# King Salmon Mount



## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

If you are looking for a realistic mount of a special fish and interested in a reasonable price, then you might want to consider Lake Fork Taxidermy. They have done several fish for me, including this latest one, a King Salmon from the Aluetian Islands caught this summer. 

I'm not associated with them, but just a satisfied customer. 

This special King was the largest ever caught on the fly from the Sapsuk river...trailer trash fly, 10 wt TFO TiCr, Allen Kraken reel....estimated weight derived from length and girth measurements: 45 lbs.


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

Sweet


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## sjrobin (Oct 1, 2009)

Nice king salmon. Did she/he jump much and was it a sight cast? I have not had the chance to fly fish for the king but I attached some pics of some small sea run kings from last year early May . The colors were brilliant. Especially the eyes.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Not sight casting, sjrobin...more like steelhead fishing where you use stealth, reading the water, working the seams and deep holes to get that perfect presentation. There just aren't a lot of places in the World where you can catch them on the fly.

If the Kings can see you, then you are very unlikely to get them to eat your fly. The trick is to use stealth. They are nothing like the silvers which come later in the summers in Alaska and will hit almost anything you put in front of them with reckless abandon...nope, catching the mighty king on the fly isn't an easy thing to do these days.


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## sjrobin (Oct 1, 2009)

Yeah, I know it is not easy. What month of the year where you there? When I was in the Kenai first week of May I was told the only fly fishing would be for rainbows in not frozen lakes or headwaters. The pictures were from the bay at Homer.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Yep, I've been to Homer and fished the Kenai for kings once...but it was way too crowded for me. 

I fished the first week in June on the Sapsuk river....and that's about the earliest you could get into that area way out on the Aleutian Island peninsula. 

Its an adventure of itself just getting to Nelson's Lagoon where the river empties into the Bering Sea, but then you have to run over sandbars and around dead fall to intercept the incoming Kings. Its a special place.


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## Unbound (Jul 12, 2004)

Beautiful fish and beautiful mount. Nice touch to include the rod and reel in the picture. I'm guessing the Kraken is a 4, so that helps put the size of that fish in perspective.

I've caught kings in Lake Michigan, but I plan on going after Alaskan kings one day.


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## sjrobin (Oct 1, 2009)

Yes sir Lark I avoid crowds also. We saw a couple of other boats fishing out of Homer. The harbor looked like a boat ghost yard and Homer looked like a small little village when we were there but I am sure it loads up in summer months. I would love to try a remote fly trip in Alaska for the king salmon spawn. Did you land other salmon or just a king trophy hunt? To give you an idea of my crowd aversion I fly fish from a HB Pro F60 Yamaha with a 100 mile range and my favorite launch in Texas is Mansfield. I attached some more pics. Post more pics of your Aleutian trip when you get a chance.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Unbound said:


> Beautiful fish and beautiful mount. Nice touch to include the rod and reel in the picture. I'm guessing the Kraken is a 4, so that helps put the size of that fish in perspective.
> 
> ....


Yes it is.. and 9ft 10wt rod. That Kraken performed flawlessly.

Thanks for the comments.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

sjrobin said:


> Yes sir Lark I avoid crowds also. .... Post more pics of your Aleutian trip when you get a chance.


Visit this thread for more pictures and report.

http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=1521226

I got more pictures LOL...on a rainy cold day like today its fun to think about the summer in Alaska.


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## sjrobin (Oct 1, 2009)

Great pics of the Aleutian trip Lark. I have not looked at this forum for a while so I missed your original post. Did you float plane in to camp or jet drive from a mother ship?


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

sjrobin said:


> Great pics of the Aleutian trip Lark. I have not looked at this forum for a while so I missed your original post. Did you float plane in to camp or jet drive from a mother ship?


Thanks...its a tough place to get to.

First Nelson's Lagoon is one of the most difficult places to land a commercial plane...because of short runways and absolutely terrible weather most of the time. Coming from Anchorage, you have to hope and pray you can get in.

We spent the better part of the first day waiting at Sand Point "airport" out on the peninsula while Nelson's was socked in the fog. Finally got a small plane that could land at Nelson's to ferry us into the fog shrouded lagoon. The bush pilot had to make three trips to get us and our gear in to Nelson's.

But that's just part of the journey...then you go by boat up the bay to where it gets so shallow that you have to transfer to jet boat/flat bottom. From there you go up the river a few miles to the base camp.

No kidding, its a tough place to get into and out of...but the fishing makes it worth it.

Glad you liked the pics.


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## sjrobin (Oct 1, 2009)

That fly fishing destination makes all the others seem a little lame. What do you do next, meadow lark, run for president? Homer harbor was surreal without the crowds, and I am sure the whole Sapsuk experience was over the top.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

sjrobin said:


> That fly fishing destination makes all the others seem a little lame. What do you do next, meadow lark, run for president? Homer harbor was surreal without the crowds, and I am sure the whole Sapsuk experience was over the top.


Homer is a really interesting place. I could spend significant time there.

I've been on some really tough adventures in the Great Land.

Fishing for steelhead in Oct. on Kodiak Island on the Karluk river was perhaps the most grueling trip. The river was almost blown out and you had to walk about 7 miles every day down river (and then back, OMG) through the largest bears in the world and dangerous currents to get to some quality fish....never want to do that one again.

Floated the river above Aniack one week...and during that week one group lost their float rig and everything in it except a shotgun cause of high water knocking a tree into the river and they had to walk out for miles and miles... a real live survivor episode. They did make it. I got hypothermia myself from a failed Gore tex jacket and almost didn't make it...but we caught some great fish....the largest Grayling I have ever seen or heard of anywhere.

My next trip has the potential to rank right up there with the toughest ones....headed to the Kiribati's atolls, aka Christmas Island, in search of Giant Trevally on the fly. GT's are perhaps the ultimate fish to catch on the fly with all due respect to Tarpon, Permit, Roosterfish and King Salmon.

Life is short. "If you aren't living on the edge, you are just taking up space" is my view.

Thanks for your interest sjrobin....and no, I'm having too much fun to run for President, LOL.


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## Boboe (Feb 11, 2009)

Were you fishing with Hoodoo Lodge, or did you go with a different outfit on the Sapsuk?


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Aleutian Island Adventures. They are upstream from Hoodoo lodge...and it was an interesting dynamic.


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## Boboe (Feb 11, 2009)

What, were the two outfits unhappy with each other being on the river? Spill the beans!


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Boboe said:


> What, were the two outfits unhappy with each other being on the river? Spill the beans!


LOL...ok...here's a few of the "beans".

The Sapsuck isn't a big river at all...and the kings are all pretty much stacked up in a very few key spots, presumably resting for their next move.

The competition between the two camps was severe for those few spots.

If they had worked together, they could have managed it...but they did not work together and in fact appeared to deliberately work against the other. It would have been relatively easy to have a rotation system where everyone could share in opportunities....but no, it was a free for all.

A good friend fished the same river during the silver run later on in the season...and he fished with the "other" camp and lived their side of it.

Pretty much the same story...both groups talked bad about the others, no cooperation, and really detracted from an otherwise great location and fishery.


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## Boboe (Feb 11, 2009)

We run into some of the same stuff further up the line in Bristol Bay on a couple of our rivers, dealing with only a couple of the other operators. 

However, a smart guide won't tell his clients, "These jackasses are in my spot. Now we're screwed," or anything along those lines. This puts your client in a bad frame of mind and he thinks he's having a bad day. Instead, you can say (if anything,) "That's a good hole there. I was hoping nobody would be in it, but it's not a secret spot. We'll go on down to the next one and see if any fish are hiding there." In the second scenario, you've given kudos to others for fishing a good spot (and also said that the river you're fishing is good), but also said that you'd get the next good spot on down the river.

We have some other lodges that'll try to race us to fish, try to stay ahead of us on the river all day long, etc. I like to talk to the other guides and cut through the bull. We're all on that river that day, trying to show our clients a good time fishing. That isn't going to change, so let's work together so everybody has a good time. 

"Hey man. Are you working upriver or downriver?" 
"I'm going to go up." 
"Ok, cool. I'll head down to the next hole/bend/whatever and start down from there."
"Sounds good. We've got another group about a mile downriver, working down also." 
"Thanks. Have a good one." 

I know it doesn't and won't always go that well. I've had guys try to harass me off water, claiming they own the river bottom (The state has ruled that they don't). I've had guys say they're going to go 4 or 5 bends down river before starting to fish (I was fishing downriver too), but they only went one bend down and tried to low-hole me all day long. Some guys are jackasses, and others are on the level. You can always try though.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

It actually didn't matter all that much to me....more of a distraction than anything. 

I was there to catch big Kings. I figured out how to do that very early in the trip, on the morning of the first day actually....and somewhat by accident. 

The others in my group didn't, in spite of clear examples...and the others in the other camp didn't either, LOL, so I had a great week on truly magnificent fish.


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