Oh Yeah! (chika chika)

While fishing Reds on the Kenai, my 8 wt. Redington fly rod broke in half on a fish. Thank goodness for that Redington lifetime warranty. The first time I sent my rod in was when about 6 inches of the tip broke off while I was reaching down to land the fish. That was 3 years ago. They promptly replaced the tip blank and sent it back to me. This time the rod snapped right in the middle. A fish shot back out into the river unexpectedly and that was all it took. I explained that I was fishing for salmon (an 8 wt. is probably just a little light for salmon) but they still honored the warranty and I got my NEW rod in the mail today. They skipped over fixing the rod or replacing the blank. They just gave me a brand new rod. AND - they gave me an up-grade. Nice folks over there at Redington. I always dream about getting a nice Sage, GLoomis or St. Croix fly rod - and may someday - but Redington's outstanding customer service has sold me on their rods - which perform just fine. Maybe not as much fine tuning as the other mentioned brands, but plenty of sensitivity, nice feeling action, and sweet casts. Here's the new rod: Tight Lines!

Just for the Halibut...

I know, I know. I couldn't resist that header. Anyway, here is a shot of Ryan, me, and David on our halibut charter. Good times, good eats. We started out with the conventional halibut set-ups - big ugly-sticks, heavy weight, and bait (red hering I believe). After the first fish on, I asked if there was anything lighter, as in light-action gear for halibut. The big stuff was fine, but was mor elike pulling up a tire from the bottom. I wanted to feel more of the fight. So Rich, our Capt. dug out some 10 ft. eye-less rods that were pretty light action. We rigged with some large jiggs, accompanied by a rubber-skirt squid looking thing and the work began. I was instructed to jig the rod from the water, all the way up above my head, and back down again. It took a lot more effort (my arms burned, and then I had to fight a fish up from over 100 ft of water) but the pay-off was a blast! I hooked and landed three more fish within 15 minutes of hitting the water with the jig. And there was none of this "sit and watch the rod tip for nibbles." Those fish would slam the jigs right at about mid-way through my upward pull. I'd be sitting there jigging up, down, up, down, up, down, WHAM! It would stop me like I'd hooked onto a rock ledge at the bottom. The bend those fish put in the light rods was intense. I would be holding the butt on the rod straight up, but the rod tip would be pointing straight down. The best part about the jigging rods was that you could feel the fight... especially when a larger fish hit. I could feel it pulsing that wide tail fin as it worked its way back down to the bottom. Ah, what a blast! Just like fish'n Kokes on East Lake, only I'd have to take a break after each halibut brought to the boat. Quite a work-out! As you can see here, the largest fish we saw were in the 20 - 25 range. Nothing huge, but plenty of fun. I'd do it again in a heart-beat knowing I would only catch a coupld 20 lbers. Thanks to Rich West of Anchorage for a great day on Prince William Sound (beautiful area) and thanks to dad Elg for making it happen. Tight Lines! (on long, light, jigging rods... WHAM!)

Doin' That Ling Thing!

What a hog! Talk about bragging rights! Josh bullied up this monster Ling out on Price William Sound while we were in Alaska. Hands down - this is THE fish of the trip!
What a beast! When it first came up, I only saw its face and for a second I thought it was a big Grouper. Grouper typically stick to the warmer water though and when I realized this was a Ling Cod, I about fell over-board. This is the largest Linger I've ever seen, and I've seen a few. Twenty or Thirty pounds is a big Ling, and this fat daddy was pushing 45 lbs - easy! Unfortunately it was not yet open season on Ling Cod so this one went back to get even bigger. Josh will forever have bragging rights over us all on this one. Congrats on a NICE fish, buddy. Wish I had not been into a fish of my own so I could have come over to take a closer look. Tight Lines!