RE: 7 Wt for Alaska bows, etc - suggestions?

[Michael Santangelo]

Jim,   I have fished the Alagnak and the Goodnews, but always at the end of June just before the Sockeye were really starting to make their way up the river.� We always saw early Sockeye, but they hadn’t started to spawn yet.   Allan Hanson and I self outfitted, so I can only tell you what I learned on my own.� I fished with two rods rigged up and ready to go.� A five for dries, and a seven rigged with heavily weighted streamers.   Starting with the dries.� A humpy pattern, large and bushy, is great for exploring the back eddies and the slow side of the seams.� You will find this type of water behind the many islands, especially in the Braids. �Don’t be afraid to let the fly sink in the eddy swirls.� �In this water, you will also see risers, especially at dawn or dusk (which are very close together) or when it is overcast.� A blue winged olive will work great, size 14 -16.� This is where your get you grayling and such.   For the streamers. �A large heavily weighted (using 35 lead wire) sculpin or woolly bugger is the ticket.� Black, tan and olive.� You will also need to put several pieces of large split shot on the leader as well.� Space them along the leader so that you don’t get a hinge when you cast.� Throw these flies into the fast side of the seams and into the deeper holes at the end of the faster water and riffles.� Let the fly hang in the water for a while after is swings down.� You will get a really strong pulls.� This is where you will find bows.   Also for the seven weight. �You will need it to cast a mouse or lemming pattern.� This is a large deer haired fly.� Throw these flies up along the grassy banks where the water flows quickly and it is a bit deeper.� This is why you use split shot.� You can quickly take it off of the leader and use the floating line for casting these mouse patterns. �This is where you will get explosive takes by aggressive bows.   Get the Tony Route book “Flies for Alaska”.� It gives you a basic set of flies arranged by season and species along with how to tie them and how to fish them.�   Try to find as much of Tony’s stuff as you can and read it.� He will tell you exactly how to do Alaska on your own.   Mike   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jim Speaker Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 5:39 AM To: waflyfishers@waflyfishers.com Subject: 7 Wt for Alaska bows, etc - suggestions?   Hi all.   I’m taking my first trip to Alaska this summer from July 24-31 fishing the Alganak River with Charlie Summerlin’s outfit/lodge.  He told me that I really need to get myself a 7 wt for fishing this river to deal with not only the wind and large bows, but to double as a salmon rod.  The sockeyes will be in the system at that time so it makes a lot of sense.   To date I’ve been purely a trout fisherman, my heaviest rod is an 8 1/2’ 5 wt St. Croix with medium action.  I don’t want to spend a lot of money on a rod, but at the same time want something I’ll be happy with for a good long time.  The way I figure it, now that I’m finally going to have a heavier rod, I’ll be forced <grin> to fish the salmon and steelhead runs around here…  So, a few questions: a)       Considering that I’m used to medium action rods and prefer the open loop that can be thrown with these, is there a St Croix or some similar quality 7 wt that fits the bill? b)       Am I going down the wrong path thinking I should stick to medium action for this kind of fishing or should I get used to fishing a faster action rod? c)       I’m figuring I should go with a 9’ rod since I’m used to fishing 8 �’ to 9’ rods in the 5 wt class, do you agree? d)       I like my Redington GD 5/6 large-arbor reel a lot, and figure I’ll go with the 7/8 model.  Is there a better option in the $100-150 range? e)       I want to spend around $300-400 tops for the rod/reel and line. f)         Has anyone on the list fished the Alganak?  And, if not, general tips for fishing Alaska bows when they’re hunkered down during a big salmon run would be appreciated.  I’ll have guides with me, but I’m pretty independent and would like to know what I’m doing rather than depending on someone. g)       I also have a couple species on my list that I’ve never caught that will be an option there:  arctic char and grayling.  Any specific tips for grayling in particular would be awesome – I’ve always wanted to catch one – my few times on the Big Hole I was really hoping but never connected with one.   Any help will be much appreciated.   Cheers Jim