It's been a couple days now and I'm OK to talk about it................
I guess that first you have to understand what the goal was when I had called a fellow to see if he wanted to join me for what I figured would be the last trip of the season. There's a river 80 miles north of me that, like many here is a glacier fed flow. From early June through September the main channels are carrying a heavy silt load and at a glance the river looks nasty and muddy. During June, July and August the main channels are the highway for returning salmon. The salmon travel up and peal off at each and every clear water tributary where they spawn. Some fish spawn right in the main channels but knowing how many do so is difficult due to the inability to see them unless they are in one foot of water.
With September comes cold nights which significantly slow down the melt rate of the huge ice masses that are behind the silt which is actually pulverized rock and some ancient soils / organic matter. Once that flow is slowed the rivers magically clear up, some in just a few days and they look like any other freestone river, clear and beautiful. Gone is the nasty muddy look and present before you is the Alaskan river of your dreams. The other big change is that suddenly they become a great place to fish. I'm quite sure that there are always trout and char in even the turbid flows especially near the mouths of each and every clear tributary but fishing the main river while the water is turbid is slow going. You have to get the fly directly in the face of a fish before it will be seen.
Once the river clears there's another happening, the tributaries are getting lower and colder so the resident trout and other species begin to drop down until they reach the main river which is much deeper and will provide sufficient winter habitat for them. Some travel over 150 miles to the estuary at Cook Inlet, others winter in the Susitna River main stem in the deep pools. For the guy who can hit it right just before freeze up the fishing can be legendary. I've been fortunate to have been there when the entire river was 'a good spot' seemingly filled with hungry fish but this trip we missed the window by one day.
Yes, one day and that's no joke. My friend at the boat launch had green lighted me the day before with a positive water report, no ice, plenty of fish............ Problem was the temperature up that river valley and surrounding mountains dropped to single digits overnight. We arrived just after sunrise and as expected no one was there, no boats launched, deserted. Perfect!
Well not quite;
The ice in the launch pool was already 1/4" thick and there was a whole lot of slush and small ice flows coming down the river.
Two things in the picture worth mentioning; the mountain top visible is that of Denali and the large circular ice flow had just drifted out of the launch pool. The fella in the picture, although excited with the prospect of good fishing was pretty concerned with the cold and the ice.
Ice like that won't damage my boat but it will clog up a jet motor intake. It can also present issues with the cooling system if the temp stays right at or below freezing all day long. The water will freeze in the cooling lines and the discharge hoses............ We left the boat in the pool and went to the nearest town for a cup of coffee and to wait to see if the amount of floating ice would subside. When we returned we found that there was no need for an anchor because the boat was neatly frozen in place right where we had left it. We decided that the better part of valor on this morning was to call it and pull the boat. If you go and you experience any sort of engine trouble there will not be any other boat coming your way until mid May so we pulled it out. I should have taken a picture of the boat while it was iced in place but neglected to do so.
The single thing that made me say, "I don't think we should" is that from this boat launch you must go down stream about 1/4 mile and then cross below a railroad bridge to reach the main channel. That's always a bad idea unless you are rafting (going downstream in iffy conditions) because if you have a problem like your control cables freezing up causing loss of throttle you can't just drift back to the launch............ I like upstream travel in power boats.
SO we began the 80 mile return checking each and every stream that we came to for ice conditions. It was dark when we had went north and we couldn't see the waters at each bridge but we could now. Every one was floating full of ice slabs. We stopped at the last stream, very little ice but also low water, we bout were armed with 13 and 13'6" Spey rods but gave the small water a go. We failed to see or hook a fish. Were they already dropped down through this area? Were they still up stream hanging with the last of the spawning silvers? That's something I'll never know.
One thing I do know is that I have to get the boat sheltered for winter because we are turning cold fast now. I rebuilt the control box yesterday and thoroughly drained the water from all ports, purged the marine grease in the impeller bearings and pulled the battery, it's over. There will be no more river rides with not another living soul around until next fall. The Mokai still stands ready for a few days steelhead fishing but those days promise to be very cold ones I'm sure. That river is fed by lake outflow so the ice is held up until around December there...........
Sorry I couldn't provide the glory shots fellas, it's just been one of those years, at least I got some much needed work done at the cabin......................
