Trout Stringer
Brenden is here for another visit. The first day he got here we went on a short trip downriver for salmon. It was lights out on salmon the whole night. Pixies were working, flies were working, and it seemed like there were salmon every where. We caught fish after fish until about 12:30 am. I decided that it was probably time to head back to make sure we weren't caught downriver after dark. I knew we still had to clean the fish too.
Pink Salmon
The water was super low to start with. I couldn't make it up to the pit to park the boat for the first 3 days that the boat was in the water. We had to park and then wade across the river to get back to the honda. I really abused my prop those first few tries.
Day 2
On the way downriver that day I told Brenden, "Shoot! I forgot to grab the binoculars! If we see anything it probably won't be close." Sometime around 11 pm we were both fishing in the slough behind us when a grizzly came stalking out of the willows. It was about a hundred yards away just across the slough that we had been fishing in. I yelled at it and it took off. Not thirty minutes later a moose comes splashing through the river. Close to us too. The moose trotted down the river towards us until it was about seventy five yards away and then it made a 90 degree turn and headed into the willows as well.
Getting Ready to Cut
We headed out the next day to the same spot. It was salmon, salmon and more salmon. Most of the salmon were still very fresh, and it is a blast to reel them in. We cooked burgers over the fire and fished late into the night again.
Pano
The next day we went to our salmon hot spot, but this time Oren and Kayla got to come. This time Larry and Velma were down there too. They had just pulled their net in, and were cutting a few fish. Again we caught salmon after salmon.
Oren Cooking Hot Dogs
We brought Vollwerth's from Michigan just so that we could cook them over the fire while fishing.
Helping
Kayla got to practice cutting fish with an Ulu with Velma giving her some instruction. Oren had a blast throwing the fish guts and bellies back into the river.
Grayling on the Fly
On Thursday morning we went right near town to fly fish for grayling. Tied on a little Adams dry fly and away we went. I was hoping that we were going to run into a few bigger fish, but most of them were about 12 inches. It was a calm, clear morning and the water was just glass, with grayling rising everywhere. The fun thing about them is that they will not pass up a chance to eat something in their vicinity I'm quite certain Brenden could have brought home 50 pounds of frozen grayling had we decided to keep them all.
Mouth of the Kelly River
Friday was our trip to the Kelly River. I had planned on getting an early start, but per usual so far we slept in and didn't get going until 11 am. I had all kinds of unknowns on this trip. How long to get there? How long to get back if we idle down? How much gas? Where should we set a tent? Can I make it inside the Kelly?
Up the Kelly
We made it up to the Kelly no problem. I did change the prop. I started with a 17 degree prop, but it seemed that it didn't have a good push so I changed to my prop to back to 15 degree and it seemed like it was going better. It took us about 2.5 hours to get there with one spot where I had to turn around because I took the wrong channel.
A Dolly Parton and Arctic Char
We started fishing right away, and it wasn't long before we hooked into some nice size grayling. We tried a few different spots and then chummed some of the deeper faster water looking for trout. I went exploring upstream. I wasn't far up at all when I saw Brenden waving me back. Sure enough he had a couple of trout on the beach already. We fished this little stretch all day. We both hooked and lost dandy trout. Brenden eventually landed 2 nice ones and 2 smaller trout. I caught 1 little one. We caught enough grayling to keep it interesting. It was 10:30 before we decided to call it a night and head back to the camping spot to set up the tent, start a fire, and heat up soup. When I was unpacking our food I asked Brenden, "what happened to the other thing of juice?" We had only 1 quart of juice that was now gone and a water bottle that was also now empty. I guess we will have to boil water too.
My Dolly
While heating the soup Brenden caught another nice trout right in front of our camping spot. I was a little nervous to go to sleep because I was worried about bears trying to get the food from the boat. It was about 1:30 before we finally decided to turn in.
Sleeping Arrangements
I had just laid my head back and closed my eyes when I heard scrunching. At first I thought that it was the boat rocking but I sat up and looked at the boat and it really didn't look like it was rocking. I started looking around. Sure enough a bear right across the river. I grabbed the pistol and went outside the tent. As soon as the bear got downwind of where we were it took off into the trees. I told Brenden he might as well try to get some sleep, but I wasn't going to be able to. I took the pistol and went and sat in the chair and dozed in and out until 4:00 am when it started getting really light and I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.
Kelly River Grayling
The plan had been to wake up at 7 and start fishing. I thought sleeping on the rocky ground it would be no problem to wake up by then. I didn't get up until 10. I tried some of our boiled water, but it tasted like straight fire. I decided to risk it and drink river water instead. We went back to the same spot, but it was grayling after grayling. We fished until about 1:30 pm and then the rain started coming in buckets. I knew that the way back would be longer because we had to drift down most of the way. We saw a big black wolf right across from Thurston's camp. Finally when we knew that we would have enough gas to make it back to town I went up on plane. Not 45 seconds later I was reefing back on the throttle, grinding over a gravel bar. I told Brenden that maybe I'll just go fast through the deep water and idle through the shallow stuff. The river is a lot easier to read going upriver. Going downriver can be dangerous.
Dolly Varden
We got back from the Kelly about 7 on Saturday night. Sunday was raining pretty hard but we went out for a little while flyfishing for grayling. It was tough conditions to say the least. It was cold, rainy, and windy. I managed to entice one on a dry fly but that was it for a couple hours of fishing.
Campsite
On Monday the river was up quite a bit, and cloudy. We went to a different spot downriver. Even with the cloudy water we still managed to hook quite a few salmon.
Fish On!
Tuesday was Brenden's last day here. We went out for a few hours early. The conditions were tough. The water was higher that the day before and the consistency of chocolate milk. We each managed to still hook and land a couple of fish. I landed one salmon that had sea lice on it. We saw a decent sized bear that got pretty close before we saw it. It didn't really run away when I yelled at it either. I had the pistol, but I realized that after we got back that it wasn't even loaded. I got a couple good pictures of it. The weather was pretty crappy so we didn't stay out as late as we could have.
Tote Full
It was an action packed week of fishing. We saw 3 bears, a moose, and a wolf. Caught all the common local fish, even a few hammerhandle pike at one of the spots.
Closest Grizz at 75 yards
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