Mark Knapp

Really nice. You are a fortunate dude.

I really like this one too.

A good day was had by all, Opa too. She slept all the way home. A few more before we go. I caught some too, but mostly I drove the boat. On the way home, towing the recovered boat. Cole needed some fish for the freezer, and he needed a knife to clean them so he made this one. We checked the stomachs of the pike to see what had been on the menu. Along with the Crocodile and Daredevil spoons they were eating, we found dragon fly larva, minnows, voles, and young pike in their stomachs. We're headed back in a couple of weeks for more fun and adventure.

On Sunday this weekend some friends and I went fishing for northern pike in Minto flats. Like most adventures to the woods in Alaska this one turned into a small expedition. We trailered the Non-Pelagic Squid to the boat launch on the edge of the flats. The Non-Pelagic Squid is a 22 foot Almar jet boat I named after my most effective deep sea fly. Its a three hour drive to the the lake where we launch the boat. Due to the construction and the associated flag persons, the trip was about an hour longer than normal. We launched the boat and headed up the river for the one hour boat ride to the fishing grounds. About half way there, we encountered a log jam that had been building for an hour or so. We were already about four and a half hours into the excursion and, with the water level dropping and a log jam in the river, it seemed, if left to stay there, no one would be able to go up river the rest of the season. We would lose one of our favorite pike fishing spots for the day and the rest of the season. We decided to try and pull it out. Using the anchor to grab the key log in the log jam to pull it apart. It worked. We waited for the log jam to clear and were on our way. Little did we know that there were two other boats above the log jam that had gone up before the log jam started. They would have probably been in trouble by the time they headed down river later in the day with that jam in the way. Then we found a boat swamped and snagged in a sweeper. We unstuck it and bailed it out. We towed it to a safer place to tie it up. We left it to pick up on our way back to the landing, later on. The boat had owner registration papers in it so it seemed easy enough to contact the people that lost the boat. Finally, we made it to the fishing grounds. Opa helped pick a spot to ground the boat and start fishing. This is the typical fish we caught on this day, right at 30 inches. We kept five of these for eating and let all the rest go. About 20 to 25 in all. Another one, just like the other one. This one required more careful handling. The hooks of the big Daredevil were all the way down in the gills. Instead of trying to get the hooks back out through the gills and mouth, we unhooked the lure from the leader and pulled the lure down and out through the gills. The pike was released unharmed to get bigger. We had a lot of fun and reserved one spot in our limit till the end for a real big one. And, the only real big one we saw was the one that swiped at my hook right at the boat. He showed almost all of his body but unfortunately did not make contact with the lure. He was never seen again.

Thanks bud.

Pretty place

Thanks Musky

Thanks buddy.

Thanks Bryon

Thanks Rick.

🤣 Thanks buddy.

As usual Norm, your flies are all exquisite, I appreciate seeing them.

Pretty

That's nice.

Thank you, George..