How was the Nush this year?

[LufkinMike]

I was wondering if any of the AOJ members were able to fish the Nush for kings this year and if so how did you do? was it a good year? Saw on the fish counts about 100k past the sonar but do not know if this is above or below normal.Anyway thanks for any responses.

Mike

 

[Alaskacanoe]

Portage creek

Portage creek

I spent the first week of July at portage creek on the lower Nush.
In fact we were in the one car and 3each - 4 wheeler parade on the 4th of july,, Chris Carr was our host.
Fishing was steady every morning, and seemed to die off in the afternoon hours. I was fishing the tides every day, but it was strange, that the bite would die off about 9 am just above the tide influence.
Below that we would catch fish until noon.
We had no problem catching 10 or more kings per day per person.
The chum Salmon were there, and we caught our share of those also, but not a problem...
We went up river in the afternoons and the evenings and backtrolled along some places that were really productive.. we had several hookups on the K-15 quick fish and the Wobblers.
we enjoyed drifting eggs the most though and that makes for fun action when you are catching fish.
Chris said that we did as good as anyone this year, but he said he thought it was a bit better fishing the last week of June this season.
We had some folks in camp that did not do as well as us, maybe because they were not used to fishing kings like we used to do on the Kenai many years ago...
I used the same old techniques we used to use with the egg drift and it worked great..
The guides seemed to be doing well also, and lots of high end camps along the lower part of the river and the Keefer Cutoff island.
Some very nice camps with nice looking boats.
Plenty of room to fish still over on the Nush, and I would think it won't get any major push of people in the near future, as the price of remote trips goes up.
One suggestion about doing these kind of trips, is to get actual written confirmation on all your charter stuff... Get an email with exact price of the charter plane from Dillingham to Portage creek etc.
We got the old bait and switch when we chartered a plane out of Dillingham. I had verbal confirmation of the price of renting the entire plane for drop off and pickup,, and when we went to leave, the pilot pulled the old, per seat price out of his bag of tricks... so we had a stand off for a minute until I realized, that if we wanted to get to portage creek that night, we better just pay.. it was over $150.00 difference than what I was told on the phone just a few weeks prior by the company office.
The same happened on the way back, even though we thought we had it worked out when we landed.
The company I went with this trip was the first time with them, and it was not a great experience to say the least. The plane was filthy the pilot rude and stubborn.. It does not need to be that way..
One of my friends that went with me, said that the plane reminded him of old 5 oclock Charlie from the Mash series. ..
Anyway.. you could see that life was not going to get any better for this aircharter company...
Poor people have Poor ways...
They looked like they were hanging on with a shoe string... but alas.. looks can be decieving...
Max

 

[LufkinMike]

Thanks Max

Thanks Max

Max we stayed with you last year stayed in the new cabins that Steve built you took us on a float trip on the upper kenai you also were doing the wedding cake thing when we were leaving Good to hear from you Could you pm me with a suggestion on who to go with next June
Thanks

Mike and James and Marvin

 

[LufkinMike]

Max

Max

were you the only one?