Fun on the Alagnak

Well, what a trip.  Never piloted a raft, never been to the Alagnak (Branch) River, and never seen as many rainbows this BIG!  We landed only 4 fish in the first three days on the Nonvianuk.  We reached the confluence with the Alagnak on the third day, and realizing we (I) had dropped the GPS in the river (it is currently making its way into Bristol Bay), we were in a bit of a bind, not knowing how far we had to go.  Lots of wind and not much sun made for some cold days.  We talked to a guide, fella by the name of Trapper, and he said every morning it had been in the low to mid 30’s, so we weren’t just wimps, it was really cold!  By the time we made our way into the thick of the world famous braids, we started to hit fish.  These cats were huge, and none of them came in without some trouble.  I think we only landed 3 or 4 fish under 20 inches, not counting the grayling.  We ran into them the last two days, and caught them until we were tired of it.  Some pretty nice ones too, the biggest maybe around 17 or 18 inches.  The biggest rainbows we caught were this 25 incher, and the Queen B lassoed this 24 inch beast.  The cold water and weather hurt the fishing, but we were grateful that we escaped with only 1!!!! mosquito bite, and saw zero bears, which made sleeping easy.  I guess we landed 25 to 30 fish, which doesnt sound like a lot, but we probably spent hours landing them.  In all, the trip was so worth it.  We could do it again next week if we had the time!

PS  Check out the awesome pic Bregitte got of me fighting this brute!

PPS  You can make anything sound exciting just by adding an exclamation point!