling for a change toward the end of the forecast for weeks without seeing it materialize.

NOW... ...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 AM AKST FRIDAY... MOSTLY CLEAR SKIES. NORTHEAST WIND 10 TO 20 MPH WITH STRONG WINDS GUSTING OVER 50 MPH OUT OF PASSES...LIGHT WINDS WEST OF ICY BAY. TEMPERATURE DROPPING TO THE UPPER 20'S BY 9 PM.

TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLEAR. LOCALLY WINDY. LOWS AROUND 10 ABOVE. NORTHEAST WIND 15 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 45 MPH NEAR INTERIOR PASSES.

THURSDAY...SUNNY...LOCALLY WINDY. HIGHS AROUND 33. NORTHEAST WIND 15 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 45 MPH NEAR INTERIOR PASSES.

THURSDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLEAR. LOCALLY WINDY. LOWS 14 TO 24. NORTHEAST WIND 15 TO 25 MPH. STRONGER WINDS NEAR INTERIOR PASSES.

FRIDAY...SUNNY...LOCALLY WINDY. HIGHS AROUND 29. NORTHEAST WIND 15 TO 25 MPH. STRONGER WINDS NEAR INTERIOR PASSES

FRIDAY NIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. BREEZY. LOWS 12 TO 20. NORTHEAST WIND 15 TO 25 MPH.

SATURDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. HIGHS AROUND 33. LOWS 14 TO 24.

MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF RAIN. LOWS AROUND 30. HIGHS 31 TO 38.

I drove down to the lower landing this morning to see what things look like. Pretty amazing that the road is still open. We have ruts that are between 4-6 inches deep, but very drivable. The upper road to 9 Mile gets deeper the farther out you go and becomes undrivable about half-way out. I'd expect the state to start working on the road in the next week or two ahead of the April 1st target date. We really have very little snow this year. Just about 6 inches here around town, but there will be more out the road and along the river bank.

The weather the past couple weeks has been VERY cold. Gets to around -10F each night. In all the years we have been living in our house above the main dock, we have never seen surface ice forming in the saltwater bay... Until last week! The winds picked up and broke the ice up, but it is still just as cold.

With the deep cold these past couple weeks, the surface of the Situk is also frozen over. The tide was pushing in when I was there, so the incoming sea water was pushing the ice around and opening up fizzures and leads. Looks like the ice is about 6-8 inches thick. It won't take much of a warming spell to flush the ice out, but the river is most definitely NOT fishable right now in early March. Expect Situk Lake to be hard frozen and unless we get a long warming spell, the winter fish won't be coming out any time soon.

Not much snow, but sure is cold. The forecast was warning of potential 90 knot winds, but that has been reduced to only 60 knots... The sun feels warm on our sheltered porch, but we are still a long way from a real spring thaw.

Current Sport Fish Area Fishing Report

July 06, 2011

Freshwater Angling

Marine Angling

Current Sport Fish Area Fishing Report by Brian @ Fish & Game:

June 27, 2011

Freshwater Angling

Marine Angling