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Report for the Upper Nushugak Curci Trip:

Michael & Christine returned to fish in Alaska (the Upper Nushugak) bringing stories from "Down East" and from Christine’s work in Ghana Africa. While setting up the raft Christine hooked a 20-pound King on her 5 wt & Hardy click and pawl drag reel. Stupendous leaps & severely bruised knuckles were hers for the next 15 minutes. Pesky salmon. That fish set the stage for the week of fishing for rainbows in the peak of the King Salmon spawn.

In July & August 2004 the Upper Nush was at the peak of seasonal & historic salmon run productivity and fished as well & steadily as any 40 miles of river I’ve ever fished in Alaska. A repeated feature from the 2001 Curci trip was the arrival of a sow Grizzly & cub nearly "in the camp" before we all discovered one another and then mother bear & cub went to another gravel bar to fish. Christine also made friends with a bull Caribou and later a cow moose. Wolf tracks along the riverbanks.

Typical day, Curci’s trip, Michael casts for about 15 of a possible 22 hours of daylight. We are fishing & eating till 10:30am, in the raft until noon. Lunch of smoked salmon, bagels & crème cheese, fruit etc. (while Michael casts). The afternoon, (while Michel casts) drifting, wading, casting…

Great to have both of you back in Alaska! Come back soon.

The Upper Nushugak Kinkelaar- Bradley Trip report:

Rob Kinkelaar & Tom Bradley fished the Upper Nushugak trip in the third week of August when the coho run was strong. Rob brought strong nymph fishing skills. Tom Bradley had never cast a fly but look what happened to him, read on. Within 2 hours of launching Rob Kinkelaar released 3 leopard Rainbows above 20 inches taken on egg sucking leeches.

Manic. Those coho, those silver, acrobatic, nutcase, fishes forming up pods pushing V wakes toward your dry fly... Tom felt like we were fishing in a "Trout Farm". Throwing a pixie spoon in conditions like this was a 100% proposition.

Over the course of a week Tom Bradley transitioned from "never cast a fly" to handling the 9-weight rod well and landing wildly acrobatic coho salmon. Kudos to Tom who progressed an order of magnitude in the sport!

Our final evening was spent watching 3 grizzly bears fish for Sockeye down the gravel bar a distance from our camp. Great trip. I can’t wait to begin planning the next one!

Barbara and Jamie Ferry Family Trip:

The most adventurous family group to fish with us this year was Barbara & Jamie Ferry with sons Spencer & Holden, from Illinois. They chose the South Fork of the Arolik!

Rafting, we averaged about 5-7 miles per day. One of the joys of this family wilderness river trip was that we all spent our days together in the boats doing & sharing the activities of fishing, hiking, portaging, meals etc.

Spencer Ferry and his father Jamie, unhooking a fine rainbow. One can only guess at the depth of impact this trip made upon Spencer & Holden. The 2 sons were young men of modest trout fishing experience, who in a week were transformed into capable Alaskan trophy trout & salmon fishermen. They became skilled "leave no trace" wilderness campers. One could speculate that this is a good thing….

First descent of Canyon Creek an Extreme Trip:

For the preceding 2 years we reconnoitered Canyon Creek by air while on the way to the S. Fork of the Arolik or returning from the Kanektok. The canyon had not been boated before as far as we could tell. On July 1, 2004, we flew up to Canyon Lake in the Cessna 185 to the primary inlet creek of the lake where we could see a large number of salmon & other fish.

In addition to the salmon the other fish at the lake were robust, three to five pound lake trout ecstatic to take dry flies. The Canyon Lake trout were cruising alluvial flats in 24" of clear water over clean gravel; they were easy to sight fish. On dry flies they either pounced cat-like by bulging out of the water & dropping from above or inhaled the fly by flaring the gills from below. 19 fish were released in the evening.

Rafting the shallow Canyon creek was problematic but super exciting! The water was shallow and the narrow brush lined channel was intimate. The "Canyon" for which the creek is named is about 150 feet deep. The creek averages 20-40 feet wide and drops 18’ per mile. It is a class I creek with a runable class II chute around a small waterfall. The wear on the raft bottom & tubes was relentless and raft-patching materials were used in the evenings.

After passing thru the canyon the creek broadened, spreading out, and allowing beaver colonies to flourish. Canyon Creek and others like it present more challenges than the rivers commonly run by fishermen, such as the Goodnews, Togiak, Koktuli, Mulchatna, Alagnak, and Kanektok etc.

Upper Nushugak Extreme Fly-fishing Invitational Trip:

In early August 2004, the "Invitational Group", Richard, Larry, Robert, Pete & I flew to the Upper Nushugak River knowing from the past week with the Curci’s that both the King Salmon & Sockeye spawn was at it’s peak.

Notes from 5’Th of August, Upper Nushugak: 24 rainbows were released today, 31 Dolly Varden Char, 11 Grayling, and 6 bright Coho salmon. I caught the largest rainbow of the season (and perhaps of my life) fishing a huge articulated leech! It’s startling to think that in another 2 weeks the spawning will be completely over and one can float the entire upper Nush and not see a single living King Salmon!

From Camp 5 The Invitational gang fished coho for 7 hours continuously with a 30-minute snack break. Sight casting to pods of 10-25 lice-bright fish with flies like "Blue Zonkers", "Red brass eyed tube flies", "green Dali lama’s" and "Pink Polly Wogs". 20 or so coho to the net, adrenal glands completely drained. The "invitational guys" all pulled more than their own weight; they go more river miles in a day, get more wading, explore the side channels more thoroughly, and in general drive the success of the annual trip.

The Invitational gang was up before dawn, sleepless from the crepuscular coho thrashing in the adjacent pools. Quick coffee & omelet and then back to throwing dry flies at coho, "Wogging". Adrenals were depleted again by mid morning.

Robert Crawford, a master of the Atlantic Salmon & owner of Kennebec River Fly & Tackle, said the week of fishing the Upper Nushugak was "unbelievable, but… not easy fishing, the whole experience was sublime"!

Pete was bang on. Several very large rainbows, innumerable Dollies, & coho!

Unnamed Tundra River Extreme Invitational Trip:

August 12-17 spent descending a very small tundra river west of Dillingham, which shall properly remain "Unnamed". The number of king salmon spawning in the small river was staggering. The trout were abundant behind the active spawners.

It was gratifying to travel the length of the small tundra river catching rainbows and then to arrive in the intertidal zone and to find that the coho were "in" and eager to eat Polly Wogs & fuscia sparkle shrimp. Some camps were on postcard sized sand bars, every day brown bears shared the river, but such is the life…To travel wild coho waters with one, or two, or a handful of wilderness enthusiasts is sublime. Insert Photoguidedropcoho,

2005 Trips in the Planning Stage

If going to Alaska to fish under pristine conditions appeals to you then join the planning process for 2005. The winter ahead will be spent sorting through hundreds of maps, spent speaking with next year’s participant/guests, and with fisheries biologists. Next season we will be flying in the regions best bush planes, having chats with territorial brown bears, and toasting to great fish runs. Come join me!

Each year in addition to the South Fork, The King Salmon, the Upper Nushugak and others I like to pick 1 or 2 new, wild, Alaskan rivers & creeks to explore. Some people are interested in this kind of thing…Perhaps you?

Wildlife 2005:

Moose, Caribou, Bald Eagles, Ospreys, & raptors galore. Grizzly/Brown Bears on all the trips & a scattering of black bear. River Otters, Mink, Muskrat & Beaver for sure. Nesting Terns, gulls, loons, warblers, thrushes, and shorebirds.

Camps:

Good camps all! With the possible exception of the copious amounts of rotting chum salmon at one Extreme Invitational camp. But then those guys were pretty tough.