Spring Dolly Fishing in Haines, Alaska

May 02, 2006 at 9:36 pm

This is another version of the story “Open Water Relief in Haines Alaska” featured in the May, 2006 edition of “What’s Up Yukon” (www.whatsupyukon.com)

My fishing buddy, Derek and I headed for Haines in late April. We packed up the Westy, left on a Friday and planned to be back on Sunday. The drive on the Haines Highway was slow and steady given the lawnmower size engine in the Westy. We made it across the border by about 10pm and parked next to the stretch of Chilkat river we wanted to fish.

We had enough time to sip a bit of scotch and fire up the DVD to watch the “Walk the Line” Johnny Cash movie. Very good fishing movie, as you will be humming his songs as you cast for the next eight hours. We hit the water in the morning, fearful of the weather. You never know what you’ll get with that coastal influence. We got wind…Crazy wind picking up sand and blowing at us in bursts. It made fly-fishing tough. We survived by nymphing some deep troughs close to the shore-line.

We had some success but the fishing was a bit slow. Later that afternoon we ran into another group of Whitehorse fisherman who had been there for days. We all fished the same stretch of river with the spin casters having more luck. I have to admit I put the fly rod down for about an hour and within an hour picked up three Dollies on the spin rod. All I had was a red devil and some other silver mepps, but they worked fine. I probably would have liked a few smaller pixies, but I could not justify buying more as I have dozens sitting at home.

A highlight for me was running into Al, who introduced me to this spring Dolly thing three years ago. It was great to see him reading and napping along shore, really taking in the fishing experience. I don’t have that kind of patience yet, but I think it will come where I can relax, not fish and really take it in. I think it brings good fishing karma.

For the second day, the wind died a bit, but still a bit slow in terms of fish. They seemed to hit quite soft this year, as we both lost opportunities and a few fish. The Dollies we did catch were still pretty skinny, no surprise though as they have to fatten up after the ling winter.

Overall a great start to the year and the beer and burger at the Bamboo Room was well deserved at the end of a great day fishing.

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