At that moment, a large steelhead moved up from the pool below and found a place to hold in the riffle. The only consolation was now he could cut 10-pound mono with that tooth. I slammed into a small rock while the boat was turned and my brother-in-law took a header against the gunwale, breaking a tooth he had had repaired just four days earlier. The next days would be clear and warm. The Situk River: An Alaska Steelhead Mecca, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Skip to Main ContentSkip to Site NavigationSkip to Section Navigation State of Alaska myAlaska Departments State Employees Statewide Links Alaska Department ofFish and Game Search Terms Alaska Department of Fish and Game Documentation, Network Stumbled upon this article, thought it was very well done. And with the clear days the fish had pulled tight into the wood of the log jams. The repeal left critical areas like the Yakutat Forelands, and the areas incredible fish runs, at risk. Click "OK" to continue. On your own time, or accompanied by one of our experienced Yakutat fishing guide partners, you'll have absolutely the best time of your life. Huge trees lay on their sides with limbs bare and curled, like rib cages of long-dead dinosaurs. Boat after boat goes over the same fish. College football reporters' NFL draft takeaways, Roger Federer, Dwyane Wade and more shine on the Met Gala's red carpet, Fantasy football rankings for 2023 season, 10 fantasy football breakout players for 2023, 'It's going to be epic': Stephen Curry and LeBron James face off -- again, Ranking the fights at UFC 288: Why Henry Cejudo's return tops the list, Truex Jr. snaps 54-race Cup Series winless streak, Liverpool, Tottenham put on a show as Klopp goes overboard, Bundesliga title twists, Haaland scores No. Did Pats make Mac Jones happy? Support, Solution But good drifting weather is not necessarily good fishing weather. Both conventional tackle and fly fishing work well. The average cost for a four hour trip in Situk River is N/A, while the average cost for an 8 hour trip is $1889. The bead has got to hunt, Wyatt said. This was not always the case and my first few years were simply a challenge to find a fish, let alone hook one. Situk Steelhead Fly and Bead List The Situk drains a gentle plain of muskeg and trackless forest, as well as a lake fed by melting snows. This makes boat travel very difficult, both drift and power boats. You can contact Riverbed online or over the phone. Trout Unlimiteds mission is to protect, reconnect and restore North Americas coldwater fisheries and their watersheds. While we were there, both fish moved up into the next long run, headed upstream to spawn. There are only two or three good access points and anglers jam into boats at the same time every day to compete for the same fish. Learn about our work in Alaska at tu.org/project/alaska. Importantly, the Roadless Rule does not prevent all development in roadless areas. XFL semifinals: Defenders roll Sea Dragons, set up title showdown with Renegades. 13. Performance Management, Digital Kenai Peninsula Steelhead Fishing is primarily a fall pursuit and takes place on the southern Kenai Peninsula rivers: The Anchor, Deep Creek, Ninilchik and the Upper Kasilof. Lesser fish darted to the sides while the fish, which I estimated at 28 pounds, assumed the best holding lie. Stay on good water or fish down ahead and get to the launch early and race up to the launch again. The largest steelhead I've seen landed in the Situk was 46 inches, and I've heard rumors of a couple of larger specimens. Miller, the founder of the non-profit museum and owner of the shop, sells gear and provides fishing reports for thousands of anglers who visit or wish they could visit the Situk River, a 16-mile river famous for its massive production of steelhead trout and salmon. By late April, it can depend on rain to stay fishable and floatable. Steelhead: Low and Clear on the Situk - Fish Alaska River and Stream Fishing. When a road is poorly constructed and an inadequate culvert is installed at a stream crossing, it can prevent salmon and other fish from traveling through, eliminate access to important spawning and rearing habitat, increase erosion and the risk of flooding, and create significant additional maintenance costs. Tie into a long egg loop knot then dunk it and wring it out and trim it up to a smooth round ball. In comparison to other anadromous species of Pacific salmon, they have a fairly complicated life history. Toll. Map Information. Log jams can actually fence boaters out of good water. On our first day I hooked five steelhead with the river green and dropping. Our famous saltwater halibut, lingcod, & black bass fishing is second to none. About 2 miles down the trail, there is a side trail that provides access to the confluence of the Old Situk and Situk Rivers, a popular site for steelhead, sockeye and dolly varden fishing. This river, defined as it is by wood which can move around from day to day or week to week, changes so much that good holes come and go faster than any river I have ever seen. Accelerator, Bulk Token We tend to look for the same kind of water and we tend to fish the same way. The Situk River in Southeast Alaska has the longest running set of biological data and scale samples for steelhead in the state and is of particular interest because it supports the largest known . By exploring long straight stretches of water, using polarized glasses and targeting schools of char, a fly-rodder can find great sport. Our spacious dry rooms allow you to, , offers the ultimate in reasonably-priced World-Class, The natural-run Yakutat steelhead fishing. Visitors can bring inflatable rafts, kayaks and canoes. And quiet confidence and swagger for the fishermen who figure it out. It was written in April 2017. I took the oars and Shannon cast a micro-jig and float. Nearly half of all steelhead caught in Alaska annually are caught in the Situk. One trip for me and I have life-long friends. About 2 miles down the trail, there is a side trail that provides access to the confluence of the Old Situk and Situk Rivers, a popular site for steelhead, sockeye and dolly varden fishing. With daily housekeeping service, in-house laundry facilities, you'll enjoy the comforts of home with the exhilarating thrill of America's last frontier. Situk River Fly Fishing For Spectacular Spring Steelhead - Yakutat, Alaska, this Alaska road trip that will lead you through some of the most treasured tiny towns, Kepler Park - The History, The Future & The Fish, El Capitan Cave, Alaska's largest abovegroundcave, This Campsite Inside Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park Named Most Beautiful In America, 17 Incredible Alaska Field Trips Many Kids Took And Will Love Even More Now. On your own time, or accompanied by one of our experienced Yakutat fishing guide partners, you'll have absolutely the best time of your life. If we had been on the river the day before, I might have hooked ten. Most meals were cooked on gravel bars or in parking lots. The first day would be cloudy, after days of rain. This area is natures perfect design for a fish factory. Fishing Opportunities, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Large log jams and root wads are both barriers and habitat. Its better to look at the first trip to the Situk as exploratory or even as a pilgrimage. The Riverbed SteelHead CX series features dedicated WAN optimization appliances, ideal for organizations that want to improve application performance and data transfers served over a wide area network. Tongass National Forest - Situk River Trailhead Along the way a spur trail leads . Mid-morning one day in the middle of our trip, I stopped to look off the upstream side of the 14 Mile Bridge. The Xirrus product line has been acquired by Cambium Networks. When the float streaked sideways, he set the hook. . This area includes numerous streams and rivers that have similar characteristics as the Situk: clean water, a meandering channel, perfect spawning gravel and slow tributaries. Australia. "After Tony hooked his second fish in the first 10 minutes of our float, I started to believe in the magic of metal," author Randall Bonner writes of their experience. The Yakutat Fish Factory - Fish Alaska Magazine The world renowned Situk River is home to the largest steelhead run in Alaska. Still, there are known holes that hold fish 100 percent of the time and those places feel the most pressure. On your own time, or accompanied by one of our experienced Yakutat fishing guide partners, you'll have absolutely the best time of your life. Whether you are fly fishing, drift fishing, or spin casting, we will put you on the fish!This unique early season trip puts you on a slow moving wilderness stream, ideal for fly or spin fishing for NativeRainbow and Cutthroat Trout. Sink. Tongass National Forest Sustainable Cabin Strategy, 648 Mission Street, Suite 110 They are not prepared to stay out overnight and hence, they start the drift at 8:30 in the morning and get off the river some 10 to 12 hours later. If youd like to get involved with efforts to conserve the Tongass National Forest visit americansalmonforest.org. Shaped by steelhead. Then again, "Many of the steelhead trout in the southeast lay their eggs within just a few miles of the ocean," said Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Jason Shull. The Situk River steelhead fishery is the largest steelhead fishery in the state, accounting for nearly half of the steelhead caught annually in Alaska. Mostly I listened, to stories of big fish, biology and steelhead beads. These fall runs begin in late August and early September and typically peak in the middle of October. The river can be dangerous for . The mainstem Situk River below Situk Lake at 69 m elevation and the lower portions of its larger tributaries are slow flowing, meandering, and of slight slope (<1.5 m/km). One of three steelhead hooked in front of a root wad, this 8-pounder went airborne time and again to throw the hook. The Situk cuts its magical swath through pristine Southeast Alaska rainforest and its unique substrate, flow, mineral content all combine to create the most ideal steelhead stream imaginable. And now we were at the Glacier Bear Lodge in a town called Yakutat where the rain had stopped and the snow had melted and we found ourselves in a unique circumstance where almost everyone in the lodge was there for one thing. With a Riverbed support plan in place, you can be assured that you will limit expensive downtime while maintaining the high level of performance expected from your Steelhead appliance deployment. Cheers, Courtney. The guides depend on other fishermen if something goes wrong in 14 miles of river. During the past 15 years, the run of metalheads in the Situk River has grown from an estimated low of 338 in 1993 to a high of 15,003 in 2006, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Vernon and I had planned this trip on a whim. Roads have already left their mark on Yakutat. The spring run typically begins mid March, really picks up speed the last week of April and tapers off by mid . And how many know about the work that is being done to ensure these fisheries are around for generations to come? The fish are numerous and the action fast! Photos by Gary Lewis & Trey Scharp. The majority of Alaskan voters and numerous southeast Alaska tribes opposed the exemption. There. A steelhead streaked from the tailout, up under a cutbank. Board of Fisheries and Game: Actions & Activities, Threatened, Endangered, and Diversity Program, Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS), About the Division of Commercial Fisheries, Western Alaska Salmon Stock Identification Program (WASSIP), Online General Season & Registration Permits, Subsistence and Personal Use Fishing Permits, CSIS Community Subsistence Information System, The Technical Papers and Special Publications Series. Still, I continued on, motivated by the fact I was on the world-famous Situk River near Yakutat, Alaska, in mid-April carrying my favorite fly rod and a trove of proven flies in search of steelhead. The Roadless Rule has been a successful tool for preventing further damage like this from being created. Mailing Address: The spring steelhead season extends through the end of May, during which, the saltwater fishing halibut . Pull over and get out! Enterprises, Client Particularly when the water is low, anglers tend to pound the best steelhead water, ignoring the places where Dolly Varden seek refuge. Appreciate any insight people might have. In any pod of fish, I like to think that at least one is a biter. It originates from the Situk and Mountain lakes and flows 18 miles through old-growth forests and muskeg meadows into the Gulf of Alaska and the North Pacific Ocean. Yakutat is one of the rainiest places on earth, but as our fishing days approached, we saw breaks in the clouds. Drifting down this clear water river with is pools and runs provide the perfect arena for catching one of the hardest fighting, fast action fish there is to catch. 1UIFN toll free numbers are not supported by some mobile carriers. About a mile before the cabins, there is a side trail that accesses the confluence of the Old Situk and Situk Rivers. Steelhead Fishing Alaska | Alaska Steelhead Fishing Trips Experience Management, Control situk river steelhead | Ready or nothere I CHUM!! Alders stacked like toothpicks, cedars, hemlocks and spruces, swept down on giant floods bounded nearly every run. Controller for SteelHead, NetIM Nice report, always looking for new steelhead areas! P.O. More than 1,000 such instances exist across the Tongass, impeding access to approximately 250 miles of salmon and trout habitat. Fax:907-228-6215, https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/tongass/recarea/?recid=79172, Intentionally snagging and/or retaining a snagged fish is illegal. The more access is restricted, the more fish populations will suffer. The Situk depends on snowmelt and near constant rain in the early spring. The world renowned Situk River is home to the largest steelhead run in Alaska. Anglers in the know speak in hushed tones of 30-fish days, but the reality is it can be easy to have a zero-fish day. Steelhead. This new direction is wonderful news for places like the Yakutat Forelands and so many others across the Tongass National Forest.