Going north.

It seemed like a long shot, but it looks like I've got a week of fishing in Alaska after all. KK started a thread a couple months ago about who's fishing in Alaska this year, and I mentioned that I wasn't able to arrange it pre-season due to some other things, but was considering calling or e-mailing around to see if anyone had a solo opening or cancelation. Within a few days I got an email from someone in Alaska who read about it here, and he had an opening for next week. Managed to coordinate nearly last minute air travel, so I'm going north Sunday night for a week of trout fishing. I've tied up some olive, black, and purple sculpins, woolley buggers, egg-sucking leech patterns and some deer hair mice in case the ultimate fun breaks out. I left all my remaining flies like that with the guides in Kamchatka last summer, and all my DEET since they wear it like cologne. Got a big box of dries and a few yarn egg flies. The guide has lots of beads if we have to resort to that, which is good as I don't have any and haven't used them, but I guess they're like the yarn puff balls.

Got the 5, 6, 7 wt and Spey Tracker little Spey rod ready to rumble; Hardys oiled; leader tippet from OX to 6X (highly selective grayling, maybe?); waders; all the important stuff it looks like.

Got extra memory card for the digital camera, so I'll post photos to the Salmo page when I get back.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Awesome! have a great trip and bring back some killer pics.....man I'm jealous!

So your taking the "Chum Tracker"

Good Luck up there!

I got back from fishing the Kenai about a week ago. I managed to take a day and flyfish the upper river for trout. I had the time of my life up there. I wish I could go back. I'm jealous.

H2H,

Grrrrr; the Spey Tracker ain't for chum!! On the other hand, one may reasonably ask what the heck it is for, since I've had it since last fall and only hooked a couple small steelhead on it. I am over-geared and under-fished. No more new fishing tackle for me until I get out more and use the stuff I already have. Seriously tho, a lot of those trout streamers are cone heads or have lead eyes, and I think the Spey Tracker will cast them a lot more comfortably than any of the single handers, including my 7 wt.

Vic,

I can appreciate the dynamic tension of having to choose what to fish for while in Alaska. Much as I'd like to catch some salmon, and hope some day to try for sockeye on flies, I realized that for a one week trip, I'd much rather spend my time fly fishing than chucking lead or bait, and I don't get trout fishing like that around here. With a little luck, I may develop enough of an understanding to regularly plan trout fishing trips to Alaska that I can mix with a day or two of salmon fishing. I'll report how this one pans out.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Salmo:

I've been lookin forward to a report. How did ya do up there?

Vic,

The trip was wonderful, and the trout fishing was too good to be true. Lots in the 16-20" range, and landed a 29", 9# rainbow on the McVey 5 wt. bamboo. That was quite the initiation rite.

For some reason, most of my photos were under-exposed, so I've had to brighten the exposure on the majority of them. It's almost done, and I'll load them to the Alask album on the Salmo page this week, I hope. I'll post here when it's ready for viewing.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Awesome! I look forward to seeing them.

OK, got the photos uploaded. If I'm lucky, here's the hotlink. If not, copy it and click, then go to pictures and the Alaska 05 album.

http://groups.msn.com/salmopage

Hope you enjoy the photos. I'll have more next month, since not all my pics were taken with my camera.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Very nice !!!!

How did the "Chum Tracker" do ?

H2H,

Still saving the ____ Tracker; never took it out of the rod tube. Seldom cast over 40 feet, so I fished with my 8' 5 wt McVey split cane rod most of the week.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

What an awesome trip!

JoJo and are planning a trip similar to yours. Any advice, recommendations or tid bits you would be willing to share would be greatly appreciated.

It looks like you had the same idea that we had. We thought it would be better to float one of the smaller tribs on a Bristol Bay stream, to avoid lodge traffic.

Looking at your pictures has got me all pumped up. Hurry up August 06!!!

Salmo all your shots were amazing, but my fave was the big grayling with the rodent fly in his mouth........I had no idea they ate mice. Very cool!

Vic,

Email me, and I'll happily share some details. Justin will be planning at least 4 trips again next year. These are low or modest budget, as you can see we camped pretty rustic or primitive. He's exploring the less popular waters, meaning less accessible, so less big lodge traffic, and you might have to work some, but it can make for a stellar trip. If you don't have inside information, as I didn't, it's really helpful to have someone like Justin who knows a whole lot about the region.

Mingo,

I had no idea grayling ate mice either. However, from what I gather, one doesn't often catch grayling larger than about 16". Did I mention that 16" was probably the smallest grayling we caught? That big face shot grayling was 20", and Luke caught one 24", which might be approaching record class for all I know.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

OMG! that may have been a tippet class record at the very least!!! if I ever get up there I"m taking my video camera. how would you compare that trip to Kamchatka???

Mingo,

Hard to compare this Alaska trip to Kamchatka. More like contrasts. The Alaska trip was less remote - less than one hour by floatplane to D'ham. The camping was more primitive, but then the Russian camps were set up to be attractive to American tourist anglers. Plus we had beer and vodka in the Russian camps. We were weight restricted by the Beaver airplane, so no beer, only my hip flask of Scotch for the whole week. Like I said, it was rustic. The fishing was every bit as good as Kamchatka, and better by some measures, with trout, grayling, and pike in my catch. In Kamchatka I caugt rainbows and khundza, the white spotted char, that is related to Dolly Varden. I did catch a couple Alaska trout that were larger than the largest I caught in Kamchatka, but really, trout size is comparable, and will vary according to specific location in either Alaska or Kamchatka. In both places, the mouse was a very, very good bait to have. Oh, and the Alaska trip was less than 1/4 the cost of the Kamchatka trip. I've no regrets about either trip and would be happy to repeat either, but my travel budget won't allow me to visit Kamchatka on a regular basis. It was the trip of my lifetime unless I win the lottery or something.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Hey guys, I've added a bunch more photos to the Alaska album. If you're interested in total fish porn, click the link in the earlier post and follow those instructions.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Holy smokes! Those under water pictures are cool! What did you use to take those?

Vic,

I think Justin's digital camera is a Sony. But he's got a wide angle lens and a watertight case for it.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.