My Trip To Alaska  7-26-07  Thru 8-04-07

  My Trip to Alaska started on July 26th, 2007. Once I arrived in Anchorage I traveled north about 25 miles to a town called Eagle River where I spent my first night in a very comfortable hotel. The next morning I traveled south about 100 miles beyond Anchorage to Cooper Landing where I fished in the Kenai River and also Quartz Creek. Quartz Creek was much more tranquill as I only saw one other angler throughout the day and plenty of spawning sockeye salmon which drew in feeding arctic char. I had a wonderful time catching these char most of the day on single egg pattern flies, plastic beads that imitate salmon eggs and a cream colored caddis larvae fly made from natural latex.  At times I thought the fish thought this was an exact imitation of a maggot, and that's OK with me. Most of the char were full of fight for an 8' 8" 5 weight fly rod as they averaged 16 to 18 inches in length.
  After the two days in Cooper Landing I traveled back to the Anchorage Airport and flew to King Salmon. I was met by the owner of Naknek River Camp who I had hired the year before to take me fishing in and around the Katmai National Park. Our first stop was the Rangers Station in the park after about a 40 mile boat ride across Naknek Lake. It was an important stop and required to attend Bear Etiquite School which was most informative for a persons safety when dealing with the many large brown bears in their home land. A nice long hike thru the trails in Katmai National Park with a few short delays caused by the native browns and then we fished at the mouth of the Brooks River. Crystal clear water and about 50 degrees flowed rapidly down stream as early running sockeye salmon entered to migrate and complete their lifecycle to pair up, spawn and then die. After fishing here for about four hours or so, we encountered several bears who were also fishing. Fortunately for us they were only interested in the fish. We hiked back to the Ranger Station for a lunch break and then hiked to a viewing platform right at the base of Brooks Falls. When I arrived,  there were eleven bears already fishing there. Some were in excess of 1000 lbs.  What a sight to see these magnificent creatures and how they react in nature. Quite the fishermen they are as they move about in the strong flowing current to position themselves for the best fishing spot in the water. I think I counted nineteen bears before we departed to hike down river to fly fish for the large rainbow trout that were taking advantage of the salmon eggs being dropped in the water by the spawning salmon.  These rainbow trout were actively feeding and eager to take a fly when presented correctly. We were in contention with the native bears once again and had to move several times as they came within close proximity of the fishing spots we intended to fish. Quite often we would find a productive area with many large rainbows, and some that appeared over 30 inches in length, and had to back away in disappointment only to give up these spots for the safety of our lives. The bears were there to fish too. It was very wise for us to stay in small groups while fishing. There were other fishermen who were also staying at Naknek River Camp the same week as I. Two were from the Chicago, Illinois area and two were from a town called Indiana, Pennsylvania. One gentleman came from Chardon, Ohio and we could swear that we have seen each other on some of the Lake Erie tributaries while fishing for steelhead in the past. We all had a wonderful time fishing together and enjoyed the many fishing stories told after dinner during the evenings back at camp before retiring, just long enough to get up early the next moring to do it all over again.
 I am looking forward to going back to Alaska just as soon as I can. It's one place that I am very happy to say I've been there and I've only seen a sliver of it.