The past two weeks here at Lava Creek Lodge have certainly lived up to the standard, albeit our standard is set pretty high. The peak of the silver salmon run can only be described as madness, with hoards of silvers pouring into the river system on every tide, every day. Fresh sea lice covered chromers are waiting in all the pools and runs each morning, leaving the anglers sore and laughing with satisfaction by the end of the week.
Countless doubles and triples is what this time of year is all about!
A couple late run pink salmon were also found in the mix Like this beast of a humpy for David!
Our silver salmon average 9-10 pounds, but there are a few bigger ones that push the 14 pound mark that will surprise you with a screaming drag letting you know you just hooked something special, like this submarine that Georg from Germany wrangled to hand.
Here’s guide Andy pointing out one of our neighbors, and only fishing competition, to Roger on a trip upriver trout fishing.
With the late pink salmon spawn, the upriver fishing for trout and dolly varden continued to be fantastic, and gave the guests a break from throwing their 8wt rods, and seeing a different stretch of the river.
Lamar and David were all smiles with a few nice trout and dollies up to 24 inches. This time of year streamers are the ticket, and on nice weather days when the fish are looking up both trout and dollies will come up and eat a mouse pattern off the top. Nothing like a two foot long trout eating a mouse on the surface to get your heart going!
Roger did a late season trip to Lava Creek, which is a flyout walk/wade trip with Andy and licked into an epic day. The sun popped out and some mayflies started hatching and the dry fly bite was on….which is quite uncommon to see up here. They switched quick to dry flies and landed a bunch of beautiful trout up to 25 inches, fat from eating eggs and flesh from the spawn. And of course there was that proverbial “one that got away” that jumped multiple times and threw the hook before they had a chance at netting it…that the guys said was MUCH larger than any of the ones that they caught that day. That’s always the one that keeps you coming back for another try!
Walt and Mary keep coming back for more each year, and it’s no wonder why. When they came the first year, Mary was not an angler, she just liked to watch and hang out in the boat. I rigged up a rod when they fished with me and showed Mary the basics and she was immediately hooked, showing up the following year with a rod of her own. And this year was no exception with a couple of the days this past week she out-fished Walt….and will never let him live that down.
September is here and we are seeing sunrises, pulling on more silvers than anyone could imagine, and the ducks and geese are migrating through……which only means one thing, the season end is drawing near. It’s bittersweet, with only one week of fishing left in the 2026 season, but what a season it was. Six more days of Silver Madness….bring it on!
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