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The Situk River is THE big attraction here in Yakutat for fishing. 1 - because of the great fishing and 2 - because of the easy road access. It is NOT the only world-class fishing destination in the Yakutat region. On this page, we will try to point out some of the other great places in and around Yakutat to fish, species to find there and the time of year it is usually worth the effort. I will obviously not be able to list every great hot-spot and I'm sure I'll "disappoint" more than a couple people by highlighting their personal private hide-a-way. As a token effort to appease all, I will even highlight my own "most special place on earth" at the risk of no longer having it entirely to myself. I just won't add that spot right away, so I have another chance to keep it a secret for one last trip out there... :-) My belief is that the more we can spread people out, the better EVERYONE's experience is. There isn't any reason anyone needs to fish on top of anyone else in a place with this much spectacular fishing!
Tawah Creek
Tawah Creek is far from being a "secret spot", but it is
overlooked by most people traveling through Yakutat. Situated only
two miles from the airport and with four road access points, Tawah
is a spectacular small stream that is ideal for fly fishing. Judging by the "wind chime"
hanging in the overhanging trees, there are many Pixee and spinner
chuckers that make the effort to hit this clear stretch of water.
Tawah is a tributary creek for
the Lost River system. You can easily access the confluence of
Lost/Tawah with a short walk downstream from the Lost River Bridge.
There are three other roads with bridges that directly access or cross
Tawah at various points along the stream's length. I don't know if
it is legal for me to steal/use GoogleEarth images, but here is
Tawah from space anyway:
#1-Cannon Beach Bridge:
The most commonly accessed and fished point on the stream is at Cannon
Beach. Large numbers of spring sea-run cutthroat trout, summer
sockeye and pink salmon and fall/winter silver salmon congregate in,
under and around the bridge. Rarely can you look down into the water
from the bridge deck and not see hundreds of fish swirling around in the
crystal-clear water. Luckily for the fish and unluckily for the
fisherman, fishing within 50 yards of the bridge is prohibited from
June 16th to September 30th.
Step away from the bridge however and the fishing experience dramatically improves anyway. I recently wrote about Matt, Tanis and I spending a couple hours enticing sea-run cutthroat with black krystal-buggers and alevins on the blog page. I won't rehash that here, although I'll repeat a couple photos from that day:
This expedition took place in late May, so it was legal for Matt to hook his first fish from the bridge. He soon got over that need and went downstream a few steps to a beautiful pool, free of passing cars and road dust.
The view from the bridge in August - literally thousands of salmon all schooled up in the pool. In the third image (click on it to get a bigger version), you can clearly pick out the spawning colored sockeye, smaller pinks and a few larger silvers mixed in. Although you have huge numbers congregating under the bridge, a wander downstream and sometimes upstream in the airport drainage ditch will reveal nice groups of fish just waiting to be cast to.
Broken Bridge:
Access point #2 is "Broken Bridge", because the old WWII
era bridge that crosses the creek is... um... broken...
Aren't we good at coming up with creative landmark names? The road
splits off right at the end of the airport runway at one of the
corners. Branches encroach into the old roadbed, so don't
drive down here - even if it is a rental car... A short walk
accesses a point on the river that is lined with tall spruce trees.
Tight trees on a small stream makes for a tough cast, but there are
lots of great hiding spots that hold silvers and pinks. A little
brush crawling can give you a unique reward, along with deterring
anyone else from venturing into this lair.
Christmas Tree Bridge:
The third direct access-point as you work your way downstream is one of
the nicest and best maintained bridges in Yakutat (maybe we need to
publish a book "The Bridges of Yakutat"). This old single
lane bridge will lead you back to the ocean beach of you continue to its
end, but here, you have a spectacular stretch of free-running
stream with wide open banks. Tawah meanders through a thin meadow
for about 1 1/2 miles in either direction - upstream or down from
here. There is a developed Forest Service trail for part of the way
downstream to help reduce bank damage, but essentially doesn't get
used by anyone.
I haven't fished this stretch, but a few days ago we went for a walk to take a few photos for this page. Small stream, teeming with salmon in August, September and October, not visited by hordes (until they read this of course)... You can see what a gorgeous stretch of river this is.
Lost/Tawah Confluence:
Access point #4 is down at the confluence where Tawah joins the Lost
River. This is the second most common place people fish the stream
for silvers. The walk over from the road is only about 1/4 mile as a
crow flies.
You can see how wide-open the stream bank is, with a nice hole along any point in the river that has a curve. The best thing about Tawah is how long a season it has. The run continues much later into the year than most other streams, with good silver fishing into November, then another odd run that comes in as late as January! Tawah in and of itself may not be a reason to come to Yakutat fishing, but it is a great place to get away from the shoulder to shoulder fishing we can sometimes see on the Situk, with long stretches of stream to wander and explore well away from the crowds. Toss in the sea-run cuts from May to September that don't exist in the Situk system, feisty pinks in July and August, silvers from August to January... Tawah is a great break from the regularly scheduled Yakutat itinerary.
