Al, Bob and Brian arrived in Nome on August 18^th for a week of Daily Flyouts.  After a good nights rest, it was time to get to the fishing.  We spent the first day getting fishing licenses and checking on some lost baggage…  Then we headed out to the Nome River for the afternoon.  Everyone caught their first Silver Salmon, and we returned to the cabin for a nice meal.  The next morning we began the flyout fishing.

Day 1:  DOLLIES
After a nice hot breakfast and plenty of coffee, we loaded up the R44 and headed out.  Our mission today was the Dolly Varden.  The weather was gorgeous, and as we headed into the mountains, we spotted our first of many musk ox.  After two shuttles everyone was on site, and the first group had already caught and released a handful of beautiful dollies.  We had a nice stretch of river picked out to walk, and we began to make our way down river.  Fishing produced many 20” and larger Dolly Varden, along with a surprising number of Arctic Grayling in the 17” range.  Weather was unseasonably sunny for August, and everyone enjoyed the mild temps, sunshine, and fishing. 
Back at the cabin, we all relaxed with a cold beverage, a dip in the hot tub, and some fresh Russian caviar for an appetizer.  Steve and Dave whipped up a fantastic dinner of salad, baked potato, New York steaks, and shrimp skewers.   -BR

Day 2:  COHO
As I stepped out of the door for the short ride across the river to the guest cabin a thick frost coated the porch deck and four wheeler seats. It was August 21, 06 on Alaska’s Seward Peninsula.  The sun was not over the mountain yet and the temperature was 28 degrees. Although it promised to be a beautiful day I had to stop once on my ride to warm my hands. The cool crisp air helped chase the sleep away, the Snake River flowed quietly by, and a smile came over my face in anticipation of what the day would bring.
The Lezanic group was in from Detroit.  After a quick breakfast, the helicopter was preflighted and the first group loaded up for a day of Silver salmon fishing. We had spent the previous day chasing Dolly Varden Char and Grayling around the beautiful Kigluaik Mountains; still it was not too difficult to get the group’s mind on a day of “Silvers”.
Bob Lezanic and I were paired off to fish together for the week and we waited patiently for the chopper to return. The pilot returned with tales of musk ox and bear sightings but it did not prepare us for what came next. We lifted off and skirted the first ridge and a small herd of musk ox appeared high on a western hillside just below a ridge.  A quick hop into the next valley and the sow and cubs were in sight as reported, then looking to the left another sow and a pair of cubs appeared. This sow stood on her hind feet watching the helicopter belligerently, and her cubs ran to her side, as if to say “bring it on”. Moving on we drifted up a small creek and over a pass into the valley we would fish for the day. Movement to the right proved to be another threesome of bears at a run through an opening in the willows, their grizzled blond hair flowing in the wind. I thought to myself, nine bear sightings in 14 minutes, the day was already a success and we had not even wet a line yet. The day finished pretty well though with everyone catching plenty of Silvers.  We let the colored ones go, and kept several bright silvers to throw on the grill.  Back at the cabin, we enjoyed a nice sunny evening and some fresh salmon for dinner.   -SC

Day 3:  GRAYLING
We awoke to another beautiful day on the Seward Peninsula.  It had been a clear night, and there was a light frost on everything this morning.  It quickly went away in the morning sun, and after breakfast we were ready to head out again.  Today we went into Grayling territory.  The river was beautiful, with large boulders, several pools, and many stretches of fast water in between.  After shuttling the two groups in, we split into pairs and went up and down the river.  Brian and I paired up and headed down to the first pool at the tail of some fast water.  Even though no fish were rising, we rigged up with a Chernobyl Ant and a Renegade.  Grayling were rising within minutes.  We caught a few out of the first pool.  The action was exciting as the Grayling literally come out of the water for a skating Chernobyl.  We walked several bends and continued to use dry flies and terrestrials for the entire day.  We searched every ripple, pool, and deep water, and were successful in most of the normal places.  The largest Grayling measured today was a fat 22 and ¼ inches!   -BR    

Day 4:  BETTER THAN WORK 
Finally today we were back to more normal August weather.  The day began with low clouds and light rain.  By the time we were finished with the normal breakfast and coffee routine, it looked good enough to depart.  Everyone added an extra layer today, including a rain jacket.  On the river today we managed to find a few of each main species for this time of year; Coho, Dolly’s and Graying.  Bob landed a very nice 23 inch Dolly, a beautiful male in spawning colors.   Steve also hooked into a nice 24 ½” female Dolly.  I had a 12 pound Coho take my pink cone head woolly bugger.  The problem with this was that I was fishing with a 6-weight with 6lb tippet.  Al skillfully maneuvered himself downstream of the fish, and after several minutes was able to grab the fish mid-stream in fast water, unhook him and let him go.  Fishing today was a bit slower than the previous days, but nonetheless a great day on the river!   -BR 

Day 5:  DOLLIES
Day 5 is angler’s choice, and the vote was for more Dolly Varden.  Back into the mountains we went.  Again we split up into groups, and began hunting for char with buggers and flesh patterns.  I met Al at a deep hole in a side channel of the river, and he had his eye on a couple very large fish.  He had already landed one, just another 20” dolly.  The water was very clear, and we knelt at the head of it so as not to spook the large fish that were swimming big, lazy laps around the pool.  After several minutes without any more interest, I handed Al my 6-weight with the pink cone head bugger, and he hooked up on the first cast… but it was just another 21” dolly.  We could see much larger fish in the pool, so we kept at it for a while.  Al finally switched back to his rod with a gold bead head, brown and olive bugger.  After a couple more casts, we could see one of the large fish chasing the fly.  Then it was on!  The fish knew he was hooked immediately and took a long, fast run to the far end of the pool, quickly taking out almost all of Al’s fly line.  Then the fish made a turn around a large boulder and headed straight back to us.  Now it was all Al could do to keep the hook set.  Back pedaling and reeling in frantically, he did a great job of keeping the fish on and landing a beautiful, 27” Dolly Varden Char.  We got a nice photo and let the fish back into his pool.  Other notable events of the day included Dave taking a nice Char on a renegade dry fly, and Brian landing a Coho that rose to take a Chernobyl Ant.   -BR 

Day 6:  NEW TERRITORY
The weather was beautiful, and I decided to do a bonus day of flyout fishing.  The only catch was that we had to go somewhere that I hadn’t been yet, an exploratory day.  So we found a nice stretch of river, strewn with boulders and fast water, and decided to check it out.  The walking was very difficult.  We only covered about two bends of this stretch of river.  Brian and I again found several nice pockets for Grayling, and had a fun morning pulling them out of the pools.  This is much more challenging than catching them in slow water, and proved to be quite exciting.  Bob landed a nice 21 inch Grayling, and Al caught several fish including a nice Char.  Several Coho were also caught making their way up through this rough stretch of river.  The temperature was 61 degrees.  We made a short day of the fishing, and just enjoyed being out in the country on this beautiful day.   -BR 

Everyone had a great time and we would like to thank Al, Bob and Brian for coming up for the Daily Flyouts.  We hope to see you all again soon.