Alaska 2022, Naknek River

[Phil Lilley]

Just got back from 2 weeks of very chilly, rainy weather, a stark contrast to what home has been.  We saw the sun 2 days and the temp on those days rose into the 60's.  Otherwise it was 45-55, breezy and rain.  But the fishing was pretty good and the bugs weren't very bad.

The 2022 sockeye run was early and light.  We're still waiting on the official numbers as well as what the commercial fishermen's report.  Sean Guffy is just finishing up his drift boat stint so I'll talk to him in a couple of weeks.  But the fish count on the Naknek was lagging according to the F&G people.  Jim said they had a pretty big early run but while I was there I'd put the run at below average at best.  But even if a few are coming up, we can catch them and fill our fish boxes - and we did.

The rainbows however were off on my trip.  Again, the smolt came out of the lake early and I guess the rainbow hammered them in June.  But when I was there, I didn't see many smaller rainbows like last year.  They were in the usual places - in the boulder fields waiting to ambush the small bait fish as they schooled down the river - but the smolt were few and far between. 

You usually anchor in the area and wait for the boils, casting while you wait.  I drift and cast around the areas and usually pick some up but not this time.  I figured it out late in the game, at least with my "4-pound circuit" as the guides call it.  I've taken my trout rods up there and throw jigs like I do here.  I anchored over the boulder fields, casted an 1/8 ounce jig up and let it sink to the bottom, working it threw the big rocks.  I caught and landed this 28 inch rainbow.  I have my usual expression... I don't like holding a big fish out of the water so I'm concentrating on the fish and not the camera.

We boated to Brooks one day and saw the bears.  They put on a good show.  Fished Margot Creek the same day.  Disappointing but it usually isn't a good early fishing spot.  Did find some lakers in the mouth but only caught one small one.

We limited 5 days on sockeye (5 per day) and filled our boxes.  It's always fun fighting these fish.  Big Creek, one of the better places to fish for kings, was blown out most of the 2 weeks I was there but did fish the last day (Friday) and found 5 jacks ready to play.  Not big kings, but we only fished for them a couple of hours.

[BilletHead]

         Thank you Phil!

[Phil Lilley]

I forgot to mention covid made its way through camp.  I got a mild case last weekend.  It only kept me from fishing one day.  Other cases were mild as well.

[jdmidwest]

Good looking camp.  That bear had a funny toothless looking grin.

[Travis Swift]

Great report and awesome pics.  Looks like dream land and especially awesome given our current temps!

[Phil Lilley]

 

[Phil Lilley]

The one clip when I pulled the sockeye away from Austin... he had missed twice so I led the salmon away from his net and put it in the net leaning on the bank - which already had a sockeye in it. It was pretty funny...