Week 6 at Alaska West welcomed back many guests who have fished with us here before – some that had fished the same week and others that had fished late silvers and trout with us.
Alex and Freddy Alden and good buddy Gary Linnell joined us for a chance at midsummer trout and late kings. They brought along a couple good buddies, one of them all the way from Australia, that were both new to the Alaska fishing game. Once again Trout Unlimited put a good size group together with all but one of them being returnees! Rob Masonis headed the group which was comprised of guys from all over the US. We also welcomed some new guests to the Kanektok. Richard and Jessie Tichko joined us as first timers to Alaska. Jim Hall came up to hang out with his son Jeb, who is one of our longtime guides at Alaska West. Jim was joined by Jeb’s uncle Mike for his first time experience in Alaska. Pete Laviolette came to us in hopes of quelling his thirst for rainbows, which we think he was able to accomplish. We also met Ron Pocorus who pursued a whole bunch of salmon this week in hopes of taking a little home. And of course we can’t forget about John Baskin, who made this his second week of four at Alaska West for this season!
The weather this week followed track with June and early July by staying quite wet and cloudy. Not a lot of wind, but we paid for it with having a whole lot of moisture. Temps ranged from 40-60 degrees through the week with maybe a couple inches of accumulated rainfall by the end. Fortunately it seems the rain is falling on the tundra and the lower part of the river and not in the mountains which has really left the river height and clarity just how we like it. This kind of weather really helped the catch rates for late kings and early silvers. If it would have been sunny all week the salmon fishing would have been tough.
Overall the fishing was very good on all fronts. We had the last guests of the year who would be able to target king salmon and quite a few were landed this week with many still being in great shape. Guests landed as many chum,sockeye and pinks as they could handle with a few early silvers in the mix as well.
The big story this week turned out to be the fantastic trout fishing had by all. Many really nice size fish were brought to hand and so many overall that if you were trying to count it may have been tough. Lots of dollies as well with a couple huge ones from the Arolik, one of which was pushing 30 inches! We started to see salmon on beds this week which may have been part of the reason the trout and dolly fishing had become so silly. Even the night fishing around the camp really picked up this week with a couple of the newbies landing nice trout within 200 yards of the camp on the first day!
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