Silvers August 2008

It was Saturday morning and Mike and I had planned to fly in his plane to the west side of Cook Inlet south of Anchorage in search of Silver Salmon. This day dawned like a lot of others this year, cool and rainy but good enough to fly. I met Mike at his home on the hillside in south Anchorage and we drove to Merrill field where we loaded the plane, gassed up and headed west and then south over the mouth of the Susitna Rivers.





As we flew south along the shore of Cook Inlet the weather improved somewhat. After about an hour we reached the mouth of the Kustatan River and we turned to follow the river upstream. The plane is equipped with large "tundra tires" that would allow us to land on a gravel bar or the bank of the river when we decided where we wanted to fish. We flew low and slow along the course of the river looking for salmon. As we came around one bend a large brown bar stood on the edge of a gravel bar, a good sign that there fish in the river. We also saw a couple of planes and people fishing in the lower reaches of the river. The stream narrowed and the vegetation along the banks of the river became more dense the further upstream we got and finally mike turned the plane back downstream as we searched for a place to land.

Finally, we agreed on a spot where the river narrowed below a bar. We circled to land on the right bank of the river but as we did I spotted something dark in the brush and suggested we look at it again to see if it was a bear; it turned out to be moose bedded down and so we landed.







We quickly pulled our gear from the plane, set up our rods and headed through the brush to the river. We waded down stream and out to the island we hand seen from the air. The water was knee deep between the bank and the island. At the downstream end of the island the river was about 60 feet wide between where we stood and the opposite (left) bank. Mike moved downstream and I worked my way up stream; we were separated by about 100 feet, or so. The idea was to dead drift flesh flies and streamers: cast upstream and across, allow the fly to sink and drift with the current, strip the fly back near the end of the swing and then repeat the process.

Thirty minutes went by quickly with no takes. We changed flies occasionally looking for the right combination. Finally, Mike had a fish on, almost to him, but the hooked pulled; he thought it might have been a rainbow. Another, 30 minutes and still nothing. Then WHAM, something took my fly at the very end of the drift, almost directly downstream from where I was standing. The fish charged up stream, my line rooster-tailing through the water. I wasn't sure what I had but it was fairly heavy fish. Then the fish charged downstream, very close to brush along the bank opposite me. I put pressure on it to keep it out of the brush, and when I did the fish came at me. I backed up as fast as I could, reeling as fast as I could, but I had a pile of slack in front of me and was sure the fish was off. Suddenly the line tightened and the fish headed down stream, still on! I worked my way down and up onto the bar. We did not bring a net and so I planned to beach the fish. Now I could see that it was a nice silver, bright, just out of saltwater. With Mike's help we got the fish onto the bank, snapped a picture and tossed it into the tall grass for safekeeping until we headed back to the plane.



Soon I had another fish on, a silver. It took my fly almost in the same spot as the first one and fought a similar battle. It wasn't long until we had it on the bank and in the grass next to the first salmon. Now it was Mike's turn. He hooked into a silver below me. The fish had more room to run where Mike was standing and it took advantage of that. After about 10 minutes we landed our third fish of the morning. It was now after 11:00A and so we agreed to fish for another 20 minutes and then head back to Anchorage. We both hooked and lost one more silver in the allotted time, then gutted the three fish we had and headed back to the plane.










It wasn't long until were airborne and headed north, back to Anchorage. As we flew over the mouths of the Sustina and Little Susitna Rivers we spotted large pods of Beluga whales pursing schools of salmon headed upstream into those drainages. It had started raining soon after we took off; the rain continued all the home.

Steelhead Back Roads, The Situk River, Alaska, April 2008

On the morning of April 16, 2008 Jason, Mike and I flew from Anchorage to Yakutat, Alaska to try our luck on the Situk River for spring steelheads. Spring was late coming in south central Alaska and there was still a lot of snow on the ground when we arrived in Yakutat. Our plan involved staying in a cabin at Yakutat Lodge, and renting a vehicle to travel between the lodge and the river. There are two points of access to the Situk, one near the mouth and the other at nine-mile bridge. After checking in and being assigned a cabin we sorted out our gear,changed into our waders, rigged our rods and drove toward nine-mile bridge. The weather was cold, overcast and by the time we reached the river snowing.



We split up at the bridge, Mike and I going upstream and Jason downstream. We fished for a couple hours in increasingly heavy snow. With daylight fading Mike and I headed back to the bridge not having had any takes. We fly fish exclusively and release all fish. The Situk River is single hook, artificial lures only. Both of us dead drifted egg patterns using strike indicators. Jason was at the bridge when Mike and I returned and had hooked two steelhead at the tail-out of the pool immediately below the bridge and landed one.



The next morning dawned cold and clear, in the low 20s. We had decided to return to the nine-mile bridge and hike upstream. A compacted trial along the left side of the river lead us to a point upstream where the trail crossed over to the opposite bank. The three of us waded into the river and fished up and slightly downstream of the crossing. After a short time Mike an I followed the trail upstream for about 15 minutes and then fished several pools working our way downstream. The cold air caused the line guides to freeze quickly and so it was necessary to frequently clear the ice. We worked our way downstream toward the crossing and encountered Jason near a pile of logs lying almost completely across the river. It turned out that he had hooked a large steelhead in small pool at the base of a stump that broke him and had seen a second fish. After several minutes without a take we all headed back downstream to a whole just below the crossing. There were two fisherman already at the hole when we arrived and unfortunately we had to stand there and watch them hook three steelhead in about 15 minutes, one of which they landed. We worked past them and then proceeded to fish downstream toward the bridge.




The Situk is a relatively narrow river with numerous log piles in, or partially in, the water and lined on both banks with brush and alders. For that reason it can be a difficult river to fish and even more difficult to land fish if they decide to seek refuge under a log pile or amongst roots along the banks. We waded down the middle of the river working seams along the banks where the steelhead like to hide in the roots and brush that hangs down into the water. The water was about 36F and clear. We came to a large log pile at a 90-degree bend in the river and saw steelhead under logs in places that were impossible to fish. We were back to the bridge by noon without a take except for the fish that broke Jason's line.

Next we drove to the mouth of the river in the hope of intercepting new fish entering the river. The area we fished is an estuary and therefore affected by the tides. The afternoon was warmer and we fished for several more hours without a take. Drift boats which put in at the nine-mile bridge started showing up around 4:00P and the reports were not promising; they too had seen and hooked very few fish. We ended the day batting zero for three rods.

Our strategy for day three was to return to nine-mile and be the first to the hole where we had seen three fish hooked the previous day. We were up early and on the trail by by 6:00A. It was even colder day. We got to hole and waded out into the river between or dozen or so logs in water. The water felt even colder on this day. There was only room for two people to fish the hole so Jason elected to move upstream to the log pile where he hooked up the previous day. I was in the water 5 minutes when my guides were iced up and my reel froze completely. Mike was having the same problems with his gear. Jaison returned and the three of us rotated in the hole for almost two hours without a take.

Cold and disappointed we headed downstream. Mike hiked the trail back to the bridge and Jason and I waded the river. At the downstream log jam where we spotted fish the day before, Jaison found 3-4 large steelhead in a deep pool off the root end of a large spruce tree in the water. Not for the lack of trying, Jason was unable to interest the fish in the various flies he offered. We had been fishing primarily egg patterns, beads and occasionally black leeches.

Mike was at the bridge when we got there and had spotted several steelhead in the deep hole downstream of the bridge. The three of us tried a variety egg patterns and leeches without success. Fishing a deep hole directly under the bridge Jason hooked up with and landed an 8-10 pound dark, hold-over steelhead. He then moved to the right bank of the river at the boat launch and hooked and landed a nice chrome 10-12 pound female. Mike hooked what seemed to be another good fish but the hook pulled out. We were now three days into the trip and I still hadn't had a single take. After another 30 minutes or so without a hit we decided to return to the mouth of the river. It was late in the afternoon, we fished for maybe another hour then called it a day.



Mike left us on day four to return to Anchorage and then to Denver on business. Jason and I decided to return the mouth of the river and hike upstream as far as possible. We followed the trail on river-right as far as it went. It took us about 1.5 hours to reach the end of the trail. The air was noticeably warmer and the skies where still cloudless. The river made what looked like an S-curve and we started fishing in short pool near the midpoint of the bend. The sun was just clearing the tree tops when I lines hit the water. There was large jumble of logs downstream of the pool. We fished the hole together for a while and I then wandered downstream. I was out of sight long when I heard Jason call. Moving back upstream I could see that he was hooked up. The fish fought hard for a several minutes before we tailed a bright 10-12 female steelhead. We then switched locations and I fished the upper pool and Jason moved downstream.





Less than 15 minutes passed and I heard Jason again. This time I scurried downstream to find him with a big steelhead. At first he thought he had snagged the bottom until the fish started to move upstream. Jason worked to keep the fish out of brush along the bank. Suddenly the fish started to move up stream toward a downed tree in the water and in an effort to keep the steelhead from the snag the fish broke off. With that we started working our way downstream.

We traveled about 100 yards and the reached a point too deep wade. We climbed the left bank of the river and then worked away through the woods in deep snow along a long straight pool. Near the midpoint of the pool the height of the bank allowed us a good vantage from which to spot fish and we see 20-25 steelhead scattered about the pool and there had to be others which we couldn't see. Heavy brush made it impossible to fish from the side of the river we were on. We decided to work our way toward the lower end of the pool, then across the river and upstream to a point directly across from where we had observed the fish.



Our position left us in waist deep water amongst a nest of large trees. It took us a while but finally we located the fish near the far bank directly across from us. I had two takes in row and then finally hooked a good size steelhead. I struggled to keep it out of the trees on our side of the river when it turned and ran toward the far bank and then began a series of surface rolls suddenly broke me off. Jason and I hooked 10-12 steelhead in the hole over the next a couple hours landing 4 or 5. I was able to bring two good steelhead to hand, my first of the trip.






The last day of the trip dawned cool and sunny. We had a plane to catch in the evening so this would be a short day on the river. The plan was to retrace our path from yesterday. After breakfast at the lodge I went to start the truck to warm it up only to find a flat tire. Panic set in as I looked through the truck for the tools to change the tire. The jack, lug wrench and spare were all there but no jack handle! After some frantic phone calls we were instructed to use an old van parked in front of the lodge, with the keys in it. We quickly piled our gear into the van and headed back to the mouth of the Situk.

It was long before we were back to the hole where things started happening yesterday. Jason fished the head of the pool and I fished the tail-out. We expected the action to start quickly but it didn't. We tried various egg patterns and leeches but nothing. Finally, after jet boat plowed through the hole on it's way upstream Jason tagged a nice bright female steelhead. Unfortunately I had left my camera at the cabin and Jason's camera fogged up so there are no pictures of our final day of the trip.

We continued to work the pool and the one directly below it. Another fish was hooked in the lower pool but not landed. After about an hour we headed downstream to the pool that had been so prolific the day before. We crossed at the same point and took up our same positions between the jumble of logs but the result was disappointing. The fish were there but the bite was off. We made dozens of casts but no takes. Finally, after about an hour I hooked a good fish. At first I though I had snagged something on the bottom but finally realized it was a steelhead. I was using my 8/9 weight switch rod which has a lot of backbone but the fish was pretty much having its way with me. We had decided the day before that would be very difficult to tail a big fish in our position in the river and that we might have to take it downstream to a gravel bar on the opposite side of the river. After bring the fish into us three time only to have it charge back out into the river I decided to move the fish downstream and to cross over to the opposite bank in the process.

As I started to work down river the fish came with me; I was it waste deep water. Part way to the bar the fish crossed over to the opposite bank and started to take advantage of the current. I river makes a long sweeping bend and gains velocity at this point. Now my fear was that the fish would make a run and that I might not be able to follow it. I put pressure on the steelhead and gained some ground. Jason positioned himself to tail the fish when I got closer. Finally, after another 5 minutes or so the fish tired and we able to land it, a nice chrome 13-14 pound female. The fish was winded and we had to work with it a bit but suddenly it charged back into the current and was on its way.

By now it was time to head back to the lodge. On our way out we started seeing fresh steelhead in the river, groups of 6-10 fish. At one one point we saw 7 or 8 fish holding in about 2 feet of water. Unable to pass up a chance at another steelhead, Jason went down the bank below the fish and, acting as I spotter, I directed him from high up on the bank. After much coaching and several casts Jason's "aeropuff" drifted through the middle of the pod and suddenly the water erupted as one of the fish took the fly. Just out of salt water these steelhead have a lot of spunk. Jason landed the fish as quickly as possible and then took one more steelhead before we hand to start moving again.

We returned to the cabin to pack, shower and check in at the airport. Yakutat Lodge is next to the airport terminal and so burgers and beer at the lodge finished off a great trip. Tired, we both slept on the short plane ride back to Anchorage.

March Maddness, San Juan River, NM 2008

This trip to the San Juan River had been in the planning for some time. An old friend from Alaska, now living in Estes Park, Colorado agreed to meet me at Navajo Dam, New Mexico (there is actually a post office) for a couple of days fishing; I drove up from Silver City, New Mexico. Chris, with Fisheads, was to be our guide for both days. We arrived on February 29th and fished March 1st and 2nd. The plan was to drift the first day and wade the second.

I arrived first, checked into the lodge and then drove down to take a look at the river, which was flowing well above any level I had seen in the past. Further, Simone Canyon was dumping reddish-brown muddy water in the San Juan, the result of local snow-melt. The muddy flow colored the north side of the river downstream for hundreds of yards. I later learned that 3000 cubic feet a second (cfs) of water was being released from the dam to make room for what will be a significant runoff when snow to the north begins to melt in a couple of months. At times, up to 6000 cfs is released, but the high flows normally occur later in the spring and early summer.

Saturday dawned cloudless, blue sky in all directions. We launched the drift boat around 8:30A. There were quite a few boats being launched. Visibility in the water was about 2 feet. We started fishing a yellow egg attractor and a #20 orange larva using standard nymphing techniques, a small split shot about 18 inches above the attractor and a strike indicator 5-6 feet above that. When the water is clearer 6-7x tippets are needed for these leader-shy fish, but with the low visibility 4-5x tippets work fine.

Fishing was slow for the first hour or so then picked up. Because of the high flows there was a lot of "stuff" in the water. We started picking up rainbows and browns -- about one brown for five rainbows -- around 10:00A. There was another lull in the fishing around 2:00P, but overall we had a good day. The weather stayed sunny and the temperature approached 70F. My fishing partner out fished me on day one; he got the most and biggest fish, a 19-20 inch rainbow, and lost an even bigger one in the closing moments of the day.



The temperature dropped over night and it was below freezing when Chris picked us up Sunday morning; it was also windy, a bad omen. The plan was to wade the pools just below the dam. The parking spot is on bluff above the river and there is switch-back path down to river-level that alternated between mud and ice. Once down at river-level we hiked along narrow channels of water running through 10-12 foot high brush. The channels result from water overflowing the banks due to the high flow; so at low flow these are dry. We even encountered rainbows in some of these knee-deep, 2-3 foot wide channels, in some cases we were 200-300 yards from the main river when we encountered them.



The water in the San Juan River is a about 40F year around due to the fact that it comes out of the lake. We spent most of Sunday waste-deep in that 40-degree water, with overcast skies, wind and in the afternoon snow. We used the same flies and techniques as the day before, but from the river rather than a drift boat. Luckily, in the morning the wind was blowing upriver, which made casting less difficult than if it had been blowing downstream. It was not long after I wet my line when I hooked my first fish, but then lost it. I was fishing on the backside of a brush-covered island in the river; my fishing partner was on the opposite side of the same island but the high brush made it impossible to see one another. Chris Taylor worked back and forth between the two of us all morning. I had several other strikes and then hooked and played a a nice rainbow, had it to the net, but lost it.

Chris returned and had me work downstream from where I had been fishing. Shortly after he disappeared to check with my fishing partner I hooked a good fish. It came to the surface initially, stripped line as it headed downstream with the current, and then rolled again on the surface. I could see that it was fairly thick-sided rainbow. I was by myself and so would have to land this fish solo. I got the fish over to the bank along the island where the water was slower and I had a better chance of slipping my net under it. I got the fish close and could see that it was at least 20-inches and was quite wide, a nice rainbow. The first attempt at netting it the fish was out of reach and then turned and took some line. I worked it back again and closer to the bank this time. I finally slipped the net under it, removed the hook, took a couple of quick photos in the net and then released it. It turned out to be the best fish of the trip.



We returned to the truck for lunch and to warm up. I removed ice from my guides all morning and that situation continued for the remainder of the day. We moved up stream after lunch and immediately got into some nice rainbows in driving snow. The fish were stacked up in about 4 feet of water from just near the bank out about 30 feet, or so. They continued to prefer the yellow egg pattern. After an hour or so we moved down stream just below the "cable hole" and got into another bunch of rainbows. On about 5-6 casts I hooked 5 trout. Snow continued to fall and the wind didn't let up; by now it was late afternoon and we were ready to call it day. The hot shower back at the lodge felt very very good. I don't plan on returning to the San Juan until late next fall.

Gila Trout

The Gila trout is native to a small area of west central New Mexico and an adjoining area of Arizona in the White Mountains. It is a cousin of the Apache Trout. Early settlers referred to these trout as "yellow bellies" due their coloration. The US Geographical Survey collected specimens of the Apache trout in 1873 and referred to it as as Colorado River cutthroat trout. The Apache trout have fewer, larger spots than the Gila trout.

By 1967, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serivce listed the Gila trout as endangered, the trouts range had been reduced from several hundred miles of stream to about 20 miles in the Gila Wilderness and Aldo Leopold Wilderness, both in New Mexico. This resulted from loss of habitat, over fishing (in spite of being closed to fishing in the 1950s) and cross breeding and predation by non-native trout. The loss of habit is attributed to cattle grazing, agricultural practices and fires resulting from human activity.

Following the trout being listed as endangered, USFWS began a program of stream restoration, removing non-native trout, restoring and repairing riparian vegetation, and restocking restored streams. However, the Center for Biological Diversity
filed a 60 day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service due to a wholly inadequate Gila Trout Recovery Plan: "The plan completely ignores the effects of grazing on trout habitat. It only provides for down-listing,not de-listing of the species. And finally, the plan focuses on reintroducing Gila Trout to individual headwater streams, whereas the great weight of evidence indicates that only protection of entire watersheds will guarantee continued existence of the Gila Trout."

The species is now more secure than it was in the 1970s, having been moved to 10 new streams, though populations and habitat are still far below those originally established. A limited fishing season has been established in the Gila Wilderness.

Steelhead Back Roads, Northern British Columbia Fall 2007 -- On The Edge of Maddness

I had just returned from four great days of rainbow fishing on the Kvichak River in Bristol Bay, Alaska and already I was thinking about fall steelhead fishing in British Columbia. I was booked for a spring 2008 trip with Gill McKean of West Coast Fishing Adventures out of Terrace, but something was nagging me that I should move the trip up 6 months. I called Gill to see what he had booked and how late he thought we could get fish. We talked about going north and fishing the Bell-Irving and Meziadin Rivers out of Stewart; the best time for me was late October. Gill had a potential client from Sweden that was also interested.

The Swedish client wouldn't commit and in the end I decided to fish by myself for 5 days starting October 23nd; the trip was set. I was to fly to Terrace out of Seattle, Gill would pick me up at the airport and we'd be on our way to Stewart, and that's the way it happened. We arrived in Stewart as it was getting dark, dropped the jet boat off at a friends home and checked into our hotel. After a couple of beers I was ready to call it a night, it had a been a long day and tomorrow would be here soon.

The next morning I met Gill in the restaurant. It was raining hard and as we ate breakfast and waited for our take-out lunches it turned to snow; it started to snow hard. It was still dark when we placed our gear in the truck and headed out of town. There is a long uphill grade as you leave Stewart, a pass, and the snow increased as we gained altitude. Plows had been through some time during the night but driving treacherous even with the big 4-wheel drive turbo diesel. At one point a grizzly crossed the road about 150 yards ahead of us; seemed late for him to be roaming around.

At the junction with 37 we turned south along Meziadin Lake; we were headed for the confluence of the Meziadin and Nass Rivers. The Meziadin is a short river that drains Meziadin Lake, it is clear whereas the Nass River carries a heavy load of silt. At an old logging road we pulled off the highway and dropped down toward the river. It continued to snow and the heavily snow laden alders were bent across the road in front of us. Finally, we reached the end of the road and I could see where the two rivers came together about a 100 yards from the truck.

It was long before the rods were rigged and we were following a path to the river. The water level in the Meziadin was low as we reached the bank of the river and started out into the current. I followed Gill as we worked our way toward the middle of the stream us above where it flowed into the Nass; the clear water of the Meziadin in stark contrast with the muddy Nass. We looked over the pools and Gill instructed me to cast to the seam between the two water colors. I was using my 8/9-weight switch rod with an egg pattern and strike indicator. I watched the line hit the water and followed the strike indicator as it followed the line between the two rivers and then suddenly the strike indicator went under and I was hooked into a good steelhead, on the first cast! At first the fish hung in the current but suddenly it came at me and I struggled to get the slack out. The fish came to the surface, rolled and my line went limp. I just wasn't ready for a fish on the first cast, and I blew the opportunity and I knew it. On the other hand I thought, wow, there must be a lot of fish here.




An hour later, I still hadn't had another take. We moved around a little, and changed egg patterns but nothing. Gill decided to move upstream so we hiked back to the truck retracing our drive in and then turning onto another logging road and down to a bridge that crossed the river. The river below the bridge fell-off rapidly in a series of rapids a rather sharp bend to the left; above the bridge was a long, wide pool 4-6 feet deep that looked promising. I moved up the left bank and out into the pool and started drifting egg patterns. A half hour later I returned to the truck to eat lunch.

After lunch I crossed the river and took a position on the right bank below the bridge. The river narrowed here and the current was fast. There was a deep seem in front of me and I cast upstream as far as possible to allow the egg to sink before hitting the hole. There was not much room to move down stream due to overhanging vegetation and the manner in which the bottom dropped off. I must have made 20-30 casts when suddenly I had a strike and hooked the fish. It had the current behind it as line started to peel off my reel, the fish jumped clear of the water and threw hook. It was over almost as fast as it started. I continued to work the hole for a while and then moved up above the bridge. The day ended steelhead 2, fly fisher 0.






The next day started cold and clear. We retraced the previous days footsteps and started at the confluence of the rivers. After a hour or so, not a take. We tried swinging some flies and still nothing. I went back to egg patterns and finally had a strike almost at my feet, it felt like a good fish but suddenly it was off and I was batting 0 for 3. After another 30 minutes or so and no take we moved back upstream, fished above and below the bridge without success and then had lunch. Tracks in the snow suggested that others had been to this spot earlier in the day. After lunch we crossed the bridge and drove to what looked like an old trail that paralleled the river. It was well above the river. Finally, we dropped of the trail and into the woods. The trailed ended up across from where we had been fishing in the morning. There was a large deep pool on this side of the river and it was immediately clear that if a hooked fish was allowed to leave the pool there would be no way of stopping it the turbulent water that rimmed the area. That didn't turn out to be problem because after an hour we didn't a single take decided to hike back to the truck and return to Stewart.

On day three we decided to move up the Casiar Highway to the Bell-Irving. This required the jet boat which we retrieved after breakfast. Cold and clear again as we pulled out of Stewart. As we headed north on the Casiar the mountains were heavy with fresh snow. The drive took about 1.5 hours on extremely icy roads; at one point a tractor-trailer lay on its side in a ditch. We came to a spot where the Bell-Irving was close to the highway and pulled off the road and down to the river at spot that appeared to be used to launch boats. Another guide with 3 clients pulled in almost behind us. They had fished this section of the river earlier in the week and landed one fish for 3 rods. They launched first and headed downstream, we followed and went upstream. The river was fairly low and log jams eventually blocked our progress. We beached the boat and waded upstream. We fished various holes for over an hour without any takes and then returned to the boat. We drift and fished from the boat, pasted the launch point and continued downstream. We saw several fresh bear tracks along the way.


We fished several stretches of river downstream without success. The clear morning turned to overcast and remained cold with occasional flurries. Discouraged we returned to the truck, pulled the boat from the river and motored back to Stewart.

That evening Gill and I decided to return to Terrace and do some late season coho fishing and to try for steelhead in streams along the way . The next morning we pulled out of Stewart and headed south. Me made three stops along the way but I luck didn't change; no steelheads. We pulled into Terrace late afternoon had and early dinner and I checked into a motel.

The next morning Gill picked me up a daybreak and we headed west toward Prince Rupert. Highway 16 follows the right bank of the Skeena River. At the Exchamsiks we pulled into a parking lot and launched the jet boat under the bridge. For almost an hour we ran up the valley which is lined by spectacular peaks with hanging glaciers and waterfalls. The weather was heavy overcast and raining.



The Exchamsiks snakes back and forth up the valley. Visibility in the water is excellent although the water is the color of dilute tea. The air temperature was considerably warmer than the past 4 days. We saw several groups of coho; the plan was not to stop, but to fish our way downstream. We went as far up the river as possible by jet boat and then got out to wade in a long deep pool. We tried a variety flies and caught one Dolley Varden and several white fish on egg patterns but no coho. We moved downstream where we spotted some coho earlier and I switched to clouser and finally hooked a good coho and then a second one shortly thereafter. The fish were still fairly bright considering how late it in the season. I hooked and released one more coho, a dark male, before we called it day and the end of my first fall steelhead trip.



I was disappointed that I had hooked 3 steelhead but failed to bring any to the net and Gill was generally disappointed in the number of steelhead we encountered. Commercial fishing near the mouth of the Skeena River earlier in the season had taken it's toll on the summer/fall steelhead return with the result that many guides had moved north in search of fish. That combined with evidence that individuals were using bait in the Meziadin (illegally) may have impacted that fishery, but for whatever reason the fish just weren't there. In spite of all that it was a fun trip and I will definitely do it again.

Kvichak Magic 2007

Probably the best rainbow trout fishing in the world is found around Bristol Bay, Alaska near the head of the Alaska Peninsula. The rainbows exist because of the salmon that return to spawn in the rivers that feed into Bristol; they return by the millions. The rainbows thrive on the eggs, flesh and frey of the salmon. The Kvichak is one of best salmon and rainbow rivers in the region; it flows from Lake Iliamna to Bristol bay, a distance of about 60 miles. The best rainbow fishing is in the "braids" near the head of the river just downstream from the village of Igiugig.

Several members of AlaskaFlyFish.Net traveled to the Kvichak the last week of September 2007 in the pursuit of rainbow trout; I was one of the group. Planning for the trip started in the fall of 2006. The plan called for 4-8 days of fishing, essentially two 4-day windows; I was in the first nine-man group. We stayed at Blueberry lodge, which is situated on an island about 2 miles downstream from Igiugig. The braids are about 2 miles below the lodge.

Our group (nine) flew from Anchorage to Igiugig, a 1.5 hour trip. We departed Merrill Field at daybreak in a Navajo Chieftain, flew south and west across Cook Inlet,and then up through Lake Clark Pass. The Pass is the preferred route to Lake Clark when weather permits. The flight through the pass is up narrow canyons well below the surrounding peaks. Rivers flow through the canyons and we saw several brown bears on the gravel bars and in the water in their search for salmon. There was a lot of turbulence in the the canyons. The weather was overcast and flew through several rain squalls. We flew along the north shore of Lake Clark, over the village of Nondalton and then along the north shore of Lake Iliamna. As we approached the community of Iliamna the plane turned out across the lake toward Igiugig. As we approached Igiugig the plane made a wide, slow turn, I could see the Kvichak, braids to the south and the village on the south side of the river. The plane touched down and we taxied to the terminal where we were greeted by the owner of Blueberry Lodge and another member of our group that had flown in the day before in his private plane. It was raining when we climbed out of the plane.




Our gear was unloaded from the plane and placed in a waiting pickup truck. The group walked from the airstrip to the river where the gear was loaded in waiting boats for the 20-minute trip downstream to Blueberry Lodge. We unloaded the boats, picked our rooms and started getting ready for the afternoons fishing; the rain continued. The lodge owner lodge gave us a brief orientation, showed us the braids on an aerial photo and discussed what flies were working for the rainbows; beads had been working earlier but flesh flies were starting to be more productive. After a hurried lunch we were anxious to get on the river.

We used three boats with three to boat; this allowed two of us to fish while one rowed when we drifted. The boats raced downstream one behind the other; I fished with John and Mike. The water is crystal clear with a bottom predominantly of gravel, cobbles and some sand. As we approached the braids the boats split up in different channels of the river. It was over cast and raining when we started our first drift. We all started by dead drifting beads, a 6-8mm bead held in place about 2 inches above an egg hook, then a couple of split shoot about 18 inches above that and finally a strike indicator near the top of the leader. These rainbows are not leader shy and so 8-13 pound tippets are commonly used. We made a couple of drifts around the top of an island to a spot where there was a steep drop off. We picked up a couple of greyling but no rainbows.


From there we moved to a narrow channel between the island and the main bank of the river and waded several pools as we worked our way downstream. Toward the bottom of the channel where it re-entered one of the main channels we connected with several nice rainbows. These fish hit hard and fought hard. One of the their tactics was to race downstream and then do a 180 and come back at you jumping. During the next few days several nice rainbows gained their freedom that way!


After the hole quieted down we moved back toward the top of the braids and the main channel of the river and started a drift. The sky remained dark and threatening The river was 6-8 feet deep with a fairly strong current. We hadn't gone far when John hooked into a good fish and Mike eased the boat toward the bank so that John could get out to fight it. The rainbow took John almost into his backing, using the current to it's advantage. Slowly John worked the fish into shallower water and Mike was able to get the net under it. John definitely had the hot hand on day one!


We climbed back into the boat and continued our drift downstream. This was a day of exploration and learning the river. In the remaining hours several more rainbows were landed and we felt pretty positive about our prospects for the next few days. We only saw a couple of other boats that afternoon; this late in the season, the few lodges in the area are in the process of closing and so we had the river pretty much to ourselves. That evening at Blueberry Lodge we learned that that two 29-inch rainbow had been landed by an individual in one of the other boats.





Over the course of the next several days the weather was cold, clear, windy, rainy, sometimes all in one day. Rainbows were taken on beads, flesh flies, leaches, sculpins and streamers. The biggest rainbows included a 31, 2-29s and 28 inch fish. Numerous fish were landed between 25 and 27 inches. Pound for pound these are the hardest fighting freshwater fish I have ever caught. The following is a photo montage from the trip, it enjoy it: