Troutnut.com Fly Fishing for Trout Home
User Password
or register.
Scientific name search:

> > Alaska is great!



Post Reply
TroutnutJuly 2nd, 2007, 8:37 pm
Administrator
Bellevue, WA

Posts: 2737		I'll try to post more about this soon, because I don't have much time to include details now -- I've been really busy. But my first impression of fishing in interior Alaska is pretty good!

For my first trip we drove up to a grayling stream for about 2.5 hours. My first grayling was 8 3/8" and hit on my fifth cast or so. I caught 26 total, up to about 14 inches. My dad caught about ten, too. There was no sign of anyone else fishing.

The next day we floated 8 miles of another grayling stream. I caught 70 and my dad caught 34, with an average size of about 14 inches and about five fish in the 17-18" range. Beautiful water.

The next day we flew out to a big series of lakes and lowland river channels packed with northern pike and fished for about 13 hours straight, until about 12:30am when the sun went down. There was no need for a flashlight, not at any time of night. I caught 50 pike on the fly and my dad caught 34 on spinning gear. Most were 23-26" and about five were around 30", with my biggest taping out at 30.5". That's my biggest pike yet.

One of the most unexpected things up here is the weather in Fairbanks -- it's beautiful almost all the time in the summer. Mid-70s to low 80s in the day, 50s at night, and it's light 24/7. It's a wide open space on the edge of a huge river valley bordered by the Yukon-Tanana highlands (small mountains) to the north and, far to the south, the Alaska Range and Denali. It has a real "big place" feel to it. The sky is almost always beautiful -- neither flatly overcast nor uniformly clear blue, but usually a pretty mixture of puffy and wispy clouds. I've only been here for a week, but several people have told me it's always like this here in the summer.

In a few days we're going on a 4-day guided float down a river with king and red salmon, rainbow trout, and grayling. In the meantime I'm going to try to get some pictures online and hope my fingers heal up from the various line-burns and pike tooth gashes attained yesterday.

Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
JADJuly 3rd, 2007, 4:05 am
Alexandria Pa

Posts: 362

Good for you Jason

Sounds the the Right guy in the Right Place at the Right Time.

John Dunn

They fasten red (crimson red) wool around a hook, and fix onto the wool two feathers which grow under a cock’s wattles, and which in colour are like wax.
Radcliffe's Fishing from the Earliest Times,
CaseyPJuly 3rd, 2007, 11:17 am
Arlington, VA/ Mercersburg, PA

Posts: 653		hey, don't worry about entertaining us just now--we're all out fishing our fingers off. make a couple notes and when that sky is only full of stars 19 hours out of the day (night?)then you can sit down and amuse us all. gee, it does sound just great, though...your condo sleeps how many? just kidding!
p.s. are the mosquitos really three times the size?
"You can observe a lot by watching." Yogi Berra
IEatimagoJuly 3rd, 2007, 2:50 pm
Spring Mills, PA

Posts: 97		congratulation's, sounds amazing i am exited to see pictures
enjoy your trip!
TroutnutJuly 4th, 2007, 1:12 am
Administrator
Bellevue, WA

Posts: 2737		Surprisingly the skeeters aren't bad at all -- yet. I have seen a couple that seem like bigger species than what we have in the lower 48, but most so far are about the same size. Out in the open on the river, or with any kind of breeze, they seem to stay away completely. They seem to mostly come out very late at night when it's very calm, and then they can be pretty bad if you're up on shore. They're certainly annoying then, but I haven't seen them even close to as bad as they are in northern Wisconsin at times. (Anyone who fishes the White in Bayfield County and hasn't been carried away by the little vampires can back me up on that.)

I want to stress that this is my initial impression, and I may change my mind about all this in a couple days. I'll be doing a 4-day float/camping trip on a river infamous for its nasty mosquitoes, so if they're bad anywhere it'll probably be there.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
GONZOJuly 4th, 2007, 8:41 am
Site Editor
"Bear Swamp," PA

Posts: 1681		Hey, Jason, speaking of AK's biting insects, we encountered a nasty little bugger that the locals call "white socks" on the Kenai in late September and early October. It's a tiny fly (no idea about the scientific ID) that leaves an irritating, itchy welt. I was surprised to be dealing with biting insects in the rain, snow, and cold at the end of the season in AK. I don't know if they're found inland at your location, but the guides' solution was to pull out the bottle of nail polish they use to modify their bead eggs and paint it on the affected area. Some of our party were wearing pretty pink spots for much of that trip. (That was more than my pride would bear, so I suffered stoically and scratched.) In light of the incredible Dolly and rainbow fishing at that time of year, however, both the white socks and the nasty weather were only minor inconveniences.

PS--I'm focusing on biting nasties only because I'm so jealous of the amazing fishing you've reported. You certainly deserve some good fun in your new home, but you might consider fabricating a bad report just to keep us from turning green with envy! :)
TaxonJuly 4th, 2007, 12:21 pm
Site Editor
Royse City, TX

Posts: 1350

we encountered a nasty little bugger that the locals call "white socks" on the Kenai in late September and early October. It's a tiny fly (no idea about the scientific ID) that leaves an irritating, itchy welt.

Gonzo-

That would be the infamous Whitestockinged Black Fly (Simulium venustum).
Best regards,
Roger Rohrbeck
www.FlyfishingEntomology.com
CaseyPJuly 4th, 2007, 2:19 pm
Arlington, VA/ Mercersburg, PA

Posts: 653		you guys all need to know about teething medicine and bug bites. if you apply a popular teething medicine/mouth pain reliever to the bite as soon as you notice it, it will go away. guaranteed. carry one of the little bottles or tubes in your vest at all times. works like a charm on poison ivy too. honest!! i cannot express how much of a difference this has made in my enjoyment of the outdoors.
"You can observe a lot by watching." Yogi Berra
GONZOJuly 4th, 2007, 3:09 pm
Site Editor
"Bear Swamp," PA

Posts: 1681		Roger--thanks for the ID. I should have guessed that it was some sort of black fly.

Casey--thanks for passing along the home remedy. It certainly sounds better than walking around with pink splotches of nail polish on one's face and arms!

Quick Reply

You have to be logged in to post on the forum. It's this easy:
Username:          Email:

Password:    Confirm Password:

I am at least 13 years old and agree to the rules.

Related Discussions

TitleRepliesLast Reply
My Day on the Chena
In Fishing Reports by GldstrmSam		0
Interesting brookie color variation
In the Photography Board by Jmd123		0
Re: How was everyone's Memorial Day?
In Fishing Reports by Pryal74		5Jun 4, 2013
by Adirman
New Flies Uploaded
In Fly Tying by Fishnflies		0
Re: Current River (belated report)
In Fishing Reports by Motrout		1Sep 25, 2010
by Martinlf
Re: Rain, Sleet, and Blue Winged Olives
In Fishing Reports by Motrout		4Nov 27, 2010
by Jesse
Two Days on a beautiful river
In Fishing Reports by Motrout		0
Re: The boys were back in town, part 3 - Clark's Marsh
(12 more)

In the Photography Board by Jmd123		1Sep 29, 2017
by Partsman
Alaska
In Fishing Reports by Leakyboots		0
Re: Labrador Brook trout
In the Photography Board by Bush		3May 29, 2007
by D40