This week we welcomed Tom Lewin of Frontier Fly Fishing from South Africa. Talk about a long way to go for some fish!
Photo: Cameron Miller
Fortunately he could not have made a better choice for his group’s destination – if you have to travel half way around the world for a week of fishing why not go to the Kanektok. Tom brought Glenn and Sally Goodall and father and son Peter and John Vichos. It was the first time to Alaska for all of them, including Tom. They were all so pleasant to be with during the week and they were able to put they hurt on the fish every day on the water. Glenn hooked a fish on his first cast in Alaska though he did not land it. Not to worry though because there were plenty more to follow for Glenn and everyone else this week.
Trout Unlimited also joined us again this year with a new group of guys from the Coldwater Conservation Fund. These two groups work together to fight for our fish and our waterways so that future generations of fishers have something to look forward too. Rob Masonis headed the group and kept the guys focused on fishing and hanging out in the lounge tent to mull over future ideas on how to save our fisheries. Thanks Rob and the rest of the Trout Unlimited crew. We hope to see you again in the future – keep up the fight!
The fishing this week was great for all species. Kings, silvers, chum, sockeye, pinks, rainbows, dollies, grayling and even a whitefish were caught this week. A few of the guests put up some huge numbers on chum salmon through the week and we also saw kings and silvers all week though in much smaller numbers. The rainbow and dolly fishing was quite good all week with a lot of variation in targeting them. You could float fish the main channel, fish the bars with spey rods or target them in the many small side channels throughout the river. A few of the guys even targeted grayling on dry flies which is always a blast and can be quite productive. The Arolik produced fish all week though no one really targeted any salmon – why would you want to, with mouse-munching rainbows running around all over the place!
The weather was not very nice by many people’s standards, but when we have clouds, rain and wind it makes the bugs non-existent – yee haw!! The salmon fishing stayed very consistent due to the weather as well so you have to take the bad with the good, right? The river needed the new freshet of rainwater as well, though not much. It always helps the silver fishing if we get a little shot of extra water in the river at this time. Next week looks to be more of the same, so hopefully everybody has rain gear!
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