Survived Alaska fishing

Brad Bortner

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View attachment IMG_7382.JPGView attachment IMG_7267.JPGView attachment IMG_7356.JPGView attachment IMG_7280.JPGView attachment IMG_7399.JPGView attachment IMG_7384.JPGView attachment IMG_7365.JPGView attachment IMG_7387.JPGView attachment IMG_7273.JPGAs I mentioned several weeks ago, I was doing some pre-retirement training by heading to Alaska to do some fishing with my eldest son and one of his fishing buddies. We flew to Dillingham and chartered a plane to drop off us and our gear, raft and food on a lake. We spent the next 8 days floating and fly fishing to the Bering. We had epic fishing. My son tied a huge variety of all the well know fly patterns for the trip. I think I used 2 patterns the whole trip. The 3 of us caught and released over 500 fish in 8 days. We caught a few spawning Sockeyes, a few jack Kings, many Arctic Char/Dolly Varden, a number of Arctic Grayling and at least 300 silver/coho salmon. Mostly had windy weather but we did have 48 hours of rain. Didn't see any bears, moose or caribou but saw plenty of sign especially bear tracks. We had perfect timing on a pulse of chrome silvers the day after or the day of their arrival from the sea, they fought hard and still had sea lice on them. It was spectacular. My arm is sore and my right hand still won't close into a fist since it spent so much time hanging onto the rod. Fo you fly fishermen, I did have a salmon snap a brand new Scott 7 wt saltwater rod. Here is a little eye candy. I think I am going to like this retirement job.
 
Lots of big fish in those pictures, but that grayling is the one that catches my eye. Jealous as hell.
 
Love it Brad. I second the comments on the grayling! Wow. Those are some beautiful fish and the catching sounds like it was second to none. If you have any scenery pics, throw them up if you can. I want to get to that part of the state at some point.
 
WOW, just freakin' wow. That is a fisherman's dream right there!!!
I am guessing you got sick of eating salmon, if that's possible?????
 
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Jeff, I knew you'd love the grayling. We caught some monster grayling and char. They were aggressive bt the best fighting fish were the rainbows. Pound for pound they even out fought the silvers. The rainbows were all 16-22 inch fighters although my son caught one that was about 26 inches.

Not the Kanetok, but not too far away. Lots of rivers out there some more heavily used than others.

Tod, here are a few scenery shots.
 
what is wrong with that?

Can you explain to me why the photos get posted with 90 degree rotation at random times?
 
Brad B said:
what is wrong with that?

Can you explain to me why the photos get posted with 90 degree rotation at random times?

(A) nothing "wrong" with that as long as one has a barf bag handy.
(b) No, I can't explain it, beyond my pay grade.
 
Wow, what an adventure.

I did a trip in that area back in 84, it rained hard and blew over 25kts most of the time.

Dad fell into the river on the 2nd day and was never able to dry out afterwards.

We had to deadman the tent with river stones to keep it from blowing away.

After we did tat, it blew so hard that the faintly poles snapped right off.


It is hard to do a good double haul with a 9ft 9wt in a 30 knot wind.

It was worth every soggy rainswept moment though.
 
Todd

We only had 48 hours of rain and one river dunking (and my clothes didn't dry until I put them in the washer/dryer in Dillingham). And yes casting a weighted streamer in 30 mph wind is no fun. But the whole trip was a blast. Fishing topwater plugs for silvers was wild. Like a scene from Jaws.

Brad
 
Grayling is a bucket list fish for me.

My sister told me I'll make a very good retired guy... Where do I send the application?
 
Char, too? Now I'm really jealous. I have a buddy who does a similar trip in that area every few years. I may need to save up and tag along one of these days.
 
Thanks for the great pictures and commentary, Brad. Glad you had such a wonderful time. Should I feel sorry for your hand? Nope

Al
 
That looks like an outstanding trip Brad! That one is going on my bucket list.

Gorgeous fish
 
Thanks for the extra scenery pics. Did you start in the mountains or on the coastal plain? Just trying to imagine the trip.
 
What an awesome trip, That grayling is a smasher, on my bucket list. My brother in law lives in Anchorage and have fished with hime 2 times now. Caught lots of pinks and a few silvers but not quite as good as your trip. Love the Dolly's colors. Congrats!
 
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