Talachulitna River, Alaska....

[DocSpotty]

The second weekend in September last summer, my boss flew us out for a few days of fishing at random spots……although the Talachulitna River (a very popular rainbow trout river for “visitors”) was on our radar. We flew out in his piper cub to a favorite little stream he calls “Sweet Creek” of the Yetna River. The view of Denali
(Mt. McKinley) was spectacular:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1655_zpsbkvqfatd.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1655_zpsbkvqfatd.jpg.html)

Bob landed at the mouth of the little creek and we found it was inundated with chum salmon (sold out of Washington as “keta” salmon as the names chum or dog salmon don’t sound so economical wise). Caught and released several of those despite not wanting to bother with them. Surprising the dolly varden were scarce to some degree and we only picked up the occasional fish and we moved up river. Caught two out from under a couple of logs that were just spectacular in spawning colors:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1634_zpseoxjufb2.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1634_zpseoxjufb2.jpg.html)

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1636_zpssnlmd0tx.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1636_zpssnlmd0tx.jpg.html)

That second fish was just as pretty as dollies can get. As we moved upriver we caught a bunch of smaller dollies but nothing of any size. Bob was wondering if there were any rainbows in the creek as he hadn’t seen any in years. Not long after that I caught a pretty little bow:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1638_zpskojy8kwk.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1638_zpskojy8kwk.jpg.html)

Then proceeded to catch 6 more rainbows on the way back down the river to the plane….guess that question was answered. We took off and headed back down the Yetna, which is a large fingered, glacial silt filled river, and could see massive schools of chums in some few areas with clear water. We pulled over to fish on such river finger. There were no dollies because there were just too many chums in the water and they would have been ripped to shreds by the salmon. Did catch a couple of chums:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1633_zpshb8jcswv.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1633_zpshb8jcswv.jpg.html)

This one area had hundreds of chums and they were all incredibly sized…..all in the 18 to 30 lbs range….it was amazing. From there we zipped on over to Bob’s new cabin on an isolated lake off the Skwenta River. Here we actually had a grass strip to land on:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1658_zps759lboel.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1658_zps759lboel.jpg.html)

Guess it would be called Hewitt Lake International Airport…..haha. The terminal facilities left a little bit to be desired:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1659_zpsstlx31cl.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1659_zpsstlx31cl.jpg.html)

We put the little boat in the water and motored down to the cabin to spend the night and then hit the Talachulitna in the morning. As luck would have it as we were munching on dinner we saw a boat go by on the lake which happened to be not only one of our patients but one who was a guide on the Talachulitna. Bob called him and we went over for a little visit….he was here to fish the river and Bob volunteered to give him a ride over and he offered to “help us out” fishing the Tal. So in the morning Bob shuttled Arthur and then me over to the river and we started fishing.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1642_zpsdp8fidmd.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1642_zpsdp8fidmd.jpg.html)

We used egg patterns to no effect and started trying other flies….I switched to my favorite sculpin patterns in mossy green and soon started popping some rainbows:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1641_zpseggyugfu.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1641_zpseggyugfu.jpg.html)

There weren’t a plethora of fish but we had pretty consistent action on rainbows from 12 to 20 inches for the rest of the morning. Arthur couldn’t help but play the guide as we landed fish:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1644_zps1ylrtrig.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1644_zps1ylrtrig.jpg.html)

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1645_zpsoteqyhek.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1645_zpsoteqyhek.jpg.html)

Of course we never saw another person or bears for that matter. It was a lovely tranquil moment in time…….until I looked upriver and there was Arthur and Bob fishing…or so I thought until I noticed Bob was on the phone.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1648_zpsab914pxc.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1648_zpsab914pxc.jpg.html)

That was just so wrong with the setting we were in….oh well, so much for being out of civilization. At one of our river crossings I caught and wrenched my very sucky bad knee and couldn’t move on the rocks very well….this caused me much consternation (don’t I look consterned????):

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1651_zps2cyznb1u.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1651_zps2cyznb1u.jpg.html)

Bob figured it would take all day for me to hike the mile and a half back to the plane so he just set me on the rocks overlooking a beautiful hole we’d taken several bows out off:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1652_zps7ykyeyfj.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1652_zps7ykyeyfj.jpg.html)

And he and Arthur fished back to the piper then flew down to pick me up (river side valet service cannot be beaten….yeah). Although he scared the bejebbers out of me when he landed as the wind caught him right as he put it down on the rocks and the plane missed me by only about 10 feet. We headed back to the cabin, had a nice meal and headed back to Wasilla. This is not a very steady, or clear, video of the takeoff but it gives you an idea of the “smooth” surface of this grass strip….haha:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/th_MVI_1668_zpsh66ci71e.mp4 (http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/MVI_1668_zpsh66ci71e.mp4)

Again the scenery was great on the way back:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j32/DocEsox/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1656_zpsaoxay8ia.jpg (http://s76.photobucket.com/user/DocEsox/media/Alaska/2015/Talachulitna92015/IMG_1656_zpsaoxay8ia.jpg.html)

We made a safe landing and were back into the civilized world….at least as civilized as Alaska gets. It’s great fishing with good friends.

Brian

[DEVOREFLYER]

Doc as usual great pics and story. I am reminded by your pics that as a small child in the early 1950s my grandmothers brother was a Game Warden in Alaska before it was a state. He would come down to the lower 48 for about a month to escape part of the Alaska winter. He literally brought boxes of film from pictures he had taken and motion picture film. We would sit for hours on end watching movies, looking at pictures and listen to his stories. After all these years it looks like Alaska has changed little in the out back. I remember most a picture of a stream so filled with Salmon that there was little water visible and it looked like you could walk across on the backs of the Salmon. Oh and the film of the Bears on Kodiak Island kept us kids awake at night, did I say they were huge.

I don’t recall how long he said it took to make the trip in his military surplus 6x6 but he said some times he could drive all day and not see another vehicle. He always brought down boxes of wild game and fish (Salmon, Halibut, Caribou and Bear) and must have spent a lot of money on Dry Ice. I remember him saying that his pay as a Warden was supplemented by a share of the fine imposed on the offender. Also any fish or game confiscated and not used as evidence he could keep so his freezer was always full. He also said that any firearms or fishing gear that was confiscated after trial he could also keep and he was a regular at the pawn shops.

I also remember him saying that there was no limit on the Dolley Varden, I would imagine that has changed today.

[Brent]

Awesome as always doc!

[DocSpotty]

I also remember him saying that there was no limit on the Dolley Varden, I would imagine that has changed today.

Back then the state used to pay people to kill the dollies...they had a bounty on them for every tail you brought in. They totally misunderstand how the ecosystem worked and blamed the dollies for eating tons of salmon eggs. Turn out the worst predators are juvenile coho salmon. Anyway the last year they were doing this obscene thing to the dollies they had a biologist check the turned in tails and less the 20% were dollies....most were rainbows and juvenile salmon tails. Now they are appropriately protected where needed. Ahhhh, the good old days.