Fishing involves a mixture of science, technology and an expert 'home-grown' knowledge base to figure out how to best hoodwink game fish into perceiving your carefully chosen offering: fly, lure, or bait, as something they should want to eat, or attack to protect themselves, or their vulnerable offspring.

The 'figuring out' part of fishing is key to capturing the wily game fish occupying our target areas; namely, the fertile aquatic ecosystems spanning from Cross Sound to the Gulf of Alaska, and our seasoned guides are very adept at adapting their fishing techniques to optimize our 'valued' guests daily sport fishing success! Their (our guests and guides) fishing success is clearly demonstrated on our 'fishing action' web pages where you can view literally hundreds of pictures of our happy guests posing with their trophy game fish.

It's our hope and desire to have the opportunity to convert your fishing dreams into reality here at Tanaku Lodge - "Alaska's favorite fishing destination!"

Fish On!

Dennis Meier and Jim Benton
Owners

The arsenal of fishing equipment employed here at Tanaku Lodge has been carefully chosen to optimize our guest's fishing success, so we use only the 'very best' boats, rods, reels, line, and lures available in the marketplace.

• Our 'world class' fishing boats - Alaska's best fishing platforms: four (4) spacious, thirty-four foot Californian cruisers featuring a full complement of electronics, full-size 'head' and two comfortable state rooms; and one (1) twenty-six foot Osprey powered with twin 175 H.P. Johnson outboard motors.
• We feature a broad selection of effective sport fishing rods
• We feature only the best sport fishing reels
• We have a broad selection of effective lures, attractants, and terminal gear
• We maintain a good supply of freshly frozen herring
• Our boats are expertly organized to optimize comfort, safety and fishing success!
• Our expert guides assure all fishing equipment is working properly
• Bait is changed regularly to optimize the scent field
• Line is inspected and replaced when needed. We use only the best line available!
• Our guides are all master-level guides with an expert set of boating and fishing skills!
  
  Here's to your fishing Success!
  Dennis Meier and Jim Benton
  Owners

Day-to-day, we employ whatever sport fishing methods prove to be most effective while targeting specific game fish. The key idea is flexibility and adaptability when discussing fishing techniques, since what may have work earlier, may not work now.

We will cover the basic techniques employed by our guides here, and ask you to visit 'The Friends of Tanaku' web log for a more detailed discussion of effective fishing methods and equipment. (There, you can use the 'search' function to access whatever information you are interested in.) See the 'Alaska News' section of our web site to access the blog. Here is a listing of the fishing techniques our world-class guides employ to assure fishing success!

• Trolling: this is an effective fishing technique when one desires maximum coverage within a target area in a relatively short time frame. This method normally employs a trolling motor to attain suitably slow movement through the water. Bait, such as: herring, anchovies, various insects etc., or man-made lures and other attractants, are dangled on a line through the water. The idea here is to make sure you produce the visual clue, odor, or movement your quarry will find desirable. For King Salmon, this means achieving the depth where they are located. Their swimming depth is a function of the time of day, water temperature, and availability of feed. We use 'fish finding' electronics to identify their whereabouts and numbers. The ocean, being a murky environment, full of glacial runoff, dust, dirt, vegetative debris, and myriad organism; presents a real barrier to the salmon's eye-sight being effective in identifying their prey (unless you nearly hit them by chance); therefore one must target their other sensory modalities; namely, smell and lateral line response. When one appeals to the right sense, at the right time, in the right way - beautiful things happen - a hook up, beaming smiles of delight, and an exciting duel between fish and fisher! To produce the right combination of factors to optimize fishing success while trolling, one must be aware of what feed predominates their environment. If the area is awash in herring, for instance, than a real herring, or a lure that mimics a herring in smell, shape and movement ( a crippled herring), will produce strikes. A lure, either artificial, or a real bait that rolls and wiggles will produce water perturbances which will hit the salmon's pore-embedded neuromasts on the lateral line, (nerves similar in function to hearing) and send a signal that an easy meal is available to the salmon's tiny, highly reactive brain. The salmon's brain is hardwired to react, so let's all call out: "FISH ON!"
  
  Let's Go Fishing!
  Dennis Meier and Jim Benton
  Owners

Mooching: "Drifting along with the tumbling herringballs..." This ' el natural' fishing method is 'just what the doctored ordered' if the conditions support it; namely, heavily amassed congregations of salmon due to either a herringball-feeding- frenzy, or salmon traveling through narrowed landmasses such as passes. A sure sign of herringballs are swarms of seagulls frenetically feeding. Mooching involves drifting along with the tide, or paused on a 'slack tide' while employing 9 to 10-1/2 foot fishing rods with long sensitive tips; single action graphite rods; light leader; relatively small hooks (1/ 0 to 3/0 singles); and 300 yards, or so, of twenty-five pound mono. The technique, itself, attempts to mimic real life; using what salmon naturally consume in the wild; such as a crippled, or cut-plug herring. Dispensing with downriggers and other technologies and requiring the angler's concentrated attention, sensitivity and quick reflexes; makes this a real sportfishers' fishing method of choice.

Trolling: "Trollin', Trollin', Trollin...keep those boats a Trollin'....." A fishing technique whereby bait is drawn on a line through water. Normally, employs a special trolling motor to achieve suitably slow movement through the water. Employed both in fresh and salt water environments.

This section will have a listing of other sport fishing resources. Maybe to fishing equipment sponsors?