Trout, Salmon, and Grayling Streams

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Alaska

> The Gulkana River

This isn't quite the size of salmon I was looking for on this trip...

This float trip gave us a couple views of the distant peak of Mount Wrangell, an inactive volcano.

My dad scrambles along the rocks at the base of this canyon as an 18-inch, wild Alaskan rainbow gives him the best fight he's ever had from a fish.

I love this 360-degree panorama of our campsite after a nice day of fishing the Gulkana. Back in the trees my dad (on the right) is chatting with "Moose" from Blue Moose Rafting (on the left).

The fish really turned on Friday morning, and I caught this very pretty 17-incher

Closeup of Josh's big rainbow

Releasing the big one

Josh fishing the tail of a big pool in the rapids

I spent at least an hour standing on this rock trying to launch ~75-foot casts of a big streamer and split shot (with a narrow windoer for the backcast) into a piece of deep, calm water across the river, where at least two rainbows kept chasing my fly but missing as the whitewater in between grabbed my line and ripped it away from them. A great trial-by-fire for my new 5-weight rod. When I finally got the hang of the casting and presentation, I caught one around 13 inches and eventually hooked the one I was after, a beast in the 21-23" range or so. But it took off downstream on me faster than I could follow and got the angle it needed to spit the hook.