I had come to Nome to meet with the staff at the Norton Sound community hospital and tell them about the work we have been doing on an inherited metabolic disease that is very common in the local Eskimo population. I also spent a morning with the tribal research ethics committee explaining a research project we have proposed that would involve some kids from the area. Fortunately my two days of meeting was highly productive and it looks like we are going to get the green light for our study. Here's a shot of an Eskimo mom driving her 4-wheeler through town with her infant tucked under the back of her coat (purple hat), a common way to carry the young. There are more 4-wheelers in town than cars, the hospital even has a "4-wheeler only" parking zone.
Fortunately we also had time to play. I had been joined in Nome by a friend from Anchorage that comes out several times a year to run a pediatric clinic at the local hospital. Matt spent quite a bit of time living in western Montana, where he frequented the Henry's Fork and streams throughout Yellowstone, therefore I knew that if I showed up with a car after he got done with clinic I could convince him to go fishing. I was able to rent a truck from the Hotel, and had 6 and 8 weight rods with me, so off we went. The tundra on the way to the river was in full fall colors, we even saw a few musk ox grazing.
The road was firm gravel, and followed along the Nome river heading out of town. We drove about 15 miles out until we came to a bridge over the river, which was also the end of the maintained road.
The next two pictures were taken from the bridge, this first one is a nice panorama showing the beautiful colors and the crystal clear water.
This shot was looking straight down from the bridge, the large white things are decomposing sockeye that were all over the river bottom. There were also a few actively spawning silvers but it was pretty late in the year for salmon. However we were happy to see that the trout were here snacking away. You can see two big Dolly Varden in this shot just to the right of the carcasses. For perspective keep in mind that these were probably 8-10 lb. salmon, those were monster trout!
The next day I caught a plane back to Anchorage, with a stopover in Kotzebue, which got me above the arctic circle for the first time. It was an interesting flight, we were just about to leave Kotzebue when the captain came on and said that the high school football team from Pt. Hope was delayed on their bush plane flight in to Kotzebue, so we sat and waited about an hour for them and a few other folks that hadn't made it to the airport yet before we finally left. I had two days off before having to work again so when we landed in Anchorage I rented a car and drive out to the Kenai peninsula for the weekend. The weather had turned nasty, 40's and rainy over through the mountains. I found a little cabin with no running water to rent for the night, and awoke to clouds but no rain. When I looked out my window I saw this fish mobile in the lot next to my rental car and knew I had come to the right place.
On Saturday I went out on my own after stopping at a local fly shop and getting some flies (more egg and flesh patterns) and some advice. I went to Quartz creek, where there were still quite a few beat up old reds still spawning. The trout were also there in great numbers snacking on eggs. It was like seeing the great circle of life right before your eyes, big salmon coming in from the ocean and trout swimming three feet behind them waiting to snack on their eggs and eat their flesh after they died.
It took a while to get the hang of the technique, which was essentially a dead drift through the spawners. Of course that meant once in a while you would snag a sockeye, which on a 6 wt. meant I just tried to break them off before I lost my line. There were mostly Dollys in the creek but one guy I met did land a nice rainbow. It was all catch and release so no meat fisherman were to be seen. This was my best Dolly of the day.
It was like a day in Oregon, an occasional drip of rain but mostly just low clouds.
On Sunday I had arrange a float down the middle portion of the Kenai river. This was the same river Zane and I had floated the year before, but now was getting into prime season for trout. The river was littered with dead, dying, and spawning salmon. The reds were mostly dead but a few were still on the beds and looking really nasty. It was also the start of the pink run, also known as humpys, which are just plain ugly. But it's pretty amazing to be going down a river and seeing humpys porpoising all over the place. Once again the tactic was egg patterns. Most of the gravel spawning beds are in water that is only a few feet deep, and then it drops off sharply on the downstream side to where the trout sit and wait for eggs. This was my best fish of the day, and for that matter my biggest trout ever. It measured out at 25.5 inches and was a nice big fatty. The biggest fish of the day was about 26 inches and a bit fatter than this one. They occassionally catch 30 inch and bigger fish out of there, and I lost a couple that may have been close to that.
Sunday night I drove back to Anchorage, which is only two hours from where I was fishing, and spent two more days working before returning home. I think I'll keep working this Alaska connection, maybe next year I'll check out the steelhead runs.......
