Our first trip to Prince of Wales Island.

Steelhead Journals

1998

2000

April 16, 1999 (landed/hooked) 0/0

The weather was 60+ degrees and clear. Brent and I took a 45 minute flight to Seattle then an 1 hour 40 minute flight to Ketchikan. An especially cold winter left a lot of snow on the ground when we got to Thorne Bay. Today was a very warm day and one of the first sunny days in weeks. After we got some groceries for the camper we headed out of town. We went to one of our favorite early season spots but couldn't drive down the road because of all snow on the ground. We walked down to the stream and saw six Steelhead just before dark. Even though it hadn't rained the rivers were rising because of all the snow melt from the warm day. We decided to camp there and try it in the morning.

April 17, 1999 (landed/hooked) 2/3

We woke up to a cool morning and quiet that is hard to find back at home. We walked downstream from where we camped and Brent soon got into a nice 15 pound buck. Later I got fish around 12 pounds, and broke off another nice fish. One of the fish I got chased my spinner out of the dark water and grabbed it. That was cool to see the fish strike. We had a long hike back to the truck for lunch. After lunch we drove upstream and did another hike down the river. We didn't hook any fish and we had to bust through the bushes in the dark to get back to the road. By the time we got back to the camper we were beat. By the end of the day the river had risen about 10 inches.

April 18, 1999 (landed/hooked) 2/2

We woke up to light rain and decided to go over to Klawok for a shower and some gas. After cleaning up we went over to the Staney Creek and fished the upper part of the river . We hiked a ways to cover some water. After hooking and landing 2 Steelhead we hiked back to the truck. Brent got one by the bridge and I got my quite a little ways downstream. We called it a day at that point and made dinner.

April 19, 1999 (landed/hooked) 2/4

After breakfast we fished Staney some more. We walked upstream but it soon became a long flat so we fished down. Brent got a bright little Steelhead about 20 inches long. The water was high so we decided to go higher in the watershed. We found fish way up high and they were on the move. After some work we did manage to hook 3 Steelhead, but only landed 1. We drove over to the Thorne to camp for the night.

April 20, 1999 (landed/hooked) 3/4

We woke up to a river that was still high. It had gone down about 8 inches so we went over to another stream hoping it was lower. The water looked good so we started working our way downstream. We hooked 2 Steelhead right off away but landed one. Further downstream we hooked 2 more Steelhead and landed both of those. We ran into a two local fishermen who were fly fishing and working their way upstream. They had hooked 4 on an egg patterns. We hiked back to the truck set up for the night.

April 21, 1999 (landed/hooked) 4/10

We decided to hike up the road and fish our way down to the truck so we headed out. On the way a fish and game truck stopped and offered us a ride. They dropped us off and headed further up the river to do a snorkel count of the Steelhead. We hooked 4 Steelhead but only landed 1 before they swam past us. Brent and I figured they would spook the fish so we didn't expect much for the rest of the hike. To our surprise we found quite a few fish still aggressive and eager to bite. We hooked 6 more Steelhead and landed 3 of them. It was a great day on the water. After eating lunch we went back over to Klawok to do some laundry and take a shower. We made camp along the Klawok river by the lake.

April 22, 1999 (landed/hooked) 0/0

We fished the Klawok in the morning and didn't hook anything so we decided to go try Logjam Creek. We hiked quite a ways upstream from the pull off and found no good water so tried a few more spots but didn't find any fish. We headed over to Staney Creek and camped for the night.

April 23, 1999 (landed,hooked) 2/4

After breakfast we fished up from the bridge. I hooked 1 Steelhead but lost it. We had a few fish chase our gear but not commit to a strike. After we got back to the truck we headed over to Klawok and stopped by the hatchery to talk to the guys that gave us a ride. The Klawok hatchery supplements the fish runs for the local fisheries. The Klawok river is the only river that gets planted fish from the hatchery. The biologist told us about studies they had done about stress on Steelhead from angling. They found that a female Steelhead that is fought to exhaustion will loose 20% of her eggs due to lack of oxygen. That is good information to be aware of when we're fishing. We headed out to another small stream and fished until dark. We hooked 3 Steelhead and landed 2 of them.

April 24, 1999 (landed/hooked) 0/0

We woke up and went into Klawok to do some laundry and take a shower. After that we went in to Craig to check out the town and pick up a few supplies. We then ran into Thorne Bay and talked to a few people. We decided to head north of town and camp near Sandy Beach.

April 25, 1999 (landed/hooked) 3/5

We woke up to the roar of the surf, which was nice. After checking out the beach we drove north and checked out a few streams. We found fished scattered out in a few small streams. I landed 1 Steelhead with marks from where and eagle tried to grab him. No wonder they like to hide under trees. We looked off another bridge and saw 3 more Steelhead so we tried to catch them. They did chase our stuff but we never got one hooked up. Further downstream Brent walked right up on a Steelhead sitting in a shallow riffle. It didn't spook so he ran his spinner in front of it. After a few passes he got the small buck to take. We tried another stream which was very small and we managed to hook 2 small Steelhead but lost both. It was a good last day for our trip. It was a great trip.