Whale Pass

Whale Pass

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Whale Pass is located in southeast Alaska and the population was 58 at the 2000 census. I’m not sure how many are here now but one of them is Kurt Gorlitz, a professional fishing guide who’s lived in Whale Pass for the last eight years...This area offers some great  sport fishing. “I worked out of the Lodge at Whale Pass, I’ve been here about eight years. Right now I’m flyfishing in sure, light tackle in the estuaries. They run from May to September and the best time is July.”

Kurt was enjoying his day off when we caught up with him.. flyfishing for “silvers” on the Neck River. He’s A nice guy who shared fishing facts and stories while catching fish after fish after fish… “These are Coho and I am swinging out a little chartreuse

bug on a spay rod and they seem to react pretty well to it.” The fish are running in big numbers from the salt water ocean back to fresh water where they will eventually be harvested for consumption. Gorlitz is fishing a hole just above the salt water where the fish are stacking up. “So far I would say it is about an eighth but it could die off tomorrow. We might not get anymore fish. They have all come in with the rain but in July they would be gone. Or it could go through August. The best year they had there were 62,000 and I bet there’s about 20,000 in the bay right now. They will actually, believe it or not, get thicker. This is really early in the run and when they do get in there, their backs will be out of the water.”

A spectuclar event to see...thousands of fish swimming in groups...and jumping a foot out of the water as the head up stream. “We intend to catch more fish so the more of them that come up, the better.”

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