Nushagak River Camps Report

mikemercer — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:27:02 +0000

Hoodoo Lodge Offseason Update

mikemercer — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:30:56 +0000

Well, there is currently an “in-between” season at our new Hoodoo Lodge, from when we shut down at the end of kings, to the beginning of the siver salmon run. This roughly month-long period (late July-Late August) has been a mystery, as we’ve had only one year of fishing experience on the Sapsuk, and the lodge was shut down at this time last season. And since the only other source of fish run data available to us – the Alaska Fish and Game weir partway up the river – dries up at about the end of king salmon season when they remove the weir, we really haven’t known what occurs in this time slot. To solve this, lodge owner Rod Schuh has kept a guide there full-time, and given him freedom to take a boat out each day and fish as much as he can. The guide, Dennis Franco, reports in to us every few days, and his stories are pretty encouraging! First, the chum salmon run, which begins mid-July, really heats up by the end of the month. By early August there are thousands in the river, and Dennis assures us you can catch them until your arms give way (chums are a wonderful gamefish, super aggressive to the fly, and bull-strong). Wonderfully, they tend to be most ”grabby” in shallow water, so can be targeted with floating and standard sink tip fly lines. At the same time, there are still tons of kings in the system, and while Dennis hasn’t been fishing for them specifically, he says you can’t help but hook a few each day, and they’re still in good shape, albeit blushed. Though the pink salmon run is small, they are around, as are the first of the cohos, and tens of thousands of sockeyes. Last week Dennis was able to catch the “grand slam of salmon” – at least one king, chum, pink, sockeye and coho in the same day - almost at will. Kind of a cool deal! He also has been fishing the headwaters lake (27 miles above the lodge), and the fishing for dolly varden at the tributary creek mouths is just silly – you can literally catch as many as you would like (remember, they have never been fished), with a few in the 25-27 inch range.

Anyway, all this has shown us that the “off-season” really isn’t all that off, so we’ll work with Rod to offer an attractively-priced package for 2009, during these weeks. Watch for future references to these packages, as we get them set up. This place is amazing!

Click here on the image below to read more about the Hoodoo experience.