Big Lake (January 20, 2002)
see below for all the info.
Anchorage Waters
Elmendorf Waters
Ft. Richardson Waters
Glennallen Waters
Mat-su Waters
Late afternoon last minute trip, good thing the fishing stuff was already in the truck. Fished for about an hour with impending snow storm overhead. Caught two Arctic Char and Rainbow Trout and one Salmonoid Hybrid. Used Shrimp with some herring oil and yes the Sweedish pimple.
Went right at sunrise in a back cove off a point. Nothing to speak of but, I did catch a small chinnook that seemed to have escaped the stomach of a Pike due to the back half of him was riddled with teeth marks.. Very cold ,little wind, and sun hidden by the mountains.
Left Sand lake above, in search of Char. Fished for 1hr and a half caught less than a handfull of rainbows.
Punched a hole on the way to Eklutna and came up with two Char and a Land Locked Salmon in half an hour. Used salmon eggs with sweedish pimple close to the parking area.
Finally after hooking up with 3 other Kings I hooked in to a monster. Fight only lasted 15 minutes but, it was well worth it. My King weighed in at a healthy 37 pounds, Length 43 inches, girth was 26.
Dropped by these lakes in the late evening but, no luck. One small Landlocked King. The dragonfiles and some other big tresrials were buzzing the surface although not a lot of surface action yet.
5am start good run of Coho, Pinks, and Chum came through spent about 3 hours with 2 Silvers and 1 Chum I called it a day.
Cut some holes this Ice is thick enought!! This weather is just fine by me. Ice is 6 inches and the Rainbows are still in their spawning cycle. Bill, Quinten, Greg, and I arrived about noon and fished for hours Caught my limt of Bows in about 3 hours. One MONSTER of which I lost on because of a cheap hook. Shrimp was the bait of the day.
Drove out to Otter about noon met up with Greg and Quinten. Cut some holes setup the tent and started fishing. Right off the bat, one 18 incher. Then WHAM! another. Greg had two friends of his join and they caught one. Quinten lost a nice one and then rebounded with an 18 and a half incher. Good day all around except for a fish taking someones unatttended fishing pole under the Ice.
Click here to see the FISH..
First trip out after lakers. Fished in shallow water early in the day caught rainbows. Moved to rocky bottom pickup an 18inch Lake Trout and 2 more Rainbows. Used Sweedish pimple with some bait. Clear sunny day with allot of wind.
Got there before the sun was up. Snow spitting all day with some wind. Caught Lakers and Burbot on rocky bottom between 9:30AM and 11AM. Rest of the day hardly any bites. Kilburn had most of the action on his rod.
Snowed hard all day long. Only one bite. Tried by Big Lake Lodge, and Burnt Point. No luck all day three people. I truely believe the moon faze can directly effect how good the fishing will be when Ice fishing in Alaska.
Went out in the early morning lots of clouds in the valley but, at eklutna clear skies. Unfortunatly despite the beautiful scenery and weather there were no fish at the spill way. Stopped at Mirror lake on the way back to anchorage but, there was nothing there either.
Headed to Willow stopping along the way. Dropped in at 3Rivers Fly Shop. Got to Willow Creek and it was still mostly covered in snow. Fished for two hours and loved all the sun that was melting the snow around us. Water was very clear and low, one fish came out of a hole after a Nymph but, no hook up.
Thomas and I started out on the lake about 1000 found plenty of rainbows in a feeding frenzy on the surface. After catching 2 shy of our limits we trolled for a while. Later in the afternoon we anchored and tossed out some good bait. The bait far out produced the spinners. We came out with 3 Lakers, 1 Grayling and 9 Rainbows.
Started the long drive up to Long lake about 7am. On the way up a Ruffed grouse flew accoss the highway and landed in a tree about 100yds off the road. Luck for me and unlucky for the bird I brought along my shot gun. Needless to say I was not going home empty handed. I finnally got to the lake at 10am. The day started out very slow no Ice yet but it was cold enought. Trolled around looking for fish on the graph with no result. After alittle lunch and a walk I decided to go back out. Trolled some more and I ran accross a school of fish in about 55 feet. Anchored and dropped some shrimp. Glad I stuck around pulled up my limmit of Rainbows and two nice eating size Lakers
TWith a chance of snow and supposed 55 mph wind on our backs Lou, Greg, Eddie and I set out for Big Lake . Checked with Big Lake Lodge to see if it was drivable and cut a hole near shore to apease my own mind. Ice was 12 inches easy. Rolled out and set up. Started off very slow. A couple of hits in the first hour. For the next 4 hours I could do no wrong , well almost. I pulled up 4 Burbot one 30 inches long and 1 Arctic Char 21 inches long and I am relativly sure I lost a Char over 26 inches. All were caught on a Trixee 4 pound line and good drag system. Lou caught a good size Burbot. and Greg lost a Char at the bottom of his hole. All in all, it didn't snow till we left and it was most assureadly windy.
Started out slow and ended slow. Warm weather on our side Lou, Shane and I headed for Big Lake. After not hooking up in the morning we moved around tring to find the fish. We ended the day with Lou with a Char at 26 inches and Shane a nice burbot and some Char under 20inches. I again came though with my 4 pound line and a 22 inch Char in the Magic hour as we call it..
Again the weather was willing to cooperate with us and we had the time. Lou, Shane, Bill and I hit the road making a pit stop or two along the way ended up on the Ice at 10:00am. The bite was slow most of the day but we slugged it out. Got a fish on every 30 to 45 minutes. Shane caught two bows one at 18 inches with some great Big Lake color. Bill caught a 20inch Char and I caught a Char at 23 inches on a rainbow minow and 4 pound line.
The trip started with the long trip up to Louise. Got there with the sun up. First laker was caught around 9:30am in about 26ft of water. To small, and that would be the story for most of us. While the lakers were still fun to catch Katfish pulled out a nice 32 inch 12 pound Monster Lake Trout. (which he promptly released) I, on the otherhand, caught one less than than legal and a 7 pound 31 inch Burbot which was also released. All in all the stinky shimp that burke had worked good. John and Lew sorry better luck next trip. Cloud cover moved off quick giving us a beautul view of the mountains.
We got up to Lake Louise Lodge on Thursday. Weather that night was clear and about -25 degrees. The story goes we were going for the fishing but, after our first day morning smelling like skunks and freezing like -40 degrees we decided to drive the road looking for Ptarmigan. We had some luck there picking up 6. Rest of the trip was spent laughing and wishing it would get warm while enjoying the great food and atmosphere of Lake Louise Lodge. As an added bonus we took some great pictures of the Northern lights.
January 1, 2001
and is maintained by
Charles White