Well, did you enjoy swimming through the atmosphere last Friday and deluge Saturday?
It rained so hard at our cabin I was pondering chartering a water taxi to get up to our mailbox. Ducks were doing touch and go landings on rapidly developing potholes along our access road while a brood of panicky preflight pheasant chicks frantically high-stepped across the flooded low area of our lawn.
While monitoring the gutter overflows roaring off our roof like diminutive Yosemite Falls, I made the mistake of mumbling to my wife that I was considering the possibility of nailing a couple of late-arriving coho which just might be making a run up our drainage ditch after taking a humiliating wrong turn out of the bay.
Even though she was engrossed in taking a crack at preventing our psycho pup from trying to sneak out and wage war on a couple of voles backstroking across the driveway, she realized that I really needed to take a break and head out through the downpour to the Spit or anywhere else for that matter. The dog took a quick look at me and agreed.
Scouting for updates to the weekly fishing report had not been a priority during the series of storms rolling through the area, but Jane figured I’d better hit the road before the neighbors spotted me fly fishing around the lower base of the driveway’s culvert again. Even the dog was mortified.
My impromptu therapy run came to an abrupt pause when I encountered Mudegedon in the area of Kachemak Drive and East End Road. The crud was moving west toward the city, dragging what appeared to be a churning, debris-laden, obstacle course for tanks.
The scene was impressive enough that I took a one-eighty after deciding that it was a situation that would be much cooler to write about than being carried along on.
Luckily, I was able to make a few calls and compile enough info for the next sentence.
Time now to take a look at this week’s fishing report for Aug. 28.
Freshwater Fishing
Expect continued poor to fair coho fishing in the roadside streams especially if the rains continue to add to the misery. If things do calm down a bit, hit the mouths of the streams during the incoming tides. They’ll be high so maybe there will be a surge of new young bloods added to the silver run.
Note: Starting Friday, Sept. 1, the lower stream sections go to single hook, no bait gear restrictions.
Fishing for dollies on the upper sections of the Anchor River, Deep Creek, and Ninilchik River has remained poor to fair with fish dotted throughout the sections. Beads are still getting their attention and bending poles.
Info: The Anchor River daily coho count as of Aug. 24 was 352 fish, for a total of 1,290. Last year’s count was 1203 during the same time frame.
Saltwater Fishing
Halibut
Halibut fishing is dropping a gear but continues to be beyond acceptable in Cook Inlet. The bigger slabs and numbers of fish available are still lurking farther out but with all the super suck weather playing games, you can still get a shot at them nearer shore. You just need to be willing to spend more time soaking bait if you can come close to holding anchor with the tides on nitro. Tutka Bay and Eldred Passage may be a good bet this time of year.
You can always consider drifting around looking for fish concentrations, but setting the hook without the weight of a block of cement the size of a VW beetle, you’d be better getting your kicks by back-trolling for something interested in what you’re serving.
King Salmon
Trolling for kings has remained passable in Kachemak Bay with line draggers hitting fish disseminated throughout the area. Bluff Point and Point Pogibshi are worthy of your attention.
Other Saltwater
Coho fishing within Kachemak Bay and Cook Inlet has been a mix of bag of hits and misses. Point Pogibshi and the Silver Ridge are the most likely have silver veins running through their areas.
There are honkin’ minus tides this week if you’re into burrowing after clams in West Cook Inlet. Polly Creek and Crescent River Bar are popular places to get your muck stompin’ on.
Surf fishing in Cook Inlet has been OK. Casters are landing halibut with side hauls of sharks and weird things along the Clam Gulch beaches. Whiskey Gulch offers easy shoreline access as well.
The Homer Spit is the best bet for variety and numbers of fish and that’s just not from the restaurants and fishmongers. There are some excellent beach accesses for the do-it-yourself types who know what end of a pole to point at the water.
Emergency Orders
Emergency Order 2-SS-7-57-23 opens snagging in the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon waters (excluding the Homer Harbor) for the remainder of the season.
Emergency Order 2-RF-7-20-23 reduces the rockfish bag and possession limits in Cook Inlet to three per day and six in possession of which only one per day, two in possession can be nonpelagic
Nick can be reached at ncvarney@gmail.com unless he’s outside trying to point out stranded rodents to a pair of hawks lurking in the high spruce next door.
