The otter slid silently into the mountain stream, surfacing only a few seconds later with a Dolly Varden char dangling from his mouth. This was the otter’s home – his world of clear waters and bountiful fish. I was not here to disrupt his day, but only to share in the wealth of Dolly Varden, called “trout” here, so abundant in this particular secret stream. I, however, would release my catch – a Whaler’s Cove Lodge policy – so that the Admiralty Island small streams near the lodge would continue to provide excellent sport for their guests.
My guests, Al, Warren and Dick, had decided to try some wilderness creek fishing after the saltwater angling on this, the last day of their week-long stay. After we landed the boat, we walked to the bank of the creek with a minimum of advice from me. “Approach the water quietly, cast across and slightly downstream, keep your Blue Fox lure as close to the bottom as you can without entangling it. In a few casts you will have it all figured out.”
The first pool of the creek, still inundated with salt water from the tide, had only a slight current. The tide would need to fall for another hour to concentrate the fish in a stronger current here, but upstream
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