Alaska
Well, it has been a while since I have added to this blog due to fishing trips including trips to Bailey Creek Lodge(more on this trip later) and Alaska. Hopefully, I will be more attentive from now on!
Pat and I have just arrived back from a two week trip to Alaska; a combination fly fishing, photography and sight seeing expedition. Pat’s requirements for this trip included seeing grizzly bears along with fishing for trout and sockeye salmon. She more than fulfilled her requirements!

Copper River Fresh Run Sockeye
The first week of the trip we spent at Legend Lodge in Intricate Bay on Lake Iliamna, fishing the Copper and Gibraltar Rivers. We arrived at the lodge late due to low flight ceiling levels that would not allow the float plane to land. We did arrive early in the afternoon, however, and were promptly hustled into jet boats for the ride to the Copper. The Sockeye had just started migrating into the river the prior day and a short ride up the Copper put us into schools of “Red’s” as the salmon are commonly known. As most fly tying anglers are inclined to do, I had tied a lot of “recommended” flies. The guide took one look at at them, shook his head, and tied on a #4 hook with gold dumbbell eyes, no body, and a hunk of orange glo-bug yarn. The same thing happened to Pat! We were instructed to cast over the line-up of fish and slowly draw the flies through them. If a fish hit, we set the hook hard toward the bank and then the fight was on (Slight digression here, as we just had to remove a rattlesnake from under the foundation!). I had heard that Sockeye salmon would not hit a fly and that you had to guide the fly into their mouth. Wrong! I spent time sitting on a grass bank, out of sight, watching salmon swim by less than 10 feet away and casting the fly into the schools. Aggressive fish (one out of every five) would attack the fly when it got within a foot of them. Some of the fish would go so far as to turn and take the fly as it passed behind them. We caught a lot of salmon but, frankly, after the first few it was pretty easy, so Pat and I went trout hunting with the other jet boat and guide, leaving the “Reds” to the guys that wanted to fish for them.
The Copper, one of Trout Unlimited’s 100 best trout streams, is a beautiful river with spruce, willows and grasses along the banks. There are many gravel bars and most of the lower river is easily wadable, even for old dudes, and it is full of rainbows, char and the occasional grayling.

Grizzly with salmon
The first and second days of the trip were the best for catching larger trout. There were multiple rainbows in the 19 to 22 inch range with a lot of smaller fish in the 14 to 18 inch bracket. As the sockeye continued to pour in and began to fill up the river, they dislodged the resident trout from their normal lies forcing them to the banks. It takes a while for the rainbows to acclimate to the change and while the fishing was good the rest of the trip, the fish size decreased into the 12 to 16 inch range. Later in the week, we saw numerous rainbows over 24 inches huddled along the banks but they didn’t seem to be interested in eating. I would like to take this trip again in early June or early September, when the rainbows are not being disturbed by migratory fish. However, this trip was set-up with the prime purpose of seeing grizzly bears up close and personal. Boy, was that achieved!
This trip was very different from fly fishing here in California. A lot of the fly fishing at this time of year is dry fly fishing, one of my favorite occupations. One of the flies that Jack Johnson, the lodge owner, recommended that I tie up was a red-bodied Adam’s in sizes #12 to #14. Against my better judgement, I tied up five dozen in the various sizes and was I glad, as probably 80% of the fish we caught on dry flies (rainbows and char) ate that pattern. I probably have less than a half dozen left!
The other thing that threw me was that, for the most part, dead drifting a dry didn’t work very well. These fish wanted the fly skating across the river. There were some terrific strikes on this technique. At times, you couldn’t let the fly hang down river as you did something else, because a fish would promptly hammer the fly. Stimulators, elk hair caddis, and Goddard caddis all worked well using this technique.
Indicator nymphing with big stonefly nymph patterns and small droppers didn’t work all that well. We did pick up a few fish, but dries were the most consistent rainbow takers.
Pat and I also used articulated leaches, regular leeches and wooly buggers in sizes #4 and #6 in black, black and purple, and purple. Both the rainbows and the char nailed the leeches and wooly buggers. I did try a small leach pattern in brown with a red glass bead head developed by Don Liljeblad for the Lower Yuba. Unfortunately, the Sockeyes found it irresistible!

Grayling, Gibraltar River, Alaska
We did take a trip over to the Gibraltar later in the week. Unfortunately, the river had flooded out over the spring leaving a big log jam above the mouth and very little fishable area. Pat and I walked upstream and caught a few grayling on dries while the “boys” caught salmon in the lower pools. We didn’t spend much time there as the wind came up and Lake Iliamna began to get big waves, so we took off in the jet boat for a rough ride back to the Copper for the rest of the fishing day.
Well, there were plenty of bears to see. Late on first afternoon, we were chased off the riffle and pool area we were fishing for salmon by a sow and her four cubs (I am not sure if the word late is correct. This is definitely the land of the midnight sun. It stayed light enough to read outside until after midnight, perhaps beyond, but I was sleeping). We saw bear along the river every day we were there and most were what I call close encounters. I can’t say that we felt any danger with the exception perhaps of the first afternoon’s encounter when it was obvious that “Mom” wanted us out of her water. Even then, no rifles were uncased because she only threatened us by just slowly walking toward us leaving us plenty of time to get to the boat. As the week progressed, the bears became much less concerned about the people, because they were able to fish and eat all night. By the end of the week, the younger ones would quickly disappear into the brush as we approached. Needless to say, I got a lot of great bear photos!

Dall Sheep, Denali National Park
The last part of the trip we spent in Denali National Park, the site of Mount McKinley. Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions (low ceilings and rain) we joined the crowd of 80% of the people who don’t see the mountain on their visit. Pat & I didn’t get any fishing in during this part of the trip, however, we did get to see all of the big five mammals in Denali ( Caribou, Grizzly Bear, Dall Sheep, Moose and Wolves).















