Kisaralik River (Part 2 of 2) August 19-23, 2010

Thursday, August 19 (evening)

Is the water a little lower?  Is it a little clearer?  I hope so, but perhaps it's just wishful thinking.  For an hour, we fish the runs near camp with no joy.

Larry suggests rigging up a bead, The bead imitates a salmon egg and is fished like a nymph.

The bead rig.  The fish suck in the bead, and end up getting hooked on the lip.

Privately, I think it's a complete waste of time.  The flies we've been fishing aren't exactly invisible.  But when you're in the wilderness on a fishing trip, and you're not catching fish, there's not much else to do but try something else.  And humor your guide.  So I rig the bead and cast it into some likely looking riffles: slow current and close to the bank.  Exactly the place I'd be holding if I were a fish in a blown out river.

I then catch a nice Rainbow after a couple of casts. He's a fat 17" or 18" fish who pulls into the current, and makes me work to bring him in, nearly breaking off on some sweepers. For the first time in this entire trip, I feel like we've got a workable formula for catching fish.  Everyone else is skunked, though I was the only person fishing beads.

Todd, David, and I talk that night about abandoning the trip. They're pessimistic. I'm feeling optimistic because of my bead experience. We agree to wait and see.

Friday, August 20

Water's definitely a little lower and a little clearer.  Right before breakfast I get up and hook 3 fish on beads: a 14" 'bow, a dolly, and a grayling. After breakfast, we all go out and everyone tries beads, and everyone hooks into a few fish, including Mathias.

Mathias and Larry with a rainbow he caught on a bead.  You can see it as a red spot, hanging a couple of inches below the fish's mouth.  Note the water isn't completely muddy: you can see rocks in the shallow riffle behind them.

We then wade down a quarter mile or so to a salmon hole and get shots at Silvers, which are big (10 to 15 lbs), hard-fighting fish. I'm lucky enough to hook and land one using a pink, crystal streamer. Zach (head guide) catches a perfect "chrome" Silver, which he kills for a dinner appetizer.

Working our way down to the first silver hole.  Larry and Zach rowed us across the braid, which was too deep to wade across, which is why I'm getting out of the raft.

After lunch, David and I wade up a back-braid with Zach and Larry. Water is shallow enough and clear enough that we can see the bottom. We cast over spawning chinook salmon to catch the rainbows feeding on drifting eggs behind the salmon. We both get into some nice fish. I catch a 20'" rainbow, which turns out to be the largest trout I'll catch. My favorite time in the whole trip.

Zach holding the rainbow I caught casting above spawning salmon in the back braid... my favorite moment of the entire trip.

Sun comes out. It feels WARM! We can wash.

 Zack fillets the salmon he killed, and cooks it perfectly, blackened with cajun seasoning. David pronounces it, "The best fish I've ever had". I'm not expert (as you know I'm normally averse to eating fish) but even I'm enjoying it. We agree not to bail.

L to R: David, Todd, and Mathias in the dinner tent.  Scraps of the blackened silver (coho) salmon are on the plate in the foreground.

Saturday, August 21

We return to Silver hole on way to next camp site. David and Todd both land 2 each. I spend most of the time fussing with the line and backing on my 7 wt reel which had gotten messed up the previous day, and don't catch anything. We drift for 3 hours It starts to rain again. Nothing's working again.

Big 'bows are supposed to be holding against the bank opposite our campground. We all try for about 20 minutes and pick up nothing. We challenge Zack to try to find the trout. Zack is happy casting these enormous flies with three BB shots on the end which are fiendishly unpleasant to cast. They work better than the stuff we like to throw, but IMO it turns a normally pleasant act (casting) into an act of torture. Zack works really hard for an hour and reports back: 2 fish. No one is motivated to go back out.

Fishing the riffles near our campsite on August 21.  We're all skunked (again).

We talk about abandoning but now the logic shifts... why not stick out one last day? We decide to shift camp instead of staying put, to a new campsite on another Silver hole.

Sunday, August 22

We arrive midday at silver hole. Tension in the air... will there be fish? YES! Todd spots the large reddish shapes moving underwater, just under the surface. Big pod in quiet little back eddy, 30 feet across and perhaps 75 foot wide, and only about 3' deep.

The silver hole.  The "quiet little back eddy" is in the foreground here.

Zach recommends Polliwogs, a floating pink fly. It's essentially a Salmon version of a popper, which you strip erratically and noisily on the surface. The Salmon don't eat on their freshwater run, but they are still territorial predators, and they attack this cheeky trespasser in their midst. Fish, up to 20 lbs each, sometimes several, chase fly, open mouth, miss, miss, miss, miss. The tension builds. Cast again, right into a group of 5 or 6 fish. Chase, miss, then the fourth or fifth salmon, not even chasing, decides to slash across, on top of the chasers, to swallow the fly and gets hooked . Great fun.

David and I each catch one each. Silvers are quite strong and love to jump and twirl. But we have 15 lbs tippet, so generally, once hooked, we land. The noise of the fights spooks the other fish out of the back eddy.

Me with a nice silver (coho) salmon, caught on a streamer later in the day on the main hole.

Now focus shifts to long pool. This is perhaps 100 feet across, and 500 feet wide. We are fishing streamers. Everyone hooks one or more salmon. Most get several.

David with one of the many coho salmon he caught on Sunday.

Sun comes out. Clouds go away. It becomes a glorious day, almost hot. Everyone fishes contentedly for much of the day. David and Mathias go out in the afternoon, after a late lunch, while the rest of us watch from camp. Mathias is double-hauling, casting over 50 feet! His father feels proud of him.

We wash again. Great steak dinner, cooked on a campfire made from driftwood. Glorious day.

Our last camp.  You can see Mathias washing in the background and our clothing laid over the tents to dry in the sun.  It was an absolutely glorious day, and a little bit of a hint about what these fishing trips are normally like (Todd photo).

Monday, August 23

Last day. Up before dawn to make sure we get onto the river early enough be on time for the powerboat that will be picking us up at the end of the drift..

Mathias and I sneak over to the back-braid while the guides are packing the rafts, hoping we can "wog". The silvers are back and attack the polliwog! Not quite as much fun as yesterday, as a) I can't see them in the early light, just their wakes, and b) they don't miss this morning. Still, it's a lot of fun. I hook one fish, who spits the hook quickly, and then land a second.

Once on the rafts, it's cold, overcast, but dry. After last few days of warmth, I'm not wearing enough layers. I'm cold again.

L to R: Mathias, Larry, David, Todd at the take out spot.

We get to takeout early. Guides break down rafts but are now done. We're standing around muddy gravel bar, bored, trying not to get hypothermic. Guides have never fished here... just gotten picked up.

I look downstream 100 yards and see wakes in a quiet pool. Has to be Silvers! Zach, senior guide, and I slosh over to check it out. Nice pod. We throw out polliwogs and Zach gets one to take quickly. My first two casts get chased but no takes. Zach release his first fish. Then I get a fish to take, and Zach gets his second while I'm trying to land my first, a DOUBLE! Great, unexpected fun. Boat arrives around 2 and it's. Back to Bethel.

Zach and I both with silvers on.

Zach landing one of his silvers.

It's finally over.  We get picked up.  90 minutes later we're in Bethel (civilization, sort of).

Epilogue

It's been two weeks since we returned.  In retrospect, we managed to pick the worst week in 100 years, and still we had a pretty good time.  Perhaps we're just nuts.