Dave LaCourse wrote:

It was supposed to be a playground, yet there was no sandbox. They didn't have
a shooty-shoot or slippery-slide. No monkey bars or rings. Hell, they didn't
even have a swing set. Yet it *was* a playground, a comfortable place where
adults and children could flyfish to their hearts content. A place found only
in dream.

Sounds like a WONDERFUL trip.


And fish we did. Four of us and two guides were in the air by 0730. The lodge
has two de Havilland Beavers, wonderful radial engine floatplanes. After a 45
minute flight, we landed on a *very* small pond, 300 yards from Moraine Creek.
We carried our gear (food, drinks, rafts, rods, oars, raincoats, extra rods) to
the creek, launched the portable rafts and began our float as three Alaskan
brown bears observed our departure. There was a small group of fly fishers
sans rafts, so we didn't start fishing until we were past them, about 200 yards
down-stream. A typical nymphing technique was used with a salmon egg pattern.
Two casts and I was into a wonderful twenty four inch rainbow. We both took
many rainbows from 18 - 26 inches. And then I caught my first Grayling.
Beautiful fish, very dark with a light blue sides, and a red streak down the
tip of his enormous dorsal fin. He was 19+ inches and fought like hell, not as
tough as the rainbows, but a respectable fight. Never touch a Grayling unless
you want smelly hands! What a stench!


That's interesting. I find the smell pleasant and also really like the
flavor of them cooked.


Thursday I again floated the Moraine with Todd as my guide. Although the river
was a bit crowded, and the winds gusting at over 25 mph, we still did very
well. We had to hop-scotch our way past other floaters and a large group of
float/campers who were led by the "Cigar Lady".

That's the thing that keeps from going to Alaska. Most people that I've
talked to who have fished in Alaska, report relatively crowded fishing.
Considering the cost and the huge areas of undeveloped wilderness, it
seems strange to me that one would encounter some many other anglers.
Are there that many anglers or are there only a few drainages that are
fished or????? It doesn't make alot of sense to me.


Willi