Fly Fishing Bristol Bay

Above: A decent Artic Char

Fly Fishing Bristol Bay
August-September 2008

Above: Artic grayling

Above: Fish on!! Silver at the Togiak

Above: Mike Schoeller with an Alaskan Rainbow on the 'Pak

This year, I had the pleasure to fish Bristol Bay with Bob and Mike Schoeller. It was absolutely amazing. The sheer numbers of fish were unbelievable. I have never encountered anything like it in anywhere I have fished. I wanted to share some of the photos from this trip. Picking out which ones was hard, as anyone can take great pictures in Alaska. In particular, I would like to thank everyone at Mission Lodge for making our trip something truly special.

Above: A fresh Silver Salmon

Above: Look at all the eggs in this Chars mouth!!

Above: Evening Ride Coming In
Above: One of the locals...

Above: Bob Schoeller with a pig Rainbow

An average Dolly Varden

The operation was a fly out, meaning that we would take float planes out every morning for our days fishing. It took a little getting used to, but after day two, I came to look forward to the morning fly out. Our days usual started out eating breakfast around 6:00, getting ready, and then flying out every morning around 7:00-7:30. We fished a wide variety of water, from small streams to big water like the Togiak.

Me with a colored up Silver

Above: Our Daily Transportation

We fished a lot of beads and indicators for the rainbows and char, and swung monster streamers for the silvers. We used mostly 8 weight rods with floating lines, although next trip I am going to bring my switch rod! I caught plenty of fish, drank too much beer, ate too much and generally had a wonderful time! Over the course of the week we caught silvers, artic char, dolly varden, artic grayling & pig rainbows. It was like fishing heaven! I am going to start saving my pennies for the next trip out.

Below: the sockeye on the move!!