Worst kayak fishing trip ever? New- with pix

Reads like an epic to me. You found a story, one way or the other.

Yes, you've drawn me in too, Thornley.  Do finish it off with a bang, won't you?!   

I like the pic of you with her hali - "UNhappy Camper!"   

Good sport, Scott.   

Worst Kayak fishing!?!?
looks like best trip ever to me...

Cool shots Scott I wanna see the Silvers been a long time since we could fish them down here.

Day 6 was spent getting the ladies organized and on their plane out of Kodiak. This took hours. I also called the Orion's, the local dive shop and two surf shops trying to find a replacement wetsuit for my out of service dry suit. Unfortunately I wasn't specific enough, and a perfectly acceptable drysuit at Orion's was never mentioned as being in stock. Everyone else had full suits meant for surfing or snorkeling. 4 mm, long sleeves, hooded...

Eventually we made it over to the airport to drop off Jan and Jen, and then hit the Buskin for Silvers. We managed to catch limits, but one fish made it back into the river to eventually feed eagles, gulls or bears. I did a little Dolly fishing, but nothing to write home about.

Day 7 dawned kind of yucky, and I'd made the decision to treat the broken dry suit as a pair of expensive waders.I did the Red Green thing, and made myself a duct tape wader belt that worked surprisingly well. The plan was to troll down the channel to a halibut spot, and then possibly continue out and to the north to Mill Bay, where Silvers were collecting. Trolling all the way to Mission Beach, there were no hits, other than a poor defenseless 10 foot long strand of kelp. Once at Mission Beach, I swapped over to jigging, with not much to show for it. It was about 10 minutes into jigging when the fishfinder went batcrap. Which is a shame, as it was delivering great results prior. Yet another blow against the kayak fishing portion of this trip. The decision was made to continue onward, with the weather turning crummy enough by the time the channel mouth was reached, that I turned around after staying out there for only half an hour or so. I did stop at Mission Beach on the way back in, with similar results as previously. For the day, all that was caught were a couple more Arrowhead Sole/Flounder, another Irish Lord, two foul hooked Rock Greenling that must have been defending their territory against the 6 oz Pt Wilson Dart, and a very small Grey Cod. I trooched the Cod for a bit, as they are definitely yummy, but no luck. Eventually it was cold and boring enough that I headed in, total time out was only 5 hours.





Day 8 dawned absolutely beautifully. Far and away the most beautiful day I've spent on Kodiak in my two trips there, including the day last year spent on the lake that was the Gulf of Alaska. Destination was the Buskin, for Silvers and Dollys. We managed limits again of Silvers, this time with pictures even. This one day pretty much made up for all the disappointment that was the kayak fishing portion of the trip. Dolly Varden are the most enthusiastic little trout I've ever fished for, making Rainbows look absolutely pathetic in comparison.

Small Silver


Big Silver. We saw one that was an absolute submarine, but this is a very good fish.




Day 9 was the day Art and I flew out. It was spent getting things packed and organized, with a few more odds and ends taken care of as well. I spent a few minutes watching folks fish at Mill Bay after dropping him off for his flight. There was also enough time for me to spend another 45 minutes on the Buskin, harassing Dollys, and looking for the intermittent Silvers.

Pontoon boater in Mill Bay. He picked up several fish, including two keepers in the few minutes I was there watching


One of the last Dollys



All in all, it was a great vacation, but I'm still smarting from the disappointing kayak portion of the trip. I guess the most important lesson learned was: Be prepared for everything to fail, and have a contingency plan for everything. Art was the consummate host, cooking amazing meals on the diesel powered stove as well as electric skillet. Plenty of good evenings playing Phase 10 and drinking Gimlikaze's. I'm already looking forward to my next trip up there, this time for a shorter period of time, but with the family along. Let's see - fly to Anchorage, train to Seward, blue canoe to Kodiak...

Thanks for the fix Scott those Silvers are awesome

Thanks for the excellent report Scott.  You're a lucky man.

Scott - Sorry for your troubles along the way but that looks like one hell of a trip. Thanks for the detail and the great pictures.

Some more gratuitous shots from the trip.

Art on the river after Dollies one evening. Many nights we fished until 9:00 or later.



Innovative use of native materials to reinforce the sea wall




This was the first days haul. We probably tossed back 80% of the rockfish and 50% of the ling cod, as we didn't want to spend 4 hours cleaning, just 2.



Jan, Roland and Jen, on the way back in on the first day. Jan and Jen are single, and are fly anglers...


Jan getting closeups of the Tiger Rockfish. Something about non-Alaskans and these fish, as Art has seen 4 in all his time in Alaska, and 3 of them were caught by us DSMFrs.