The Situk River 2010

I met Chris and Eric Pettine in Anchorage where we all flew to the Yakutat Lodge in May 2010.  The next day, Eric's good Friend, Lee Jeffrey met us in Yakutat.  We stayed in the Lost River Cabin. Again, we made one overnight float of the Situk River.  The remaining nights were spent in this Cabin.

There were a good number of Steelhead in the Situk River in 2010.  As is typical of fishing for Steelhead, they were not easy to catch. This 35 inch Spawning Male represents the largest of the fish that I caught on the Situk in 2010.

Our trip to the Situk River was a week later than we have visited in the past.  There were very few bright fish. This bright Steelhead that Eric caught is one of only a few Chromers that we were able to catch on this trip.

On the second day we hiked to the upper river (from the Sanctuary on down).  We did not find as many Steelhead on the upper stretch of the river as we have seen in the past. At one spot, I identified a fish and made a decent cast.   The Fish attacked and inhaled the Fly.  I was on to what I thought was a hot Chromer.  Imagine my surprise to discover that this was a bright Sockeye.

Lee Jeffrey is a retired OB/GYN from the Fort Collins area.  He has fished for Steelhead in British Columbia, but has never fished the Situk River.   Lee fished with an 11FT 6WT Switch Rod.  He showed me a few basic Casts with the Rod and let me throw a few Loops - I wasn't good...  Lee shows a nice Hen he caught on the Switch Rod.

Lee took this photo of a beautiful Bald Eagle that sat on a log as we floated by.  There were quite a few Eagles on the River in 2010.

We floated the Situk River again and stayed overnight in the Yakutat Lodge's Tent Camp - kind of like a Cabin. Eric and Lee float past one of the many, many Sweepers that line the banks of the Situk River.

The Situk River Tent Camp is not luxury by any means, but it has been improved.  It is stocked with solid Bunks with padding, Sleeping Bags, Stove, Heater and even a few supplies. We dined on US Military Issue MREs while we floated the River.  I quite like these.  Eric and Lee are enjoying the exquisite quisine in the Tent Camp.

From past experience, I thought it would be a very wise idea to bring a pair of Slippers to use while staying in the Tent Camp.  This would eliminate the requirement to put on the Waders or walk in Socks in order to the relieve oneself.  I had planned on sharing my Slippers with my Roommates. Unfortunately, I wear a Size 8.  No one else could come close to fitting in my Slippers.

I caught three Fish in this spot.  It was my lucky hole, I guess, just downstream from the Cabin. This is a nice Hen that I lured out from under a log that was laying across the river.

Chris found a few Steelhead as well.  In fact, he caught this Fish in the same lucky hole near the Tent Camp. Fishing seemed to be best in the mornings and evenings.  It seemed there was a lot of dead time during the afternoon.

There were several River Otters on the Situk River in 2010.  We speculated how much impact they might have on the Steelhead population.  I honestly don't know, but it was kind of fun to watch them. One day I came across two Otters that were really tearing into it.  They were howling and growling like a couple of Street Cats.  The tussle went on for several minutes as I fished to their oblivion.

This is a pretty cool photo that Lee took of me as I waded and fished through a run. There are numerous LARGE root systems like this lining the banks of the Situk River.

Ben releasing another beautiful Situk River Steelhead.

In preparation for the Situk River trip, I tied several of my favorite Naknek River Rainbow Trout Fly.  The Fly is an Articulated Black Bunny Leech with Peacock Blue Hackle and Head.  I have had very good success on the Naknek River with this Fly, so I thought it might work well for the Situk River Steelhead. In point of fact, nothing we tried seemed to really light them up in 2010, but my Blue/Black Articulated Leech ended up catching over half of the Steelhead that we caught in 2010.  This big Male was one of the victims of the Fly.  I will start with this fly next time...