The Playground, part 1

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.

The ancient Super DC3 landed on the short dirt runway at Igiugig (Iggy-au-gig)
just below the mouth of the Kvichak River as it flows out of Lake Iliamna. A
short but fast boat ride brought us (16) to the lodge in 10 minutes. By the
time we settled in and unpacked, it was 2030, time for dinner. There was an
open help yourself bar stocked with some good seethroughs, whiskeys and
whiskies, some liqueurs, and Bud or Coors on tap. I settled down with a
Beefeaters martini and a wonderful dinner of stuffed shrimp and jasmine rice.
I came to fish, however, not to drink and eat.

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!

We finished the float at Kukaklek Lake, some 8 - 9 miles downstream. I lost
track of how many rainbows we caught, but the fish of the day was a 28+ incher
taken by me just after lunch. I chased him downstream about 50 yards. I was
fortunate that the bottom was gravel and not rocky. Bear? Hell, yes. Lots of
them, including a sow with three cubs who wanted our lunch time island. The
guides scared her away and she and the cubs went upstream to fish. The river
is chock full of Sockeye (Red) Salmon and the bear have little trouble catching
them. They eat the high protein part first: skin and then brains. Many times
they discard the flesh, but later in the month they will eat the entire fish.
As evidenced by their scat, they also gorge themselves on berries.

On Tuesday we were fogged in (for fly-outs), but Brooks Camp on Naknek Lake was
open, so six of us flew there to view the bears. If you've seen National
Geographic's pictures of an Alaskan brown bear standing on the edge of a water
fall catching salmon, then you know what Brooks Camp is all about - bears.
Lots of them. You view them from an elevated walkway that is supposedly bear
proof. For over an hour we observed six or seven bears, mostly adolescents
catching sockeye and engaging in mock battle. An interesting aside: Naknek
Lake is in the Katmai National Park, and close to the Valley of 10,000 Smokes.
Extinct volcanoes to the east of Brooks have deposited uncountable pumice rocks
along the shore of Naknek Lake. It is illegal, however, to collect any. Some
are the size cantaloupes.

We arrived back at the Lodge by 1300 and I joined one of the guides to fish the
Kvichak by boat. I tied on a gaudy streamer that Peter Charles would be proud
of and fished for Silvers. No luck (or skill if you like) with silvers, but I
did catch Chum and Pinks. After awhile we switched over to rainbows. They
were in the 27 - 30 inch range, and looked more like a steelhead than a
rainbow. The rainbows of the inland rivers are colorful, but these were
silvery. All of them were fat after feasting on Sockeye eggs. Great fighters,
and I had my fill that day.

The fly-outs on Wednesday required lots of walking (about 3 - 5 miles) to fish
various rivers. Because of my feet and legs, I opted to stay and fish the
river with a super guide named Scot. We fished the mouth of the Kvichak using
the same gaudy streamer. Fishing upstream and across, with lots of upstream
mends, I was into a big fish right away. It turned out to be a Chum (Dogfish)
fresh from the sea. Fought like hell, but I wanted the Silvers. I wasn't
disappointed. Within a few more casts I had a helluva fish on that ran
straight downstream stripping out line like I have never experienced (yes,
Peter, even faster than the Chinooks in the Saugeen). BTW, Silvers are also
called Chinook. d;o) Once he got me into my backing, he swam back at me with
the same speed. I stripped and stripped as fast as I could, but he beat me. I
had lots of slack line in the water, but miraculously, he did not break off.
Once back on the reel, I safely landed all 15 pounds of him. Another one
followed, about 12 pounds, and then two more. We also caught Pinks (Humpies)
and Chum Salmon. All of these fish were fresh from the sea as evidenced by the
sea lice clinging to their sides. After lunch at the lodge, we fished for the
beautiful silvery rainbows downriver, again with much success. (Some of the
sports at the lodge were not fly fishers, but used spinning gear and gaudy
squid imitations. They could only fish the Kvichak, but came up with some very
big (35 pounds) silvers.)

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". We don't know her name, but
she was the boss of the three large pontoon craft and the 10 or 12 guys that
were camping with her. And, yes, she had a big cigar in her mouth every time
we saw her. She has become a living legend on the Moraine. We didn't equal
our first Moraine float as far as numbers of fish, but we had our fare share
and they were all 22 - 26 inches, and again, some big grayling

Dave

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