Overdue Fall Steelhead Report

We have Thanksgiving coming in a few days.  And it is cold.  Granted it has been negative double digits in Anchorage,  so our 3+ last night sounds balmy compared, but our first official frozen water pipes this morning was plenty cold for me.  Most of the chest equipment is in the hangar bay, so today’s workout was miserably cold!  Tomorrow is shoulders day for those playing along at home…

Jeremy Cook sent me a couple pictures that are now nearly a month old…  They were here at the end of October,  creeping into November 1st.  Everything was looking good back then with flows and water temp perfect.  Fish numbers were a bit weak,  but they did pretty well I thought…  Here is what he said:

“Hey Bob, we went 10/18 between 3 of us this past Th-Monday, not huge numbers but there were fish around and all were bright and feisty.  All were caught between 9 mi bridge and where the trail disappears 2 mi upstream.  Walked to the confluence but too many dollies around.  Tried upstream of the landing one am but I think we were right at high tide instead of catching the incoming tide, regardless no fish

Anyway there are some fish around so hopefully you can get out there this fall!  Thanks for all your help.”

Here are the two photos he sent…

Since their trip,  I have had two other reports…  First up…  the guys from Anchorage came down and stayed at the Forest Service cabins for a week.  Caught a couple steelhead,  but didn’t see a lot.  That would have been about two weeks ago.  They were planning to return for Thanksgiving,  but just cancelled based on the weather forecast this coming week…  Snow every day.  Also briefly talked to a couple guys who hadn’t been here before…  They ran into a lot of dollies and salmon,  but as of our visit in the parking lot in front of the shop,  hadn’t seen much in the way of steelhead yet.  Then we didn’t see them again before their trip ended.

So…  conditions as of right now aren’t that bad…  Flow right now is at 243 CFS tonight and even with the air temp hitting 3F this morning at the airport (the 9 Mile gage air temp isn’t working),  the gage water temp was 35F today…

Cold,  but not that bad considering…  Now,  we’ll be much warmer as the next storm hits tonight.  

Not supposed to be much for accumulations.  1-2 inches tonight before turning to a mess of snow and freezing rain.  Then rain and snow tomorrow.  Sounds kind of miserable (aka steelhead weather).  Haven’t had any actual FISHING reports in over a week,  so I would assume we have a few more fish in the river,  slow-lethargic fish in the cold mornings with them waking up a bit as the water warms later in the afternoon.  Flows are good.  I wouldn’t be afraid to make a trip right now,  but expect it to be miserable.  

And for an update around the hangar…  Our first two bigish snow events came and went.  Cancelled Alaska Airlines flights as the State DOT struggled to get the runway clear,  only to have it buried by the time they got to the other end of the runway…  8 inches of wet snow on the ramp when ACE was prepping to take off in Anchorage with our morning mail and UPS,  so they cancelled a couple mornings as well.  Then it turned to rain,  so we had a ton of leaks again.  Puddles in my new gym!  And the Toyo heater is waiting on parts,  so freaking cold in there!  Then the next wave of snow hit with another foot,  then it cleared off for a couple days and single digit nights.  Winter is definitely here in my big unheated barn.

Have all but one piece of equipment assembled now.  Yay!  And I’m not exactly sure what the heck this last piece even is…  Have a list if missing parts,  but everything is functional.  Will be laying down the rest of the flooring for the temporary walled area in hopes of fitting everything inside that area and getting a little heat on it.

This is essentially where everything will go until we get the new permanent space completed…  This is a drawing I made for the State to show the change to what areas will be “public” and what areas are “secure”.

And that’s about it…  Tanis has some interesting winter projects going on,  so I may post some photos of that.

The End

Our 14th season came to a close tonight.  Thank you all for the wonderful ride.

I cherish the friends we have made along the way and hopefully we’ll get to stay in touch.  Take care and we’ll see you around.  Maybe even on the river once in a while!  The Situk River Fly Shop is now an official part of history.  Another memory for the museum.  Goodnight.

-Bob and Teen

Our very last customer

The clock strikes 6pm. It’s over.

A quiet-lonely shop

The map – on our way upstairs, reflecting on all the friends we have met and where you all are right now…

Close-up of a pin cluster, each one represents a group of you who have been a part of our lives for so many years

And our European friends, who were locked out of the US this past year. We weren’t able to say goodbye to you…

Introducing the “Poodle-Llama”

I’m brilliant!  Just ask me!

We have been out of black and white Dolly Llamas since spring.  It takes 5 months between placing a fly order and actually receiving the flies,  so zero chance of getting these flies this season.  We’re trying to sell down our inventory before closing anyway and still have just about every other fly imaginable for silver season.  Lots of “other” Dolly Llamas,  just not the famous and sought-after black and white “skunk” color.  I do have a LOT of all-white ones…  Hey,  if I get some black fabric dye,  I can dip one of the bunny fur strips in it and voila!  Black and White!  See?  Brilliant!

I had my wonderful mother-in-law send me some Rit Dye by expensive express mail,  that came in last night.  I broke out a pack of white Dolly’s and…  all the other Dolly’s have two strips of straight-cut bunny hide.  The whites…  Just one.  So much for my “brilliance”.  Should have thought about actually looking at a fly before making my big plans…

So… dipped the trailing hook and bunny strip in the boiling black slime anyway and created what I can only really call an ugly Poodle.  We now EXCLUSIVELY carry the new – inventive – wonderful – unique – spectacular – never been fished “Poodle-Llama”!  Get ’em while supplies last!

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

What Storm?

The forecast was calling for 40 knot winds and up to 4 inches of rain Thursday night and Friday.  And…  Maybe 1/2 inch and virtually no wind.  Flow on the Situk popped up just a bit,  then went back to dropping.  We’re at 336 CFS right now,  the sun is out and we’re actually BELOW NORMAL for water flows.  Absolutely perfect conditions right now,  with a nice big run this season.  Turning to rain (according to the forecast) Sunday night,  but then it is supposed to alternate between rain and showers through the coming week.  I think this week is going to be really good out there.

Did I mention we’re having a really good run?  Lots of fresh fish coming into the outlying rivers like Italio and Akwe.  Situk is doing just fine too.  Tsiu is hot.  Talked to one group on the Yana that only did OK,  not great.  Not seeing much traffic in the shop,  so not talking to a lot of people who have been flying out.  But right now,  if you aren’t doing great,  I think it is user error…

2 1/2 weeks left of the fly shop.  It has been good to say hello (and goodbye) to so many of our friends.  And I may have a lead on getting some black and white Dolly Llamas in the coming days…  I’ll keep you posted.

Bob

Beautiful clear skies, just as it was 20 years ago… Only planes are still flying.

AS 66 on the ground. Rusty isn’t impressed.

Our carrot harvest from the planter boxes in the parking lot.

Nope! Didn’t Feel It

17 quakes in the past day or so…  All clustered under Malaspina Glacier.  Very shallow.  Biggest one clocked in at 4.1 with five more in the 3-range.  Didn’t feel a thing. In my defense,  I was busy planing trim wood for the downstairs bathrooms,  making a lot of noise with the planer vibrating.

Here is the link to the USGS earthquake site,  if you want to follow along at home…   *****LINK*****

Otherwise,  a pretty quiet day around here.  Shop was closed being Sunday,  but had one guy stop in for some flies he had on hold.  Water is still a little high,  but very fishable at about 450 CFS.  A LOT of coho out in the ocean that should be hitting the river in big numbers this week.  Looking like a good run,  although a little on the late side.  A few people have remarked on the large % of smaller fish.  The fish should be smaller though in the early days of the run.  Today’s weather was pretty nice after some initial fog and rain in the morning.  Shop will be open tomorrow (Labor Day) because I forgot to include it in our closed day list…  We’ll be here every day 10am to 6pm except Sundays and September 15th (our anniversary).  Got another call from someone who was told by a lodge that we were already closed…  Not yet.  Still have a LOT of flies to move.

Photos and Graphs…

Flow graph right now…

Rain gage at 9 Mile – well over 8 inches now…

Forecast for the coming week…

The flood advisory stating that we should expect parts of the runway here at the airport to flood…’

The ceiling in my kitchen springing another new leak…

And here is what 9 Mile and Tawah Creek look like as of about 3PM…

Looking toward the bridge and boat launch from the campground

9 Mile’s boat launch parking lot

2 1/2 feet between bridge and water

The upstream parking lot

The parking lot is flowing a couple hundred CFS…

Tawah Creek about a foot and a half shy of flooding the road

Tawah Creek from the REL/Cannon Beach Bridge

The graph looks like it is starting to peak with the slowed rain after about 2pm,  but we’re expecting more heavy rain tonight.

Make It Stop!!!

2:00PM:

I had someone call me yesterday from Anchorage…  They are coming this weekend to fish the bay and wanted to know if they should bring fly rods to fish the river…  I said don’t bother…  We were supposed to get between 5 and 7 inches of rain over 48 hours…  After the rain started yesterday,  Tanis felt ambitious and decided to go onto the hangar roof and install the wireless weather station I bought over a year ago…  Just since he put it up yesterday afternoon,  we are showing exactly 5 inches of rain on our gage.  3.05 inches since midnight.  The 9 Mile gage is showing just shy of 8 inches since Monday.  Flows right now?

3,510 CFS…

And we are still forecast now to receive another 3 inches today and tonight.  I think we may be into an August record for flow.

For those of you who have been on my hangar tour,  one of the things I tend to say repeatedly after saying that we bought the hangar from the State for $10,  “Sometimes I think I got ripped off in the deal…”.  Today is one of those days.  The prevailing storm winds are southeast.  The concrete/asbestos siding overlaps the next piece,  so the wind and rain flows over the seams and doesn’t drive the water into the gap.  Through today’s storm,  the winds have been south southwest.  Unusual for our storms and driving all the water directly into the gaps.  We have so much water damage today with buckets under the recessed light cans in all the newly sheetrocked spaces downstairs.  Puddling on my new flooring and the mud and tape coming apart all over.  We have a huge mess to clean up and massive repairs to do throughout all my fresh renovations from the past year.  It is literally raining inside right now…

We are experiencing a brief lull in the heavy rain,  so have a brief window of internet access.  The heavy rain knocks out our internet and at times has been so heavy that the wireless connection between the weather station and the monitor in my office goes out…  99% of the wireless path is INSIDE the hangar bay!!!

Tanis is restless,  so just left for 9 Mile.  If we have a connection after this eye passes and the storm resumes,  I may have some photos to post.  A lot of you sent me messages after my post yesterday,  but I don’t think I’ll have time to respond to any of them on my limited time with an internet connection…  The HughesNet satellite internet is marginal at best in a storm,  let alone when there is a giant snowpile directly in the path.

I think I just lost connection…  Can’t get the graphs to insert…  I’ll try to post this now and if possible,  edit it and put the graphs in where they should be later…  Looks like I waited too long and will have to try to post this later tonight if we get another weather window.

5:00PM:

Internet is back… posting this without photos.  Flow now is at 4,380 CFS…

August Update…

This has been a pretty quiet summer around the shop!  I think a lot of people think we’re already closed…  Nope.  We’ll be open through the end of the season.  Lots of coho flies to move,  even if we are out of waders and jackets.

We just had a really intense storm pass through a couple days ago.  We had a passenger flight to deal with right in the middle of the worst of it.  Howling winds and driving rain.  Fear not,  we won’t stay dry for long…  Another big storm system is barreling toward us as I type.  Here is the weather service warning for the next 48 hours…

Special Weather Statement
National Weather Service Juneau AK
928 AM AKDT Tue Aug 10 2021

AKZ017-110500-
Cape Fairweather to Cape Suckling Coastal Area-
Including the city of Yakutat
928 AM AKDT Tue Aug 10 2021

...HEAVY RAIN WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY...

Heavy rain with an atmospheric river arrives Wednesday morning
and continues through Thursday. 48 hour rainfall totals are
expected to be 5 to 7 inches in Yakutat with greater amounts
possible in the mountains.

Decreasing precipitation Tuesday evening will allow area rivers
to slow or subside. However, back to back rainfall events has the
ground already saturated and rivers will respond quicker. Please
be alert to sharp rises in water levels with some streams nearing
bankfull and possible flooding of low lying or poor drainage
areas. Along with flooding potential, isolated landslides are also
a concern.

Uncertainty remains in timing of when heavy rain shifts away SE.
Stay up to date on the latest forecasts through the week as this
event evolves.

You read that right…  5 to 7 inches coming.  The river didn’t totally blow out on the last storm because the ground was so dry.  Just soaked in mostly.  Flows topped out at 466 CFS after about 3 inches of rain,  but we’ll definitely be blowing out tomorrow!

Fishing has been really good this season,  with the Situk blowing past the escapement goals for both sockeye and kings.  This makes 3 out of 5 years where the king totals have exceeded 1,000 fish.  Sockeye exceeded 100,000 fish as well.  Now,  we have the humpy invasion,  but early silvers are in the river as well.

Lots of spare time here,  with the gym equipment missing yet another barge.  They are promising to make the next one,  but they promised that last month too…  Just hoping to have something to do when the world ends…

Take care and hopefully we’ll see you soon!  Come take some of these flies off my hands at 40% off!  We’ll be open 10am to 6pm every day except Sundays and our anniversary (Sept 15th) through the end of the coho season.

Warm Water

The sun came out yesterday and it was a glorious warm day.  Wow!  This place is incredible with a crystal-clear blue sky – especially after weeks of drizzly dreary overcast.  Water temp spiked to a whopping 47.5 degrees at the bridge,  after being stuck below 41 for weeks.  I have been hoping that the cold water has just been keeping the spring run away and if/when we’d see another sunny day,  we’d see some fresh fish at long last.  Well…

Yesterday,  fishing was terrible.  Duh!  Bright sun.  Was supposed to be sunny through till Friday,  but we woke to fog and an overcast layer that never burned off.  The latest forecast is back to overcast turning to rain before the weekend.  But the water temp stayed above 40 last night.  I think that is our first night time low to stay in the 40’s.  Today…

Fishing was pretty good.  We DID get a fresh shot of spring fish and with the overcast,  they stayed out and active all day.  Reports off the river were good.  Today’s high didn’t break 42F,  but two straight days of warm water should do the trick to bring any remaining fish into the Situk.

Flow is at 279 CFS,  so the river is in great condition right now.  A LOT of the fall/winter fish are actively spawning now in the upper river.  Now we’ll be seeing chromers fresh in the lower and middle river.  The VERY FEW people here are going to have a great week,  I think.  The groups I talked to today didn’t see anyone else out there.

 

 

How Late Can This Run Be?

This morning,  the weather forecast was saying we’d be heading into some sunny weather for the rest of the week.  Now,  it is showing partly sunny Wednesday,  cloudy Thursday and then back to rain.  Water temp has mostly remained below 40 degrees this week with night-time lows back down to only 36.  Warmer at night,  colder during the day than last week when we had sun.  This morning’s rain brought flows back up to 326 CFS,  but we have stayed between 250 and 350 for a while now.  Great flows for floating,  wading and for the health of the run,  but the water is still a little too cold.

The winter fish are throughout the upper half of the river.  Spring fish on the other hand are kind of few and far between right now.  The drop in day temp this week shut them off again.  We have been essentially dolly-free so far,  which makes me think the run has yet to come,  as opposed to being a bad one.  The dollies follow the spring run in and we still have neither.  Just a couple here and there being seen,  let alone caught…  So strange not to have hordes of dollies by this time feeding on spawning steelhead.  The cutthroat did finally show up on Tawah,  so they are about two weeks late there.  But they did show up!  We are seeing a few winter hens dropping eggs in a couple spots,  but I don’t think the bucks are ready.

Fishing has definitely been underwhelming so far.  I just think the run is still waiting.  A warm spell would bring in a flood of spring steelhead,  but we are still hovering in the 30’s instead of low 40’s on the water.  Three more degrees would change everything.  You know it is coming,  it just isn’t here yet.  I think we had more people in early April than we have ever seen – not the year to come early!  Instead,  anyone coming in mid to late May will be far better off.  And probably well into June!  I hope the steelhead are able to make it in,  spawn and be gone before the sockeye run starts in and the commercial fishery opens.  In the meantime,  if you want to fish through the end of May,  you’ll have better fishing than anything we saw in April.

Don’t be afraid to schedule a last-minute trip.  All those early runs of late has made everyone shift to April instead of May,  but this is the year to come late.