There is life beyond king salmon season

Out & About, by Howard Delo

My wife, Debby, arched the yellow Rooster Tail spinner into the middle of a school of rainbow trout swimming near the shoreline. Sitting in the bow of our canoe anchored 20 yards out in the lake, she had placed the lure directly in front of a nice, 12-inch trout and began the slow and, hopefully, enticing retrieve with her ultralight-spinning rig. The lure had only traveled maybe a foot when the trout struck. After a quick jerk to set the hook, the battle was on.

We were fishing a stocked lake less than a mile from our home in Big Lake. A pair of nesting loons had "claimed" the lake and, apparently, all the fish contained therein. This loon had been following us just a few feet off the side of the canoe as we paddled around the lake, looking for signs of fish activity.

For the past half-hour, we had managed to avoid hooking the bird when it occasionally chased our lures. The loon had missed twice before while trying to grab a hooked fish. This time, the bird connected.

The trout had been giving Debby a good fight on the light rod and four-pound test line. A couple of runs had the drag on her reel singing, but the fish quickly tired, both from fighting the reel's drag and from frantically trying to avoid the loon chasing it underwater. When the loon finally snagged the struggling trout in its bill, it took off swimming with powerful wing thrusts under the water.

A whole new fight had developed. Debby eased off on the drag just a bit and played the bird, firmly holding the fish clamped in its bill, like a really large trout.

After a couple of strong runs underwater, the loon surfaced to breath and momentarily loosened its grip on the fish. Seeing her opportunity, Debby pulled the still-hooked fish out of the bird's bill and immediately reeled in the now de-scaled and quite dead trout. After landing the fish in the canoe, my wife called the loon some unladylike names.

After regaining her composure and landing one more fish, she had her limit of five trout and we headed home for a dinner of fresh fried fish. The loon swam off in pursuit of less vocal prey.

This is only one example of why I enjoy fishing the Valley lakes with ultralight spinning gear. Once a fish is hooked, battling it can actually be more fun than fighting a large king salmon on heavy gear, although the fight won't last as long.

Besides canoeing, another excellent way to fish the Valley's hundreds of lakes is from a float tube. I bought one a couple of years ago but haven't had the nerve to use it yet. I'm not the littlest guy in the world and sitting in what amounts to a glorified inner tube with cold water up to my waist doesn't seem entirely safe to me.

I have a friend who is an avid fly-fisherman, however, who swears that the float tube method is the best way to fish the smaller lakes. He always catches fish, so he must know what he's talking about. I'll probably give it a try here shortly and if I survive, I'll tell you how it went.

The current sportsfishing regulations book lists all the stocked lakes in the Valley.

For more information about specific lakes, including the legal public access routes, public or private lakeshore ownership, a history of the fish stockings that have

occurred, and a lake map,

go to: http://www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/Region2/lakemaps/html/lakemap1.stm and print out your own copy for your lake of interest.

Fish and Game has another brochure I've found to be particularly useful called the "Matanuska-Susitna Area 2003 Lake Fishing Forecast," available from the Fish and Game office in Palmer or online at: http://www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/region2/html/pubs.stm. This particular Web site also gives you access to many other publications about sports fishing.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist living in Big Lake. Send your comments and ideas to editor@frontiersman.com, or call (907) 352-2268 and leave a message for Howard.