Alaska's Innoko River - Summer 2018
by Ohiopikeman
Trip Type:
Paddling Canoe
Entry Date:
06/22/2018
Entry Point:
Other
Exit Point:
Other
Number of Days:
28
Group Size:
4
Discuss Trip:
View Discussion Thread (17 messages)
Day 15 of 28
Friday, July 06, 2018 - Infinite Bay again
After a morning of catching loads of pike, I convince the crew that we should explore down the rest of the slough and into a connecting slough to see what else this place had to offer. I get plenty of resistance from the boys, but they finally agree and we spend ½ day exploring deeper into the slough. As it turns out, the rest of the slough was pretty much a waste of time. We did catch a descent number of pike, but all were 2~5 lbs and they were not at all concentrated. We paddled back to the small areas by our campsite and get right back into fantastic pike fishing.
The pattern that we identified and worked all week was this: Fish each slough that we found. The mouth of the slough where it empties into the river will be good, and the mouth where the slough opens up will be good. This pattern held true for us all week. While I’m sure there are plenty of giant pike in the main Innoko, we were not successful in finding them. While moving downstream from camp to camp we would always troll and cast to good looking areas. We picked up a fish here and a fish there, but never did really get into any consistent action.
While the others were taking a break at camp, I put on our one pair if waders and went out about ¼ mile from camp casting for pike. I had a blast and caught four nice pike up to 17.5 lbs; catching 40” pike while wading was a new experience for me and lots of fun.
Steve caught his personal best pike of 21.0 lbs that was 42” with a 17.5” girth. I caught another 44” pike that turned out to be the exact same pike that I caught the previous day.
We end the day with 36 pike over 10 lbs.
After a morning of catching loads of pike, I convince the crew that we should explore down the rest of the slough and into a connecting slough to see what else this place had to offer. I get plenty of resistance from the boys, but they finally agree and we spend ½ day exploring deeper into the slough. As it turns out, the rest of the slough was pretty much a waste of time. We did catch a descent number of pike, but all were 2~5 lbs and they were not at all concentrated. We paddled back to the small areas by our campsite and get right back into fantastic pike fishing.
The pattern that we identified and worked all week was this: Fish each slough that we found. The mouth of the slough where it empties into the river will be good, and the mouth where the slough opens up will be good. This pattern held true for us all week. While I’m sure there are plenty of giant pike in the main Innoko, we were not successful in finding them. While moving downstream from camp to camp we would always troll and cast to good looking areas. We picked up a fish here and a fish there, but never did really get into any consistent action.
While the others were taking a break at camp, I put on our one pair if waders and went out about ¼ mile from camp casting for pike. I had a blast and caught four nice pike up to 17.5 lbs; catching 40” pike while wading was a new experience for me and lots of fun.
Steve caught his personal best pike of 21.0 lbs that was 42” with a 17.5” girth. I caught another 44” pike that turned out to be the exact same pike that I caught the previous day.
We end the day with 36 pike over 10 lbs.
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