Kodiak Commando

In terms of tying i love to tie attractor patterns used for salmon because i can be so creative. Salmon in freshwater strike out of interest a lot of times so you can tie some really interesting flies. Seriously if you saw some of my home made salmon attractor patterns you would think i was blind and tied them while I was wasted!

In terms of fishing i like to fish big streamers especially articulated ones. Most trout fisherman i know enjoy finesse dry fly fishing or nymph fishing the most and i do enjoy that but there is something special to me when it comes to stripping a 6 inch articulated fly as fast as i can for 25 plus inch trout!

Shaq has got you covered real good there. One thing to know is what part of august he is going because that's key. The trout really start to keen in on eggs in late august. If he is going in early august eggs are a good fly in late august they are a must fly. Glo bugs work real well but if he wants to catch more and bigger fish and isn't against it beads are more effective than glo bugs even in remote fisheries.

I live with my family but the downstairs is only used by me and my brother and it can get real messy. What really amuses me is whenever i clean the downstairs and my fly tying stuff i say " this is it i will now be much more organized so i don't have to spend 2 hours cleaning again"! But sure enough a month later there is hackle all over the place and the room is messier than ever

This is a sore subject for many alaskan fly fisherman because of how big rainbows and char depend on eggs. In the early days glo bugs worked fine but now a lot of the big bows are too smart for glo bugs and really the only consitent way to catch them in the fall is by using a glue egg or even better, pegging a bead. A pegged bead is definetely not a traditinal fly but anyone who uses it is still using a fly rod, fly reel and fly line so i still think it is fly fishing. Ironically, though bead catch more fish, they have helped the fish in my opinion. Because when a bow decides to take and egg pattern they will often go full out and glo bugs and glue gun eggs result in many gut hooking incidents esppecially for steelies. Because a bead is pegged above the hook you are less likely to hurt a fish.

It's a real simple fly. I tie it on a size 4 salmon hook. The body is green diamond braid and it has a sparse wing of chartruse krystal flash. It's good for all salmon but especially chums and reds.

I don't think eyes would matter on a dry fly but eyes make a huge difference in subsurface minnow paterns in my experience. A red throat marking also makes a difference. Minnow patterns with eyes always outfish minnow patterns without eyes i have found. In fact it seems that minnow patterns with yellow and black eyes alway outfish ones with black and white eyes, go figure :dunno:

There are some Alaska members here, so hopefully they'll chirp in for you.

Uhh why are you hoping sietstafred, ya know i am from alaska

Here is a list of flies that i believe every alaskan fisherman should have, and trust me i have a lot of these flies!

For Salmon

Black and Purple Egg sucking Leeches

Pink and Chartruse Bunny flies

Egg sucking Zonkers

Montana bills

Bead head woolybuggers

Clauser Minnows

Lefties Deciever

For Trout

Glo bugs

Flesh Flies

Varios sculpin patterns

Articulated leeches

I agree with mcmanus. Althoug both flash and wieght make a difference i think the action of the fly is the most important thing. If it was weight than a nymph with a lead underbody without a bead should catch as many fish as a bead. Because it's easier to weight a fly near the eye with a bead than lead i think action and flash is far more important than weight.

I see snaggers all the time and rarely confront them seriously, usually i just crack jokes about them or really rub it in their face when i get a salmon to bite. I never really worry because most of the snaggers are short skinny asians and i'm 6'7' and nearly as heavy as SD ( only i'm all muscle :flex: :whistle: )

Looks like an old chum salmon

I think most all gamefish can fight well if you use the right tackle. Here is my top 5 fish that i have caught

1. Chrome Chum Salmon- Pound for pound the hardest fighting salmon or even salmonid.

2. Big wild Alaskan Rainbows-They fight much harder than the rainbows i caught in the lower 48 and steelhead, i'm guessing it's because they are gorging on eggs and their metabolism is raging.

3. Red Salmon

4. Brook Trout

5. Silver salmon

Hey I see ya got the beads KC!

Yup, and most our colors i don't have. Can't wait to try some of the odd colors like chartruese for steelhead!

When it comes to eggs i am a bead man myself lol

Awesome, i would say your set but i have yet to meet a fly tyer who has enough flies lol! And if you are ever fishing for red salmon smallie just bring those flies, i have a lot of similar flies i use for reds.

I will third the clauser, every day i am glad bob clauser came up with that fly!

Welcome aboard, hope you enjoy the site.

I agree that fresh silvers or kings in the open water of the great lakes would fight just as hard as ours. But there are two things to consider. One is the open water factor, salmon in the small rivers of alaska or the smal shallow great lake tribs don't count because they just don't fight like a chromer in open water. So the only salmon of the great lakes that could compare to an ocean or lake salmon here is if you are fly fishing in the great lakes themselver or a very large ( 40 plus yards wide) stretch of river. You just don't know what a salmon is capable of if you only fish for the in rivers that are small and shallow. Second is That the great lakes don't have androumonous red or chum salmon and quite frankly fresh reds and chums both figh harder pound for pound than kings or silvers in my opinion. In fact a fresh chum will put a king or silver to abosolute shame. I believer if all great lakes fisherman fought a chrome chum up here fish and game would have no choice to stock them in the great lakes. My point is you can't know how a certain salmon fights like reds or chums just because you have caught kings and silvers. It would be like be saying well i know how a brown trout fight because i have caught rainbows. I think most people would agree that browns and bows have different fighting styles even though they are both trout.

Everyone does have a favorite species and we are being civil it just perturbes me when someone talkes about a species or location they no little about or little experience. For example with all due respect SD, have you ever caught a fresh ocean going red salmon in the salt or a lake close to the salt if not you shouldnt give someone who has for years advice about leaders. I use a 12 pound leader and have the drag cranked down as much as possilbe. They are small but so are bonefish and many people use 8 weight for those fish and i have heard they will peel lots of drag on an 8 weight. Not trying to be mean but how would you feel SD if i heard you were doing something with great lakes steelhead that didn't make sence to me and i started to instuct you about an area i know nothing about.

I have to kind of agree with troutbum, i am not very impressed with bass compared to trout. I do a agree that a smallmouth fight is impressive but many bass like a largemouth fight hard for a few seconds but then come right in and bass as a whole are just to easy to catch. I would much rather catch 1 or 2 wily 15 to 20 inch trout in a day than catch 20 or the hardest fighting smallies. In my opinion challenge is more important than fight.

However, there ain't a salmonid on this planet that will outfight a Smallmouth, pound for pound. So if you're talking about the fight, I'll have to respectfully disagree with you.

I don't really think you can say that dfack. There are over 100 salmonid species worldwide and unless you have traveled the world and caught every one how can you know? I can see you comparing smallmouth to trout you have caught but including all the ones you have not is kind of silly. I am not going to say a silver fights harder than an atlantic because i have never caught an atlantic. I can say i have caught a salmonid that fights harder than a smallmouth in my opinion, called a red salmon. The ones i catch are 3 to 5 pounds and fight way harder than a 3 to 5 smallmouth. Both jump a lot but only one will take you out 50 to 100 yards into you backing in open water with an 8 wieght!

I would have to go with Trout because in my experience they take more skill to catch and i am more of a coldwater guy. Also while smallies fight awesome i find the fight of a largemouth really overated. Never found a trout that doesn't fight well.

If it worked really well i would use it without hesitation. To me a fly can be more than just fur and feathers. I think it's ok to use synthetice material as lon as their are fur and feathers to go with it. To me it's no different than using metal eyes along with bucktail.

I was hoping to get a deer by now but haven't because i have so occupied with silver salmon. We have Blacktails on kodiak and the season runs from August 1 to october 31 for the road system (about 3% of the island) and august 1 to december 21 for the rest of the island with a limit of 3 deer a year. They are not as big as whitails or muleys but are much better tasting in my opinion.

Alaska defenetely has it's share of lifters or as we call the liners, espcially for those hard to catch red salmon. It really ticks me off to see people do it when they know reds or any salmon for that matter will hit a fly. I think those people are just to lazy to put the work in that it takes to get a spooky salmon to hit a fly. As for fines i think they should be raised here too but a bigger problem is enforcing it. I used to get upset at fish and game for not enforcing it but i came to realize there just are not enought F&G employees to effectively stop all the liners. I usually just try to avoid them all together and if i can't and do get a fish to bite i always rub it in to the liners by saying "who needs to snag"

Species: Coho

Length: 32.5 inches

My father was able to get off work early yesterday so we bombed out the road to a popular lake on the road system. There were lots of boats there but i still managed to catch this male hog in my pontoon boat on a secret fly of mine! We only fished for 3 hours and the fish were real skittish so i wasn't too dissapointed that we only caught 1.