A tree-snapper?!?!.......

Well, we have finally gotten the Fall season underway here in Russian Mission and it has been CRAZY so far....

First, we get out the other day to a "secret spot" downriver of the village to see what we can hook. The day goes very well, actually...right up until I let Dave's monster pike roll right out of the net and vanish forever...that may be all I write about that.... We'll see.

Anyway, before and after the incident described above, we had a marvelous time. The weather was GREAT, the fish were biting, and it was a "life is good" kind of a trip. We finished the day with a quick succession of good-sized fish too right before heading home, which is always a good way to finish. Somewhere in there this photo was taken of what, for me at least, was a good Northern. After Sarah and Sam put me to shame last year during the moose hunt, I was glad to at least have caught one over 14 inches, heh heh...

To add to the fun, on the way home we came across a smallish black bear trying to swim the channel:






This is my favorite shot of the little beast, hind legs flailing for more speed....




But though I should have had enough reason at that to make a new post, the trip we had the other day would not even come close to the day we had yesterday. Oh, no. Not even close.....

It began innocently enough with us determining to have a contest between Jason and Tracy's boat (which included Dave and Cooper) and our boat, which held me and Sean, otherwise known as "Forde" Below. The prize: A Mountain Dew for First fish, one for the Biggest fish, and one for the Most fish. and so it began. As I am learning is the usual case, the JTCD team was slaughtering us in numbers right off the bat with three fish in a hurry (I think it was three....) to our none. Crap. There went a MDew for first and most.... A short while in, Forde Below and I were tucked in close to some submerged trees when the "other" boat came over into voice range to taunt us yet again. They asked us how many we had, and out of shame I lied, "One." Immediately after the laughter subsided, I came clean. "I lied", I said. "We have Zero".... And as I spoke.....

The rod began to feel as though I had hooked into the tree our boat was all but bumping into. I turned my head, expecting to see the worst, and then...the rod pulsed and the line streaked from right to left. I reared back on the handle, reeling to take up the slack, as Jason hollered, "Oh, it looks like you got one now....". And suddenly it felt like maybe it was a good one. Then the tail came up and created a boil that looked like the one created by the Titanic on its way down. I learned later that the "other" boat thought at that point it was a good one, but couldn't really tell. Then the reel started to scream. And it felt even more like a good one. I seem to have trouble gauging the size of hooked Pike until I can actually see them...anyway, the fish started coming toward us, and the huge freaking tree growing up out of the creek, and I began to worry for a moment about my line. An instant later the fish showed me I had reason to worry. The head showed itself a foot under the stained brown water and Sean later told me it was like Shark Week on the Yukon.....The fish torpedoed up out of the water nearly four feet (you'll find out how I know this later) right INTO the damn tree branches, and I heard some of the twigs snap under the weight...and there suspended in the air in front of me was the largest Pike I have ever seen that wasn't on someone else's fishing show. How the entire length of the fish came out of the water I have not a clue. But it did. And then it swapped ends (after raking the tree limbs) and dove straight down. In hindsight, I think the fish was trying to frighten me into losing it. It almost worked. But amidst (or despite, I don't know which) the cries of "DON'T HORSE IT!!!!!!!" coming from the other boat, I started to think we just might get him in. After three or four blistering runs in and around the submerged trees, he rolled up to the side of the boat on his side. Fighting my better judgement, I reached down next to his massive mouth and grabbed the spoon. I remember thinking that it seemed as though the fish was never going to stop coming out of the water as I kept hauling and hauling to finally get the brute into the boat. Team JTCD was making their way over to help us out with a net, as we had none on board, but after the traumatizing experience outlined in the beginning of this post, I wanted nothing to do with a net....

Anyway, Sean and I were happy to see the monster finally flop down into the boat. Victory! After a little pandemonium and the passing of the shakes that set in :), it hit me how big the sucker really was. I grabbed the De-Liar measuring tape and Forde and I measured him. Any guesses?....


Which is bigger, the smile or the fish?.....


...if you guessed 45 inches, you guessed right. And he was sporting a 19-inch girth. Using the Pike weight-calculating formula (provided by Jason) of Length x Girth x Girth x 1.33 divided by 1000, we come up with a weight of 21.6 lbs. The largest pike I have ever caught by more than double.... But it didn't stop there. Dave followed with a 38.5 incher, and Cooper threw it down with a 41 incher!!! One after another..... An absolutely unbe-freakin-lievable night of fishing! Here's a few more money shots from the expedition:

How's this for a photo?


Some more fun...






One to remember....

Orzinski 2011 Season...(more pictures than this to add...)

Whew!...finally made it back to Sand point and another Orzinski season is down. All in all it went well and everyone made it back in one piece. Again. Thankful for that. The bears were mild this season thought they were responsible for some of the excitement. I will be adding more pics and video to this post as I get more stuff downloaded, but I had to get started while things are still fresh. It was a different place without Sarah coming out this year. This picture, taken by my new coworker Critta, sort of shows that. It was taken after a hike to the top of the ridge behind the cabin, on a day when the weather went from sunshine to rain to snow to sleet to hail with 40mph wind gusts in about 20 minutes. In June. I would like to caption it "Misery". :)



Also, here is a 'trailer' I made for the upcoming Orzinski Movie for the 2011 season. Will be heavy on the fishing, and light on the bears this go round, but, then, so was the summer....For whatever reason, the html I entered places a double version, so don't bother clicking on the second one...they are both identical......

My own personal highlights of the summer would have to have been the fishing. (Big surprise there, hmm?....) It was a banner year all around in that category. Though Sarah didn't head out to camp this year due to baby coming, Critta and I enjoyed a QUITE memorable season on the saltwater this go round. For starters, I decided to raise the bar to a new mark for myself and set out to surpass the 100lb. mark on halibut....with a FLY ROD. I've boated big 'uns before but this was something I'd thought about doing for a while. I resolved to fish with nothing else until I reached my goal. I began with an 8-weight rod and a 5-weight reel - yes, a 5-weight reel. If you're gonna go, go big, right? After landing several 'butts on that rig, up to about 40-45 lbs or so, my newest purchase arrived by plane with a food order - an 8 wt. reel. A while after that, the goal was reached...and then repeated...several times. Oh, how sweet it was. We lost some jigs, broke a rod, and snapped 100lb line this summer, (yes, really) but we got it done. It was a great summer of fishing, even for the kind of fishing that we've seen Orzinski can provide year after year. In less than sixty days, of which about 1/3 are decent enough to go out in, we boated 199 Halibut. Not to mention catching a couple hundred dollies, a few hundred P-cod (120 of those in just 3 hours or so on one outing), and a combined 'hundreds of fish' of other various species.

All of my fish in these pictures were caught on the fly rod. Critta stayed with the conventional bottom fishing setup (known to the two of us as the "Cod Rod"). Without a doubt though he was having a blast. Some of them were firsts for me on the fly rod and some were 'old friends' but made for memorable experiences nonetheless. There is nothing quite like setting the hook and feeling solid resistance, knowing you are fishing in the deep salt with a trout reel and not knowing what is on the other end... But now, enough with the synopsis and on to the visuals...

Here's a nice male Kelp Greenling. It can be impressive that fish of this size will chase a bait/lure as large as they do:




A Staghorn Sculpin that Critta caught:


This is about the largest Bigmouth Sculpin (that's their actual, and appropriate, name) I have ever seen, let alone caught. He had an entire Red Irish Lord in his gullet, as you can see, and still was hungry enough to inhale my offering for dessert. That Red Lord would have been about half the length of the sculpin, if you could see it all...that's just the tip of its tail protruding from the mouth...






As you can imagine, if the fish down there are eating like that, you've got to use bigger baits to get the big fish's attention. Here are some samples. First, Critta caught another sculpin, this one a Staghorn, with a ton of crabs in his mouth. We harvested some of his would be dinner and modified it into a fine Halibut bait.

Before:


After:


Another favorite for us was to put on half a Dolly Varden:


Slap one of those babies on, send it to the bottom, and hang the Hail on...here's Critta with one of the results; a fine Halibut specimen of about 80lbs.+: "Haleeebooot!!!!!"


You never quite know what you are going to catch down there, and very often, you would get a P cod (Pacific Cod). As stated above, in one afternoon we caught exactly 120 of these before hanging it up. They are schoolers, and when you catch one, you can rarely get back to bottom without getting more. This is a good one, as far as they go, though Critta's size betrays him a bit:


On to more of our target species. After getting some small ones (will add lots of video later after editing) and losing many big ones, it all came together and I scored with my first Fly Rod Halibut over 100 pounds. Setting the hook on one of these babies will make you think you have hooked Alaska. Fighting him to the boat on a Fly Rod will make your lower back and forearms scream for mercy. But oh, man, does it rock!

Here is where the realization sets in that you have just hooked something more than half as big as You:


And here is where you start praying your rod and your back don't break before you get him in:


After about 20 minutes, you get to introduce yourself:


Now, after several more runs, you have to haul him aboard ....


When you get them partway out of the water is when they get really heavy, and usually really angry on top of the whole mess....




And these are images of victory!!! I was lucky enough to get three this summer in the 100lb+ class. This was the best set of Happy Guy photos.