North to Alaska

Two Scottish fishermen visit the Anglers' Paradise

Fed up with too many blank days on Scottish rivers, Eric Begbie and Tony Conroy decided to spend a week in 1998 pursuing the prolific salmon and rainbows of Alaska. Here Eric gives a brief summary of their fantastic adventure amongst the bears and caribou:

Day 1 - Arrived at King Salmon about midday and travelled by float plane to Royal Wolf Lodge (about 70 miles north). The lodge is on a promintory of land lying between a lake and a river. After a quick lunch we walked down to the "home" river and fished for rainbows. On that river they are smallish fish (from about 1½ lbs to 4 lbs) but masses of them and they fight like nothing we experience in UK in the fairly fast current. Even Loch Leven's rainbows pale by comparison.

Day 2 - Misty in the morning so, rather than fly out, we fish the home river again from aluminium boats with 65 hp jetstream outboards. Catch more rainbows (all catch and release) than I would have believed possible, mainly using "leaches" on fast sink lines. The guides recommend Teeny 200 lines but I found I could out-fish them using Wetcel Hi-D which they hadn't even heard of.

Day 3 - fly out to a short stretch of river running for about 3 miles between two lakes. Use a big inflatable raft to float down the river between pools. Medium sized rainbows here (3 lbs - 6 lbs)

Day 4 - fly out to big river to fish for sockeye salmon. Can spot the fish in the shallows from the plane so can pick our spot. These fish are bright silver at this time of year and run from 7 lbs - 15 lbs with average of 9 lbs. They fight like sea trout of equivalent weight. Magic!

Day 5 - fly out to small river. The planes our lodge uses are Helio Couriers which have exceptionally short take-off and landing capability and can get in and out of lakes and rivers too small for most planes. We landed in one wee lake, hiked about 1 mile over tundra to river which we had to ourselves. Packed with small rainbows (1 lb - 4 lbs), arctic char of the same size and some grayling. The char and 'bows take weighted nymphs fished on a floating line. When a hatch comes on the rainbows go mad for dry flies (and so do the grayling). Lots of small pools on this river and we hike between them and finally hike out to another small lake where our plane picks us up. A tremendous day.

Day 6 - back to the same big river as Day 4 for more sockeye.

Day 7 - fly out to another river and spot a run of salmon in the shallows where the river flows out of a lake. This is the most amazing run I have ever seen - I don't exaggerate when I say that there was a run of salmon, about 5, 6 or 7 fish wide, running virtually nose to tail in knee deep water for the whole day without a break. Sockeye don't "attack" a fly so you have to get the fly in front of their noses for them to take it. The guides recommend a Teeny 200 and put a couple of pieces of split shot on the leader to get the fly down to the fish. Once again I found that a Hi-D with no additional weight proved a much more successful tactic. Cast 45 degrees upstream, don't mend but retrieve line slowly until it is at 90 degrees and down to the bottom, and then let the fly swing round in the current. I was getting several touches to every cast and hooking a fish every two or three casts. Achieved my ambition of catching more salmon in one day than in the rest of my life up until then! One salmon ran me to the end of 350 yards of backing before breaking me. Worth mentioning that all this fishing was with a 10 foot #7 rod and 6lb tippet. After a few hours we got into the boat and anchored about 20 yards off the bank to fish for rainbows. Here they run to18lbs although we couldn't better 12 lbs. Most in the 4 lbs - 10 lbs range.
Day 8 - fly back to King Salmon to catch the plane to Anchorage and then home via Seattle and Chicago.

The cost of the Lodge is $4250 (about £2400 at present rates of exchange) for the week and about £900 for the air fare toAnchorage. It seems a lot but you get a lot for your money. There were 8 of us in the Lodge (it can take up to 10). The main lodge has superb lounge and dining facilities and the sleeping accommodation is in 5 2-bed chalets. The meals are great and the price includes as much beer and wine as you can drink. The lodge has 3 float planes and God-knows how many boats placed in strategic positions on a wide variety of rivers and lakes. There are 3 pilots, 4 guides, a chef, two housekeepers and an odd-job man - all mad about fishing. The only things not included in the cost are fishing licences ($30) and tips.