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[bulldog1935]

I was corresponding with a friend last week about fly fishing warmwater, coldwater, and saltwater. Each needed a separate essay,
and I made Alaska an essay of its own, as well. So I though I'd copy it here.
As always, to get a good photo, shoot 50.

Alaska - you leave part of yourself in Alaska, and you take part of Alaska with you - fair trade.
top-end of Kenai Lake, just south of Primrose

Noteworthy about Alaska business. When you arrive at your work destination, the first thing your client asks is how you plan to play
when the work is done. If you don't have a plan, they get pissed - I bought you a ticket up here, and you're not going to take
advantage of it.
Obviously, they never said that to me unless they were telling on somebody else.

I've fished the Kenai in the 1 am summer twilight myself, and it's nothing for a plant millwright to leave his desk at 3:30 in the afternoon,
drive to fish Kenai all night, and be back at his desk at 7:30a. They'll get their hibernation in winter.

I've paid my dues on the North Slope in December, but I've also fished Alaska every week of summer and into September.
from each of those summer weeks, could show 20 photos, so this will be just a flash.
Interior Alaska is arid with annual precip less than 1'. The North Slope is a desert, with only 4" snow every year, but the ancient snow
blows back and forth in drifts, slowly evaporating at about the same rate it accumulates.
Every coastline facing west is a rain forest, receiving up to 25' of sea-effect snow and rain every year.

Experiences in the Rockies can't prepare you. The mountains along the coast go from sea level to 6000+' before your eyes.
Portage glacier

The tides are 30' and rip like a raging river through the bays - Turnagin Arm

Once in their life, everyone should make the drive (or ride the train) from Anchorage to Seward.
It's a long drive - not in distance, but every few hundred yards is a landing beside the highway, and a vista you must stop and gawk.

Summit pass

sitting on the deck at Ray's in Seward, where the cruise ships dock - fresh Alaskan seafood prepared by Cajun chef.
The other side of those peaks sources Kenai River, and drains all the way across the Kenai peninsula through Sterling and Soldotna to
Cook Inlet - sitting right here at the salt, yet the other side of those peaks just across the bay has to travel that far to the salt.

Fishing Alaska is irrelevant in comparison to being there.
If you can fall in the river, you have enough skill to catch fish there.

Guides love me, I make them look good. I first met Brandon on my first trip to Cooper Landing after the job was done. He was an
overflow guide working contract for Gwinn's Lodge. The report of my 45-fish half-day floating the Kenai moved up his status to full-time.
Of course now, he works for himself. Brandon Maes of Soldotna - gets my highest recommendation if you ever need a Kenai guide.

Another trip, we had a great fly-in across Cook Inlet to Crescent Lake in Clark Lake National Forest.
Thought I was going to be late meeting them at Soldotna marina (the airport) and was making a good clip in the dark down Sterling Hwy.
Looked like trees in the road, but why are the trees moving?
It was a moose, and I did some serious braking.
Mt. McKinley is so tall, you can see it from the air across one-fifth of Alaska.

they had a boat waiting for us, which we used to escape mama bear when she came down the beach while I was landing a silver

Do not run out of 100% DEET or cigars - the blackflies will devour you.
August silvers - I got to catch my limit, Brandon's limit, and one of Donald's
Silvers are the only salmon that actively feed and attack prey after they begin their river run
Sockeye fishing is snagging, kings for some reason go after their own eggs for a short distance up the river mouth - Brandon thinks
it's a maternal thing.

ate good that year - the bears enjoying their salmon brunch

Fished-out Donald sitting in the bear tracks

I ate even better with the 20lbs fillets from a king on another trip

I can guide all the Kenai creeks and the Russian River.
July rainbows are lean and hungry. They follow the salmon up the creeks out of Kenai Lake and beef up for winter on eggs and flesh.
By September, their vertical profile looks like a football.

Russian River in September - had it all to myself - there wasn't even a ranger at the Nat'l Forest gate.
The black slate bottom is pink with eggs, and you have to kick salmon carcasses out of the way to step in.
Fishing pocketwater 50 yards above a slow pool where I knew I could land them.
What possesses a wild rainbow or dolly to take your plastic bead around all these eggs eludes me, but I caught one like these every 3rd cast.

Set my wading staff on the bank, kicked the carcass and stepped in, hooked up, let them make their upstream grind, and hiked their
downstream run to the pool.

After 26 at 2pm, I was dead dog tired and retreated to a cigar and cognac at the lodge firepit

that's the color of the Kenai. The glaciers grind malachite from the mountains, and you empty green sand from your boots at the
end of the day. September lodges are half-price - it's a great deal.
Drove black ice after this trip to catch my flight home in Anchorage.

I had a turnaround trip to a remote Chugach Electric plant

My buddy Ewell flew up to meet me in Anchorage after - evening doing Anchorage, a cheap hotel, and next morning headed to Cooper and Gwinn's lodge

he had to get combat fishing for sockeye at the Russian River ferry out of his system the first afternoon - me, I'd rather fish the rainbows
down from the fish-cleaning stands - you still snag a bycatch of sockeye

the rest of the trip, I guided him on the Russian, Quartz Creek, Crescent Creek (Cooper) and Ptarmigan Creek, which also got us to
Ray's for lunch.
Too many awesome photos to show - in addition to fresh-grilled salmon at Jim's Kenai Grill in Cooper, Gwinn's Lodge Cheeseburger in
Paradise, fresh blackberry pie is a must eat.
At Humpy's in Anchorage, the fish-n-chips is halibut, and Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter is one of the best brews I've ever had (several of).
Ewell on the Russian

Me on Ptarmigan

Ewell's Crescent grayling

Noteworthy about Ewell - 4 days in close quarters, in the car, every meal, sharing a lodge and motel room in Anchorage - we never got
on each other's nerves, and we never have.
Not too many friendships ever share this rare quality.
We've discussed this a few times - we both have other lifetime friends and other extended outdoor interests with them, but none other
meets this rare benchmark.

[Tyler]

Wow! What an awesome post one of the most scenic ever. I loved those fat trout. I used to get Sea run Dolly Varden fishing with my dad in Swinomish Slough Fidalgo Island, WA in May.
Thanks for letting us tag along to Alaska.
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[bulldog1935]

since it came up on another thread, here's the rest of that July king

August stringer of silvers - 9 fish was a bag limit for 3 of us - the cleaning stand is a floating dock for the bears

[Tyler]

Ok when do we leave for Alaska?
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