This was my first trip to Alaska and was I ever excited! We took a half hour flight from Brooks Camp to Nonvianak Lake where we were dropped off. It was July 4 and the sockeyes hadn't quite made it up to the lake outlet of the Alagnak River. We spent the first evening catching 16 to 24" rainbows at the outlet.

We woke the next morning bright and early to the cry of loons on the lake. After landing a few colorful rainbow we inflated and loaded up the raft, and headed down the river. As you can see, we brought everything plus the kitchen sink!

It didn't take long and we were into sockeyes! They followed the shallow shoreline of each side of the river in what we named the Alaskan "pipeline". There was a steady stream of salmon 24 hours a day. Moving salmon tended to be nearly impossible to entice into striking our flies, but fish holding in eddies and backwater seemed to take small nymphs with a vengance.

The sockeyes or "red salmon" were chrome silver..a far cry from the deep red appearance they'd hold in the coming weeks. The sockeyes averaged 24 to 32" and 7 to 11lbs. That's quite an armful with a flyrod! They are one of the most acrobatic fish I've ever battled. We had several gourmet diners on the river. There's nothing that compares to eating fresh sockeye salmon! As you can tell by the make-shift lean-2 we experienced lots of clouds and drizzle. In fact, the camp below we named "swamp camp". At least the rain kept the mesquitos and "no see-um" flies at bay!

The middle section of the river is known as the "braids". The river tends to spread out with countless islands and it was quite challenging finding the main channel. The sockeye fishing was incredible in this stretch. Sockeyes held up in giant "pods" towards the tailend of the islands.

We had several doubles and even a couple triples when the fishing was hot! Talk about a circus! Fish, line, and fisherman were frantic! Several powerful fish stripped line to the backing. Unfortunately, one ended up carrying a long section of my new mini-tip flyline to the headwaters of the river!

We floated down to Katmai Lodge and hired a guide to take us king fishing the last day out of a jetboat. I was fortunate to land the first king of my life...a 40 pounder! At times I thought I was going to be pulled overboard! I can't imagine how a 70 lb king would feel. We landed 10 kings between the 3 of us. What a way to close the trip!

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