I was back in Texas for my brothers wedding this weekend and found these two pictures from a trip to Alaska that I took about 10 years ago. It was October. I was there for work and visited Ketchikan, Sitka, Homer, Anchorage and finally Kodiak. Both of these fish were caught on the same pool on the American River in Kodiak. Guide was Jeff Ruppart.

Some memorable moments… We walked about 2 miles through high grass to get this stream. It rained on us as we walked. The rain didn’t bother me as much as the name of the island and the fact that I couldn’t see more that 15 feet in front of me. When we reached the river, it smelled like rotten fish. Dead dog salmon and pinks linked the streams. And, there were pools of blood and fresh eaten carcasses at our hole. Bald eagles surrounded us like buzzards in Texas.

The head of the pool was fully of Dolly Varden. The big ones were well over 20 inches and good fish. They don’t get enough respect. I need to find pictures of the males that I caught. Its not as colorful, but I really like this fish. It looks like a relative to the slate that we were wading on. The salmon was hooked at the far bank at the tail of the pool. Surprisingly, I caught both fish on Jeff’s 10 foot 5 wt. Sage.