Back from Alaska - many, many photos

[Ron Mc]

I was there on work - it rained the whole time. Then I got to play for a few days and it cleared up to splendor !
leaving work

the conveyence

Portage Glacier viewed from Seward Highway

and from closer up

Alaska is the only place I know where the mountains go straight from sea level to 8000+' right before your eyes. It looks like somebody's imagination.

the fish are secondary - you can stand around with your mouth open

Drove down to Seward for lunch at Ray's - the view out the window

[Ron Mc]

my buddy Ewell flew up and met me - we drove down to Kenai for 3 days.
the digs

checked into Gwin's lodge

and were on the Kenai by 3:30 (you can stay as long as you want, it doesn't get dark until 3 am)

combat fishing

Ewell hooked up to a red salmon, which he later lost

blackberry pie at Gwin's lodge

I don't like fishing for reds, anyway, but I let Ewell get his fill.
I started on the Kenai with a rainbow flesh fly rig and was hooking up reds.
I switched to the red rig and was catching rainbows on a bare bright red Gamakatsu hook
Then I switched back to bead head nynphs and caught more rainbows

[Ron Mc]

day 2
we hiked up the Russian falls trail and fished our way back to the parking lot

the falls

there are 2 reds and a king in this photo

all the red holes were taken

but that's OK, we were fishing all the slick water for little rainbows

I got photos of Ewell, and he got photos of me. He and I are catching up this weekend, so I'll have some photos of me later...

[Ron Mc]

day 3
floating the Kasilof



with my friend and our guide, Brandon Maes

the kings and reds are both late this year and the king season just ended before the run really took off.
I got my king by 9 am

the rest of the day was pretty tough for all the guides, but we worked our way down the river and fished hard. Had a great time catching up with Brandon.
Here's a guy in the next boat hooked up.

got 10 lbs of fillets from the one king

[Ron Mc]

last day

checked out of Gwin's

and headed for Ptarmigan Creek

the water was fast, but we found fish everywhere we expected to

here, Ewell is casting dries to rising dinks

my day was made in just this one plunge pool, with 5 fish to hand

they were hard to handle in the rough water, though

Ewell with a nice one

hooked up again

a dink dolly varden

the drive back to Anchorage

[john elder]

Beautiful, Ron! I've been waiting for the pictorial! Hard to capture the scene in pics, but it certainly comes across as a place to go see! thanks for the show.

[Ron Mc]

here is a pan that my buddy made of the view across Trail Lake at Moose Pass

[Robin Sayler]

Awsome shots Ron!

[Ron Mc]

my picks of Ewell's pics
Summit Creek on the drive to Cooper

hooked up on the Kenai

Kenai rainbow

this was probably the fish of the trip - on the Russian - you can see I have the net ready, but never got the fish to hand. And I wasn't disappointed.
The fish ran me up and down the Russian, and I saw her several times - an 18" to 20" rainbow. Even had an audience coming down the fisherman's trail.
She finally let loose, and it was OK - I had as much fun as anybody deserves

Ewell's rainbow on the Russian

another photo of my Kasilof king

a great view from the Ptarmagin Creek trail

here is the slick spot where Ewell was casting dries - I'm taking turns trying to mend a nymph over that fast current

my favorite plunge pool, and I'm hooked up

into the net

high sticking

Ewell caught a grayling in Ptarmagin Creek - I didn't even know

[Brian F.]

Great photos, Ron! Thanks for sharing.