Thanks Kevin.

I know I want to get up to the Togiak, but I always thought I wanted to go up for the King fishery.

Not so sure about that now. Kevin just made my mind explode.

Go to this website (everyone except Doc, that is) and click on the blue link over on the lower left for "Togiak River Lodge."

http://www.actionoutdoors.tv/onlinetv.html

Get the video fired up, right click on it and select Full Screen.

That's probably some of the best fish porn I've ever seen.

And no, I have no affiliation with the Togiak River Lodge - but sure as hell wish I did.

All I can say is wow.

It's #1 on my things to do list some day.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

All I can say is Awesome!

I was impressed by the underwater video. Pretty cool to see the fish chase the bait for such long distances. And they would mouth and drop and mouth it repeatedly.

Nick is a pretty big dude; he made those early fish seem small. The bay fish seemed bigger.

What is up with Lund running up the beach trying to untangle his reel, and calling the rod a pole?

Kinda reminded me of a cracker (JK).

Kevin was pretty funny. Good to see he's not immune to professional overrides on his reels. His running up the bank technique is very similar to what I have seen on the SRC.

Yeah, the fish rootin' on the ground to pick up the stationary yarnie/bait was damn cool.

Too bad they didn't have any pink worms to toss out there. I bet those fish would have just murdered those!

parker, you still want to go up and fish for kings

I really want to do BOTH now......

Dammit. I really didn't need to see that video.

Kinda like watching the dudes hit the fish in Canada on the dry flies. Really didn't need to see that, either.

Probably going to have to add the Panama video's to that list too.

Nice video fish porn. I really like seeing those fish plucking bait off the bottom. All that underwater stuff is great.

parker, silvers gets boring fast, you will hook about as many as you want a day on gear and then you'll switch to fly and still get them and then you'll do it the next day....ect.
Kings... you run around fishing tide water and chasing them back up the river, hooking up to 50+ kings in a day durring peak (if its a normal year)... kings is the way to go, plus a guy with your spey skills could stick one in the lower river and thats just flat out about the coolest thing ever!

i am with op....the silver fishing will get really old really fast!

Why don't you guys just come up to Glacier Bear Lodge and fish the Situk, the Silver fishing is as good as anywhere in Alaska (big fish to) and at about 1/3 the cost of the other lodges.
We keep our prices where people don't make the trip once in a life time but can afford to come back every year if they choose!
And don't forget the 12,000 Native Steelhead in 14 miles of river starting in April.
Those on this board that have come up have caught more fish in a day than they will in a season in Washington or Oregon.

I've fished SE (lived there) and ya not the situk but talked to peopel that have been there and nothing compares to the #s you're gona hit up in bristol. I would much rather do my once a year trip for me out of SE cause they're more intament streams and less people in alot of cases but the shear number of silvers in the Tog is just dumb!

Silver salmon = suicidal stupid....

At least in Alaska.

Those wild coho are the best biters you'll encounter ANYWHERE.

Kevin, how well do the Togiak fish chase a Wog up top?

I talk the Situk because that is our home river, but there are 6 rivers within 10 to 30 minute flight of Yakutat with insane numbers of Silvers and some you will fish alone other than the bears.
Day trips to these other river has become the norm these days. 2 days on the Situk and 2 days fly out, pretty hard to beat!

They bite antything you throw at them. We've tried some pretty silly things and they just keep biting. #8 toman thumper is a pretty good lure for coho! I think its way too big, but i guess the fish don't.
I've beenlucky to fish some awesome places in my lifetime and it is unfair for me to say how good the Togiak River is because of my position at the Lodge, but if I wasn't part of the business, it would be the only river I'd fish for silvers. The numbers are incredible, but the crowds are not. There is only 20 boats on the 60 mile river on a crowded day. Some of those are moose hunting .
We've done a few pretty cool tv shows that will air this year with the outdoor chanel/pusuit chanel. This summer Larry Czonka is coming to film "North to Alaska" during the king season. Fish Alaska magazine chose the place that Zconka was going for kings this year.

My Dad has been going to Alaska every year since 1985 and fished almost all of the best king rivers there are to offer. Their camp settled on the Togiak 8 years ago because of the fishing. They sold the camp stup on the Kanektok becasue of the crowds. Justin (opfisher) has spent a few seasons on the Togiak. I'm sure he can testify, It's not just a place to catch fish, it's an great place to enjoy being by yourself.

That fishing is out of this world... Certainly a place I will fish some day!

Keith

Wasn't there a thread here on Coho C&R mortality?
How many do you guys C&R at the lodge per day?
Or do catch a limit and call it quits?
Just curious.

As much as I promote a strong release ethic, coho really don't make for a very good C&R target until they have hardened off in the river.

In my experience, they tolerate the stress of a hooking encounter much worse than any other salmon species. Out in the open salt is bad, and it's even worse in transition water (intertidal zone as new fish are physiologically acclimating to fresh water). Handling mortality alone at that vulnerable stage in their migration is 40% without a hooking encounter.

Once the fish harden off (scales set, slime coat fortified), they survive handling MUCH better.

From the fish's perspective, if hundreds of fish are to handled in a days fishing, further upriver is probably a better place to do it.

Dam Flossers

Most of our clients are fly fishing for coho and they are in freshwater. We do some spoons and spinner fishing, but these fish are in freshwater and they seem to handle the C&R very well. Yes, we see a few coho that do not make it from hook mortality. We use barbless hooks that seems to help out in this fishery. The shear number of fish in this system has been bery stable for many years. In fact this season, according to some of our clients who have been fishing it for 12 years have never seen so many coho as this last year. So to answer your question. Yes, i'm sure there is a C&R mortality in our freshwater fishery. Yes, Nick and I went into the tidewater area for part of the video and caught and released 30-50 fish that day. if the mortality was 40% then you can conclude that 12-20 of those didn't make it. With three of us filming and fishing during that time frame, we were allowed 5 fish each, of which we didin't keep any in the video. While it may not be the best for those fish, we only fished the tidal area for a few minutes and then moved upriver where they are less likely to be stressed from hook and release. Every fishery has a mortality. We are no different than any Lodge in Alaska. We promote catch and release. The fishery itself runs strong into October and even November when nobody is fishing for them as the weather is too nasty. Our water temperatures are quite a bit colder up there than the bath waters we have here, and those mortality rates are much lower. If people come to Alaska to catch fish, there is a certain percentage of fish that are going to die from C&R. It is no differert on the Togiak than on the Kenai, other than the amount of fish present. Last year we may have has as many as 150-200,000 coho return to the Togiak.

We fish 8 hours a day and release most of the fish caught.