So the sockeye are all but done at
this point and our attention has turned to silvers and rainbows, two very fun
species to target. The Silvers have been pretty hit or miss so far, some people
are coming back with limits, while others are lucky to get one or two fish in
the boat.
My latest adventures have been
focused on Quartz Creek and Crescent Creek, two beautiful little rivers teaming
with dolly varden and the occasional rainbow and grayling (dad I still have yet
to catch a grayling, sorry!). Quartz Creek is identical to my home water, the
Middlebury River. It’s got the log jams, the undercut banks, the deep holes and
everything (all it’s lacking are the lunker browns!). I’ve fished about seven
miles of Quartz, from where it dumps into Kenai Lake up to where Crescent Creek
flows into it. Last Friday I hit the lower section by the lake for the first
time and hooked into a lake trout that was well over thirty six inches. All I
had was my five weight and that fish roasted me, heading straight for a big log
jam. I tried to put the brakes on him but the little five weight didn’t have
enough wood to turn him and it was only a matter of seconds before he broke me
off in the sticks. You better believe that When I went back two days later I
was fully loaded with my new seven weight switch rod (newest love of my life).
I didn’t run into the big laker but I hooked into several twenty plus inch
Dollys and a beautiful little rainbow. Quartz Creek is in a small valley smack
in the middle of two massive mountain ranges running more or less north and
south. It is teaming with brilliantly red Sockeye salmon, and each pair of
spawners has hungry Dolly Varden behind them, gorging themselves on the eggs.
My best day on Quartz so far is twenty nine fish, which included one rainbow
and one accidental hook-up with a Sockeye.
Crescent Creek is much smaller,
much resembling the South Branch of the Ripton River. Unlike the South Branch
however, you see twenty and thirty pound Kings in the pools and runs, making
their way up to their spawning grounds. Crescent Creek runs out of Crescent
Lake, a lake with some pretty impressive grayling fishing supposedly. One of
these days I’ll hike up to the lake with the belly boat and check it out. The
Dollys in Crescent Creek are generally smaller than those in Quartz, with a big
one being in the fifteen inch range.
The lodge is starting to calm down
now after our latest group of 67 clients, which made for an incredibly hectic
week. From here on out we’re floating in the 20-35 client range, which will
allow for a lot of fun trips (which means more toad rainbows!). Pretty soon we’ll
be hitting Deep Creek for the steelhead run which I cannot wait for, I am told
that the steelies average in the twenty seven to thirty inch mark, and I’m
stoked to see how my new eleven foot seven weight switch rod handles them.
The weather is finally starting to
resemble what I imagined a season in Alaska might be like. Gone are the days of
t-shirts and shorts (for the most part), and I’ve been loving the chilly nights
which have made for some perfect sleeping weather. It’s been raining pretty
much every day, not too heavily but enough to make the Kenai murky and put a
damper on the trout fishing.
It’s hard to believe that in just
five days I will only have a month left of my first season in Alaska! I can’t
wait to come home, eat a good steak, drink a cold Labatts, and pet the Oz Man!
Dad I hope you’ve got a good location all scouted out for my tree stand when I
come back, I expect nothing less than position “A”!
