Rented a forest service cabin on a Baranof Island lake in which 100,000+ dollies and 5,000+ cutts overwinter. The Alaska Fish and Game set up a weir and counted one year. We arrived by float plane from Sitka 1 week after iceout. Lots of snow still around lake.
A sturdy johnboat at the cabin was our transportation. The orange can is bear spray. This is brown bear country and yes they sometimes come by the cabin.
Plenty of dollies concentrated at the dropoff of the lake's inlet. A few schools of fry were swimming about which I suppose is what attracted the dollies. When I located the dollies it was a fish a cast on my 9' Wright and McGill Waterseal bamboo rod, a full sinking 6 weight line and a size 10 thunder creek minnow. The dollies were 15-21 inches and hard fighting in water so cold it made my hands ache. When I was playing a fish I could often see several others trailing it.
No cutts. Maybe the lake was too cold or they had dropped down the lake's short outlet to salt water waiting to intercept the fry. Fished unsuccessfully a couple hundred yards down the outlet.
I stopped when I ran into this.
The cabin's log books go back almost 30 years. I added an entry and left a fly. Already planning next year's trip.
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