# Rainy Alaskan day....



## DocEsox (May 12, 2008)

Last Friday before heading south of the border (that would be the lower 48 for non Alaskans) I did a float with my friend Dennis Randa on the upper Kenai. The water has been running high most of the summer and recent rain had the water off color&#8230;..not the best conditions but ya fish when got the time to fish. Had a friend Rob head down with me&#8230;..he's very good on the old fly stick. Met Dennis at the Jim's Landing launch about 8:30 am&#8230;.





Fishing was pretty mediocre at our first stop&#8230;&#8230;managed about a dozen fish&#8230;.pretty even between dollies and rainbows. It was anything from drizzling to out right rain all day long so I didn't take too many pics&#8230;...plus the fish were pretty small. I did lose two big ones who ran me into some trees in the water&#8230;..darn smart trout. When I was younger this used to make me so furious&#8230;..but nowadays age (and many lost fish) and time just have me giving a tip of the hat and a smile to the fish outwitting me.

Rob is a relentless worker of his flyline but early on I got 10 fish up on him&#8230;..but, hey, who's counting? ;-) He really started buckling down while I whined about my sore shoulder&#8230;.unfortunately no one was buying my act.



Rob got the first rainbow breaking the 20 inch mark &#8230;..which was good for today.



We fished a lot of great looking water but due to it being off color the fish were not very co-operative. There were a few small fish but 5 hours into the trip nothing memorable had made it to the net. So we decided to eat lunch on a large gravel bar to refuel&#8230;..nothing like fresh red salmon, baked potatoes and honey cooked carrots&#8230;.



Obviously other indigenous species had been eating on the gravel bar also&#8230;..none had evidently attended etiquette classes or learned how to eat dinner neatly&#8230;



We hit the river again and we started picking up more fish&#8230;.or rather Rob was picking up more fish. Had one of those "moments" as I was fishing in a beautiful slot at the bottom of an island. I was casting upstream right up to a string of sunken and overhead trees and stripping hard as it came downstream. First cast in I hook into a behemoth (although no one really saw said behemoth&#8230. It worked me in the heavy current for about 10 seconds and then just bolted upstream into the fallen trees&#8230;bam&#8230;.followed by a tip of the hat to the fish. As I tried to palm the reel to stop he really cracked one of my knuckles&#8230;.guess I should be smart enough to keep them out of the way. Soooo with smarting knuckle I reel in my line and and begin the laborious task of retying another length of tippet, a new bead and hook, then weights and off we go. This is always way more fun while standing waist deep in 43 degree water but that is no excuse for my next cast&#8230;..hey, I was in a hurry. Lobed my first "new rig" cast right up to the same spot and low and behold I hook another horker (I should patent "hook a horker"). This was another heavy fish staying deep in the current&#8230;..probably a big dolly ("probably", of course, means I never saw said dolly). After slowly working him down from the trees I figured this was a foregone conclusion, just a matter of time. Which according to Murphy's Six Law of Fishing, prompted my line to part with said big fish swimming away&#8230;&#8230;I'll have to admit my "tip of the hat" was a little more begrudging after two losses in a row. The tippet had broken about 3 inches above the new tippet where it was heavily abraided. No excuse for me as I know better than to not check the leader for nicks after the first fish breaking me off in the trees&#8230;&#8230;ahhhhhh&#8230;&#8230;dummy! Sooooooooooo we started the whole retying the tippet and all the terminal crap while standing in heavy current, in cold water&#8230;&#8230;yadda&#8230;yadda&#8230;.yadda. Okay&#8230;.ready to cast again&#8230;.whipping up to right under the hanging trees and&#8230;&#8230;CRAP&#8230;..I caught the very tip of the spruce tree. It wouldn't release and I snapped off the hook and bead&#8230;..hey, at least there was no new tippet involved&#8230;.minor&#8230;.no, macro victory for me. This didn't take quite as long to repair and I soon was swinging another beautifully placed cast perfectly in the seam. The line worked right past the sunken timber then the float took off sidewise&#8230;.I slammed the hook home and was one again&#8230;..to one massive, stinking, half-rotten, disgusting, spawned out, degenerating, fungus covered moldy king salmon which promptly broke me off&#8230;.taking the tippet again&#8230;..sure, why not. At this point I believe I may have tipped my hat while flipping the nearly dead king off&#8230;&#8230;sometimes tranquility just goes by the boards.
At this point I said, "Screw this" walked back to drift boat&#8230;..cut off and replaced my entire leader and tippet&#8230;..Rob asked me if I was okay&#8230;..just held up my hand and waved him off. Some Xanax might have been helpful right then.

Anyway, regeared I hit the water again. We only had a hour or so left and Rob was many fish ahead of me (of course, you remember we weren't counting). We started picking up some nice dollies when I tagged the only really decent rainbow of the trip&#8230;



Notice the sinker in my mouth??? I do enjoy a good lead poisoning as much as the next guy but I routinely have one there when I keep have to change the weight on my line due to the depth and heaviness of the current. Rob hit another little pod of middling dollies when I finally landed a bigger model&#8230;..



We caught a few more then headed to the lake around the corner and to the launch. 
Drifting as we went Rob hooked into a couple of reds&#8230;..hehehe&#8230;.bad luck for him (I must have hooked 15 blinking reds so it was his time)&#8230;..and literally in the last 20 yards before the river dropped into the lake, my rod doubled over(HEY....I am not lying this is exactly when it happened) and easily the biggest fish of the trip was on. Wrestled it for about 5 minutes as we floated into the lake and finally brought this beautiful dolly to the net&#8230;.



After putting here back in I just broke down the rod and packed it up&#8230;nice ending. Rob and I called it a tie&#8230;..he had numbers I had quality&#8230;.uh huh. Remember the little sinker in the mouth picture? Well as I bit off the last two sinkers with my canines (take it from a dentist this is NOT a good habit to get into)&#8230;.the darn wings on the sinker pinched onto the tip of my tongue where it stayed pinching the heck out of me. This brought, great&#8230;.no&#8230;..extreme mirth to Dennis and Rob&#8230;..not so much to me. I ripped it off and my tongue bled very nicely&#8230;.finally stopped but the whole tip of my tongue was numb for hours&#8230;..



So fishing can be dangerous&#8230;..I wouldn't get that close to me. We won't discuss the time I set the hook and planted a three #7 split shot string into Dennis's forehead&#8230;..no. We had a great time, Rob was happy, Dennis was sipping some whiskey and my dang tongue hurt&#8230;..



Always remember my father's favorite saying: "Wherever you are&#8230;.that's where you're at." Very profound.

Brian


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## Mtnbeer (Jul 15, 2012)

Nice fishing. That float was always my favorite this time of year. I've had some seriously epic days in September on that stretch of river. Nothing like monster hungry bows and Dollies feeding on eggs and dead salmon flesh. Those are some REALLY nice Dollies too.


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

Thanks for the post.

Last year we traded one of our halibut trips for a second upper Kenai float trip since the first one was so enjoyable, we enjoyed the two float trips as much as the 2 flly out's.

Can't wait till the next trip, saving for it now.


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## Kingfisher (Jul 25, 2008)

pretty sweet... nice pic of one of you taking a leak at lunch... funny how those seem to show up...


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

Pretty cool looking fish


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

Kingfisher said:


> pretty sweet... nice pic of one of you taking a leak at lunch... funny how those seem to show up...


:mrgreen:Now thats funny.


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

Kingfisher said:


> pretty sweet... nice pic of one of you taking a leak at lunch... funny how those seem to show up...


:mrgreen:Now thats funny.


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## DocEsox (May 12, 2008)

Don't tell Rob.....he doesn't know...


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

Envious... I love those spotted up looking Bow's. 

Speaking of lead poisioning, as a boy i used to carry .177cal pellets in my mouth for those quick back up shots... :doh:


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