A Season in the Life of an Alaska Guide

SAGE: Recognized for its salmon runs and big-shouldered rainbows, there’s a lot more to Alaska than most fly anglers realize. The sheer opportunity in front of you as an angler and guide must be staggering.

Eric: The opportunities are endless! Alaska displays a vast wilderness where towering peaks, beautiful glaciers, active volcanoes, and magnificent waterways create a deep sense of wonder for both anglers and non-anglers alike. We experience a large variety of fishing opportunities combined with experiences unmatched by any other landscape. This can be achieved through many avenues in Alaska, but our favorite is from a float plane. Throughout a season of fly-out guiding in Alaska, the scenery changes quickly and so does the fishing. Not one day is exactly the same as the day before it and with each new day comes a unique experience for both guide and guest.

SAGE: You’ve been guiding with All Alaska Outdoors Lodge for a few years now, both on the fishing side and as a ptarmigan guide. Talk a little bit about what it means to be a guide in Alaska.

Eric: This is my fifth season guiding for All Alaska Outdoors. The lodge offers a variety of different fishing trips. My main trips are remote, fly-out fishing day trips. Most days we fly across beautiful mountain ranges to find our target species. I also occasionally guide remote, fly-out ptarmigan hunts, drift boat fishing trips, power boat fishing trips for Kenai River rainbows, and walk-in trips to local waters on the Kenai Peninsula.

Being an Alaskan guide with this much versatility takes a serious commitment to understanding things such as weather, the tides, and the regulations for each body of water that we access. The decision of where to fish each day is based on a variety of factors like flying weather, wind direction, water temp, and water level. This makes guiding these trips very technical. As far as gear goes, there’s plenty of variety as well. We may fish a 3-weight all the way up to a 10-weight, all on the same day. On any given day we might be dry fly fishing for grayling, or dredging deep with a full sinking line for lake trout, and just about everything in between.

One of my favorite things about these trips is that we also experience wildlife in their natural habitat. We must give species such as bears and moose plenty of room as we fish near them. Alaskan guiding has so many unique challenges but the rewards are worth it when nature is respected and stewarded properly.

SAGE: The guide season in Alaska generally spans June through September, but individual fish runs almost carve out their own mini-seasons throughout the summer. What’s the high-level run down of the fish you’ll encounter over that period?

Eric: We kick the season off chasing pike in early June as well as lake trout and grayling. As our pike fishing slows down around mid to late June, we continue targeting grayling and lake trout for the remainder of the season. Arctic char, dolly varden, and coastal cutthroat all present well as midsummer targets, with silver salmon running hard in late August and September. Our fishing season usually wraps up with incredible rainbow action on the Kenai.

The beauty of it all, though, is that the presence of so many species means there’s always overlap. That’s one of the reasons we offer the Ultimate Expedition; so guests have the opportunity to chase what they want, when they want, and how they want.

SAGE: The Ultimate Expedition sounds, well, like the ultimate. How does that program shake out?

Eric: At the lodge we have fully customizable packages with options that fit every guest's interests. Guided trip options include Ultimate Expedition Fly-Outs, Kenai River Trout and Salmon Trips, Saltwater Charters, and Walk-In Fishing Opportunities. The trip that I guide most days is the Ultimate Expedition. On this trip, we chase a variety of different species throughout the season including northern pike, arctic grayling, lake trout, arctic char, dolly varden, coastal cutthroat, and silver salmon. The Ultimate Expeditions are catch and release fishing trips until late in the season when we will keep limits of silver salmon if the angler wishes to do so.

On our Ultimate Expeditions, we fly out from our lodge on Longmere Lake and the pilot and float plane stay with us all day as we “puddle jump” to different waters and experiences. This gives each guest the ultimate opportunity to not only fish but fly over volcanoes, glaciers, wildlife and so much more. It’s not just about the fish, it really is the ultimate experience in Alaska.

SAGE: Say we’re coming up early season. Let’s talk about your June routine and the most abundant species targets during that time. Who’s there and how are you targeting them?

Eric: Grayling, lake trout and northern pike fishing are all excellent during this time, as sockeye salmon fry are emerging in many systems and sockeye salmon smolt are migrating to the estuaries. This takes place shortly after ice-out and the fish are very hungry.

Grayling are opportunistic and don’t hesitate to eat flies that look like a high calorie snack such as Chubby Chernobyls, mouse patterns, fry patterns, and even smolt patterns. The ARROW 490 has what it takes to turn over these large dry flies, while still making it fun to fight a grayling.

Lake trout are occasionally shallow during this time, but are more regularly found in deep water. Full sinking lines are a must. The R8 CORE and ARROW 696-4FB work well for casting sinking lines, while also having some crossover later in the season as indicator rods for bead fishing during the salmon spawn. There’s just something exciting about feeling a big head shake from a lake trout while pulling it from the icy blue water.

When fishing for northern pike, turning over big, wind resistant pike flies into a stiff headwind can be difficult, especially while wading waist deep in a fly-out lake. The PAYLOAD 1090-4 excels at the task at hand. Giant pike on the fly are a force to be reckoned with!

As far as kings go, there are not many systems that are open to king salmon fishing in Alaska anymore. However, this is the time of the year for opportunities to target kings in rivers that still have healthy runs. The SPEY R8 9130-4 is a solid player in that domain. There’s nothing quite like experiencing the power of an ocean-fresh king salmon on the swing.

SAGE: Ok, once the pike excitement slows down, what’s next?

ERIC: By late June the pike fishing is over, as they have moved to deep water. As we move into July, we continue fishing for grayling and lake trout and begin targeting sea-run dolly varden and coastal cutthroat. The R8 CORE 490-4 has enough backbone to punch small streamers into an ocean breeze, yet is light enough to have fun fighting a fish that rarely gets larger than 16-18” long.

Mid-summer produces prolific insect hatches on many of the systems, producing excellent dry fly fishing for grayling. The CLASSIC R8 490-4 and 386-4 both come in clutch for delivering small flies delicately to the nose of stubborn grayling keyed in on the hatch.

Toward the end of July, bead fishing for dolly varden and rainbow trout picks up as the first run of sockeye salmon start to spawn. This is also when the R8 CORE and ARROW 696-FB both come back into play as great indicator rods for bead fishing using RIO GOLD MAX.

SAGE: Salmon runs are prolific up there over the summer but it sounds like August is when the silvers are running hot. That’s got to be some epic action.

Eric: August brings epic streamer fishing for silver salmon! The POWER R8 890-4 with RIO OUTBOUND SHORT straight chucks weighted silver flies. From lakes, to creeks, to estuaries, this combo can shoot line like nobody's business. The SHIFT LT 7/8 reel has the drag to handle blistering runs into backing when a hot silver bullet is headed back to the open ocean.

While most action is subsurface, occasionally the fishing will be so hot that we will trade the streamer for a topwater fly. That’s when the real fun starts. Watching a silver wake after a fly and explode on the surface is tough to beat. In addition, the rainbow bite is beginning to ramp up as September approaches.

SAGE: As you close out the summer season, what is the month of September like?

Eric: Silver salmon fishing is still going strong, and rainbow trout fishing on the Kenai River begins to get hot. Salmon are spawning, which means it’s time to get in the power boat to chase big rainbows. The R8 CORE and ARROW 7100-4 with RIO GOLD MAX cast heavy indicator set ups with ease and have the power to land a 30-plus inch fish, if you’re lucky enough to fool one.

Rainbow fishing remains good on the Kenai River through October. As the temperatures cool and river levels drop, the trout spey game for rainbows and steelhead gains momentum. For trout spey and steelhead on the Kenai, the SPEY R8 5126-4 and 6130-4 are unmatched. The SPEY II 5/6/7 is an excellent full cage frame reel for making sure the running line doesn’t jump through. There’s no better way to experience Alaskan rainbows and steelhead than a tightline grab on the swing.

SAGE: You mentioned earlier that you also guide remote ptarmigan hunts. Wingshooting in the Alaskan backcountry is a bucket-list experience for a lot of folks—how does that element fit into the lodge's offerings?

Eric: Ptarmigan hunts are truly something special and offer a whole different perspective on remote fly-outs. Once the season opens in August, we’re able to take guests into high-alpine tundra settings that feel entirely otherworldly. We’re hiking across rugged ridge lines, working dogs and walking up on birds, all with panoramic mountain views. It’s a physical, rewarding pursuit that pairs perfectly with a fly-out fishing itinerary. Whether an angler wants to take a day off from swinging for silvers to chase willow, rock, or white-tailed ptarmigan, or a hunter wants to combine wingshooting with an afternoon on the water, it adds another incredible layer to the ultimate Alaskan wilderness experience.