As the midnight sun slowly ebbs away the light
of day, a fish splashes 20 feet away. You can make out the ring of
his rise, and you cast a small fingerling streamer pattern where
that fish just came up. You let it sink for 4 seconds, then
start a sporadic retrieve. There is a splash, and you see the tail
of a big rainbow where your fly was, and a sudden zing erupts from
your fly reel, and you have a fish on. He takes you first down
stream 30 feet, but finds no escape, and he comes charging right
back at you, and up into the mouth of the lake where you have been
fishing. You follow your line streaking across the water, 40,
50, 60 feet, then it dies. You start to frantically reel your
line in, and all of a sudden, the line starts to peel off again.
By this time, your partner is out taking photos
with his flash, and you finally land a 6 pound rainbow, with the
streamer patter just
on the lip of his mouth. The sockeye smolts are just starting their
move down the river, and the rainbows are stacked up like firewood,
waiting for them to start their trek to the ocean.
On the other side
of the river, two others from your group are fishing with streamers,
and are into big rainbows too. Limited light, being 3 AM in the morning,
just the right environment and conditions for the fingerlings to
move on down stream, partially protected by the lack of sun. In the
distance, 600 feet up the shore of the lake on the other side are
a mother bear and two cubs, wading in one of the streams that feed
the lake, chasing the char that are there to spawn. This
is the beginning of another Fly Fish Alaska Rivers Adventures fly-fishing
trip on the Alagnak.
We'll fish till we drop, eat well, and we won't
have to lie about the size of our fish. We'll take pictures and leave
footprints and
be dazzled by the beauty of our surroundings and the fish we will
catch as we float quietly down the river, in search of wild rainbows.
The purpose of fishing the Alagnak at this time period is three fold – it's
excellent rainbow fishing, it's good King Salmon fishing, and it's
phenomenal Sockeye fishing. June is a great time to fish for rainbows,
they are hungry, haven’t seen fishermen for 9 months, the fingerlings
(dinner) are on the move, and this river is known for its great early
season rainbow fishing. In addition, while it doesn’t have
a fantastic run of kings, they are big and in pretty good numbers.
Also, this river has one of the two largest runs of sockeye in the
world – the other river is the Kvichak, just down stream, and
it runs into Lake Iliamna.
It is an extraordinary experience to share this river with the bears
of Katmai Park. They know good fishing too. The fishing is extraordinary
and the river is beautiful. The river begins in the Aleutian Mountains
and flows through Katmai National Park. It is a spectacular fishing
trip and this float always delivers the chance to view bears fishing.
The river offers few rapids and our guides easily sneak you through
the only serious water. The attractions of the Alagnak are the great
fishing, beautiful scenery and abundant wildlife. Up to 8 species of
fish can be caught in a single float. King Salmon run up to 50 lbs.
Silver fishing can be excellent with fish up to 15 lbs. But the river
is host to literally millions of Red Salmon and this is why we return
every July.
The Alagnak is one of the great Trout streams of the
world and a trip in September offers the opportunity to tie into
a truly
huge Rainbow.
Fish over 10 lbs are not uncommon and most of the fish caught
are over 20". Fall finds the tundra blazing with color and many
animals down by the river. It is a great time to be in Alaska.
