Fishing the Ayakulik River

Paul invited me to join him to fish the Ayakulik River again on the western side of the Kodiak Archipelago in Alaska. Kodiak is home to the largest subspecies of brown bears thought to have been isolated on the archipelego for the last 10-12 thousand years (since the last ice age). Here is one fishing in the early morning mist in one of the most productive holes on the river this year (guess who got right of way)

The river is shallow and easily passable to bears and fishermen in waders. I caught this backlit sow shaking off some of the water during twilight.

There were plenty of beautiful bright Coho's coming up river. The fish and game officials were counting about a thousand fish a day going through the weir.

This was my first fish caught on the surface with a bass fly called a Taco Pescado supplied by the generous Mike Conway.

This is what happens to your flies after getting beat up by aggressive Silvers all day.

The bears preferred the more traditional approach of waiting for high tide and letting the surf wash unsuspecting salmon up close enough for a grab