Part 3: Continued. The 2nd week of fishing

Thursday July 21^st

We left Anchorage and headed north again towards Denali Natl. Park. There are 20 – 25 rivers and creeks between Anchorage and the park entrance a distance of only about 120 miles on the Parks highway. We passed through the towns of Wasilla and Willow in what is known as the Mat-Su valley. The fishing here and throughout Alaska is highly regulated…. the Dept. of Fish and Game Regulations handbook is 64 pages long and that’s just for the south central portion of the state.. The trick was to find a stream that we could wade, that was open to salmon and trout fishing and had a level spot to park the coach. It was a lot harder than it sounds and involved much turning around for a second look primarily because with so many good spots to choose from one can afford to be picky. We finally settled on a spot along the banks of Little Willow Creek…. surely Thoreau visited here. We did not have much luck fishing but who cares. We both agree that it’s as much about the experience of being here as it is catching fish. Up here the creeks are more like streams in size and the streams are like rivers. All are picture post card perfect and the further you get from the highway the better the experience. Oh and the rules for bear encounters really, really do apply. (Pictures of Denali and Little Willow Creek)

Friday July 22^nd

We moved on today to Sheep Creek a total distance of about 5 miles up the road. We had to pay to park in the access area along the creek as it is all private land. But it was really pretty and the river was beautiful. Again, not much action on the stream but I’m getting really good at wading without falling down and my casting is getting much better. A local fisherman recommended a place up the road called Sunshine Creek as an awesome place to fish. He said it was his favorite spot. So we will check it out tomorrow.

Saturday, July 23^rd

We finally found the right turnoff to Sunshine Creek which again involved a couple u-turns. That seems to be the norm when you don’t have a clue where your going or what to look for. Jim is leery about driving up dirt roads with the coach, but they said it was a good road with a place to turn around, so we decided to give it a try. Big mistake…. we have to remember that it’s Alaskans who are calling it a good road! Up here good can be nothing more than a trail through the woods. We ended up having to disconnect  the jeep  so we could continue on up the road/trail to find this awesome fishing creek. We finally arrive only to find that  the access point is a trail head with the creek no where in sight! So down the trail we go not knowing how far in flip flops and shirtsleeves. Needless to say the creek was at the bottom of a long steep hill and full of silt….so much for awesome fishing and then the mosquitoes arrived. The moral of the story is you can trust what you hear about the skeeter’s - nobody jokes about them - but take the rest of what the natives tell you with a little honey….or is that a  bit of salt?

We back tracked to Goose Creek and found paradise! The parking spot was perfect, the creek was fantastic and the fishing was great. Jim had so much fun that he was out fishing until midnight! You have to remember the sun doesn’t go down until 11 pm after which it stays twilight until the next morning. Well he decided to call it a day and come home when he couldn’t see the bottom of the creek anymore. He couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t landing any fish and discovered that his hook did not have any barbs. He remedied that situation and we went down stream Sunday.

Sunday July 24^th

We found a great “honey hole” downstream of the bridge today. We were wading in a shallow area and looked over to this pool that had been created by a downed tree with a riffle flowing past it. We looked down into the pool and there was a huge fish just lying there. It was red and at least 30-36” long, obviously a king salmon. The area is closed to king fishing so we just watched it for a few minutes and then another salmon came up followed by another king. It was so cool. Definitely the biggest fish I’ve ever seen in the wild. No sooner than we started fishing and I hooked a pink salmon followed by large rainbow trout shortly after which Jim hooked another salmon. It was so much fun I was laughing and yelling "I caught a fish, I caught a fish"….obviously I haven’t gotten over the excitement of catching them yet and doubt I ever will. Jim said I scared the rest of the fish away so with plenty of fresh fish for dinner we called it a day.  (Pictures of Goose Creek)

Monday July 25^th

Today is the last day on our licenses and it is raining …. really raining. It rained all night and the creek got about 5 feet wider, lots higher and really fast. It finally stopped raining late in the afternoon so we decided to go out and see if we could get anywhere close to where we had been fishing yesterday. We did find a nice trail that went all the way to the mouth of the creek about three miles but we did not go that far. We were a little nervous about bears as the only other people we saw on the trial had a rifle, a sidearm, bear spray and bells. All we had were fishing rods and good looks….besides, we could only access the river in a few spots and it was really rushing along. So in the name of sportsmanship we left the fishing to the bears, called it a day and had steak for dinner.