Recently someone told me that we don't have hardly any fishing report threads for the past "few years". You and I know that's not the case but rather than sit on my hands I decided to do a little thing of my own.
By noon Monday August 19 I had tired of sitting around grousing over low water and poor fisheries management so I threw together an overnight load and headed north. The plan was simple, return to a clearwater fork of a northern river that I had spotted access to from the air. That business of flying around looking for places to land turns out to be a great way to spot access routes you'd never find from the ground.
I didn't even get passed Wasilla before I was alerted that my plans weren't gonna work out. I stopped at Three Rivers Fly & Tackle to grab some dry fly leaders and was ask if the Highway was open? Open? What do you mean?
Turns out that while I've been afraid to even think of lighting any sort of fire not everyone has received the memo. There were ? are 2 Wildfires burning along the Parks Highway to such an extent the highway was still closed Monday afternoon!
I swiped this photo off the Anchorage Daily News website, so glad I stopped for leaders!
That'll leave a mark. That photo is from the lower (southernmost) fire burning near the Nancy Lake State Recreation Area. The highway was also closed for what they have dubbed The McKinley Fire which is raging up between mile post 84 and 91 I think. Public radio stated that there were over 80 structures destroyed including some subdivisions of cabins & homes. The Camp Caswell area is completely leveled. There was a combination of Super Dry drought conditions coupled with high winds and things happened fast.
So enter plan B. I headed north on the Glen Highway and went to a place I've only ever driven past. Turns out that old trucks 4 wheel drive still works so I took the road least traveled and found my spot. I didn't bother with a tent and instead inflated a Twin size air mattress and stuffed it in the bed of the truck. Then add a 25* Big Agnes down bag and a pillow and camp came around pretty quickly.
It got colder than I expected with the morning at 36* up there so I was glad to hear the old pot begin the perking thing
I had 3 rods with matching reels along so it was decision time while I sipped coffee, would it be the 9 1/2 foot light salmon? Probably not because I expected only Graylings and thought the 8 weight could be a bit much... Would it be the intrepid 7'9" Far & Fine 5 weight? I know how to use that one for sure but I had one with that hasn't seen much use lately and had never caught a Grayling. So...…
If I had it to do over (but I don't) I would have had fancy wraps put on that rod, it's a custom build from Orvis back when Ron White was still there. I got that long before I ever heard of the internet and back then stock Orvis dressing looked pretty good to me, it's a six weight.
Next came the question of what fly will you use, I know everyone uses dry flies for Grayling but I like to think that if there's a big one lurking about it'll take a wet fly. So, Jock O' Dee (yep a salmon pattern) tied to a #6 Bartleet hook.
Those babies resemble a lot of forage fish in our rivers and creeks here from Sculpins to baby pink & chum salmon. Before I made my first cast I saw some speckled sculpins scattering and scampering along shore so that was a confidence builder. I was surprised that it took a few casts before I felt someone tapping at the fly and when they got hooked they were pretty small fish.
That's not the first fish, it's not even the 4th fish because I didn't take their pictures. I kept thinking that a big fella would come along any cast now but finally got a snap shot of one of the fish I was catching.
The river is a beauty, it transitions from single channel water into braided flows as you follow it along, I fish down because I'm swinging the seams...
That spot on the hillside is a slide that you can see better where the water parts.
Next picture is looking upstream from below a split in the channel.
Here's the channel against the cut bank
As much as I wanted to think I would find a trout I'm not sure if there are any that live in this one. All that beautiful water most of which is pretty swift current but no trout seen or caught. Graylings however tend to be a bucket fish meaning that wherever the current has cut a troth or eddy and there is some depth with a break from the swift water there will be Grayling. As I went, the better the bucket the better the fish.
Here are some that afforded underwater pictures, this guy just hung out after being unhooked.
Here's one of those bucket areas;
I walked way too far and the knees felt it on the way back but when you look downriver you just can't stop without knowing what's along that cut bank.
That was one of them. There were others but all were similar in size, I'd guess between 10 and 11 inches and healthy.
Below is a good look at the iridescence of the hews of blue in the dorsal fin, had the sun been better it would glow.
Continued below...…………..
By noon Monday August 19 I had tired of sitting around grousing over low water and poor fisheries management so I threw together an overnight load and headed north. The plan was simple, return to a clearwater fork of a northern river that I had spotted access to from the air. That business of flying around looking for places to land turns out to be a great way to spot access routes you'd never find from the ground.
I didn't even get passed Wasilla before I was alerted that my plans weren't gonna work out. I stopped at Three Rivers Fly & Tackle to grab some dry fly leaders and was ask if the Highway was open? Open? What do you mean?
Turns out that while I've been afraid to even think of lighting any sort of fire not everyone has received the memo. There were ? are 2 Wildfires burning along the Parks Highway to such an extent the highway was still closed Monday afternoon!
I swiped this photo off the Anchorage Daily News website, so glad I stopped for leaders!
That'll leave a mark. That photo is from the lower (southernmost) fire burning near the Nancy Lake State Recreation Area. The highway was also closed for what they have dubbed The McKinley Fire which is raging up between mile post 84 and 91 I think. Public radio stated that there were over 80 structures destroyed including some subdivisions of cabins & homes. The Camp Caswell area is completely leveled. There was a combination of Super Dry drought conditions coupled with high winds and things happened fast.
So enter plan B. I headed north on the Glen Highway and went to a place I've only ever driven past. Turns out that old trucks 4 wheel drive still works so I took the road least traveled and found my spot. I didn't bother with a tent and instead inflated a Twin size air mattress and stuffed it in the bed of the truck. Then add a 25* Big Agnes down bag and a pillow and camp came around pretty quickly.
It got colder than I expected with the morning at 36* up there so I was glad to hear the old pot begin the perking thing
I had 3 rods with matching reels along so it was decision time while I sipped coffee, would it be the 9 1/2 foot light salmon? Probably not because I expected only Graylings and thought the 8 weight could be a bit much... Would it be the intrepid 7'9" Far & Fine 5 weight? I know how to use that one for sure but I had one with that hasn't seen much use lately and had never caught a Grayling. So...…
If I had it to do over (but I don't) I would have had fancy wraps put on that rod, it's a custom build from Orvis back when Ron White was still there. I got that long before I ever heard of the internet and back then stock Orvis dressing looked pretty good to me, it's a six weight.
Next came the question of what fly will you use, I know everyone uses dry flies for Grayling but I like to think that if there's a big one lurking about it'll take a wet fly. So, Jock O' Dee (yep a salmon pattern) tied to a #6 Bartleet hook.
Those babies resemble a lot of forage fish in our rivers and creeks here from Sculpins to baby pink & chum salmon. Before I made my first cast I saw some speckled sculpins scattering and scampering along shore so that was a confidence builder. I was surprised that it took a few casts before I felt someone tapping at the fly and when they got hooked they were pretty small fish.
That's not the first fish, it's not even the 4th fish because I didn't take their pictures. I kept thinking that a big fella would come along any cast now but finally got a snap shot of one of the fish I was catching.
The river is a beauty, it transitions from single channel water into braided flows as you follow it along, I fish down because I'm swinging the seams...
That spot on the hillside is a slide that you can see better where the water parts.
Next picture is looking upstream from below a split in the channel.
Here's the channel against the cut bank
As much as I wanted to think I would find a trout I'm not sure if there are any that live in this one. All that beautiful water most of which is pretty swift current but no trout seen or caught. Graylings however tend to be a bucket fish meaning that wherever the current has cut a troth or eddy and there is some depth with a break from the swift water there will be Grayling. As I went, the better the bucket the better the fish.
Here are some that afforded underwater pictures, this guy just hung out after being unhooked.
Here's one of those bucket areas;
I walked way too far and the knees felt it on the way back but when you look downriver you just can't stop without knowing what's along that cut bank.
That was one of them. There were others but all were similar in size, I'd guess between 10 and 11 inches and healthy.
Below is a good look at the iridescence of the hews of blue in the dorsal fin, had the sun been better it would glow.
Continued below...…………..
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