Thursday, June 18

When you're presenting a fly, it should be on a dead drift, right? Drag is bad, they say. Well, sometimes that's true. And sometimes it's not.

Today drag was a good thing, when done right.

We flew into East Knicknack Lake (or was it West Paddiwack? North Giveadoggabone?) and fished the outlet stream. We were in a quarter mile stretch above the first rapids, and the river was about a hundred feet across.

It was a beautiful day with light winds and mostly sunny skies, temperatures in the 50s. Rainbow trout ranging from 17 inches to over five pounds were spread out across the river, occasionally making splashy rises. The size of some of those rises could make you gasp.

Fry, Not Dry

If you were on the Deschutes, you probably would have tied on a dry fly, or at least an emerger or perhaps a Soft Hackle. But this is Alaska in mid-June. Those rises were not to bugs, but to sockeye salmon fry.

Ben holds a nice rainbow caught on a "dragging" fry.

The fry hatch out of streambed gravel in spring and quickly begin their migration--not to the sea, but to a lake. Sockeye rear in stillwater, then head to the ocean when they are smolt-size.

The fry are only an inch or so long when they migrate to the lakes. They travel near the surface, and that is where the trout take them. It looks like a rise to an mayfly dun or an egg-laying caddis, but what you really need is a fry pattern.

Mrs. Fuzzy, Drag Queen

Migrating sockeye fry prefer to hug the edges of the stream because it's safer. When they get swept into mid-river, they try to wiggle back toward the bank. That's where drag comes in. Trout are looking for fry that are in the top few inches of water and moving hell-bent (for a fry) for the edges. So a fly presented broadside to the current, near surface, and moving at the right speed will ring the dinner bell for a big rainbow.

Dorian picks a new fly for Dick.

The new fly works its magic.

One reason Mrs. Fuzzy was so successful the first couple of days in Alaska was because, not in spite of, the fact that she doesn't fly fish a lot. She's not as clued into drag as a more experienced angler. I, with my classic wet-fly swing and steelhead-style upstream mends, was shooting myself in the foot. I needed more drag. Once I got that through my head, I started catching more fish on fry patterns.

Usually, the best tactic is to cast straight across the river, then throw in an upstream mend of about half the line. This leaves the fly broadside to the flow. Now the current will push at that bow in the fly line and make the fly move faster than it would with a wet fly swing.

It takes some experimentation to find the right speed to interest the trout. But you'll know when you've got it right. Boy howdy, will you know.

Dorian nets a big rainbow for Suzanne.

Suzanne with her catch.

Oh, Maybe a Dozen or More Three to Five Pound Fish

Today we fished with another couple, Suzanne and Dick Gilbert from Colorado. Ben Todd and Dorian Thompson were our guides. I can't tell you how many big trout we hooked and landed, but it was a lot. Pretty much every one was taken on fry pattern, and nearly all when the fly was dragging.

Sometimes, drag is good. Very good.