Tom Nakashima wrote:

The most exciting for me was the huge Leopard Rainbows, unlike any
California trout I've caught. At first I was using my 8wt rod with 9 1/2 ft
4x leaders and 6 lb tippets, and Zuddler Leeches to try, but towards the end
of our journey I was using my 5wt, with 9 1/2 ft 6x leaders and 3 lb tippet
material, hooking 4 pounders on the dry flies. These huge Alaskan rainbows
are very aggressive and come out of the water 3 to 4 ft, shaking their heads
violently, not one time, but at last 6 to 7 times. And they will take out 50
ft of line in seconds. I sure glad I had a mid flex rod and used
monofilament leaders and tippets, as my friend had a hard time with his
stiff rod and carbon leaders. You need that bend in the rod and the stretch
of the monofilament to not lose these monsters. These rainbows do not want
to come in, even after 20+ minutes of fighting them, truly the highlight of
my trip. In all I had a great time and will repeat.


Great report. Post some more pix!


I agree about the fight in those Rainbows. Supercharged fish! The
largest Rainbows caught by our party last year were on "dries" (although
the most were caught on eggs). Chas caught one of them on a
traditional dry and I caught my biggest on a mouse pattern.

Why did you go to 6X tippet? It's not like those fish are leader shy.
A 20 minute fight is tough on a trout.

We're headed up to the same area in a few weeks. How bad were the bugs?

Willi