Week 5 at Alaska West is the start of our transition into multi species fishing on the Kanektok.
Yes, the King fishing is typically quite good this week and this year was no exception. Most of our guests spent the majority of time trying for kings, but they were all open to making the acquaintance of many species of fish.
Brian Niska held over for another week of fishing and spey instructing and once again some of his clients from Whistler Fly Fishing joined him. Jon Baskin joined us for his first of four weeks of fishing – yes, four weeks of fishing. He will be here for two weeks, take a two week break and come back for two more weeks in mid August for silvers. That’s amazing for anyone, but for Jon, who is in his mid eighties, that is incredible! And he is still going strong!
We had quite a few father and son teams this week which made for some special experiences for many. We also met the Wadsworth clan of three generations. Grandfather Frank, sons Jay, Steve and Rob and Grandson Andy. It’s pretty cool to see a family that fishes together and enjoys the outdoors the way that they do. Keep it up guys!
Once again the weather could have been nicer, but for salmon fishing we’ll take it. Temps ranged between 45 and 65 this week with more overcast and rain, though we did see the sun for a couple hours on one of the days! Normally this can be one of the nicest weeks of the season and it’s early enough that even the bugs are not much of a nuisance. We have a feeling that the bugs later on in the summer will be quite heinous since they have not had much of a chance to get at us with the very mild summer we are having.
Overall the fishing was great this week, even the kings stayed consistent enough to warrant chasing them during the week. Malcolm Wood was one of the guests who worked really hard on the kings and was rewarded with a Chrome Giant on the last day of the week (along with a 27” rainbow on the mouse). His king was in the low 40lb range on the spey rod. Not bad for a neophyte king angler and it may turn out to be one of the largest landed all season.
Lots of sockeye poured in this week along with more chums than you can imagine so it really made for some epic bar fishing at times. Just get a fly in the water and you could hook up. Trout fishing kept pace with all other species this week with some really giant fish brought to hand and some of them munching on mice like little carnivores. If you are a vole or mouse in this country don’t dare get in the water or you are seriously putting your life in jeopardy!
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