Alaska Bound

Tomorrow I make the ride to ALASKA for some fishing for Salmon and Trout.I'll check in later when I have something to report.

Travel safe and have a great trip.

Hope you brought a good net man , I'm sure the master salmon slayer is gonna need one, lol.
Have a great trip and you well deserve the adventure.

Enjoy the trip. I went in '13 and absolutely had a blast.

Sunday was a so so day with Chum salmon and a few small trout.The river was loaded with Sockeye but they don't hit so very few were "hooked".Today was a taste of what I came up here for.Landed several Kings in the 40# range and some smaller 15-20# fish.By the middle of the afternoon I was beat! We were fishing on the high tide and these Kings were fresh out of the salt so they really pull when they fight.We were fishing from a boat and the river is wide and open so the fish could really run.Tomorrow will be a new adventure but today will be hard to beat.

How about how hard those kings pull!! Way to go on that 40. It's a little early for the really big trout but you should get into some 20"s. With most of the first runs over, those trout will be gorging on carcasses. Flesh flies and single eggs patterns should blast em. Are you doing any salt? Nothing like filling the freezer up with halibut and lingcod. Tear'em dude.

Have a Great time just don't bring my X back!! She's north of Anchorage by 40 minutes!

Cruises through Southeast with stops in Ketchikan mostly offer fly out fishing packages for salmon, and boat trips for halibut .
 
If you want to fish and not pay an arm and a leg ($600+), hop a cab in Ketchikan and head out to Ward Creek and Lake.
 
Having been all over Alaska from SE,Valdez,  Kenai Cook Inlet, Dutch and Aleutian chain, upwards to St. Paul.
 
I have learned two things:
1. No such thing as bad weather, on bad clothing
2. There is really no good fishing in Alaska, only CATCHING

I been advised but not yet decided to fly in and do a land sea package. Start with the land first then rest on the sea later. Another thing was , rain gauges are by the foot not the inch. In some area expect rain every day . Denali is also a must .

Thanks Ak- skim, can't believe I just said that but yes , helpful tips are always helpful.

Welcome back Jack.
Typically around 7pm -9pm is a good time for me unless it's a fri or Saturday.

Well now that I'm back home I can give a report on my trip.As was mentioned earlier it's not fishing in Alaska it is "catching".We were fishing the Kanektok river in SW Alaska near Bethel.We traveled up and down river in jet boats.The camp was about one mile up river from the salt so alot of the Salmon were fresh run and very frisky.Most of the time we used gaudy streamers,pink was the hot color,and swung the fly in the current.When the King and Chum Salmon hit the fly it was usually a very hard take,contrary to the Salmon river,and then you hung on until the initial drag screaming run was over and then the hard work of bringing the fish to hand began.The large Kings,35 t0 40+ lbs probably took about 20-30 minutes to land and you were hurting at the end.I had the pleasure of hooking into several of those beasts one morning and at the end of that time I was ready for a break as my right arm,hand,and side of my body was BEAT!I knew nothing about Chum salmon before but they are willing takers,hard fighting with some great leaps and strong runs.They are not as large as the KIngs(average 10-20#) but will wear you out as there are a lot of them and they are constantly smashing your streamer.The other Salmon that was running was the Sockeye,we caught a few of them but there were thousands of them running up river,when they ran shallow water the water would churn because of the number of them.We were too early for the Coho(silvers).The guides in camp had no clue on how to fish for the Sockeye until the end of the week when one of the guests decided to use much smaller flies (nympths) and they caught many,many on that day and had a ball as the Sockeye is also a great fighter.
The other fish present were Rainbows and Dolly Vardens.The rainbows are year round residents and the Dollys migrate in from the salt.We were too early for the vibrant color of the Dollys but they looked like big brookies.One day we went way up river and fished for trout.I had a blast catching Rainbows on top with a mouse pattern,the only negative was that they were not very large,10"-15" with a couple 20+,but they all fought and jumped a lot. Overall the fishing (catching) was great,the camp was good,but not great.some negatives were there were too many other people around and we saw very little wildlife.Saw no bears but plenty of tracks,only one Bald eagle was seen but not by me,but did see a couple of beavers and a mink or two.Glad I went but also glad the travel part is over,I hate air travel!
When I figure out how to post pictures will do so but will be awhile as I have a bunch of things to take care of.

Great story. Thank you for sharing.

Never been to AK. Now you make me want to go.

Well the storms locally last night gave me something to do today,saw up the tree that fell across my driveway.It's a large black walnut tree that snapped halfway up and landed across the driveway,as if I did n't have enough to do
The job is done,took me longer than expected because I got the saw stuck in the tree twice due to pressure from the way the tree was lying on the ground.