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ShadowCaster
Blur Sotong
Joined: 23 Apr 2005
Posts: 130
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 Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 11:01 pm Post subject: Should we achieve this type of fishing quality in Singapore? |
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Alaska may be 20 hours flight away from Singapore, but I think if we put our heart and minds to it, Singapore may one day have the type of fishing quality that we all hope for......... until then, enjoy the fishing story from a faraway land.......
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Alaska : Summer of 2005
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Part 1 : The Rivers
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Alaska’s size and diversity overwhelms my mind and senses. We drove out of the commercial city of anchorage towards the Kenai Peninsula and was greeted by snow peaked mountain ranges in the height of summer. As we drove further away from the city, the size and vastness of the scenery was simply breathtaking! The high way inter-twine between mountain ranges and flowing rivers from the melting snow. I had no doubt that the rivers were salmon and trout infested and it took a lot of discipline and nagging from the wife to keep my eyes on the road.
The 2.5 hour drive to our lodge at the summer fishing town of Cooper Landing was enjoyable but long by Singapore’s standard. But when I refer to the Alaska State map printed on an A4 size paper, we had barely covered 0.5 cm on the map! As I took in the views of the wide open mountain rangers in front of me and try to comprehend the complete scale of the entire Alaska land mass, I failed miserably. I envy the availability of so much quality fishing areas……….
Being so close to the Artic circle, the relatively position of the sun in any part of Alaska is a novelty to us tropical folks. In mid summer, the sun sets at about 1am and rises just 3.5 hours later at 4:30 am. That gives you about 20 hours of daylight to enjoy the great outdoors. Temperature ranges from about 5 deg C at dawn to 18 deg C at mid-day in summer, which is as hot as it’ll get in Alaska. Its T-shirt weather for the locals, but a jacket is recommended for tourist from the equator.
It’s the only few places on earth where you can enjoy the view of Summer Snow while getting a tan underneath the Midnight Sun.
But we were neither here for the scenery nor to appreciate the fabulous Alaskan summer climate.
We came half way around the world to fly fish the mighty Upper Kenai River and Russian River systems for their legendary wild Rainbow Trout (more on monster Kenai Trout in Part 3) and the annual summer Salmon run (more on fly rod Salmon in Part 2).
The Rivers
The Upper Kenai River drains the Kenai Lake and feeds into Skilak Lake, which drains into the Bearing Sea via the Lower Kenai River. The source of the Kenai water is essentially melting Glacier (a huge chunk of ice hundreds of miles in size) and melting snow from the surrounding mountain ranges. Because of this, the water temperature is a chilly 3 to 5 deg C. The Kenai also has a perpetual greenish hue due to the mineral content of Glacier ice. Due to the high rate of Glacier and snow melt during summer, the Kenai flows at a torrential 9000 cfs (cubic feet per second). 80% of the Kenai is hence not really safe for wading unless you are a 500lb Alaskan Brown Bear. In fact, some stretches of the Upper Kenai are classified as class 2 to class 3 rapids for white water rafting. Most of the fishing is done from the bank or from a McKenzie style drift boat except for selected shallower areas. It is definitely an advantage to fish with an experienced guide from a drift boat.
While most of the summer fishing crowd are here for the Salmon, the Upper Kenai is legendary for its monster size Rainbow Trout. 10lb Rainbows are not uncommon while trophy specimen up to 20lb had been taken on the fly rod. The Rainbows are native to the Kenai and are all wild (as opposed to stocked). The fishery management is so successful that stocking is hardly necessary. The entire Upper Kenai is designated as a “Fish & Wildlife Refuge” where powered boats are not allowed, and only recreational sport fishing with a single hook lure or fly is permitted. 90% of the Kenai fisherman uses fly tackle. Bag and size limits are religiously enforced with undercover fishery department agents frequently mixing in with the local crowd walking the river bank to check on things. Hardly anyone wants to risk breaking the rules with such enforcement measures. More info on the Kenai is available at : http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/greatrivers/kenai
The Russian River is a tributary to the Upper Kenai. I would class it as one of the most beautiful trout streams that I had ever fished apart from those manicured streams in Austria and Germany. It drains out of the Upper Russian Lake and flows into the middle of the Upper Kenai. While it is called a river, it is actually a smallish gin clear freestone stream that is wadeable almost throughout. Unlike the Kenai, the source of the Russian waters is from underground waters and melting snow. Boat and car access are not possible so all approach are on foot only through breathtakingly beautiful but rugged terrain.
The Russian is the primary spawning ground fom the Salmon and seeing thousands of big Salmon running against the rapids of skinny waters is indeed a sight to behold. The Russian River Falls is a waterfall about 3.5 miles from the point where the Russian flows into the Kenai where most of the Salmon congregate before they swim further upstream. 600 yards on both sides of the falls are Sanctuary area where any form of fishing is prohibited. But the Alaskan fisher department would give a waiver if you look and behave like an Alaskan Brown Bear.
The Russian is pristine Rainbow trout waters although as in the case of the Upper kenai, majority of the fisherman that fishes here targets Salmon. The stretch above the Falls up to the Russian Lake is a tough 19 mile uphill hike just one way. A more viable approach is via float plane to the Russian Lake, but weather may be tricky and one may have to wait till the next day for the return trip. A more accessible stretch is to hike 2.5 miles into the foot of the falls and fish the 3.5 miles stretch until the Russian ends at the Kenai.
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Part 2 : The Salmon
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Although Salmon stop feeding after they start their up-river run, they retain their aggressive predator nature and will most often strike a fly when they see it. They usually hug the bottom of the river and stream on their up-river run so the first challenge is to get the fly deep and near enough to them to get a strike, then you main problem begins……… fighting and landing these chunk of silver muscles in very fast flowing water!
Four species of Pacific Salmon runs up the Kenai and Russian River systems.
The Chinook (also call King) Salmon returns to their spawning ground from mid-May each year. Chinook is the biggest of the Pacific Salmon species that averages 20-30lb and grows as big as 90+lb. However, their numbers are not as plentiful compared to other Salmon species and they tend to favours the very deep water in the main river system. Hence, Chinook tends to be a difficult target on the Upper Kenai on a fly rod. They are usually caught on the Lower Kenai downstream of Skilak Lake where motor boats and bait fishing are allowed. Generally, bait and heavy lead sinker are required to get them. Fly rodders may use heavy shooting heads but the average catch rate is very low and hence not worth the effort unless you have lots of time.
The Coho (also call Silver) Salmon runs later in Aug onto the Kenai and Russian. They averages about 10lb and get as big as 20lb in the Kenai and are aggressive fly eaters. Although they are good candidate to target on a fly rod, the wet and cold weather in Aug is a deterrent. Coho are not reputed to be good eating so the local fishing crowd tends to be small during a Coho run.
The Pink (also call Humpy) Salmon are the smallest of the Pacific Salmon and averages 3-5lb and only gets as big as about 12lb. They only run on alternate years on the Kenai on even years (2002, 2004, 2006…….) and please don’t ask me how the Humpy figure out what year is it! They are easy target on any kind of tackle.
The most popular Pacific Salmon is the Sockeye (also call Red) Salmon. They averages 8-12lb and get as big as 16lb. The Sockeye runs in 2 batches onto the Kenai. The first run of smaller 8-10lb fish starts in mid June up the Kenai into the Russian while the second run of larger 10-12lb fish starts in mid July. The Sockeye run numbers into the millions and the 2 run arrangement is probably mother nature’s way of managing river space. Sockeye is alleged to be the best eating of all Pacific Salmon. The Brown Bears knows it too and had been known to chase the sockeye all the way to their spawning ground 30 miles up river. Sockeye will turn into a bright red colour 3 to 4 weeks into their run up-river (hence their nick name Red Salmon). When I asked for the reason for the colour change, local wisdom says that that’s so that the bears can see them better……. My wife who was wearing a red wading jacket got a little worried after hearing that.
Standard tackle for Sockeye is an 8-9wt rod to account for the power of the fish and fast river current. My wife was fishing an 8wt Sage with 16lb tippet but I was a tad adventurous and choose a Winston XTR 6wt and 12lb tippet. It turned out ok but I ended up loosing a lot more fish and took a lot longer to land them. A strong biological change occur in Salmon after they run up-river such that every bit of their body system is converted into usable energy to swim against strong current and jump up water-falls to reach their spawning ground. They only have to leave sufficient energy to have one last ultimate orgasm before they die. Hence, salmon do not need to maintain reserve in their attempts to overcome any form of resistance or restrain, be it from fly rods or brown bears. That explains why they run faster than bonefish and pull harder than GT…… upstream! If they choose to turn downstream, even a 10wt and 16lb tippet does not stand a chance in those river current.
The first key element to successful Sockeye fishing on a fly rod is to first be able to read the river current and find the “highway” that the fish are taking. Our guides were ace outfit and always set us on top of the PIE of the Kenai every time within 10min ride on the drift boat. After that, its non-stop action until your arm surrenders. But if you can’t find the fish “highway”, you could be in for a boring day. We had actually met anglers that had walked the banks all day and don’t get any hook-ups. A word of caution is that wading around those Salmon “highway” can be tricky due to the very strong current. Going deeper than knee level will get you dunked for sure. Felt soles or stream cleats are almost a must. I strongly advise those with less experience in wading to wade with life jacket.
Sockeye are not very picky about fly patterns. The most important factor is to get the fly deep down to a few inches from the river bed where they swim, sweep it in their face to trigger their predator instinct, and they will strike. Nonetheless, heavily weighted patterns such as Polar Shrimp and Simply Stealth worked well for us. The biggest challenge is to get the fly to sink fast and stay deep in those strong current. There are 2 ways to do it. First is to use heavy shooting heads such as Courtland LC13 or RIO T14. Don’t even bother with anything lighter. Even then, they may not work if the current is too fast or the water at the “highway” runs deeper than 6-7ft. This is because, before the line could sink 6-7ft, the current had already swept it way down stream. The second method of adding split shots to the leader is more reliable. And I’m talking about BIG split shots! Casting with split shots can get ugly and even down right dangerous when it is windy. But its either that or no fish at all because remember……. the sockeye had stopped feeding and they will never rise to eat your fly. In fact the only thing on their mind is that ultimate orgasm. So its either you get the fly down fast into their face and get a hook up or just watch hundreds of big salmon swim by you all day. But once you master the technique after your guide set you on top of the highway, you will not need more than several casts to get a strike. After the hook up, the fun begins!
Typically, a sockeye will shake its head repeatedly like a bull dog after the hook set to get rid of that irritating sting in its mouth. The hook set needs to be hard and firm to penetrate its now hardened jaws. When they realize that they are being pulled towards the shore, they’ll take-off….. hopefully upstream. We set a heavy drag of 5lb and yet, almost all fishes run us into backing against the drag into 9000 cfs of river current!
On the average, fly fisher will probably land 1 out of 4 or 5 fish you hook. Most of the lost fish are due to improper hook set as the fish jaw is extremely hard. The fight usually last 10 to 15 minutes if the fish maintains its up-river run or simply run across the river before the guide gets a chance to net it.
But it’s a different story when it decides to turn down river. Probably one out of five fish that you hook with turn chicken and run down river. My fist experience with a down river run was quite humbling. My guide had warned me to break the fish off after it had turned down river with 30m of backing out. He predicted that the fish is not likely to turn back. I guess I just wanted to see it for myself. 15 sec and another 200m of backing later, I saw the base of the of the reel spool appearing vaguely behind the few wraps of backing left on the reel. I clamped down on the reel spool with my hands and prayed that I had done a good job on the loop to loop knot between the backing and the fly line. I took a while to wind back 250m of backing plus fly-line……. I listened to all the guide’s recommendation after that!
Although the Salmon fishing was action packed and exciting, we did not spend too much time doing it as it gets predictable after a while. Out of the 5 days or about 50 hours that we had spent on the river for the trip, we probably did about 6 to 8 hours total of Salmon fishing. The rest of the time was fruitfully spent chasing Rainbows. Even then, my wife and I had no less that 50 hook ups between the 2 of us, and we landed 15 fishes in total. We kept the 2 smallest ones for dinner and released the rest for the betterment of future Sockeye population.
We had heard from the locals how much better a wild Salmon taste as compared to the farmed ones. And we really appreciated the differences! Fist of all, the flesh of a wild sockeye is crimson red in colour. This is unlike the dull pink colour that we find on the farmed Atlantic Salmon that are sold in Singapore. We later learned that the red pigment is from the krill and shrimp that the sockeye eats out at sea while the pink flesh from farmed salmon are created through chemical pigments added to the fish pellets that was fed to the fish.
Anyway, the flesh was promptly marinated in garlic salt and Terriyaki source just a few hours after the catch and set on the broiler in the lodge. We had never tasted any fish as nice as this! The flesh was juicy and melts in your mouth and does not carry any hint of the fishy smell that we commonly find in Salmon back home. The 2 small salmon fed the 2 of us for almost the entire week! It was comforting to know that it is still possible to stay in a log cabin in the middle of the woods in Alaska and live off the river!
We enjoyed our salmon fishing adventure. But the real fly fishing starts with the Rainbow trout! Stay tune for part 3…………………..
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Part 3A : The Rainbows of Kenai
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There are not many locations in the world where a fly fisher can consistently hook up with 20inch or bigger wild Rainbow Trout. The Upper Kenai is one of those rare rivers where a fly rodder stands a good chance with these big Rainbows. Typically, a 16 inch fish is a good size trout on most trout waters while a 20inch trout is considered a trophy. On the Kenai, a 20inch trout is just slightly above average and trophy size begins at 30inch! A 20inch trout usually weighs in at about 5-6lb while a 26-27 inch Rainbow would most likely exceed the magical 10lb mark. A 30inch Rainbow may weight in above 20lb. The biggest Rainbow caught on the Kenai weighs in at a staggering 28lb! All Kenai Rainbows are native fish that was spawned and bred in the wild with no intervention from the Alaskan Fishery Department. The Fishery Department’s sentiment is that “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it!”
But Rainbow fishing on the Kenai is not without its challenges. Firstly, the Upper Kenai is designated as a wildlife refuge and boat motoring is not allowed until you float into Skilak Lake. Hence, access is only possible with McKenzie style drift boats with some hard rowing in between to get to likely fishing sports. The river behaves differently everyday depending on snow melt and the Glacier so one needs a good guide that can read the current to find the trout.
Most importantly, successful catch of big Rainbows depends on matching the hatch….. and Kenai Rainbow are least interested in insect hatches but gets very excited over the annual “Salmon egg” hatch. One main reason that Rainbows thrives on the Kenai is because of the tremendous amount of protein that the annual Salmon run brings to the river. Rainbows gorge on the trillions of Salmon eggs and hundreds of tons of post spawned Salmon carcasses between Jun to Sep to fatten up for the lean winter. Although there are phenomenal Caddis and Green Stone Fly hatches on the Kenai, I guess if I were a Rainbow, I would choose to eat fresh Salmon eggs and flesh over a bug too! So the challenge is to conceive the perfect egg and flesh fly pattern. It may sound simple but its actually quite complex, because you fly must stand out from the trillions of eggs and tons of flesh that are floating in the river and yet still look like one of them! Otherwise, the catch rate will be mediocre at best. Our guide uses an ingenious pattern that was just irresistible to the big Rainbow. As expected, all their clients are sworn to secrecy to protect the trick of their trade.
But trout being trout, a drag free drift is imperative to get them to bite. Any hint of an unnatural movement in the fly will spook them half way to Russia. The fast and deep water of the Kenai makes this somewhat of a challenge. Primary technique is “High-Stick Nymphing” with a strike indicator and one or two very small split shots to get the fly down to the right depth. The strike indicator is attached on the butt leader about 8 inches from the fly line tip. Leader length varies between 9 to 12 feet depending on water depth. High-Sticking essentially requires you to cast your fly upstream, split shots and strike indicator included, from your location. As the indicator drifts down stream towards you, strip in excess line and lift the rod tip high so that the floating fly line does not drag the indicator and the suspending fly below it. As the indicator drift pass your location, the rod tip is pointed skyward such that only a very shot length of fly line remains on the water. A gentle upstream mending is then executed to feed fly line behind the indicator for a perfectly natural drift. You can then gently lower the rod tip to feed more line into the drift and perform mini upstream mending until you need to cast again. A proficient caster can manage 60-70ft with the weight fly, split shots & indicator in two. Average caster usually manages about 30-40ft. But consider the fact that you can fish both side of the drift while high-sticking, a 50ft cast actually allow you to have a drift of just under 100ft, so even a 30ft cast will catch you some fish.
While high-sticking for trout, you need to watch the indicator like a hawk. If is so much as hesitate by a frog’s hair or dip a tad on the drift, hit hard! Trout will mouth the fly and spit it out in a split second when they discover that it taste nothing like Salmon Egg Sashimi. One probably has only a fraction of a second to set the hook before they change their mind. Very often, the take may be so gentle that the indicator hardly serves it purpose. So if your instinct tells you to strike, hit hard!
Recommended tackle for high-sticking on the Kenai is a 7wt fast action rod to handle the split shots and weighted fly, not to mention big fish in fast water. Don’t pussy foot around with 5x tippet because 10lb trout collects them to weave winter jacket for their boyfriends! 0x floro-carbon is the norm with 1x being the lightest recommended by the guides. It makes sense when you think about it because a big Kenai Rainbow is actually bigger than the Salmon! I choose a Winston LT 6wt as my primary “Business” trout rod and back it up with AJ Thramer Hollow Built Bamboo rod based on a Jim Payne 201 taper.
The most productive part of the Upper Kenai for big rainbows, and also the most challenging part is a stretch of waters know as the Kenai Canyon. Our guides affectionately call it “The Wall”. This river in the Canyon stretch essentially got squeeze through 2 vertical canyon cliffs, forming a class 2-3 rapid white waters. There are pockets of slower waters within the rapids that monster trout loves to hang out!
Fishing the canyon can be sheer hard work. The guide must keep the boat in position in the rapids with only the oars, and casting on the bucking drift boat and getting a good drift in the rapids is a real challenge of will and skill. But I assure you that the outcome is worth it! Of the 3 occasion that we get to fish the wall, we landed 6 trout between 26inch and 28inch. And 5 of those Rainbows weigh more than 10 lbs.
Incidentally, the biggest fish of the trip was actually taken on the Bamboo rod! While fishing the wall, my fly on the Winston got snagged on a submerged rock and broke off. Instead of wasting time to re-rig (guide was occupied on the oars), I simply picked up the Bamboo and continued fishing. A monster Rainbow took the fly and what followed was a 20 minute struggle between 12lb of Rainbow muscle aided by the mighty Kenai, Vs a nervous trout novice aided by a piece of reed from China! To facilitate some chances of landing the fish, our guide row us a few hundred yards down stream into slower waters. Fortunately, the underdogs won in the end!
Besides Rainbow Trout, there are also lots of Dolly Varden (a species related to the Artic Char) to be caught on the Kenai. They behave exactly like Rainbows and are great fun on fly rods.
While the Kenai Rainbows were of Monster proportion, I was hoping to do some small stream trout fishing before we leave Alaska. Our guide suggested a day of walking and wading on the beautiful Russian River, although he did cautioned that it may amount to a 6-10 mile hike in rough and hilly terrain for the entire day. I thought since we had come this far, what’s another 10mile? Stay tune for part 3B on Russian river trout……………..
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Part 3B : Russian River Trout
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The Russian River fits my mental image of a heavenly trout stream. The water that originated mainly from snow melt is frigid and gin clear. The stream is seldom more that 50-60ft wide throughout and is mostly shallow enough to wade except for some occasional deep pockets and riffles. The stream lies in the cradle of a small valley with moderately steep banks. Vegetation on the banks is dominated by the local Spruce tree and miniature pine tree, all growing on a soft carpet of ferns. I am not at all surprised that the Russian is rated as one of the most beautiful and productive fly fishing waters in Alaska. The presence of big wild native Rainbow Trout certainly contributes to this reputation.
There is as much life that flows through the Russian as there is water. The Russian upstream is the spawning destination of millions of Salmon. It is quite an experience to wade in a clear and shallow stream with occasional pods of salmon zipping past in between your wading boots at 30knots upstream. Just below the Russian River Falls, bank to bank salmon line up in the thousands to take their turns to jump and struggle up the falls to reach their spawning. And when there’re salmon, you can bet your last dollar that the hungry Rainbows are not far away.
I guess one of the main reasons that the Russian managed to stay in pristine condition is due to its somewhat secluded location. The nearest dirt road from the Russian River Falls is about a 2.5 miles hike in typically hilly Alaskan terrain. The nearest paved road is much further. Most of the Salmon fishermen congregate at the confluence where the Russian flows into the upper Kenai near the Russian River Camp ground about 3+ miles away from the Falls. The confluence area can get rather crowded during the height of the salmon run. Our guides affectionately call it the “Combat Zone” and steer us well clear of the zone. If you hike at forced march pace on a good day, you may cover the 3+ miles in just under 2 hours, one way. A leisure pace wade and fish may take up to10-12 hours inclusive of the hike in.
We started our day nice and early and target to reach the Russian river falls before 8am. The guide and I lugged on our 15lb day packs, each containing our waders, wading boots, tackle, water and food and set off at 6am into the woods towards the falls.
I totally enjoyed the hike, going through games trails and noticing signs left behind by moose, elks and both Alaskan black and brown bears. Our hiking pace picked up instinctively in the last half mile when we started hearing the rumble of the of the Russian river falls. Naturally, we reached the falls ahead of schedule and hastily wader up and kitting up our tackle.
Recommended tackle on the Russian is a 4 or 5wt outfit for trout and a 7wt outfit for Salmon. Since I already released enough Sockeyes by then, I just brought along my 5wt Hollow Built AJ Thramer Bamboo while my guide lugged in a 4wt Sage XP as a spare. Flies that works on the Russian this time of the year includes Hares Ear Nymph, Prince Nymph, Elk Hair Caddis and of course any variety of egg and flesh pattern. Given the incredible volume of Salmon running at the moment, and hence the amount of Salmon egg and flesh in the river, the guide predicted correctly that the trout is unlikely to want to eat anything else. I tied on the “Mystic Waters” secret fly and found it to be superlatively effective throughout.
Sight fishing is the name of the game on the Russian. One can usually spot trout from about 40-50 feet depending on sun angle and water flow. Another challenge is to differentiate between the trout and the bigger Salmon running upstream.
The Rainbows found in the Russian appears to be a lot more attractive and colourful compared to the big river fish taken off the Kenai. Their olive green backs transit into an almost golden colour sides. The red cheeks and pinkish red stripe painted down the body of the fish makes them one of the prettiest reward after a well presented drift and a gallant fight.
While the fight of the smaller Russian Rainbow lacks in brute strength, it more than make up for it in aerial acrobatics. Some fishes spent more time in the air than in the water after they are hooked. But what is more exciting is that fishing for them is an absolute sight fishing experience.
My most memorable fish on the Russian River was a fussy 19inch Rainbow that I spotted laying in a comfortable riffle very near to the far bank, about 50ft from where I could comfortably wade. In between us were a deep river pocket and a boulder in mid-stream that alters the flow haphazardly. This means that getting a good drag free drift would be a challenge indeed. Given the fast water in this stretch, a split shot is required 18inches from the fly, which further complicates the cast. My first few presentations were disastrous. The mid stream was flowing so much faster and unpredictably that even with a big upstream mend, the fly was immediately dragged out by the belly of the fly line. After a few drifts where the fly dragged clumsily by, the trout was visibly more tensed and edgy. The last thing I wanted to do was to spook it with another lousy drift. Once spooked, it’ll likely run into the deep pocket and sulk there for a few hours. There will be almost no chance that it will take a fly for at least a few hours after that.
This situation seemed to call for a “reach cast” where an upstream mend is done BEFORE the fly line hits the water. But the reach cast did not work either, no thanks to the combination of the bolder and its adjacent deep water pocket. As the bolder caused the water flow at the surface to speed up at both sides, and the deep pocket caused the water flow to slow down, I needed 2 upstream mends of different but appropriate magnitude within the same cast to account for the weird stream flow to get to the fish. After numerous attempts, I concluded that such a “double belly reach” cast was definitely beyond my shallow casting skill level for now.
After getting my butt kicked despite best effort, I took a calculated risk and waded out to waist level to shorten my fly line so that I can control the drift better. I know conventional wisdom would call for a “pile cast” or “tuck cast” where the 10ft leader is intentional folded during the cast to provide a buffer for line drag. But I found out that whoever invented the pile and tuck cast had not done it with heavily weighted flies and split shots! The next strategy that I adopted was a cast to land the fly much further upstream and much closer to the far bank than usual. This gives me a time buffer to allow my fly to drag a little before I can throw in 2 separate upstream mends of different belly sizes, a bigger one for the faster waters caused by the boulder and a smaller mend for the slower water caused by the deep pocket The first attempt did not turned out so bad. On one of the drift, the fish actually shifted a few inches towards the direction of the fly to take a look. I kept doing it and the fish eventually ended both our misery and ate the fly!
The fight was energetic and aerial. I had never felt such satisfaction for a long time while I released the Rainbow to swim back into his riffle of near impossible mends. After the pictures and hand shakes, my guide pointed out to me for the first time that I had spent nearly 45 minutes on that one fish alone to get that perfect drift! I swear, it felt more like only 3 minutes at that time. I guess time flies when you are having fun.
We moved on between pockets and riffles to sniff out the beautiful rainbows throughout the day. Every drift was different and every fish reacts different. One really has to dissolve into the environment and think like a fish to beat them in this game. When you get into the grove of reading the waters, spotting the fish where you expect them to be, study the current flow and conceive a strategy for the cast and the drift, one gets a great feeling of deep consciousness of being and your surroundings, but yet you actions seems to be instinctively driven by primal hunter instinct. Its kind of hard to put into words.
There were no shortages of distractions from the trout fishing to keep things interesting too.
For instance, a salmon took my trout fly and started tail walking and cart-wheeling up-stream, spooking any trout within a few hundred yards. I had half the heart to try to land it on my Bamboo rod, but common sense prevailed eventually and pointed the rod tip at the fish and broke it off. Apparently, such things happen rather often on a big Salmon run.
We passed by several salmon fishermen from Anchorage who were carrying huge .44 Magnum holstered on their belts, obviously to defend themselves against the notorious brown bears. A record salmon run usually brings with it a record brown bears encounter. I asked my guide if he keeps a .44 Magnum in his day pack for the same purpose. He smiled and replied “You think that pea shooter can stop a charging 500lb brown bear? The best defence is still to exercise common sense and stay out of their way.” Certainly sounded logical to me at that time, but honestly, I would have felt more secured if he had one of those mean looking .44 Magnum with him though.
Just while we were fishing a riffle just down stream of the Falls, I spotted a brown furry mass moving towards us out of the corner of my eyes. “Bears, 2 o’clock, about 50 yards!” I exclaimed, taking out my camera for a quick shot at the same time. Moments later, it was apparently that it was a 400lb brown bear sow with 3 bear cubs in tow approaching us from downstream. One of the cubs jumped into the stream, effortlessly pawed a salmon, bit on to it momentarily only to loose it after a split second. It abandoned the chase after it noticed that it was falling behind mommy. This was my first bear encounter in the wild.
My guide who was downstream of me at that time swiftly sling his pack and said “let’s give them some space shall we?” I was just figuring out the drift on that riffle and there was a big Rainbow in the middle of it. So I replied “Ok, when the bears come any nearer, we’ll go further upstream”. My guide, who had jogged pass behind me by this time replied calmly “Ok Tan, but err…….. most bears consider their personal space to be about 100 yards…… I think it might be a good idea to head that way…….” Something click suddenly in my head……. I was overtaking my guide in no time. Fortunately, brown bears knows how to stay out of trouble and do not bother fishermen that exercise some commonsense.
The sights of the bears made me appreciate the significance of the Salmon run. All this is just mother nature’s way of transporting nutrients from the ocean upriver into the rivers and woods. The Salmon eggs and post spawn carcasses nourishes all living creatures in the rivers. Bears, bald eagles and gulls feed on the Salmon. And if you can see the amount of bear crap on the banks of the rivers, you will know that the vegetation benefits too. The moose and elk feeds on the vegetation which in turn feeds the bears and the wolves. Come next year, the salmon eggs will hatch and the baby fingerings will swim out to sea to gather nutrients to be brought back here in a few years time. All this makes a very simple but significant sense.
Since we are on the subject of bear crap, I accidentally stepped on a big pile of bear crap and promptly launch a string of curse at the local brown bear population. My guide corrected me, “you are cursing at the wrong species Tan, these are Black bears crap”. “How can you be so sure?” I asked. “Well…..” my guide replied in his ever cheerful voice, “ Brown bear crap usually have bits and pieces of a .44 Magnum in it….”
Trout and Salmon aside, that sentence alone would have been worth the 10 mile hike!
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Part 4 : Alaska Fishing Trip Planning Guide
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Just want to start with a disclaimer that whatever I say here was what worked for me and in no way is the only method of doing things.
The most important consideration to keep in mind is reliability of your guides. The last thing you want to do is to fly all the way just short of the Artic Circle and get guides that have not figure out how to lead you into a fish.
There are basically 2 ways to fish Alaska.
The first and easier way is to spend BIG bucks and enjoy the benefit of a reputable full service lodge. All you need to do is just to show up and things get done for you in class, from the gourmet meals and personal float planes to guides that will rig up your rods for you. But be prepared to fork out US$6k+ per week per person. Some reliable lodges are :
http://www.noseeumlodge.com/
http://www.royalcoachmanlodge.com/default.htm
http://www.newhalenlodge.com/index.htm
http://www.royalwolf.com/index.htm
http://www.flyfishingtravel.com/bbsport.htm
We did not take the above luxury option simply because if you add in airfare and incidentals, a week's fishing for the 2 of us would cost a rediculous US$15K. We can't afford that sort of money. Besides, who needs gourmet meals on a fishing trip anyway?
The second option is to do a bit of reserch and find your own guide and accomodation. This was what we did. Fortunately, I have a friend who runs a full service fly shop in Colorado that scouts around for guiding services for his clients. For the last few years, he had been engaging an outfit in the Kenai call Mystic Waters ( http://www.mysticfishing.com/ ) that he had highly recommended to me. I was not disappointed.
The chaps at Mystic (Fred & Stacy) really know the waters and technique inside out on the Kenai. Fred had been fishing the Kenai since 1989 and is probably the most experienced and productive guide in the region. They run a profesional outfit and get everything to work even when the environmental conditions get tough. Most importantly, these guides are hardcore fisherman themselves. After 12-14 hours guiding clients on the rivers, guess what they do after they drop their clients off at the lodge? They pick up their fishing rods to go fishing! These are my kind of guides! Moreover, their cost is reasonable at US$225 per person per day for up to 4 to a boat. The cost includes all tackle, flies and leaders. Tackle provided are from Sage and Ross. I had also noticed that Fred had started using some Winston BIIX on his drift boat. Incidentally, Fred is also on the Pro Staff for Ross Reels and provides design input to Ross products. ( http://www.rossreels.com/testimonials.cfm?fuseaction=more&profileType=0&ID=270 )
Very comfortable accomodation at Cooper Landing comes around US$250 a night. You can get something that cost half as much but I'm sure you would be less than half as comfortable. We stayed at the lodge run by Mystic waters and could not say enough of how comfortable it was. It was built to accomodate 2 couples or 4-6 fishermen comfortably.
Air ticket may cost between US$800 to US$1500 per person depending which airline you take. We flew China Airline via Taipei to Anchorage for US$800 each and everthing got there and came back in good shape. Incidentally, the Taipei route is also the shortest at 13 hour flight time.
Some essential elements are functional breathable waders, polyproperlene under-wear, fleece, wading boots and Goretex wading jackets if you don't already have them. Set aside at least US$500 per person for quality gears that will work. Don't save on these items as nothing is worst that being wet, cold and miserable beside a salmon and trout infested river. Reliable brands are Simms and Patagonia. Simms had performed for us and alomost all the guides that I had fished with from Europe to Australia to Alaska uses Simms so I guess that says something.
Rental car for 2 person will cost about US$400 a week for a mid size. Get a MPV if you have more that 3 chaps for the trip.
Meals runs between US$15-30 in Cooper Landing. But once you catch some fresh Salmon, you would not want to eat anything else!
There is an option to hire a float plane for US$500 per day to fly into remote locations to fish. Unless you want an entire stretch of river to yourslef, I find this to be not really neccessary. For a few miles hike up the Russian river, it gets rather secluded by my standard at least. The fishing quality is about the same. Besides, I would rather stay at locations where the probability of seeing a human is higher than the probability of running into brown bears. If you fly in on a float plane, chances are you will see more bears than human for that day, which may not appeal to everyone.
All in all, the one week trip for my wife and I cost about US$6000+ all included, or about US$3k per person. If you have a party of 4-6, you can probably manage it below US$2.5k each since you can better share the accomodation and car rental cost. I think its a reasonable price to pay for this fishing quality.
The best time for fishing is actually late Aug and early Sep. The Rainbows are bigger and more aggressive and the Coho Salmon will also be running. But it'll also be colder and wetter. Most guides are booked solid one year in advance for Aug and early Sep too.
I was thinking, if I'm already having so much fun in Jun, what would it be like fishing the Kenai in Aug/Sep?????
If you need more info, drop an email to Mystic at info@mysticfishing.com
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lurer
Blur Sotong
Joined: 29 May 2005
Posts: 266
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Jack Lai
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Anthony Tam
Exciting Queenfish
Premium Kaki
Joined: 20 Apr 2005
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Jimmy Aw
Senior Moderator
Joined: 12 Apr 2005
Posts: 1043
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| Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 1:14 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Tah Yik,
Am grateful for the wonderful, wonderful Write up & contributions to FK Forum!
Tight lines to all especially to you, Tan Yik. May we all have some lines zipping away from our reels in some "Fishing Hole" we can call ours capable of a sustainable fishy population right in the middle of this hometown, operating in an open, legal setting to all forms of fishing tackles & the manner we all wish it to be managed.
I will await that day's arrival.
Best Regards. - Jim
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David Tneah
Blur Sotong
Joined: 24 Apr 2005
Posts: 36
Location: Woodlands
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| Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 4:56 pm Post subject: |
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Nice place to fish and the price tag also bery nice. 
Anyway, give this thread a thumbs Upzzz!!! 
The key to SuCcEsS is always to know what you are doing before you start doing it.
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Shadystep
Blur Sotong
Joined: 09 Oct 2005
Posts: 217
Location: Jurong
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:41 am Post subject: |
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Only happened to read this thread today, but i would say it is really a beautifly place after looking at the pics, though it is quite ex for me to go on such trips, but if the opp arise(got kaki and money) i will definitely go for it.
thanks for the pics, it really OPENed up my eyes that there is such beautifly place to fish.
thks agins
cheers and tight lines
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Gusto
Blur Sotong
Joined: 19 Sep 2005
Posts: 349
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....It will take me days to finish reading this. You've put up a book here at FK hehe...Damn cool! Nice Catches there. Isn't it cold??