Stealing from an old saying… Alaska is calling, and I must go.
Our group made our annual trip to the Bristol Bay area of Alaska, staying at the Royal Coachman Lodge located in the Wood Tikchik state park.
Alaska and the Royal Coachman once again provided an outstanding flyfishing vacation. Although we didn’t catch the monster size fish as we did last year, everyone caught more than enough 22-27″ rainbow trout, arctic char, dolly varden, and silver salmon to make their arms ache.
The Nuyakuk (home river) fished well, but the very large rainbows had not entered the river during our week. Our technique was swinging streamers (dali llama patterns) across the current in likely areas.
A near-by river the Agulapak, fished as well as I ever remember. It was rare to make more than 3 casts without hooking a large rainbow or arctic char. There were still several spawning sockeye salmon, so the preferred pattern was a bead egg pegged to the line 2″ above a bare hook.
The Togiak River provided a mixed bag of silver salmon, rainbow trout, arctic char, arctic grayling and even a few lake trout. We fished with streamers and egg patterns, and all seemed to work.
We fished a number of stream outlets along Tikchik Lake as well as Lake Nerka. Very large arctic char tend to hold in these areas waiting for eggs and flesh to be washed to them for an easy meal. A number of trophy size char were caught and released.
One of our anglers made his first “big time fishing trip”. Mike was able to land many excellent fish over the week including two huge arctic char. Somehow, catching stocked trout in the local creek won’t hold the same fascination as it had in the past.
The lodge provided excellent meals including halibut, venison, steaks and of course salmon.
The cabins were very comfortable with all modern facilities although being located more than 100 miles from any civilization. The lodge even had a sauna and message services.
The trip was arranged by International Angler through Sweetwater Travel – the lodge owner.
The trip cost was a bruising $11,300 plus airfare, license, tips and time spent in Anchorage. Noone questioned the value.
If you have a chance, it’s always a memorable experience.
Tight loops and tight lines,
Al