Bill & Phil's Alaska Trip

[Phil Lilley]

I'm not going to start at the beginning and write a blow-by-blow account of our trip so far - that comes later when I have time to do it. But I wanted to report something to bring you all up to speed what we've done, what we've found and what we're doing now.

Floating the Kelly River was something else. We learned real fast that Alaska rivers and fishing isn't anything like Missouri - it's nothing like the Naknek and other rivers we've fished either. There's very little about the river on the internet, only that there were some BIG sea run arctic char swimming in it.

We were to float about 30 miles from up in the headwaters down to the mouth of the Kelly dumping into the Noatak River but when we only found fish at the mouth of a creek 5 miles into the float and then at the mouth and in a creek 10 miles down further, we decided to stay there and finish out our week.

We found the largest char at the first creek. The pilot said the creek was called "no name" but we called it Maggie Creek. We spent 2 nights at the mouth and fished 3 days.

Downstream, we found more char at Wrench Creek, a larger creek than Maggie.

Char and grayling both make their way to these spots and spawn in the fall. We are convinced neither spend much time in the Kelly - the char running back to the ocean and grayling probably back to the Noatak. Did see many small forage fish - some sculpins - and hardly any insect hatches, nothing rising to them when they did hatch. Regardless to say, we caught nothing on dries.

We caught our fish on big black leeches at Maggie Creek with a bead pegged above the fly. The water wasn't deep- 4 feet the deepest. Same at Wrench. At Wrench, we caught all our fish on beads.

Numbers - I caught about 50 char and 35 graying. My largest char was a male about 38 inches. Bill's was 36. At Wrench our male char ranged from 24 to 32 inches and the females ranged from 20 to 30 inches but the males were consistently larger. Grayling - we caught alot of 20-22 inch fish.

I've had a terrible time uploading pictures here at our cabin. Very slow internet and when I put a load on it, it all but stops. I didn't want to just post a fish pic - wanted to give you the whole float experience which was incredible. The country is so vast and awesome, pics and video can't capture it. I'll try to upload a few here before we head back out to try to find some silvers.

[Phil Lilley]

[fishinwrench]

Holy Smokes ! That is awesome country and those are some beautiful fish. You guys are livin' the life Man.

You mean to tell me that there is a "Wrench creek" ? How could it possibly get any better than that ?

No wonder you don't care that the board has gone to hell while you're gone ! I wouldn't either

Just kiddin' y'all be safe and by all means stay out of helicopters.

[Trout Commander]

Unbelievable! Thanks so much for sharing. Can't wait for the detailed report!

[Gavin]

Those are some wicked huge char....Glad your having a great time!

[eric1978]

Awesome. Totally awesome. Can't wait to see more when you get back. Enjoy the rest of your trip...I have a feeling you will.

[jdmidwest]

Nice big pigs with beautiful colors. I envy you, wish I was there.

[Phil Lilley]

[Outside Bend]

Nice Char!

[flyfishmaster]

So in the last photo where Bill is rest on the rocks, Is he imitating "bear bait"?

later,

FFM