Bill & Phil's Alaska Trip

[ness]

Those males are incredibly colored!

You've got some great shots there.

Any bears? It looks like bear country to me.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Wow, those are some nice pictures. The colors on those fish are beautiful and so is the scenery. Very jealous. Looks like a 5-star float trip.

Paul

[Phil Lilley]

There were a couple of guys camped at the mouth of Wrench one night that said they saw a mom and cub walking the beach and a muskox. Locals said they are walk the river valleys. Wish we would have spotted one.

Some bear sign, wolf tracks, fox tracks and moose tracks. But there weren't enough salmon in this river to feed many bears, thus there wasn't any to see, at least while we were there.

It was amazing how this area was void of animals. Guess there's not much out there for many to survive and the winters I'm sure are extremely rough.

There's caribou up there but not in that area. They were NE of where we were but would move through the valley in a few weeks.

[Phil Lilley]

We took a ATV ride today. The owner of the cabins we're staying in took up over the pass and down to the Saltery River. This only can be accessed from the ocean (boat or float plane) or by ATV trails. There's a couple of lodges on the river and the river has alot of silvers in it- more than most rivers right now so you know where most of the anglers are fishing!!

We got there fairly early and rode in, Bill and I on a Ranger (2-man vehicle) and Fred and Snappy on single rides. It was 15 miles over the pass and down to the river and the trail was challenging to say the least. It took us an hour.

The beach area was beautiful. Not many fish. So we headed in and found people already on the best holes. So we went on up and found some water and silvers but they weren't interested in much. Fred caught 2 quick silvers on a spinner. I had one on for a short time, purple/pink fly. We worked up to a lake where I caught 2 nice silvers on the same fly. Bill hooked a couple but no meat. Caught a bunch of small dollies on an Elk Hair Caddis on the lake- every cast. Reminded me of brookies in Colorado- plentiful, small and dumb.

Great day... but "done that, never again". The river was "used". The banks were well worn by bears but mostly anglers. Crowded. Not real pretty. Lots of dead salmon and smelly.

So far, Kodiak has been a disappoint. I understand "fishing" - bad conditions, blue bird skies, low water and so on but there's lots and lots of people trying to catch silvers. Too crowded for traveling to ":Alaska". Alaska to me means getting away from the crowds and seeing beautiful rivers and streams and not beat-down banks with fishing line, packaging and empty drink containers all over the place.

But we have a couple more days. We may find a new place that will be better.

[Bman]

WOW

Now that's a fish! Awesome!

[Phil Lilley]

Well- we head back to Missouri tomorrow. Our Kodiak week was a learning experience. We leave with 3 silvers plus whatever we buy in Kodiak before we leave tomorrow.

It's hard to put a finger on this place. It's like Colorado with a seascape and salmon. Because of the improvement of the road coming out this way, there's more people fishing at the bridges than there used to be and because we couldn't fish above the bridges, it crowded everyone up real bad. Plus low water and low fish count, everyone was beating on the same fish... and I mean beating. Most throw big spinners and they snagged fish on every cast. They seemed to find pleasure in this, kicking the decaying pinks and chums back in the water. They were good about releasing the silvers they foul-hooked except for one guy and his wife this afternoon. Long story short- he barked at me when I tried to give him some advice and then promptly snagged a silver, drug it up on the gravel and put a knife in it's gill to bleed it. At that point, I had to leave. I had had enough of the circus.

I'm painting a poor picture of our Kodiak experience. IF they'd had more rain and IF we could have fished above the bridges, it may have been different. I did have my chances at landing more silvers... but I think for every ten silver one normally hooks, you don't land but a couple because there's too much to go wrong... these fish are big, wild fish and they fight hard. But there's too many other places here in Alaska and beyond to find good fishing holes.

We leave tomorrow evening for Anchorage and then fly all night to get back to Branson Tuesday afternoon. I counted 13 different flights on this adventure... 9 down and 4 to go.

I think you'll like the Kelly River video. Can't wait to share it.

[Phil Lilley]

We stayed at the Olds River Inn here on Kodiak. If you come, you should consider staying here. Nice cabins and they're building a brand new restaurant and bar. There's NOTHING within 25 minutes to buy anything out this way- not even a coke machine so their place will be the center of activity. Fred and Mary are great hosts, fun to visit with and will help you in whatever way they can to make your stay a nice one. Fred felt bad about the fishing conditions- he took Bill and I over the pass on his ATV's to the Saltery River which has a good run of silvers. Quite a ride- beautiful views.

Anyhow their restaurant will be done and opened next spring.

[denjac]

Have a safe trip back. You guys are coming back to very nice weather. The water temps have dropped 15 degrees since you have been gone. The bite is getting good.

[Phil Lilley]

Fogged in Kodiak all day yesterday. No planes in or out including ours. So far it's cost us 24 hours and $400 each - another day on the car rental, lodging one night and extra airfare. Leaving Anchorage tonight and getting in Fayetteville in the morning.

I guess it's not uncommon to get fogged in at Kodiak. Sometimes for days we've been told. So we're grateful to be out of there and sitting in Anc airport.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Watched a couple of those videos . . .where did they go, did you take them down? Really enjoyed them. Looks like you guys had an amazing adventure and a trip of a lifetime. Amazed at the beauty and the vastness of Alaska, the colors, the isolation. Kodiak sounded like a bust, but the Kelly River float trip looked spectacular. Thank you for sharing that. And Babler seems to be a decent sport and not too bad with a fly rod either I was shocked to see. Fun trip with buds.

Cheers,

Paul D.