Definitely some bright, beautiful fish. Great size on them.

One measured 28”, it was a great day


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Ok that was an interesting ride. Quake was 200 miles south, on the pacific side. Currently monitoring sunami warnings. Looks like we’re ok.


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This is Toad, she is 11. She earned the nickname by landing 10 big sockeye


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Toad

love it !!!!

More bears, about 200 yards from camp


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That young girl sure did well! Curious to what your typical set up is, couldn't quite make out what that rod was. You are definitely living the life there!

She is a great kid, she and her folks live in Anchorage but prefer getting away from the crowds coming out to fish with us.
For reds (sockeye) we run 8 wt. fly rods; that particular rod is an 8.6” Matson blank with a fighting butt. Reel is a Lamson 3.5 large arbor. 21 ft. Sink tip. I like fishing sink tips my brother prefers floating lines. As expected guests go about 50/50 on preference. We break an average of 10 rods in a three week sockeye run. First fish first day accounted for our first rod this year.
Matson hold up the best, Sage rods are destroyed by Reds.


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Again - great photos!

Thanks


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Good to know, thanks. I have an older St Croix Avid 9' 9 weight 3 piece that has been exceptional and without exaggeration has caught hundreds of salmon. Obviously I have been very pleased with it. Last year I bought a Ross 4 piece 9' 10 weight on closeout that has done well so far, caught pink, sockeye, coho, chum and steelhead on it last year. Bought it specifically for chum and chinook but ended up using it all year even on the smaller salmon. I used an OPST line and a T 14 sink tip and was pretty impressed with how well it casted.

Both Ross and St. Croix are good equipment.


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Sad day when my old 3-piece, 8 weight St Croix finally broke while fighting a salmon. It had landed many salmon, steelhead and yes, even carp & bass. I think it was 9' 6" long. Quite a rod, and I treasured it.

Of course I contacted St Croix upon my return to civilization. My old 3-piece rod couldn't be repaired, but they made it easy for me to step up to a new, high-quality 4 piece 8 wt rod and I have to admit that I've been quite impressed. It's as good as the old rod.

I'm still using a Ross Cimarron reel that I bought more than 20 years ago. Sent it to Ross to have it serviced/rebuilt a couple of years ago and it performs like new again.

A good rod and reel are awfully nice tools for our fishing.

Guy

Ross reels are a very good investment. I think St. Croix in general are very good rods, we have several.
While I’m impressed by the handling of a Sage 1 or a Winston Salt air, it’s hard to find the value in 1,000.00 rods but give me one I’ll fish it every day


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I have a 3 different System 2 reels I use for salmon. My original one has caught a pile of fish and still works fine but the handle is getting loose and I can't see any way of fixing it. That reel owes me nothing of course. Found two others at a garage sale that were in very good shape so snatched them up. Bought a small System 2 for trout at the same store that closed down and that will last me probably the rest of my life.

When it comes to high end rods I only will consider their lowest lines because they are much more durable. It seems that when you get into the higher modulus graphite they just become brittle. I'll take a slightly heavier rod any day, no need for a $500-1000 rod to catch fish.

There is a very distinctive CRACK when one of those rods break. Fella I was guiding last week broke an 8 wt and a 6wt the same day. Both Sage ones, Had him fishing ECHOES mid price rod $350 the rest of the week. He was very impressed.


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Echo makes a nice rod and reasonably priced too. My only Sage is a Launch 6 weight 4 piece that I use for trout and grayling, it was their lowest price rod and has been great so far. It hasn't seen anything bigger than about a 5 lb pike though.

We outfitted with ECHO also. Took Tim fishing on a couple of trips when he was still at G Loomis. He gave us some of the first prototypes and we ended up on his guide program when he got ECHO going. Still have a bunch of them in the hangar. Incredible value for what you get and what an awesome guy. Talk about fish stories and the best jet boat skinner I’ve ever seen. One of our guides was sponsored by Scott, also got a couple of the old G’s left. Ate many a dinner at the San Mateo show on Bill Fords dime. Good times.

I still have a couple of Gl2 8 wts that are pushing 25. When Tim left and Shimano took over we looked else where.


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The first Echos I ever really spent any time with were carried by a group from Argentina who came for silvers. When I checked into them I couldn’t believe what a great value they were.


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I have a selection of Sage rods, never had any issues.
But they are MY rods, no way does any of my clients get their hands on them, I use cheaper end rods for them, but never had any complaints yet.
I took an Orvis rod back to the store recently, still well within the 25 year guarantee, $75 just to look at it!

The Sage holds up fine on big rainbows; 30 inch class fish, Silver salmon and steelhead. People underestimate the speed and power of a sockeye as well as their endurance. Play a big rainbow or silver to the net, he’s done it’s over. Often times you can play a sockeye in, think he’s done and the minute you high stick him to land him he flips over and charges into the backing. That is where the Sage fails compared to other top end rods. Otherwise I love sage rods. Not impressed with Orvis of late. Really Like the Winston’s and Scotts, but those are not for guests generally.
Last year we broke 17 fly rods, this year only 7. Most of those were broken on sockeye. The Echo rods seem to give the greatest value, very fishable at a modest price and they hold up well, St. Croix also.
And I’ve another damn bear in camp. Bastards


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Pound for pound, the sockeye is the best fighting salmon in my experience and I’m sure salmonchaser can confirm: if a sockeye grew as large as a king, you’d probably never land one. If you get your finger in the way on the reel handle when one runs, you’re gonna lose a nail. I have an old battle scarred Scott STS 957/3 around here somewhere that was the absolute bomb for them back in the day. I’m sure there’s lots of better stuff out there today.

Hook a ten pound sockeye to a 10 pound anything else, tail to tail the sockeye wins every time.


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love it---YOU DA MAN !