Alaska 2013, Day 54, Juneau Day 2

Thursday July 25, 2013

We tried to go down to the slough by Lemon Creek/the airport.  It was dry at the campground but raining at the slough.  We discovered there are no maintained trails here.  It started raining pretty heavy while we were walking through the weeds, we got pretty wet, so we gave up on this walk.  We wanted to get out to the mud flats.  Previously we could see lots of eagles and wading birds in the mud flats. We gave up and went home.

Shrine of St Therese

In 2008 we heard that you should stop and see this church.  It is half way out to the end of the road.  From '82 I didn't remember there being anything out here so we didn't drive it in 2008.  I decided that this time we would drive out to the end so we could see this church on the way.  Also downtown yesterday I stopped into the Juneau Fly Fishing on Franklin and asked where the salmon were running.  They said there was a good run of pinks out at Echo Cove and Kowee Creek. I picked up a tide chart at Fred Meyer, and some Blue Fox Vibrax lures. High tide was 4:00 PM.  We headed out the road after lunch but they were doing construction just beyond Eagle Beach.  They were blasting and they close the road until the debris is cleared.  The road was closed until 4:00.  So killed time at St Therese and Eagle Beach. The thing about St Therese is not the church itself but the site the church is on.  It is a small, stone, old style, plain church, maybe 10 pews total.  But the church is out on a small island/rock.  The island is connected by a 100' causeway walking path.  The island has the stations of the cross oriented around it with a path.  There is a great view out over the Lynn Canal. The island is all temperate rainforest; everything covered with moss.  The buildings are all perfectly maintained, nothing out of place.

Eagle Beach.  

We stopped at Eagle Beach State Rec Area to kill some time.  The river that runs along here had chum salmon and harbor seals in it.  There were some eagles here too.

Fishing Echo Cove and Kowee Creek

After killing time at Eagle Beach the road was open so we drove out to the end.  There are no houses beyond Eagle Beach. Pretty drive but I have no idea why there is a road here. The guy in the fly shop told me pinks were in pretty heavy in Echo Cove and there was a good beach all around it. So we started there.  There were maybe a dozen other people fishing here but the cove is huge. There were some pinks jumping but not a lot.  We didn't get any hits or see any fish caught.  We gave it over an hour then we moved on.  I stopped at Kowee Creek on the way back, 1/2 mi from Echo Cove.  I walked down to the creek and there were pinks here.  I could see them finning all over.  I brought the kids down but we couldn't hook any.  So I tried drifting a small pixie down with the current  just bouncing it off the bottom slowly, that was the trick.  The pinks liked a pixie bounced slowly off the bottom.  Once I figured out the program the kids started hooking them. The kids each brought in like 5 and lost as many.  Emmy landed 2 chum with her Zebco 22 and Anna 1 with her 202. The chum had to be 6 lbs or more.  I can't believe they could bring them in!