Road Trip...

Rose and I coordinated and were able to get 4 days off together. We decided to hit the road and check out some place new. I'd heard and read of a place about 150 miles southeast of Fairbanks called the Delta Clearwater River. It was told that it held nice grayling that readily took dry flies and that the water was crystal clear. Sounds great!!!

After a very late start on Thursday, we were north bound on the Glen Highway. The road was familiar as we'd driven it many times in the last year but this time we were headed further up and were excited to see what was ahead. We passed through the Alaska Range which was beautiful, although it was raining heavily. Once on the other side we were nearly to our destination just outside Delta Junction. We found the campground near the river, set up camp and then explored the trail near the stream. It was a gorgous river, clear greenish water with a pebble bottom and the occasional grayling rising on the surface.

The next morning we gathered our fishing gear and walked upstream a short ways and found a spot where there were multiple fish feeding on the surface. We tried some black gnats but it wasn't working and then thinking maybe they're feeding just under the surface, we switched to nymphs. Without a strike, we were left thinking, let's try dries again and I put on a small adams, which is a gray bodied fly with a brown and white/black hackle feathers up front. My first cast and a large grayling swung upward from the bottom and hammered the tiny fly floating on the top water. I instantly set into the fish and battled him for a short bit before being able to net him. I was beyond ecstatic, it was one of the better grayling I've ever caught and on a dry fly too, it really was very cool.

With my fish released, it was time for Rose to catch one. Rose had to weed through some of the medium sized fish before a bigger one was able to get to her fly. She did great and we were pretty happy with how the morning went.

Later on, we fished down river and didn't do as well so for the evening we went back up river and fished a bit further up. We each landed some good fish, but Rose hooked into a real good one, possibly the biggest grayling either of us has caught. I was right in the middle of re-tying a fly and she brought the fish in quicker than I could finish and get the camera. Rose had the fish landed and was trying to secure it on the bank for a photo and the hook popped out and that slippery bugger flopped right back into the water. It really was a nice fish and unfortunately she wasn't able to match that fish.

The next morning was raining and fishing had turned off, no fish were caught all morning so we bagged it and headed south to try an area on the way home. The place was called Gunn Creek and it didn't look like much from the highway but there were some deep holes down stream. We hesitantly decided to try it out as it was extremely windy and the truck seemed more comfortable. We fished for a bit and after a while, I was able to pick up a decent grayling. Rose nabbed one up herself shortly after mine and then that was pretty much it. We explored the stream all the way to where it dumped into the lake and no fish. It seemed like they were more concentrated upstream. Perhaps they'd migrated up past the lower stream to spawn?

It was now about 5:30 and we headed on back to the truck and drove down the road and found a nice spot next to the Gulkana River to cook up some dinner before the rest of our drive home. We cooked up some marinated chicken breasts, green beans, and corn. To top it off we made some s'mores with a added layer of peanut butter! What a great way to end an awesome weekend!