Trout, Salmon, and Grayling Streams

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Alaska

> The Gulkana River

Our campsite. Although nobody in their right mind walks the trail we took in to the river, the fishing spot and campsite see quite a bit of traffic from people doing a popular 4-5 day float trip.

Josh fishing the tail of a big pool in the rapids

Another view of Josh's big one

A 17-inch rainbow I caught Thursday evening

And another

I spent at least an hour standing on this rock trying to launch ~75-foot casts of a big streamer and split shot (with a narrow windoer for the backcast) into a piece of deep, calm water across the river, where at least two rainbows kept chasing my fly but missing as the whitewater in between grabbed my line and ripped it away from them. A great trial-by-fire for my new 5-weight rod. When I finally got the hang of the casting and presentation, I caught one around 13 inches and eventually hooked the one I was after, a beast in the 21-23" range or so. But it took off downstream on me faster than I could follow and got the angle it needed to spit the hook.

The "trail" often disappeared completely into large swaths of muddy marsh grass or peat bogs

First view of the Canyon Rapids

Canyon Rapids

Another nice rainbow around 16 inches