Cohos using a Downrigger from my Hobie Outback

I arrive in Valdez about 5pm Saturday. Only had a few hours so I try from the ferry dock to mineral creek. Hooked one up right away and landed it. Then it was a hit an hour but missed them all. So one for four. The water closer to the harbor was murkier. Visibility didn’t improve till out by Mineral Creek. Best success was up against the shoreline versus out in open water from what I saw.

Sunday I get up early and pedal out to gold creek, 5+ miles one way. I’m not driving 10 hours round trip to repeat a one for four day! Nothing as I troll all the way out at dead low tide. But once there, fish are hopping everywhere. Good decision though had I waitied for the tide, I probably could have limited out a mile maybe two closer.

Easy limit going 10 for 10 in two hours. I had strikes that didn’t hook up, but every fishI popped the clip on the downrigger, I landed. My hangback rigs worked well. My second trailer hook 12 inches back caught most of the fish. Some were snagged but its legal in saltwater here. Besides, they were willful biters that got stuck in the wrong place. I don’t have an ethical problem as long as the regulations allow it.

I had to get back home so I headed back right after my limit. I did release a few fish that were pretty beat up. It would have been fun playing with the cohos on fly rods.

All caught 20 to 40 ft down using a downrigger in less than 80ft of water for the most part. The best action was 20ft down in 35 ft of water. Herring and flasher or a #6 blue vibrax caught fish. Frankly I think anything would have worked. It was quite the sight to see all the jumpers. But the odd thing was I didn’t have a single silver jump after I had hooked it. Very unusual.

Video is a tad hazy due to rain and fog. A little longer than my normal videos but the fishing was good enough in a short enough span that I had lots of video. I also wanted to include some continuous video of deployment to landing a salmon and putting it away from a kayak sequence. That uncut sequence was only 3 minutes!