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Independence Day Alagnak River Fishing Report

Thank you for reading this Independence Day Alagnak River Fishing Report. Hope you had a safe and happy Independence Day!

Anchorage is in the upper right, King Salmon in the lower left.

Last week I wrote, “For those of you not up-to-date on your Alaska geography, the Alagnak River is about 200 miles southeast of Anchorage…” A kind reader pointed out that I was directionally challenged. The river is southwest of Anchorage, not southeast. Sincere apologies to any who suffered due to this error.

Speaking of suffering, we are experiencing historically high temperatures here at Katmai Lodge. I brought long underwear and fleece. I need board shorts and Tevas. We have fishermen who are wet wading, unheard of around these parts.

The king salmon run has been historic too- historically low so far. Quite a bit of effort was expended this week in fishing for kings.

While some nice fish were caught, every one has required a lot of work. Some boats experienced very little success.

Back-trolling and casting Vibrax spinners have been the best techniques. Fly fishers have only caught jacks.

Fellow guide Karl Baird with a nice king salmon.

The sockeyes are just beginning to filter in. I expect we’ll be fishing hard for them next week.

I brought Larry, Matthew, and Andrew up into the Braids yesterday, where we fly fished for rainbow trout and grayling. Lodge policy prevents me from posting photos of guests, so I have to share file photos. But we got some beautiful fish, on articulated leeches and egg-sucking leeches.

My guests next week are from Brasil. Tudo bem!

That’s this week’s Independence Day Alagnak River Fishing Report! Thanks for reading!

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- Go Fishing!

John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com
http://www.spottedtail.com/blog
www.johnkumiski.com
www.rentafishingbuddy.com
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jkumiski

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2019. All rights are reserved.

Alagnak River Fishing Report

This is an Alagnak River fishing report, coming from Alaska’s Katmai Lodge on the Alagnak River. This place is fantastic!

Last Friday Tom VanHorn, John Turcot, and I traversed the country in Alaska Air jets, arriving at the lodge late in the evening. The only good things about air travel are it’s relatively inexpensive and quite fast. And safe- let’s not forget that.

The lodge staff began our training program the next day- jet boat driving through the braids. Yes, it’s confusing, They also issued us tackle- G. Loomis fly rods with matching reels, #6 and #8. G. Loomis plug rods with Ambassadeur reels for king salmon fishing.

John Turcot’s first fish in Alaska was a lovely grayling, taken on a mouse fly.

On our second jetboat day we got to fish some. Tom had the hot rod, but we all caught fish, a mix of fat grayling and rainbow trout. Effective flies included the egg-sucking leech and the mouse fly.

Mr. Van Horn got several rainbow trout on an egg-sucking leech.

We had a freight day- thousands of pounds of good that arrived downriver on a barge had to be transported to the lodge and put away. Hard work, all of it.

Loading freight into one of our boats.

The rest of the week was spent on jetboat training and prepping tackle- spooling reels, building leaders, tying flies. We were issued and prepped our boats.

Even I caught a trout!

I looked for salmon all week and did not see one. There are rumors that they are starting to enter the river mouth, both kings and sockeyes. Maybe we’ll see next week.

I have seen a brown bear and a half-dozen moose.

Moose cross the river in front of us.

And that is this week’s Alagnak River Fishing Report from Katmai Lodge! Next week I will have some photos of the lodge itself.

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- Go Fishing!

John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com
http://www.spottedtail.com/blog
www.johnkumiski.com
www.rentafishingbuddy.com
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jkumiski

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2018. All rights are reserved.

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Independence Day Alagnak River Fishing Report

Independence Day Alagnak River Fishing Report

Alagnak River Fishing Report

Alagnak River Fishing Report

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