This past summer I experienced the life of a guide in one of the most famous fly-fishing destinations in the world, Bristol Bay. For most coldwater fly fisherman this is on the to do dream list and for good reason. Fly fishing for all 5 salmon, Steelhead sized rainbows, Aggressive char as well as world record grayling all in view of spectacular wildlife and scenery. So to spend a summer there seeing what people save money for years to see all while getting paid is awesome. Everyone knows that guiding is not all fun, long hours, cleaning fish and boats, dealing with nasty weather or dissapointed clients can suck but seeing a client catch his first fish on the fly or an experienced fly fisherman catch the 30 inch bow he’s been dreaming of makes up for it big time. I can’t tell you how many big fish I saw clients catch but we won’t be telling client stories because I did get to do some fishing myself. Guides do get day off up here and do get to fish contrary to other reports but you have to really want to. In other words many of your fishing opportunities will be after a hard days guiding at night! I got enough fishing in to have some great stories and 3 of them really stood out, here they are… First Fish On A Spey Rod: 40 Pound King Salmon

It’s early June and I have already caught a few 20-inch bows the night before right in front of the lodge and this night I have two things on my mind. King Salmon and a Spey Rod. Mostly Spey because although a few kings have been caught on the Naknek river it’s been real slow fishing for the back trollers which is a much more effective technique than fly fishing for Kings on these big and fast rivers. I head out at about 7 in the evening after work and plan on fishing till about 10 pm. I could fish till 3am if I wanted to but I unfortunately I had to work in the morning. While in the boat I thought that hooking a fish or even just catching a small 10 to 15 pound King would be awesome because the Run is still a few weeks from the peak and the Naknek doesn’t get many Kings for it’s size compared to other rivers. 15,000 is a good run compared to other similarly sized rivers such as the Kenai which gets 60,000 Kings and the Nushagak which gets 250,000 kings (we have a camp on the nush, it’s King salmon heaven!) So I know I need Lady Luck on my side. The best spot by far in my mind is a bank straight downstream from the mouth of a tributary that flows into the river. A good amount of Kings spawn in the trib and although you can’t fish the mouth (they close it to protect the fish) they do work their way close to the fore mentioned bank. I ease the jet boat on shore and string up the 15 foot 10 weight sage Spey rod. I have never Spey casted with a Spey rod on the water but have on grass and on the water with single-hand fly rods. The first hour I have no hits and haven’t seen a fish but I wasn’t bored, I was too busy concentrating on my spey casting! I eventually was getting it out there far enough for my satisfaction, in reality I know some of the fish come close enough to catch with a single hand 9-foot rod but I love learning new things. Finally something breaks my concentration on casting. A boat back trolling plugs hooks a fish 150 feet out from me and gives me hope. About 5 minutes later as the fly, a big pink Alaskabou at the end of 3 feet of leader and the densest sink tip Rio makes quarters downstream of me something hits. It’s unmistakably a hit but soft enough to make me think that it could be an aggressive bow or char but as soon as I lay the wood in hope that it’s a king I realize it’s not only a king but also a big one at that! After a few head shakes the fish takes off downstream and I follow. Now there is a good reason when fishing for big kings or rainbows from shore on the 100 to 250 yard wide naknek that you always fish above your boat! I eventually make it to the boat, lifted the anchor and pull out while the fish is already 100 yards from me and turning a corner. I follow the fish that is now about 150 yards from me and then the fish stops the run and starts to bulldog. King Salmon are not like the acrobatic bow or Coho but more like a big brown, they stay deep. While I am drifting I make up ground even though the fish makes a few more sizzling 20 to 40 yard runs. I eventually get him close enough to where I think I can fight him from shore. Landing him in the net while operating the boat with a spey rod in hand would be tough and besides I will have no problem dragging him on shore because I do like fresh salmon! I power the boat on shore pretty good so I don’t have to worry about throwing out the anchor. And I get the tired fish to the surface and from there drag him in without resistance. I look at the fish lying in the sand and contemplate what just happened. I never timed the fight but from the feeling of my right arm it was at least an hour tug of war. Some people dislike kings especially in the northeast. They can get in the way of more traditional fly rod quarry such as steelhead and many times in the smaller great lake tribs are colored up and tired so they don’t fight as much as you would think. Up here kings are respected by all, although silvers or rainbows may be preferred by Alaskan fly fisherman because they lend themselves better to a fly there is no question that a big chrome king in a fast flowing river is the strongest salmonid in north America. Fly-fishing for kings is not about delicate accurate casts in small rivers but heavy sloppy casts in big deep water. It’s not about leaps and moments of splashing and runs like other fish it’s about hours of screaming runs, bulldogging, sweat and bloody knuckles. It’s big game hunting pure and simple!

Of mice and big rainbows

Dry fly fishing for rainbows is an overlooked aspect in the last frontier, especially by visitors. Sure the fish are not quiet as larger as they are in the fall and the action isn’t as hectic as in the spring but early July Dry fly fishing in Alaska is equal to anywhere in the world in terms of numbers of big fish to be had. I found this out first hand on a trip to Brooks River in Katmai National Park. I was going to get to fish for 5 hours on the number one bear viewing river in the world. If you have ever seen the pictures of those bears catching fish mid air on the waterfall, that’s Brooks River. It’s by no means a remote location for a fly into river, gift shops, a bar and viewing platforms are made to accommodate the thousands of bear viewers who come through each year. I had already been to the falls several times and seeing 20 brown bears in such a small area never gets old but my mind is on trout. I start fishing at the outlet of the river; the river is only about a mile long and flows out of Brooks Lake into Naknek Lake. I know this is dry fly season so the first fly I put on is a size 10 Elk Hair Caddis and wade to the middle of the river. There are so many sockeye now that most of the rainbow s hang along the banks. I start working the far bank and almost immediately a 17-inch healthy rainbow Sips the caddis and jumps 3 times and takes some line. These fish in here are robust and strong and the girth on some of these 16 to 20 inch bows is amazing and as a result they fight like a ton of bricks. I continue to work my way down and am catching 16 to 23 inch fish like they are going out of style. Each one full of fight and each one beautiful, from chromers to the darker ones that have been in the river longer. I eventually come to a bend and look downstream to a very fast straight away I know holds more big fish than any other part of the river. So I put on the big fish dry fly (big fish are 25 to 28 on the brooks, not many 30 inchers) the mouse. I wade carefully to a overhanging tree and after a few cast to gauge I lay the mouse as far under the tree as possible and when it drifts smack under the middle of the spruce I make short fast strips and through my Polarized glasses see a big buck rainbow come and hit that mouse hard. It’s jaws were like something from a horror movie. As soon as I set the hook I apply maximum pressure so he doesn’t get into a nearby logjam, it works and instead he takes off downstream like a freight train. On this part of the river it’s not smart to follow fish for a long way. It’s a straight stretch so even though it’s fast it’s better to stay put in the very fast water that flows over slick rock. I basically hold on till the fish is about 70 yards from me. The fish makes a few jumps way out there and then just holds in the current. This is a big fish in fast water so I know I must ease him in slowly. I carefully real him in, it takes about 10 minutes until he’s in the net. The fish is 27 inches and about 9 pounds, a very fat rainbow for this river it has the body shape of a big buck silver. I pop out the big mouse and revive him till he swims off to the same tree I hooked him at! The next 4 fish are all 25 or 26 inches and all fight like the 27 incher, after that I’m disappointed at the 20 to 22 inch fish I’m catching but eventually tell myself to stop being a spoiled brat. Finally I know I must head back to the plane and take off. It wasn’t hard after a day like that, I did tons of damage and was 100 percent satisfied!

20 pound rainbow: the fish of 2 lifetimes
Big rainbows drive and sustain many die-hard Alaskan fly fisherman such as myself. The mystique, size and power of Alaskan Rainbows may be unparalleled. Pound for pound These steelhead sized silver bullets fight harder than any other fish I have gone after, including steelhead. Because of there size, raging metabolism when they are gorging 24/7 for a month and the current the 30 inchers inhabit going after them with anything less than an 8 weight with 150 to 200 yards of backing is suicide. This is what I was thinking when I was driving the jet boat to the section of the Nakenk knows as the rapids. It’s about a 20-minute drive in the flat bottom boat powered by an 80 hp Yamaha jet. I finally get there with about 2 hours to fish and start casting by the red counting shack and immediately saw a couple of rainbows as I shut the motor off and started to drift. I cast about 40 feet off the bow to a group of King salmon and the fly, a 6 inch articulated flesh fly made for the big uns, drifted for about 5 seconds and then my indicator shot upstream and I set the hook. As soon as I set the hook, I knew this was maybe the biggest fish I have ever hooked, at least 15 pounds for sure. The feeling of the weight told some of the story but the dead give away was the fish peeling off line, upstream! This only happens with really big fish and they are the only ones strong enough to move that fast up the strong current while hooked. After about a 50 yard run the fished jumped once and then did some tail walking. Oh my god I thought, this one could be 20 pounds. It then started to come down river fast, I stripped line like a madman to keep the line tight and made sure the line didn’t get caught on the boat. I looked down and saw the fish and then it took off towards the fastest part of the rapids, which because of the wind had some serious waves. This is going to be tough I thought, I would have to turn the motor on and fight the fish while making sure the bow of the boat is quartering into the waves. Luckily when I got to that section the fish didn’t get too far away. It was still tough as this wasn’t an open tiller operated boat, it was operated by steering wheel and there was a windshield to contend with when the fish was in front of the bow. I followed the fish down for about another 45 minutes, he made a few runs and spectacular jumps but for the most part the fish just stayed close to the boat and wouldn’t budge. It was a game of who would break first. I know that the hook could come out any moment but I would have to take my time till the fish was ready. I remember passing some other boats and hearing words of encouragement. Normally I would beach the boat to land a fish like this but the fish becomes tired right near a canyon section of fairly fast water. I will have to be quick. I don’t want to pull him out of the net for a picture as I hate that, seen too many people drop slippery fish in the boat and then release a doomed fish. Plus I still need to control the boat so I don’t crash! I finally, after almost an hour, get the fish in the C&R net. I measure him real fast and the result is 35” by 21.5”. I then see I have a little time and grab my camera to take a picture in the net I fumble around and drop the camera in the net and in the water, noooooooo! I quickly pull out the camera, which is fried, and release the fish, which surprisingly shoots off like he was unfazed. At first I was kind of disappointed that I lost a whole bunch of pictures but then the memory of that fish turned my frown upside down. As I calculated the lengths, I found it was indeed a 20-pound fish, just barely! A 20-pound rainbow had always been my number one goal, I thought what do I do now, that was until I heard about the 36 x 24 bow caught on the Kenai. Uh oh, new goal, better get fishing!