ALASKA PENINSULA SEPTEMBER 10 TO 17

On September 9th, I flew on Alaska Airlines from Chicago to Anchorage.  There I was met by friends Dr. Cole Lundquist and Dr. Kevin Cleary.  We were heading for a return trip to battle the monster silver salmon and arctic char at Gary LaRose's Pumice Creek Lodge.  All of us have been to the lodge numerous times and this was my 27th straight year fishing the Alaska Peninsula.  On Sept 10th we flew out of Anchorage to the town of King Salmon on PenAir.  In King Salmon, Robert May of RJ Aviation picked us up and flew us down to the lodge.

Throughout the week we fished for either silver salmon at the Cinder River or for arctic char at Lava Creek.  The fishing was simply fabulous at both spots.  My best day on the Cinder was catching over 100 silvers on a 7/8 oz pixee spoon using spinning gear.  On Lava Creek, we landed char after char, many of which were in their spawning coloration.  My best day on char was 191 all of which were released.  I landed them on ultralite spinning gear casting small inline spinners. 

The weather throughout the week was terrible with lots of rain and wind.  However, we barely noticed the conditions as we were too busy catching silvers and char.

The fishing out of Pumice Creek Lodge gets better and better.  Other than the brown bears, we did not see another fisherman at either the Cinder or Lava Creek.  This year, the silvers seemed larger than past years and the char fishing is just insane!

For fishermen heading to Alaska, Robert May's RJ Aviation is the way to go.  Robert is very professional and can fly you to your destination on time.  Many of the commercial flights often cancel leaving you with a major headache.  So I highly recommend using RJ Aviation for a worry free adventure.  You can contact Robert at 907-469-0522 or email him at rjaviation1@gmail.com.

In my opinion, Pumice Creek Lodge is perhaps the best fishing lodge worldwide.  The lodge holds about 6 fisherman.  Gary LaRose does everything possible to see that your stay is a great Alaska experience.  You can contact Gary at 907-350-6841 or contact me for any details.  I am already booked for 2016 and cannot wait to catch the monster silvers and arctic char!

ALASKA PENINSULA PUMICE CREEK LODGE SEPT 10 TO 17

On September 9, I along with friend Dr. Cole Lundquist flew out of Chicago to Anchorage.  We were later met up by friend Dr. Kevin Cleary of Atlanta for a week long fishing adventure on the Alaska Peninsula out of Gary LaRose's Pumice Creek Lodge.  On September 10th, we flew out of Anchorage to the town of King Salmon where Rob
ert May of RJ Aviation was waiting for us to fly us to the lodge.  All in the group have been to the lodge before and this was my 27th straight year fishing the Alaska Peninsula in search of monster silver salmon and big arctic char.

The weather was terrible during the week with lots and lots of rain and high winds.  However, the fishing was so good that I doubt anyone noticed the weather.  The silvers on the Cinder River were enormous this season.  I landed over 100 silvers on the second day of the trip.  The char fishing on Lava Creek was insane as you practically got a bite on every cast.  I landed 191 char on Tuesday and was the low man in the group!  The fishing out of Pumice Creek Lodge is simply the best on this earth!  Other than my 2 friends and guide Rudy McPherren, the only other fisherman I saw during the week was a brown bear!  Pumice Creek Lodge is far away from the crowds of Bristol Bay and the Kenai Peninsula so you more or less have the fishing to yourselves!  This year to avoid possible headaches with flight cancellations, we hired Robert May of RJ Aviation to fly us out of King Salmon to the lodge then from the lodge back to Anchorage.  I highly recommend Robert.  You can contact him at 907-469-0522 or look him up on facebook. I have already rebooked for 2016 at Pumice Creek Lodge.  To get into this world class fishing contact Gary LaRose at 907-350-6841 or you can contact me with any questions.  Gary's website is www.garylarose.com.  Cannot wait till 2016 to get back to all those silvers and char on the Alaska Peninsula!

TRIBUTE TO MY GOOD FRIEND

Long time friend and fishing partner, Tom "Tiny" Kusbel, passed away Thursday.  Tom is a retired policeman from the City of Whiting.  Tiny loved his fishing and enjoyed heading to remote destinations not only for fishing but the love of seeing new places and new adventures.  Tom and I were pioneers in the peacock bass fishing venturing to the Amazon jungle in the early 90s before the word got out on this fishery.  Tom also loved fishing with his family at places like Yellow Lake in Webster, WI and Lake of the Woods in Canada.  Tiny would have really enjoyed fishing with me at places like La Zona and Thailand but his health would not enable to allow him.  I was very fortunate to see Tiny a few days before he passed.  Tom, rest in peace my good buddy and am sure we will catch a few river monsters in the fisheries in heaven.  God bless!!  Bob Daly

OWNER TREBLE ST-76TN HOOKS

If you thought the 4X Owner ST-66TN treble hooks were the tops, what till you see the 5X Owner ST-76TN hooks.  These hooks have been available  in Japan for a few years and are now available in the USA.  The hooks are designed for the baddest of the baddest fish which swim!  The hooks consist of a corrosion resistant vacuum-tinned fishing with 3 super sharp points and short shafts.  They are super strong and come in sizes 3/0, 4/0, and 5/0.  The 3/0 has a wire diameter of 2/44mm, the 4/0 has a wire diameter of 2.59mm, while the huge 5/0 has a diameter of 2.77mm.  I have always replaced on treble hooks on lures used at La Zona and the other bad ass places I have fished and will now be replacing them with the new ST-76TN.  Check these out on your next visit to your local tackle store of look for them on-line at various site like cabelas.com

POWERPRO MAXCUATRO BRAIDED FISHING LINE

PowerPro Maxcuarto Fishing Line
Lb. Test	Mono Eq. Diameter
50	10
65	12
80	16
100	18

At the recent ICAST, PowerPro introduced their new Maxcuatro braided fishing line.  The line is 25% thinner than regular PowerPro thus increasing spool capacity.  It's ultra soft thin construction allows for improved casting.  Maxcuatro also has two times more abrasion resistance when compared to other lines.  It comes in spools of 150, 500, and 1500 yards in 50, 65, 80, and 100lbs test and is designed to catch the strongest fish which swim

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Stick Marsh/Farm 13 report for July 30th

Friend and avid angler, Dr. Gary Clark shard this great bass report:

What an unbelievable day of bass catchin' I had with Hugh Crumpler yesterday at the Stick Marsh!  With all our recent rains, water is flowing and the bass are fat, mean, and totally ready to come out and play!  We started casting at 7 AM and by 9:10 we had released 45.

By 11:30 the count was up to 75, and we quit at 1 PM with a final tally of 88 bass battled and released.  Most were caught with Carolina rigs and Stik-O's, but 3/4 oz RattleTraps and Deep Little N crankbaits produced as well.  If you think you missed the heyday of the famous Stick Marsh/Farm 13, think again!  With water moving, it's just like old times and never better.  This place is an absolute bass factory, and top guide Hugh Crumpler knows all the assembly lines!  Many of our buddies have fished with Hugh and know full well how he has produced for them.  Call him soon at (321) 626-6174  and get in on this fantastic summer bass fishing.  

THE FUTURE OF FRESHWATER FISHING

Often, I think about how lucky I was to fish in the golden age of freshwater fishing.  Having the opportunity to fish Internationally for over 30 years, I have seen many fisheries come and go.  Gone are great lodges such as Nejalini Lodge in Northern Manitoba where monster lakers and pike were landed.  Lake Guri Lodge, and the Casiquire systems in Venezuela have either closed or are off limits to Americans due to political conflicts.  Here was great peacock bass fishing and payara. The Rio Unini is perhaps the best river for monster peacock bass is off limits to fisherman due to it being designated a national park by the Brazilian government.  When I started peacock bass fishing in the early 90s, 100 peacocks per boat with many exceeding 15lbs were caught daily.  Very few fishermen were hunting peacocks at the time and the majority could be landed on topwater woodchopper type lures.  Today, with hundreds of outfitters hitting the river systems, the pressure was more than the peacocks could handle.  They have become use to the noise of choppers and are now caught on jigs.  Days of large peacocks daily are gone and if you land a 20lbs during the week you are one lucky fisherman!  Weather patterns such as rainfall have changed in the past few years which cancelled a few years due to high water.  That along with the raising and falling US dollar has made it very tough on outfitters. Prices on these trips have rising drastically!  The years of monster Masheer in Nepal are practically over due too much harvesting of the big ones!  The best tigerfish can be landed in Tanzania if you want to pay a house mortage to get a booking or the Congo if your brave enough.  Char fishing on great places such as the Coppermine, Chantley Inlet, and the majority of rivers on Victoria Island are a thing of the past due to expense!  Massive Great Bear Lake in the Canadian NWT is now down to 2 full time lodge and a few have closed in the past 10 years again due to expenses.  La Zona on the Uruguay River on the border of Argentina/Uruguay is still redhot for golden dorado.  How long will this last?  Only time will tell.  Thailand is a safe cheap option for monster fish if you do not mind fishing in stocked ponds.  The majority of these species are practically impossible to land in the wild.  Alaska offers many opportunities but the days of great monster king salmon are over.  Often the Kenai River is closed due to a limited amount of kings entering the river system.  Arapaiama fishing in Guyana was redhot for about a year, but now many places are government protected.  The days of landing 200lbs+ Nile Perch are gone due to over harvesting.  Murchison Falls in Uganda still offers a decent shot at a 100lbs+ but who knows how long this will last.  The silver salmon fishing on the Alaska Peninsula is second to none, but few lodges exist.  Gone are the days of camping at Amber Bay.  Today, Gary LaRose's Pumice Creek Lodge is one of the best remaining lodges on the Peninsula and Gary only knows how long the lodge will remain in business.  Suriname offers practically unfished opportunites for monster Lau Lau and wolffish.  Once the crowds invade who knows if the fisheries can handle them.  The monster bass lakes in Mexico such as Lake Huites have come and went.  Plus, I don't think Mexico is the safest place on earth these days!  In the United States, the majority of state fishing licenses are at all time lows.  Many fishermen are still in the practice of keeping every fish landed and now with restrictions on harvest have given up and just went to the fish market.  The average age of most fishermen who buy a license is in his mid 50s!  Guess youngsters are too busy texting or playing games on their IPod. I was so lucky that my mom would take me every weekend to our local pond and dad would take us on yearly family fishing vacations to MN or WI.  However on a positive note, the Great Lakes fishery are the best of times.  Monster musky, walleye, smallmouth and others are in its heyday.  Great fishing still exists in LA for big bull reds.  So, I am sure glad that I grew up in the Golden Years of International Freshwater Fishing.  Only God knows what the future holds!