Alaska Arolik River (Mini Version)

Greetings fellow ROFFians,
I just got back to reality after spending ten days in Alaska, nine of the
days on the Arolik River away from life in the city, and some of the most
beautiful fishing I've ever encountered. I was amazed to see such a variety
of fish in such a small area, as we averaged 12-15 fish each day, catching
Lake Trout, Leopard Rainbows, Arctic Grayling, Arctic Char, Dolly Varden
Char, King Salmon, Chum Salmon, Sockeye Salmon, there are also Coho Salmon,
and Pink Salmon, but didn't see many of those. We also didn't see any bears,
but a few bear tracks, one robin, and one caribou.

PapaBear Adventures see many fishing enthusiast from all over the world.
I've met people from Europe, Russia, Asia, and of course the US and got to
chat with many of the locals. I was surprised to learn that I was one of the
few "dry-fly fisherman", as most anglers fish with heavy leeches, droppers,
and nymphs. I never thought I would tire of fishing, but after awhile I was
wishing the grayling would unhook themselves. As for the King Salmon, after
you catch your third 30-40 pounder and they spool you to the backing and
take you a 1/16 to 1/4 mile from where your standing to land them, just to
release the beauties, you're pretty much spent. But man do they fight, I
actually burned my fingers of my line hand as they took me for a
run...lesson learned.

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.

A few photos, as I will also write a report in detail:
http://home.comcast.net/~tomnak/Alaska_2006_018.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~tomnak/Alaska_2006_021.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~tomnak/Alaska_2006_022.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~tomnak/Alaska_2006_025.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~tomnak/Alaska_2006_033.jpg
-tom