DRIFTER_016

The river is the Kenai and yes it does get a ton of salmon. The salmon season starts in May when the first run of Kings come in. Next In June the Sockeye salmon start to return. Followed by the second run of Kings in July and the second run of sockeye in August. In even years like this year the river sees a large run of Pink salmon. Finally in late August the Silver salmon start to return. The world record King (97#) came from this river. The second run Sockeye and Silvers are larger than the first run fish. This trip we caught Silvers to about 17 pounds all other salmon are pretty much done by September and not worth fishing for, unless you like boots.

I orginally posted this as an addition to Solopaddlers Alaskan post but Mike said it needed to be posted on it's own. So here we go. This years trip started out like the previous five trips. Leave Yellowknife at dawn and start the 3000km trip to South Central Alaska. My route heads south to the McKenzie HWY where I turn west onto the Laird HWY which is 700km of dirt!!! Pulling into Fort Liard to gas up and had to deal with rush hour traffic!! On the ALCAN in Northern BC heading into the Northern Rockies. Once I'm on the Kenai Peninsula this is home As Mike said the Sockeye returns were down 1/2 million fish so there was a lot less food in the water for the Upper Kenai bows and dollies. This is one of those fish that was malnourished. Here's Eric (Alaska's Simms & Sage rep) with another skinny trout. This day with Eric turned out to be one of my most exciting and memorable days ever. We had walked into this hole from the Highway. Not a long journey but a portion is through some bear infested bush. As we were heading out, just about step up onto the bank about 10 yards away a brown bear was coming our way just stepping over a downed tree. By the time she noticed us and stopped she was about 5 yards away!!! So there we were 15 feet from the biggest bear I have ever seen!!! I had my fishing rod in my right hand and my left on the bear spray in it's holster. Luckily she was not agressive and I never even removed it from it's holster. It was very cool to be that close to a bear that was estimated at 10 feet and 100 pounds (by some of the local guides, I guessed it at 800 or so pounds but I didn't bring my scale ) I wish I was able to get a photo when she was standing in front of the log but didn't have a free hand at the time. In 2003 I met alot of people who had never seen center pin gear and spent alot of time explaining it's use and extolling it's virtues for fishing rivers. One of the first I explained the gear to my a fellow named Paul. I met him on the Anchor River while steelhead fishing. He was fishing the top of a run and I asked if he minded if I dropped in below him. He said go ahead. I made a couple of drifts and he asked about my setup. I showed him how I could fish water that he couldn't using his fly gear. I flipped my float under some over hanging willows protecting the undercut bank across from me, the float moved down stream a bout 15 feet before dissapearing beneath the surface!!! Minutes later I had a 34" buck steelie at my feet. Little did I know what I had done to this poor fellow!!! I met him again the following year and he had a center pin!!!! This was the beginning of the corruption of the Alaskan fly fisher. I call Paul patient zero. LOL Now 5 years later there are CP fishermen starting to show up here and there. Paul was a fly fishing guide and instructor and had fly fished for more than 30 years. He has now sold all his fly rods and replaced them with 13 and 15 foot float rods. My first day of fishing on the Kenai in 2003 was with a guide named Guy Quinten. We went out a couple of times after that initial guided trip as he wanted to see this strange gear I told him I would use after our fly fishing trip. He was amazed at the super long drag free drifts. We reunited this year and I spent some time teaching him how to cast and handle the outfit. Hehehe.............another fly fisherman converted!!!! Thankfully not all the upper river fish were as anorexic as those first couple. Another of my Alaskan friends, this is Mike and his Golden Retriever Buddy. While sitting in our pontoons taking a break we heard come branches snap behind us..........BEAR.....nah Moose. Next day in the same spot A little while later a family of otters came out of the same spot. Another friend Tony spends the summers fly in guiding in south central and winters guiding heli skiers in Valdez.........rough life huh? Tony and I had our own bear encounter. We were fishing on an island and this 500-600 pounder repeatedly tried to come and see us, but he finally got tired of us yelling at him and left. Here's a couple of new friends Chuck from Anchorage who I had been in contact with on another board prior to this years trip. And Ricky, a friend of Chuck's who has completed the Iditarod dog sled race 4 times. Both he and Chuck are transplanted Western Newyorkers. Go figure.....

Yep, it's toast!!!! Send me your address and I'll come by and dispose of it for youj.

In the NWT there is no regulation requiring the wearing of hunter orange. Hunter density is much lower here than in the south. The population of Orangeville is more than the population of the entire NWT!!

$1.389 here........................................................stop yer whinin'

I would hide in the bushes outside Solo Paddlers house and follow him.

Unless you live where I do then it's 80% Hunt, 10% don't but eat it and 10% don't and don't care. Up here you butcher your moose and caribou on the kitchen floor.

Those are some magnum chromers dude!!!

When the Govt. of the day introduced fishing licenses they said that the money would indeed go into the Ministry. What they didn't say was that existing monies would go elsewhere. It was typical political crap. What Ontario ended up with was less money + reduced enforcement + reduced stocking. Just ask Chronzy, he knows!!!!!!

Check this thread on iboats: http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=...at+from+trailer

I have also caught them in the Coppermine and Anderson Rivers just to mention a couple. It helps that they are not greasy like GL fish too. Arctic lakers rival any of the better tasting fish as well. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM can you say BBQ!!!

Back about 15 years ago they used to stock lakers at the mouth of the Ganny and every fall between the middle of September until the middle of October they would return to the lower river. You could catch tons and at night you could get some real brutes to about 30 pounds. It was a fun fishery.

I have caught them in the Niagara, Credit, Bronte, Ganny, Beaver, Bighead, Sydenham etc...... Yeah they're pretty common.

Blaque I left Southern Ontario 3 Years ago for Yellowknife when I was 43. The decision was easy as I was about to go postal on all the loser driving in the Toronto area. There are way too many with me first attitudes there and I just got tired of it. Dude if you want to do it do it.

Mike It was great having you and Joe join me for a week of slammin' magnum chromers!!!! I was debating wether to start my own post about this years trip to the promised land or just add to yours. So if you don't mind I'll just piggy back on your post. LOL As Mike said, I have been trying to get him to Alaska to fish with me for 5 years. This years trip started out like the previous five trips. Leave Yellowknife at dawn and start the 3000km trip to South Central Alaska. My route heads south to the McKenzie HWY where I turn west onto the Laird HWY which is 700km of dirt!!! Pulling into Fort Liard to gas up and had to deal with rush hour traffic!! On the ALCAN in Northern BC heading into the Northern Rockies. Once I'm on the Kenai Peninsula this is home As Mike said the Sockeye returns were down 1/2 million fish so there was a lot less food in the water for the Upper Kenai bows and dollies. This is one of those fish that was malnourished. Here's Eric (Alaska's Simms & Sage rep) with another skinny trout. This day with Eric turned out to be one of my most exciting and memorable days ever. We had walked into this hole from the Highway. Not a long journey but a portion is through some bear infested bush. As we were heading out, just about step up onto the bank about 10 yards away a brown bear was coming our way just stepping over a downed tree. By the time she noticed us and stopped she was about 5 yards away!!! So there we were 15 feet from the biggest bear I have ever seen!!! I had my fishing rod in my right hand and my left on the bear spray in it's holster. Luckily she was not agressive and I never even removed it from it's holster. It was very cool to be that close to a bear that was estimated at 10 feet and 100 pounds (by some of the local guides, I guessed it at 800 or so pounds but I didn't bring my scale ) I wish I was able to get a photo when she was standing in front of the log but didn't have a free hand at the time. In 2003 I met alot of people who had never seen center pin gear and spent alot of time explaining it's use and extolling it's virtues for fishing rivers. One of the first I explained the gear to my a fellow named Paul. I met him on the Anchor River while steelhead fishing. He was fishing the top of a run and I asked if he minded if I dropped in below him. He said go ahead. I made a couple of drifts and he asked about my setup. I showed him how I could fish water that he couldn't using his fly gear. I flipped my float under some over hanging willows protecting the undercut bank across from me, the float moved down stream a bout 15 feet before dissapearing beneath the surface!!! Minutes later I had a 34" buck steelie at my feet. Little did I know what I had done to this poor fellow!!! I met him again the following year and he had a center pin!!!! This was the beginning of the corruption of the Alaskan fly fisher. I call Paul patient zero. LOL Now 5 years later there are CP fishermen starting to show up here and there. Paul was a fly fishing guide and instructor and had fly fished for more than 30 years. He has now sold all his fly rods and replaced them with 13 and 15 foot float rods. My first day of fishing on the Kenai in 2003 was with a guide named Guy Quinten. We went out a couple of times after that initial guided trip as he wanted to see this strange gear I told him I would use after our fly fishing trip. He was amazed at the super long drag free drifts. We reunited this year and I spent some time teaching him how to cast and handle the outfit. Hehehe.............another fly fisherman converted!!!! Thankfully not all the upper river fish were as anorexic as those first couple. Another of my Alaskan friends, this is Mike and his Golden Retriever Buddy. While sitting in our pontoons taking a break we heard come branches snap behind us..........BEAR.....nah Moose. Next day in the same spot A little while later a family of otters came out of the same spot. Another friend Tony spends the summers fly in guiding in south central and winters guiding heli skiers in Valdez.........rough life huh? Tony and I had our own bear encounter. We were fishing on an island and this 500-600 pounder repeatedly tried to come and see us, but he finally got tired of us yelling at him and left. Here's a couple of new friends Chuck from Anchorage who I had been in contact with on another board prior to this years trip. And Ricky, a friend of Chuck's who has completed the Iditarod dog sled race 4 times. Both he and Chuck are transplanted Western Newyorkers. Go figure..... The rest has been covered quite well by Mike. See you at Christmas Mikey!!!!

Actually it is a Great Bear Lake Laker and it's not all that big, the photo angle does do it justice though. It's in the low to mid 40# range. Here's a brute for ya!! 61# Great Bear Laker

Hi!!!! New to this board. I grew up fishing in Southern and Central Ontario and moved 3 years ago to the NWT because I got tired of the congestion in Southern Ontario. My favorite species are trout and salmon but won't turn up my nose at 40"+ pike I spent most of my time growing up chasing steelhead, but now I chase Lakers mostly. I still chase bows on my yearly vacations to Alaska.

Little Bald on the north end of Pigeon never let me down when I lived in Ontario. The add plus is it;s quiet and can be accessed directly from Pigeon. It's good for trolling but is even better for casting.

Baked Musky stuffed with Spotted Owl chicks and drizzled with a Whooping Crane/Bald Eagle Bisque. MMMMMMMMMMMM, does it get any better................I think not!!!!