The stories about silvers on the surface in Alaska always intrigued me. I fished nearly a week last fall over good numbers of silvers here in Oregon, with only one jack and a half dozen follows to show for my best efforts. This year, I had planned to fish surface flies and see if I could coax a fish or two out of the Bay.
Well, the results exceeded my wildest dreams. One silver to a popper would have made my season. My companions and I found more than one, on more than one day. These silly poppers catch chrome coho.
They follow the dang things, swirling and boiling under and over the popper. They streak at it from 6 feet away, throwing water, dorsal fin in the air, inhaling that innocent little chugging fly/lure/popper.
A boat load of Echo 3, Edge, and Ion fly rods, rigged with floating lines from 7-10 wt, were kept busy 6 hours straight. The “bite” went on and off, but was on dependably enough to keep us on point every cast. We drifted with the wind, sometimes so fast that it was difficult to keep the popper pushing water . It was pretty difficult to cast anywhere but with the wind. A take was often preceeded by three or more swirls and boils, but sometimes a silver just rushed the popper and ate it, unceremoniously and deliberately.
These silvers are mostly wild fish, the hatchery run has principally moved up river already. They run so fast it is impossible to keep up with them, and one ran at the boat and hit the outboard, leaving scales on the pump and grease on the popper. Screaming fly reels, slack line, and adrenaline – fueled whoops of joy were the stuff of lifetime memories. Was it crowded out on the water?
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