George Cook on Sinktip Selection Through A King Season

Hey, George caught one!

Photo: Cameron Miller

George Cook is one of the pioneers of spey fishing for king salmon in the Northwest, and he’s one of our best-in-the-business spey instructors during our king season at Alaska West.George has shared with us a bunch about his philosophy of king fishing in the past, and today we get to hear from him about sinktip selection and how it changes in the course of a king season.

NOTE: This entry from George is intended for the intermediate to advanced anadromous angler. If you’re new to swinging flies for kings, you might want to have a look at 10 Tips for Swinging Flies for Kings first.

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King season on the Kanektok basically lasts for 5 weeks – from the second week of June through the second week of July. In the course of those 5 weeks there will be something new each week in terms of water conditions, as well as fish travel and holding pattern.

The first week or two [the second and third weeks of June] often feature the highest water of the year. With that, kings often nose into back sloughs, along with slough/main current edge-water, along with soft water anywhere they can find it, for a bit of a rest. They also travel really close to the gravel bars – the fish are sucked in tight on the bars because they don’t want to work hard moving up the bars in the heavier water further out.

What fails a lot of new anglers is that high water requires lesser sinktips and low water requires heavier. High water kings seek out the soft, edgy slough stuff and lower water kings seek out the guts of the main channel.

During the first couple of weeks of the season, you may find yourself fishing short, lesser tips like a type 6, or a 7 foot length of T-14. As week 3 and 4 [the last week in June and the first week in July] unfold, kings fishing will require more ‘normal’ types of sinktip lines. Spey anglers will begin to utilize 10, 13, 15′ sections of T-14 and T-17, sometimes in conjunction with intermediate cheaters where applicable on longer rods.

As the water drops, particularly in weeks 3, 4 and 5, the heaviest tips of the year will come into play. Both traveling and holding fish will be found in the deepest buckets, and main channel ‘dredge lanes’. It’s at this point where there’s no such thing as too deep when it comes to sinktip use, and to get really deep might take a lot more tip than you think. In most water conditions, even a 13-15’ piece of T-14 is probably fishing no deeper than 36-48” under the surface, particularly when connected to a 80-105 foot spey cast.

One of the old trick moves in the spey game is to take a step back from the modern Skagit line. Grab yourself a full Windcutter of the appropriate size, say a 9/10/11 for a 9 weight and take off the front two 15 ft sections, which lands you at the back loop – where you can plug in a good old Big Boy 24 foot 300, 400 or if you dare, 500 grain tip. This also would be the time and place for a 17’ – 24’ section of T-14 (or even possibly T-17).Fishing these rigs isn’t for everybody. These tips are huge, and a certain percentage of casts will get blown trying to set the anchor. These systems also require rods 14′ or longer – the shorter 12 1/2′ sticks of the last few years just won’t throw these huge tips. But these longer sinktips have a deeper engagement during the swing than anything in the 10-15’ range can hope for. There’s simply no getting away from that fact.During later-season water conditions, most kings are holding in some deep water, and getting the fly in front of them is key to upping your catch numbers. Some fish are holding high in the water column and will come up to take that fly swinging 3 feet under the surface. But don’t kid yourself – there’s a reason why the plug angler does the damage he does. ‘Mr. Pluggie’ is always in the zone and always at the holding depth, which late in the season is deep.