King and sockeye salmon strong in Goodnews River
Capt. John Kumiski
July 6, 2009
Goodnews River - Freshwater Fishing Report
Fishing Report from Spotted Tail 7/5/09
Greetings from Goodnews River Lodge (www.epicfishing.com).
After two and a half days of airplanes and airports I arrived at Goodnews. The lodge felt familiar and comfortable. Mike put me to work right away, launching boats and cleaning them up, setting up fly rods, and getting everything ready for our first guests.
I did get to do a bit of scouting, and Travis the cook caught his first king salmon.
The guests came in on Wednesday. The best day of my week so far in terms of big fish was with Kurt and Zach Reinhart. Casting a Wiggle Wart on 10 pound spinning gear Kurt started the day with a 40 inch king salmon. Before noon we got three more kings, all of which were over 20 pounds. Zack got the biggest with a 44 inch fish, also on a Wiggle Wart, that we had to chase downstream three times. In the afternoon we switched gears and went for sockeyes. We caught a bunch of them, very entertaining and delicious to boot.
I fished Ben and Geoff Hillis another day, fly fishers from Pennsylvania. The entire afternoon we watched a sow brown bear and her two cubs doing whatever bears do on the river bank about 200 yards upstream of us. The brothers got numerous chum salmon and Ben got his first king salmon on fly, on the last cast of the day. The fish fell for an articulated bunny leech, cerise in color.
Travis, Kaylee, Rachel, and I climbed Lookout Mountain one evening after work. The views were great because the weather has been outstanding. Quite lovely.
Today Josh Aronson, a 14 year old from Miami, got his first rainbow trout on fly, a beautiful 20 inch fish that took an egg-sucking leech.
The days here are long, but this is an awesome place.
Life is short- go fishing!
Life is great and I love my work!
John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com
Goodnews River Fishing Forecast:
Silver salmon will show up in the next two weeks. Kings will remain strong until the end of this month.
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