We entered Sitka from the Quantum of the seas cruise ship on Wednesday morning 8/23/2023. After the shuttle van dropped off the 6 of us to Sitka Alaska Outfitters, we suited up with the provided waders, boots and jackets. Grabbed our lunch sack and carried our fly rods back to the van.
Weather was perfect! There was a couple from Buffalo NY, a couple from Denver CO, an individual from Montana and myself from eastern PA.
We drove to the custom runabout boat that was docked. From there we cruised to the Katlian bay.
We saw moon jelly fish and salmon jumping in the salt water. The tide was low, so we walked on what looked like a sand bar. Our guide, Carsen, explained it was the sediment that gathered at the mouth of the Katlian river. Carsen was great! She explained a lot of the Alaskan surroundings and, of course, the safety procedures with bears. We saw several bear tracks – some were quite large. We all stayed in close proximity of our guide, and I was fine with that! We got to see eagles and a Sitka black tail deer. Possibly an old Tlingit (pronounced K-L-EE-NG-K-ih-t ) canoe – the native Indians of the region.
Carsen showed us how to fly cast and strip the line. Her first cast netted a pink salmon in the mouth as it chased her streamer. Wow impressive! The salmon are not eating, but they bite any intruders that may interupt their spawning process. We were all pretty excited at this point. The water was crystal clear and the salmon were piled up by the thousands it seemed. We went to 2 locations with everyone catching a lot of salmon. On the walk back to the boat, we had 10 minutes and most of us caught more salmon at the mouth of the river from the newly entering spawning pink Salmon. The males have the hump up top, and are nicknamed “humpy” All the salmon turn darker the longer they are in spawning mode. Once they spawn, they all die.
All the fish were caught and safely released to spawn.
Weather was perfect! There was a couple from Buffalo NY, a couple from Denver CO, an individual from Montana and myself from eastern PA.
We drove to the custom runabout boat that was docked. From there we cruised to the Katlian bay.
We saw moon jelly fish and salmon jumping in the salt water. The tide was low, so we walked on what looked like a sand bar. Our guide, Carsen, explained it was the sediment that gathered at the mouth of the Katlian river. Carsen was great! She explained a lot of the Alaskan surroundings and, of course, the safety procedures with bears. We saw several bear tracks – some were quite large. We all stayed in close proximity of our guide, and I was fine with that! We got to see eagles and a Sitka black tail deer. Possibly an old Tlingit (pronounced K-L-EE-NG-K-ih-t ) canoe – the native Indians of the region.
Carsen showed us how to fly cast and strip the line. Her first cast netted a pink salmon in the mouth as it chased her streamer. Wow impressive! The salmon are not eating, but they bite any intruders that may interupt their spawning process. We were all pretty excited at this point. The water was crystal clear and the salmon were piled up by the thousands it seemed. We went to 2 locations with everyone catching a lot of salmon. On the walk back to the boat, we had 10 minutes and most of us caught more salmon at the mouth of the river from the newly entering spawning pink Salmon. The males have the hump up top, and are nicknamed “humpy” All the salmon turn darker the longer they are in spawning mode. Once they spawn, they all die.
All the fish were caught and safely released to spawn.