was mind blowing. It was perfect on a fixed-line too. They hug the bank as they cruise about 10 feet off shore along the edge of the rocks. They do this with their mouths open and feed on plankton while they swim. Sockeye don’t chase flies, instead you use a sinking line with lots of split shots to get it down quickly. The hook (because sometimes we actually used a naked hook) trails about 3 feet under the weights and lays out in the water about 1 foot off the bottom. As the fish pump through, you literally snag them and set the hook in the corner of their mouth. Then, you hold on like you’re about to ride a rocket, because these fish blast off like nothing I’ve ever felt. It was thrilling to say the least. A 10 weight intermediate sinking line fit the bill perfectly on the Sagi. The line was about 8 feet long with about 4 feet of 40-pound Maxima. We spent several days in the Katmai National Park on Grosvenor Lake and hiked back to pristine creeks that held monster fish. It was breathtakingly beautiful and although we opted to skip flying to the famous Brooks Camp Falls to fish and bear watch, we were spoiled with places like Contact Creek where fish were hooked literally every cast and we had to abandon honey holes to hungry brown bears that lumbered up and down the river totally apathetic to us or our lost fish when lines were cut in order to retreat. That day was particularly special not because of the bears, but because of the fish that were perpetually offered up by the river. Massive chum that would hunker down and refuse to move, Dolly Varden and char, thick and beefy in that fish sortof-way. I could have stayed there forever.
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The tenkara rod performed magically. I moved and had gravel shoreline from which to maneuver from. The water was no more than 4 feet deep and usually much shallower. I’d cast up stream and lift the rod tip higher as the fly came closer and in front of me, then let it back out doing a small ticking motion. This action took the place of stripping and bringing line in that you would normally do with a reel. The method worked great. On that day we also learned a cardinal rule for landing big, 15-20 plus pound fish on tenkara, don’t grab the line to pull them in, no matter how tempting. Work the fish into position, then with your net partner ready, lift away and bring the rod up, lifting the fish’s head while the guide nets it. This method worked exceptionally well and once we stopped grabbing the line, no fish were lost. On a different afternoon, we flew to the Ugashik Lake and fished the Narrows for grayling after grayling on tenkara. These were fun, beautiful fish that weren’t as huge as the salmon but fought hard, jumped and did acrobatics that reminded me of trout back home in Colorado. Each day after lunch when the fog lifted and the weather cleared, we had a whole new adventure waiting for us and were flown to the most spectacular, remote areas. That alone was a thrill and offered breathtaking views of glaciers, rivers and wilderness that few eyes get to behold. We even flew over a herd of beluga whales. Simply wondrous. I could really go on and on because each day at Rapids Camp Lodge the staff were well prepared and ready to get us into fish,