After a rainy and foggy morning kept us grounded from a planned fly-out, the skies parted and we had the rather unfamiliar feeling of the sun shining on our faces. It hadn't rained really hard in a few days, so while high, the Brooks River had done some clearing up. Now with actual sunlight to help see through the water, conditions were ideal for sight fishing to rainbow trout.
The sockeye salmon were still packing into the river and pairing up to spawn. Redds (salmon 'nests') were filling the riverbed, cratering it up like the surface of the moon. The egg drop was in it's early stages, and the rainbows were lining up devouring as many eggs as possible.
Like everything else in Alaska, the rainbows go where the salmon go, and at the Brooks River, being so short, with the Brooks Lake above and Naknek Lake below, rainbows pack in from both ends. One phenomena I've noticed over the years in AK is the dynamic between the rainbows and sockeye, and how it evolves as the salmon spawning begins. Early, when there's still a lot of 'riverbed real estate' available, the rainbows and sockeye seem somewhat content with each other, and disperse themselves across the river. As more spawning sockeye move in, pair up, make redds, and start dropping eggs, the rainbows progressively get pushed out as real estate dries up and angry males chase them off. Then you tend to catch them on the edges of the spawning beds, with the occasional really big boy hanging in the middle, oblivious to the bullying salmon. Eventually the rainbows seem to move into blowdowns, log jams, other typical trout cover, or they drop downstream of the spawning bed entirely, until the salmon die off and they move back up or out. Char seem much more tolerant of the salmon overall, and display this behavior to a lesser degree. There are exceptions of course, but that seems to be the general progression on many rivers.
This day was somewhere early in the 'moving to the edges' phase I'd say, but conditions were also perfect for spotting the big ones holding in the middle of the salmon, or noses lined up downstream of a bed area, like hungry cows filing in to a feeding trough. We had some company for the day too as Chase, one of the Brooks guides, had a free day due to the cancelled flyout. More eyes are always better, especially eyes that know the river better than you do.
Wade, look, spot, cast, and hopefully hook up and hold on was the name of the game. Some trout were showing themselves openly on large flat rocks -- which are of course no use to a salmon trying to make a nest, other were tucked up in the shadows of undercut banks, directly downstream of spawners. The day prior (rainy and buggy) had turned up a beautiful 'Leopard Rainbow' for me, which in AK is just a dark, heavily spotted rainbow. Now with the sun to our favor, and knowing trout liked to hold in that area, Dad did an excellent job making the right cast to a perfect fish, and after a great fight brought him to hand.
Having the sun for the day was almost like fishing a different river. It's just so much more fun and challenging to me to pick out a fish first, and then go for it, instead of blind casting into an area and waiting for a hook-up. Nothing beats seeing the fish move, the white of his gums, and explode out of a hookset.
Would the sun hold out? That's another story, until then, sweet dreams...
D
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