Posts Tagged ‘Dolly Varden’

I wrangled an unprecedented opportunity to fish the Talkeetna River for the third time this spring. All the factors that control my fishing life came together in a prefect union. Although mostly it was the fact that the weather has been cooler this month, the water quality/clarity on the Talkeetna has remained good, and my brother could go. Lance was committed to a work trip to Ninilchik; bummer.

Worst part about this trip was the 7AM launch time. It was a really early morning for both of us but we did well, and by 7:10 we were loaded on Jerry’s boat ready for the trip up to Clear Creek. We had decided to start a little lower than we usually do as we had been much more successful below Clear Creek than above it the last two trips. We wanted to save the couple of hours we usually spend upriver concentrating on the confluence area.  We ended up running up Clear Creek a little ways to launch. That gave us a chance to fish it in a couple of spots before dropping down to the confluence. I caught a mid-teens rainbow in Clear Creek and we saw a few rises which I later figured out were probably small grayling.

My fishing karma must have kicked in this trip as a few times during the day we pulled up to fish an area and I was into a fish within a couple of casts. Twice it was on the first drift through a run. This is the sort of thing than can frustrate your fishing companions, especially when they aren’t getting any “fish love” themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

Early for Alaskan waters, but I had got word from a friend that Jerry Sousa of Talkeetna Fishing Guides had put his boat in the river Sunday, the 23^rd, and had been able to run the jet upriver to Clear Creek. Good news for those of us with Spring Fishing Fever. A phone call Monday morning confirmed a drop off trip on Wednesday for my brother Dennis and myself; Lance was trapped at a conference in Vegas until Thursday and was going to missed this opportunity (we don’t talk about it).

The Talkeetna River is one of the two rivers than can provide some decent spring fishing in south-central; the other being the Kenai. The Kenai River is road accessible and had been seeing anglers for most of the month in its upper reaches below the lake. We wanted to test the Talkeetna as it is much harder to access, receives much less pressure, and therefore more apt to fish better; if the water is decent. That’s the risk with the Talkeetna; it doesn’t flows from a lake like the Kenai and is very susceptible to runoff, water level fluctuations, and turbidity depending on the weather and runoff. It’s a roll of the dice.  Read the rest of this entry »

So it’s mid-April and we’re having an extremely early and warm spring this year. Coupled with a very mild winter, this means that spring fishing is at least 3 weeks early and we are already seeing signs that if we don’t get out soon, the rivers are going to silt up with runoff and high water. Our challenge is that the river boat operator that we usually hire to run our rafts up the river we like to fish in early spring is out of state until May and we don’t have that much time. Lance is saving up vacation time for June when his brother is coming to Alaska, so fishing needs to happen on a weekend. Due to my schedule, I have only one open weekend, the 23^rd of April, which is before Rhett at Phantom Charters will be back. What now?

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The First Day of Spring in Alaska is usually acknowledged with an understanding wink between those of us that live here, as we know “spring” is still four to six weeks away.

Boats loaded and ready by mid-morning

However, this year we’ve had an unbelievably mild winter, and with virtually no snow and lots of day time temperatures in the low 40’s Lance & I decided we needed to go fishing. Besides, a fishing trip is good for what ails you.

I had driven to Homer on March 5^th and the Upper Kenai was as low as I’ve ever seen it. No bank ice, clear water (for the Kenai) and a spurt of late run Silvers that arrived in the upper river in really late, all promised for as good of fishing as you could hope for. Now we were not after the Silvers; the season for them is closed, but where there’s spawning salmon you can be sure there will be Rainbows, and since we were going to be by the lake, possibly Dolly Varden.

As luck would have it, Friday March 20^th was the earliest day we could get together that the temperatures were going to be near the 40 degree mark; the First Day of Spring. This would be the earliest first trip of the year I had ever been on, and by no small margin. However, as usual, Murphy started to mess with us. (Murphy is a regular on lots of our fishing excursions. He seems to just invite himself.) Lance ended up with a doctor’s appointment first thing Friday morning. No biggie, we’ll just leave later; that will give the day time to warm up. Dennis discovered a leak in one of his tubes Friday night and can’t find his patch kit. Ok, off to Alaska Raft for a patch kit (and some advice about the fishing at the bridge because the guys at AK Raft are like that). I had friends that came in from Nome Thursday afternoon and back off to Texas at 3:00AM Friday morning. Deal with it; a couple of short naps are way better than no sleep.

But as it turned out we were buying sandwiches at Subway just after 12 Noon, and didn’t get onto the water until about 3PM. Read the rest of this entry »

Southcentral Alaska has had an amazing spring this year. We had such warm weather earlier in the winter that the snow pack was low. April was filled with sunshine and temperatures much warmer than normal. Breakup was as much evaporation as run off. So when I got word that Rhett at Tri-River Charters had his Phantom boats in the river April 22^nd I started looking for the first day possible to go fishing up the Talkeetna River.

I faced a couple of challenges. The last week of April and first weekend in May was out as I had work scheduled; Fishing buddy Lance had had some surgery in mid-April and is on “light” duty until his incisions heal; my brother was out of town for his son’s graduation from college (congratulation DJ); and the weather had been so warm that the river was starting to blow out every afternoon. My window of opportunity was short. I needed a fishing buddy. To my rescue came Jae McKee, a friend I’d known for a while, and we had talked fishing. Jae had guided a bit on the Talkeetna when he was younger and I always wanted to get out with him to learn a bit more about the river. Our schedules matched up on Tuesday, May 6^th; and as luck would have it, it was supposed to cloud up and get a bit cooler the first part of that week. I scheduled a 7AM shuttle ride with Rhett, borrowed a second pontoon boat for Jae, and started dreaming of big fish, eating little fry, dancing on the end of my line.

We decided to spend Monday night at Jae’s cabin in Talkeetna, saving us from the 4AM alarm clock. We got out of town about 9PM due to a meeting I needed to be at, but noticed that, just as scheduled, the skies were starting to cloud up.

We woke up to wet everything. It had started to rain at some point during the night and although the rain wasn’t heavy, the drizzle was still coming down, and it was very cool.

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Hey! Hey! Lance discovered (via Mossy’s Fly Shop) a  new and exciting site that just for flies and fly tyers.

Fly Flashers has been around for just over a year, but is gaining speed. We decided to help. Both Lance & I joined today and I listed several of our favorite patterns. We’d like to encourage you to give them a look see; and if you’re a tyer, or just want to share the patterns that you use that work, sign up and join us. Nothing like networking to get the creative juices flowing.

Find them on Facebook, or go online to Flyflasher.com for a visit.

We’re fans!

Search Lance Hankins or 2 Guys FlyFishing.net

We decided after our season opener trip that we needed to make another trek south to the Russian River to try and re-shoot some underwater footage of the salmon at the confluence. But, since we were traveling that far anyway, we’d take our heavier rods and leave early; hoping to catch some of the sockeyes that were moving into the river. It was supposed to be about the peak of the run, and given that it was going to a Wednesday, we thought we’d have less combat fishing and quality time on the river. Well, you know fishing … in Tuesday’s paper it was announced that ADF&G was going to open the Sanctuary (confluence) at 8:00AM Wednesday. Read the rest of this entry »

Kenai River Opener: June 11^th – 13^th

As we have for the last few years; Lance, Dennis, & I took three days at the beginning of the season opener to float fish the Kenai River. The campground is in Cooper Landing, right on the river. Actually, it’s our campsites that are right next to the river, giving us the prime location for launching our pontoon boats.

Speaking of boats… I have a new one! It’s the 9’ Sportsman Warehouse special from Outcast.

I reversed the tubes as I didn’t receive any discount that warranted free advertising on the river. I’m planning on getting vinyl banners printed and attached to the tubes that will promote 2 Guys Fly Fishing (and my photography business if my lovely partner gets her way).  Anyway, the boat is solid and handled well, and considering the price point, a great deal.

The Kenai River was high, up to its banks, and we saw higher water each day, thanks to the stick marker put in by Dennis. With the high water came low water clarity. Both of these contributed to poor fishing.

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