At Andros South, our lodge is located on the eastern shore of South Andros Island. That means that most mornings we get to wake up to sunrises just like this.
Just another reason we think you should join us at Andros South.
Typical Andros Morning
Jordan Sly’s ‘Wake and Eggs’ Rig
A couple weeks ago, Alaska West operation’s manager, Jordan Sly, gave us a great post on the life history of one of the most underrated fish in our river, the dolly varden. In case you missed it, make sure to check it out, here!
Today, Jordan is back with another edition of our ‘expert rig‘ series of posts, highlighting how he prefers to rig up when fishing for dollies. His method of choice? A little thing we like to call ‘wake and eggs.’
Take it away Jordan!
Jordan Sly’s ‘Wake and Eggs’ Rig
Dolly Varden are super aggressive to take almost anything put in front of them, but they love flesh flies and beads above all else. One really fun way to fish for them is what we like to call “wake and eggs.” While it might not be the most productive method possible (you will not see the huge numbers you can get with a flesh fly or a bead), it is visual, on top-water, and very exciting to do. You can use virtually any trout sized rod you prefer, but my favorite method is done with a small switch or spey rod, floating lines, and a small skater/egg pattern. Dolly Varden will follow the skating fly, and often grab the egg mid swing, creating a really fun fishing experience. Here’s my rig of choice.
The Summary
- Pieroway Metal Detector 10’5″ Switch Rod – 400 Grain
- Hatch 7 Plus Finatic – Large Arbor
- OPST 30 pound SP Lazar Running Line
- OPST 300 Grain Commando Head
- RIO Light Floating MOW Tip
The Details
- 200 yards of orange 20 pound Dacron tied to the spool with an arbor knot.
- Bimini twist in the fly line end of the backing with a drop of Loon’s UV Knot Sense to create a loop.
- A triple surgens loop tied on both ends of the Lazar Line, with a drop of Loon’s UV Knot Sense over the knot to help it slide through the guides.
- Running line, head, and tip are all attached together with a loop-to-loop connection.
- Leader is a 6 foot section of 10 pound Maxima Ultragreen attached to the tip with a loop-to-loop via perfection loop.
- My fly of choice is a simple unnamed, cream or flesh colored skater, tied on a shank with a size 6 stinger hook (more on this below).
The Commentary
- “I love my little 10’5” 400 grain rod for this type of fishing. It is the length of a switch, but I treat it like a small spey rod and hardly ever actually overhead cast it. When it is combined with the 300 grain OPST head it shoots great and feels almost effortless to cast.”
- “As far as my fly choice goes, I like to keep it really simple. As I mentioned above, I think Dolly Varden are really keying in on the “egg,” but I do like to tie something on there, plus the imitation of flesh can’t hurt. My favorite pattern right now has a white foam back and lip, cream colored rabbit strip placed in a dubbing loop and palmered up the body. I like to put the rabbit in a dubbing loop because it is easier to cast, it isn’t as heavy, and I think it floats better without the leather. I tie a loop of Power Pro braid coming off the back to attach my bead and hook. I like Power Pro better than mono or Fireline because it is very strong, and it is also very limp, which will cause the “egg” to ride lower in the water column while the fly is being skated across the surface.”
- “The typical approach to waking eggs is a down and across cast. I typically cast at about a 45 degree angle, then I tight line skate it across the surface towards shore. To vary the speed, cast more across the river to speed it up, and more downstream to slow it down. I have found that typically slower is better, but vary it a little to find what is working on that particular day. Another important thing is to skate it all the way to shore, as well as fish it on the strip, as you never know when a Dolly will take. Soon enough you will start to get follows, sometime it’s just one, sometimes it’s two, but I’ve seen over four fish following one fly. I believe they are attracted by the flesh and wake, but really they just want that bead in the end. It’s just such an easy little nutrient nugget with all the essentials.”
More on Dolly Varden
All About Dolly Varden
During the back half of our season at Alaska West, we’re lucky to witness a pretty amazing run of dolly varden, a species of char native to Western Alaska. Arguably one of the prettiest fish in our river, they’re also available in laugh-inducing numbers, making them an awesome fish to target on a fly rod.
Because of that, we get a lot of requests for more posts on our beloved dollies. So, we reached out to Jordan Sly, our operations manager here at Alaska West, for all the details on the life history of dolly varden. Aside from spending a lot of time on the Kanektok, he also has a Master’s degree in fisheries ecology, so if you want to know more about dolly varden, you’re going to want to keep reading.
Enjoy!
All About Dolly Varden
It’s late July, and that means Dolly Varden Salvelinus malma are starting to stack up on what we like to call “Dolly Flats.” Dolly Varden are a species of salmonid native on the west coast of the United States and Canada, as well as in parts of Asia and Russia. They are a true char, and are closely related to Bull, Brook, and Lake Trout, in addtion to Artic Char. The easiest way to tell a true char from a true salmon or trout is that a char will have lighter spots on a darker body.
Dolly Varden are super aggressive to take almost anything put in front of them, but they love flesh flies and beads above all else. One really fun way to fish for them is what we like to call “wake and eggs,” it is not the most productive method of fishing for them, you will not see the huge numbers you can get with a flesh fly or a bead, but it is visual, on top-water, and very exciting to do. The preferred method is done with a small switch or spey rod, floating lines, and a small skater/egg pattern. Dolly Varden will follow the skating fly, and often grab the egg mid swing, creating a really fun fishing experience. We will go more in depth into the fishing side of things in the coming weeks, but let us first talk about our beautiful Dolly Varden we have here on the Kanektok River.
Life Cycle
Dolly Varden can have a very complex and interesting life-cycle, they can be anadromous (sea-run), adfluvial (lake-run), fluvial (migration within a river system), or lacustrine (lake only). The majority of our Dolly Varden here on the Kanektok River are partically anadromous, meaning they will go out to sea for a couple months and return a little bigger and very silver in color. As they hold in the river system they will start to put their “makeup” on and they will soon “clown up.” Meaning they are in their spawning colors, which is very colorful and amazing to look at. Dolly Varden are iteroparous spawners, meaning they will spawn multiple times, so after the process is done they will slowly migrate back down stream to repeat the cycle again. Dolly Varden are considered partically anadromous because they never spend much time in the salt like true salmon do, they will go off shore, but never very far, and pop in and out of different river systems along the coast, mainly staying in estuaries.
When smaller, Dolly Varden are known as a opportunistic feeder, meaning they will eat whatever they can whenever they can, but when they get larger in size they become dominatly piscivorous, meaning they eat mainly fish and fish parts. A lot of the reasons for this change in diet have to do with the increased nutritional intake a fish receives when digesting other fish relative to insects.
Feeding Habits
Spent energy of a salmonid can be simplified into three catagories. The first one is energy burned to find resources and evade predators, second is actual growth, and the last is the growth of reproduction organs. So basically salmonids will burn the first calories to find food, and not get eaten. Once they have accomplished this the next calories burned will go into growing bigger, after this reproduction organs will grow. So the less energy spent looking for food, the larger a fish can grow and the more eggs/sperm it can produce for future generations. This is important to understand when considering Dolly Varden feeding habits.
Every organism, not just salmonids, need nutrient intake to thrive. The ratio of the different nutrients (Carbon to Nitrogen mainly) will determine how much a organism can absorb, and how much will be dispelled as waste. Salmonids are no different, and the best source of nutrients for one is another salmonid because everything is already the same ratio.
Another large factor that influences Dolly Varden feeding habits is the growth period here on the Kanektok River. The Kanektok River is a cold place during the late fall, winter and early spring, not much is happening in regards to new life other than little fish hatching out of the gravel. The food source in the river goes down drastically when compared to the summer months that are packed full of flesh from spawned out salmon and the millions of eggs being dropped all over the river system. Dolly Varden have only a couple months in the summer to eat a large quantity of food, that will help sustain them until next year, and allow them to migrate out to the estuary again.
By combining these factors, one can understand why Dolly Varden eat the way they do. They are known to be extreamly aggressive, and will devour almost anything put in front of them, especially if it is a piece of flesh or an egg imitation. Dolly Varden do this because they want to use as little energy as possible to get the most nutrients they can, in a small amount of time. Being dominantly piscivorous, Dolly Varden are getting the most nutrients they can for each piece of food they eat, and they are not using much energy to do it because they do not have to chase it down.
More on Dolly Varden
Bear Track
Contrary to popular belief, at Alaska West we don’t see too many bears over the course of the day. Unlike other parts of Alaska, bears in our neck of the woods are not very comfortable around people, so when we’re lucky to spot one, it’s usually a ways off.
That’s not to say they’re not around however, and often times a quick look around the gravel bar is all the proof you need.
More on Alaskan Wildlife
Electrical Storm
Last week we had a pretty good electrical storm roll through South Andros. Lucky for us, our operation’s manager, Jordan Sly, is one heck of a photographer.
So, today we present you with the greatest photo ever taken from our tiki hut at Andros South. Wow.
More From Andros South
Jordan Sly’s Bonefish Rig
Jordan Sly is back with another segment of our ‘expert rig’ series of posts, where we give the skinny on how the experts rig up, all the way down to the bitter details. Jordan is our operation’s manager at Andros South and spends a substantial amount of time stalking the flats for hungry bonefish. Here’s his rig of choice!
Jordan Sly’s Bonefish Rig
A setup that can load quick, cast into the wind, and shoot line accurately is a great bonefish rig. Bonefish don’t stop moving, so in order to get the fly in front of it, you need something that can load fast with as few false casts as possible. Wind is almost always a factor here on the flats, so something that can punch through the wind will help tremendously. The final presentation is more important than one might think when hunting these torpedos of the flats. Therefore, a setup that can put your fly gently, but more importantly, accurately in front of the fish is key.
Casting to fish is only half the battle however, and once a fish is hooked, that’s when a good reel comes into play.. and hopefully your knots hold because you are going to see your backing..
The Summary
- Sage METHOD 790-4
- Hatch 7 Plus Finatic – Large Arbor
- RIO 8WT Bonefish Quickshooter
The Detail
- 200 yards of orange 30 pound Dacron tied to the spool with an arbor knot.
- Bimini twist in the fly line end of the backing with a drop of Loon’s UV Knot Sense to create a loop.
- Fly line attached to the backing with a loop-to-loop connection.
- Leader is RIO’s 9 foot 16 pound Fluoroflex Saltwater Tapered leader, attached the the fly line using factory loops.
- My fly of choice is an unnamed, sand colored, shrimp pattern that I tie with medium dumbell eyes on a size 2 saltwater hook.
The Commentary
- “The first thing I know people are going to comment on is using a 7WT for bonefish instead of the standard 8WT. Yeah, it is light, but mainly in the hand. Anyone that has cast this thing knows it casts more like an 8WT than a true 7WT. It’s super fast, tracks amazingly, and so light it feels like a 5WT or 6WT when holding it. It has enough backbone to punch into the wind, and when over-loaded with a line size heavier, it loads quick and at short distances.”
- “I feel like the RIO 8WT Quickshooter and the Sage Method 790-4 were made for each other. It’s a dream setup to cast. The short, yet heavy, 35 foot head on the Quickshooter loads the Method great, and with one, maybe two false casts if a change in direction is needed, can shoot into the backing as long as a strong wind is not in your face. I have only found two downsides with this setup.. One of them is when trying to pick up the line after a cast over 50 feet is made. The running line is so thin that it cannot load the rod unless it is stripped almost entirely back to where the head of the line is just outside the tiptop. The other downside to this setup occurs when trying to carry more than 40 feet of line outside of the tiptop during false casts. The easy solution to both of these problems is to shoot quick and accurately. That way, you won’t need to re-cast, and it is best not to waste time on multiple false casts anyway!”
- “I love a really stiff leader when fishing for bones. I feel it helps turn the fly over in really windy conditions, and keeps shape better in warm temperatures. Because of this, I prefer to use RIO’s Fluoroflex or Alloy Hard Mono. I really like RIO’s 9ft 16 pound fluoro leaders, because they are fairly stiff and have a small diameter relative to strength. On South Andros however, using fluorocarbon is not necessary. I often use sections of RIO Alloy Hard Mono, tied together with blood knots, tapered down to about 12 pound tippet. Our bonefish don’t seem to be leader shy here on South Andros, so I would stop at 16 pound Hard Mono, but the diameter is hard to work with and doesn’t knots as well when attaching to the fly. I feel the diameter, stiffness, and strength combination of the 16 pound fluoro to be just right.”
- “As far as my fly of choice, I have not named this fly, but it is kind of similar to Veverka’s Mantis Shrimp with a little larger profile. I normally tie it on a Gamakatsu SS15 size 2 Saltwater Hook, but Daiichi 2546 saltwater hooks also work great. I use 6/0 UNI-Thread in fire orange, medium black bead chain eyes tied in near the eye of the hook. I then use tan colored extra select craft fur as the tail, and as dubbing for the body. A tuff of fire orange rabbit fur tied in under the tail as a “egg sack” or “hot butt.” Two strands of black flashabou tied over the top of the tail as antenna. Two groups of two rootbeer colored rubber legs tied in on each side of the fly. A tan colored rabbit strip underwing, followed by a tan colored craft fur underwing, and finished off with a couple strands of root beer colored crystal flash in the tail and underwing.”
More Bonefish Rigs
Fireweed
Here at Alaska West things change fast, whether that change is the river, flora, fuana, people, or even our camp, it is constantly happening. Our camp is located on the Kanektok River, and the crew spend over three months enjoying every change it has to offer on and off the water.
Fireweed Chamerion angustifolium is a great example of this change happening. Fireweed is a “pioneer species” which basically means it is one of the first species to colonize after an ecosystem has been disturbed or damaged in some way such as flooding, freezing, or after a fire. There is even an old Alaskan wives’ tale that says when Fireweed is in full bloom, summer is almost over, and when the flowers have turned to seed, the first freeze is right around the corner. When we first arrive in camp the ground is frozen and no Fireweed can be found. Soon enough however, green shoots start popping up. Around the last couple weeks of July, flowers start to bloom, and by the first week or two of August it is everywhere. By the end of August through the first part of September, those flowers have started to turn to cotton and fall.
Year after year we are always amazed by how fast things change here on the “River of Changes.” It is an amazingly beautiful place!
More on Alaskan Flora and Fauna
Jordan Sly’s Silver Rig
Jordan Sly, our operation’s manager at Alaska West and Andros South, is one fishy dude. Check out how he rigs up when fishing for Cohos!
Jordan Sly’s Silver Rig
It is that time of the year again, the Silver (Coho) Salmon have started to dump into the Kanektok River in great numbers. This time of the year at Alaska West the river is packed full of healthy, bright, aggressive Silvers that are hungry for a fly. We not only catch them in great numbers subsurface, but it is common to find a couple aggressive ones that are ready to take a well skated or popped fly on the surface. They are one of my favorite fish to target this time of the year because they are a beautiful fish that pull and jump like crazy.
The Summary
- Sage Xi3 990-4
- Hatch Large Arbor 9 Plus Finatic
- RIO 9WT Freshwater OutBound Short
The Detail
- 250 yards of orange 30 pound Dacron tied to the spool with an arbor knot. Bimini twist in the fly line end of the backing with a drop of Loon’s UV Knot Sense to create a loop.
- Fly line attached to the backing with a loop-to-loop connection.
- Leader is a 4-foot section of Maxima Ultragreen in 30 lbs, and 2-foot sections of 25 lbs, 20 lbs, creating a leader that is 8 feet in length. The leader is connected to the factory loop with a perfection loop, and each additional section of Ultragreen is connected to the next with a 7 turn blood knot.
- My fly of choice is a unnamed pink and fuchsia fly that I tie with dumbbell eyes on a size 2 jig hook.
The Commentary
“Yes, I know a 9 weight might be a little bigger than most prefer, and I have a 8 weight (the standard recommended stick), but I often find the 8 weight a little lacking after I have caught a couple nice sized Silvers and my arms are starting to get a little tired. A 9 weight gives me that little bit of extra fighting power when I am tired, and it also gives me that little extra power when throwing those extra large dumbbell eyes.”
“I just picked up the RIO OutBound Short this season, and I really like it. Paired with the Xi3, it is a cannon that needs very few false casts, which saves my arm from getting tired when throwing those heavy flies. I have only used it the last couple of months, but so far, it has been great. The short head is great when fishing from a boat because I can strip all the way to the boat, getting the most out of every cast, and it turns over flies really well.”
“I will often adjust my leader length around. I do not think it is terribly important because Silvers are not that leader shy, but I think it is more important to focus on a leader that will turn a fly over well and get deep enough to reach the fish.”
“I have not named my go to fly, I just call it my Silver Fly. It is pretty easy to tie, but a pain to cast. I use a size 2 jig hook, normally Owner, pink thread, a pink rabbit strip tail, pink diamond braid body with pink UV polar chenille palmered over the top. I then finish it off with 2 to 3 wraps of pink marabou, a fuchsia schlappen collar and extra large dumbbell eyes.”
More Expert Salmon Rigs
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