In 2003, Brent Whitney accompanied me on our first descent of a diminutive Nushugak river tributary in Bristol Bay, Alaska that we named the Little King Salmon River. Bruce Rueben & Jim Hanko accompanied me on the second descent and Jim Cannon and Rod Salyers on the third descent in 2005. One other couple has fished it bringing the total number of parties to 4 who have ever cast to the Rainbows of the Little King Salmon. Initially we floated & fished the creek from individual Outcast inflatable rafts. Later as I became more familiar with the creek we used Aire Super Puma and Super Duper Puma rafts with me as oarsman and two guests in a Puma raft.

On the Little King Salmon River in 2005 the number of Rainbows attending the July spawning Chum Salmon exceeded any Alaskan creek or river I’ve fished since 1972. While I had previously reconnoitered the little King Salmon from the air and spotted tens of thousands of spawning Chum & King Salmon, until Brent Whitney and I explored the fishery first hand, we didn’t know whether it held Trout, Grayling, Char, or just Salmon.

On this creek Bruce Rueben caught more large Rainbows in one evening on the Alaska Mouse dry fly than I’ve ever seen anyone do before and Jim Hanko perfected his char sight fishing on the creek in a slough he called the aquarium.

If the fishing is this good why don’t more people do it? Several reasons. Access to the creek from the float plane pond is a portage of several hundred yards. Many people consider carrying a 100 lb. raft that distance to be too physically daunting. The portages require a degree of discipline in choosing & using ultra light gear which is costly. In addition only 2-3 pilots in the world and a handful of anglers know the location and we'd like to see the creek remain as it is. Another deterrent is that the middle reach of the creek has a strainer of willows that would destroy a raft if one entered that channel and requires a 750 foot portage. The most significant deterrent is that the creek channel is extremely narrow and brushy in spots making it near impossible from an airplane to determine whether it is navigable.

Would you like to fish a creek like the Little King Salmon with me? If yes, call me at (877) 628-6796 or email me at mark@wildriverfish.com.