Fishing Alaska. Seems to be one
of the things on everyone’s fishing bucket list. I was lucky enough to have the
opportunity this summer to head to the land of the midnight sun and fish. I’ll
break the trip down here with a recap and any tips that I have found useful.
Day 1: The flight from Seattle to Anchorage.
Flying with a bunch of fly
fishing gear can be a frightening thought. Will the baggage handlers play catch
with my gear? Will my luggage be routed to Timbuktu instead of my destination?
These thoughts and many more were racing through my head as we left for the
airport at 4am. It was however a very smooth flight and thankfully nothing went
wrong. Here is roughly what I took and how I packed them.
I flew on Alaska Airlines
Carry on – Standard sized
school backpack
GoPro, GoPro mounts, Laptop,
Chargers for everything, Extra battery pack, Jacket, 2 Fly boxes, 2 fly reels
Notes – There were zero problems carrying the fly reels or fly
boxes. Not a single question raised.
Carry on #2 – The fly rods
Echo Classic 7wt Spey rod 12’ 9”
4 Piece
Blue Halo Gear 5wt 8’ 3 piece
Scientific Anglers 5/6wt 9’ 4
piece
Redington Pursuit 8wt 9’ 4 piece
Notes – The rods were packed into three separate tubes, the spey
rod in its original case, the 5/6wt in a borrowed 9’ 4 piece tube and both the
8wt and the 5wt in a homemade PVC case (tutorial to come). Once all the rods
were packed in their respective tubes, the base of all the tubes were made even
then the bottom was wrapped in a single length of duct tape and also up
further. This is how you make 3 separate tubes count as 1 carry on. Generally
airlines allow a longer length for carrying on fly rods and this trip on Alaska
Airlines was no exception. Several other passengers were carrying two piece 9’
fly rods.
Check in bag – Medium
large sized standard suitcase
Waders, wading boots, sling pack
(full of various fly gear), extra clothes, fly reels
Notes – Weighed 38lbs. You do not want to go over 50lbs. It is far
cheaper to check a second bag than get charged the overweight fee. This was a
pretty tightly packed bag but it certainly worked well.
After arriving in Anchorage, the
first stop we made was at Cabela’s to pick up a license and other Alaska
specific gear (more on that later). They had a bin full of $0.50 flies that
were a steal! Nothing that I can see using in Alaska this time of year but they
will certainly be put to use in Washington and Montana.
Day 2: Seward Silvers
Day two was not much of a fly
fishing day. We left Seward in search of silvers and I totally left the fly rod
in the house we were staying at. We fished plenty from a boat and caught
several silvers and many pinks. Most of these fish were caught in 30ft or less
of water. This means that with a full sinking line or a heavy tip, there
would’ve been a good chance at catching these guys. If I were to head out
again, I would bring an 8wt, a full sink type 6 or 8 and some 1/0 clousers.
This would give me the opportunity to catch pinks, silvers, and rockfish. All
of which were pretty abundant.
Day 3: Kenai River Reds
Let me put this right up front
and say THIS IS NOT FLY FISHING! This is flossing with a fly rod. To say the
least it was pretty disappointing when I learned that most of the salmon are
flossed down on the Kenai Peninsula and that catching them clean on a fly is
extraordinarily difficult. It is also well known that bead flies are the other
major “fly” here and although it is a lot better than flossing, beads are
always under scrutiny as to whether it is fly fishing or not.
The Gear - 9’ Redington
Pursuit 8wt, 8/9 Okuma SLV reel, 10ft type VI sink tip WF fly line, 20lb
backing, large split shot, barrel swivel, 25lb test leaders and tippet, Russian
River fly
Basically in this type of
fishing, you cast slightly upstream and drift it down. When you feel a bump
(generally felt like a snag), you set the hook and hopefully it is “flossed” in
the mouth and game on. It was a total blast to hook these sockeye on a fly rod.
They really can become knuckle busters particularly when they try to run into
the main flow of the Kenai River. That was when it was time to hit the brakes
and pull them in. Many people feel that an 8wt is not enough but not once did I
feel under gunned. However, I might not feel this way if it were truly shoulder
to shoulder combat fishing. Although this is certainly not fly fishing, it was
still a blast
One note to those traveling is
that Alaska is a no felt state. Felt soles are illegal and you will be
ticketed. I was not able to track down a pair of rubber soled boots in time so
I used duct tape. The fix for everything. No felt exposed, and the grip was
substantially better than I expected. Even in the swift waters of the Kenai.
Future days to come! Tight lines,
Connor (who really does currently
have leaky waders)
