Week 7 was met with great anticipation as some wonderful long time guests returned once again for another week of salmon slaying.
Steve Ward and Bobbie Brown brought the kids Finn and Wren back for their third trip in as many years. Steve also brought his oldest son Nate, brother-in-law Andy Folsom and niece Hopie Hitchcock to join in the action. Tom and Katie Olivo also came back for some of the great multi-species fishing to be had this week. Greata and Teri Beatty also came back again to spend some time with their favorite guide Ben Beatty. We welcomed Harvey and Eli Cohen as they experienced Alaska for the first time. Ray Shewnack and Peter Syme also joined us as first timers to Alaska West.
Overall the fishing was very good this week. It turned out to be a great multi-species week, with many anglers coming close to catching the Grand Slam of Pacific Salmon on the fly. The beginning of the week saw a lot of action on kings even though most anglers were fishing 8 weights for chum and silvers. Hopie Hitchcock landed multiple kings with one being well over 30lbs. Tom and Katie Olivo also caught quite a few really nice kings on fly and back-trolling.
King season closed a couple days into this week and once it was over our anglers put the focus on the silvers, chum and resident fish like the rainbows. Silver fishing ended up being a bit tough this week, but our anglers did catch them daily and with the quality and number of chum coming in it worked out just fine. Rainbow and dolly fishing was off the charts at times with a few tough moments mixed in just to keep it fair. Some really large dollies were caught this week which is a sign of things to come for August. Grayling fishing with a mouse was pretty stupid as well. Hard to believe that fancy little fish trying to eat a mouse!
The weather this week was quite a challenge at times with some really nasty days of rain and wind. It was very wet through the week and having the wind mixed in made for some cold days on the water. Thankfully every day at 12:30 hot soup was served in the dining tent, without it the days would have been tough to tolerate. We also did a lot of shore lunches right at camp rather than try to do it in the miserable conditions on the river. Fortunately our guests were quite prepared for Mother Nature and really kept a happy positive attitude through it all. It was a really nice week which we will remember for quite some time.
For a gallery of pictures from the week, check out our July 22 – 29 photo gallery on Facebook.
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