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Day float on the Chatanika River
I headed out with a friend & his canoe to float the Chatanika River. It's a popular river to float, so naturally it wouldn't be adventurous unless we decided to do something crazy, like float dozens of miles upstream from where people usually put in. We had some fine dragging and even a little bit of paddling, and many remote pools held eager grayling that rarely see a fly.
Photos by Troutnut from the Chatanika River in Alaska
Underwater photos by Troutnut from the Chatanika River in Alaska
This simple rubber-legged foam beetle is one of my favorite flies for Arctic grayling. It's quick to tie so I don't mind losing one or two on snags. It's durable, so one fly can last a hundred fish or more. It never needs floatant to ride the surface well. Most importantly, it catches fish, although grayling often hit almost anything. The bold profile and attention-grabbing plop of the beetle, I think, draw fish from farther away than a more subtle fly might, and it often draws unusually savage strikes.
StateAlaska
LocationChatanika River
Date TakenAug 6, 2011
Date AddedAug 7, 2011
AuthorTroutnut
CameraCanon PowerShot D10
StateAlaska
LocationChatanika River
Date TakenAug 6, 2011
Date AddedAug 7, 2011
AuthorTroutnut
CameraCanon PowerShot D10
Comments / replies
| Entoman | August 7th, 2011, 8:37 pm | |
 Posts: 2604 | What a gorgeous fish! Excellent photo, Jason. | |
| "It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman | ||
| Oldredbarn | August 8th, 2011, 12:39 pm | |
 Posts: 2608 | Jason, I think I read that they were pretty tasty and this didn't help them any when they lived in the Au Sable. Probably one of the reasons they are gone along with the ease they took to flies...What they like? There is a classic called "The Old Au Sable" by a Dr Hazen Miller and he discribes the commercial fishing that was done and that some anglers had 3-4 droppers and would catch multiple fish on one cast. I don't know Jason but you are starting to look a little "native"...We ever going to see you down here on the "outside" again? :) Spence | |
| "Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively "Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood | ||
| Jmd123 | August 8th, 2011, 1:26 pm | |
 Posts: 2611 | Great photos, Jason, especially the underwater ones! BTW Spence, the logging (siltation and water warming) and damming of the Au Sable didn't help the grayling either - it was a multi-pronged assault... Jonathon | |
| No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere... | ||
| Troutnut | August 8th, 2011, 2:28 pm | |
 Administrator Bellevue, WAPosts: 2737 | Spence, Grayling aren't really tasty at all. There's nothing unpleasant or pleasant about the taste, they're just extremely bland for a salmonid. I think people ate them a lot in the past because they're adequate food on the table, not because they're especially delicious. They probably went extinct because they're very slow-growing and long-lived, and they can't withstand much harvest pressure at all. (I'm sure the logging didn't help, either.) They do well in Alaska because most people prefer to eat salmon & halibut, which we have in abundance, and the few who do eat grayling can spread that pressure over hundreds of streams. There is a problem with overharvest in a few streams close to towns. The grayling population in the Chena near Fairbanks was decimated in the 80s, so C&R-only regulations were instated in the 90s, and now it's the best grayling fishery on the Alaska road system. The Chatanika is the new close-to-town meat fisherman's stream, and I think that's part of why the fish there run a little small compared to Chena grayling. | |
| Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D. Troutnut and salmonid ecologist | ||
| JOHNW | August 8th, 2011, 4:43 pm | |
 Posts: 452 | So all of this wonderful photography leads me to wonder when Jason might host the First annual Trounut Alaskan Conclave? Then again Spence might host a Conclave in the UP. JW | |
| "old habits are hard to kill once you have gray in your beard" -Old Red Barn | ||
| Jmd123 | August 8th, 2011, 4:46 pm | |
Posts: 2611 | I could have one in the Oscoda area, but you'll have to fight over who gets the guest bedroom, the fold-out couch, or the floor... Jonathon | |
| No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere... | ||
| Oldredbarn | August 8th, 2011, 5:16 pm | |
Posts: 2608 | Then again Spence might host a Conclave in the UP. John, After what the market did to me today I may need to go a little further north than the UP! My wife and her sister were driving up north together today and they kept sending me Thelma & Louise text messages...At one point her sister asked me how the market was doing and I told her I had jammed one of my office chairs under the door handle to my office and had the 12-gauge loaded and leaning in the corner in case one of my clients became a little irate...:) Ouch! Spence | |
| "Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively "Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood | ||
| Jmd123 | August 9th, 2011, 4:30 pm | |
Posts: 2611 | Spence, you can always come up here & hunker down for a while, and if the economy really takes a nosedive we can just live off "the fat of the land", like the 5+ pounds of chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms I found today growing on a tree in Tawas (and there's probably 15 more pounds there waiting to be harvested - I don't think anyone else knows what they are!). There's plenty of Huron National Forest to disappear into with a tent, and I've got enough firearms & ammo to hold off the zombies for a good long time!!! Just make sure to stock up on insect repellent... Jonathon | |
| No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere... | ||
| Aaron7_8 | August 11th, 2011, 9:38 pm | |
 Posts: 115 | I gotta quit reading Jonathons' post while drunk he is starting to make way too much sense. | |
| Jmd123 | August 11th, 2011, 10:10 pm | |
Posts: 2611 | Aaron, there's room for you too - I have enough ammo to go around...do you prefer rifle, pistol, or shotgun? I got some old spinning gear too if we really get desperate - and I'm planning on ice fishing this winter as well. SCREW the stock market, we'll have Survivor - Au Sable! ("Outfish, outhunt, outcamp"...) Just gotta get some cute bikini-clad chicks for our show - oh wait, there's some kayaks coming down the river right now!!! Who knows how to clean wild game??? Jonathon | |
| No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere... | ||
| Jesse | August 13th, 2011, 12:00 pm | |
 | Great pictures my man i love getting on this site and seeing fishing shots and beautiful scenery! | |
| Most of us fish our whole lives..not knowing its not the fish that we are after. http://www.filingoflyfishing.com | ||
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