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Sunday Pic of the Day

Had a chance at some real good seats at the CWS so we went. He even got a ball. He was dead set on wearing the Sitka hat. 🤣 He’s a Murray state fan first, we stopped by a local HS and watched Oregon State practice and a bunch of their players talked to us for a while so now he has 2 teams he wants to win.
IMG_6178.jpeg
 
It’s not a cheap trip and for most of the summer it can be kinda busy, but most people have a good understanding of working around each other. I had the opportunity to fish it often over the 20 years I was guiding up there. There are a ton of fish that follow the Reds into the river from Naknek lake. That starts right about now, peaks around the fourth to the tenth of July and then tappers off through the month. Once the salmon show up it is a bead show, sculpin patterns, Dolly LLamas, egg sucking leach will work.
Not too many Kings go up the system that far but you might see one or two, silvers, not anywhere near the 3 million Reds that might make it up there, show up in August.
The river is really two distinct wadding experiences. The upper river from Brooks lake to the falls is challenging wading for most, on an average year thigh to butt deep and pushing pretty good and very bouldery on the bottom. Heavy spruce and alders line the shore making it difficult to get out of the water. Great fun to fish but the bears are a real pain in the ass because they think it’s fun to pop out of the alders when you’re right there.
Lower river is like a lot of Montana water, easy wading, gravel bottom, lots of riffles and sandbar kind of approaches, and mostly you see the bears in time to get out of their way.
Fish the upper river from the middle, working straight down and then work the banks on either side. I would put my poor caster just ahead of me and just have them make a quartering cast to either side and let it hang, they typically caught good numbers doing that. A good caster working the banks did fine but lost fishing time because there are lots of things to hang up on. Lower river mostly keep your feet dry, (you will have to wade) but basically you fish from where fish can’t live to where they have to be.
Most of the guides would, if they got a day off, fish Brooks in September. The later the better. Preferably after the park facilities have closed up.
You can fish it solo but I wouldn’t advise it. Even late there are a bunch of bears up there, two or three people keeping an eye out and gathering together when they show up tends to mitigate problems though I still had to spray a few over the years.

I read something recently that boiled down to we’re given 80 summers to get stuff done. Don’t put stuff off what you want to do, we all are running out of time.
 
Salmonchaser said:
It’s not a cheap trip and for most of the summer it can be kinda busy, but most people have a good understanding of working around each other. I had the opportunity to fish it often over the 20 years I was guiding up there. There are a ton of fish that follow the Reds into the river from Naknek lake. That starts right about now, peaks around the fourth to the tenth of July and then tappers off through the month. Once the salmon show up it is a bead show, sculpin patterns, Dolly LLamas, egg sucking leach will work.
Not too many Kings go up the system that far but you might see one or two, silvers, not anywhere near the 3 million Reds that might make it up there, show up in August.
The river is really two distinct wadding experiences. The upper river from Brooks lake to the falls is challenging wading for most, on an average year thigh to butt deep and pushing pretty good and very bouldery on the bottom. Heavy spruce and alders line the shore making it difficult to get out of the water. Great fun to fish but the bears are a real pain in the ass because they think it’s fun to pop out of the alders when you’re right there.
Lower river is like a lot of Montana water, easy wading, gravel bottom, lots of riffles and sandbar kind of approaches, and mostly you see the bears in time to get out of their way.
Fish the upper river from the middle, working straight down and then work the banks on either side. I would put my poor caster just ahead of me and just have them make a quartering cast to either side and let it hang, they typically caught good numbers doing that. A good caster working the banks did fine but lost fishing time because there are lots of things to hang up on. Lower river mostly keep your feet dry, (you will have to wade) but basically you fish from where fish can’t live to where they have to be.
Most of the guides would, if they got a day off, fish Brooks in September. The later the better. Preferably after the park facilities have closed up.
You can fish it solo but I wouldn’t advise it. Even late there are a bunch of bears up there, two or three people keeping an eye out and gathering together when they show up tends to mitigate problems though I still had to spray a few over the years.

I read something recently that boiled down to we’re given 80 summers to get stuff done. Don’t put stuff off what you want to do, we all are running out of time.
Click to expand...
Good summary, thank you.
I imagine the scene has changed since the location crossed my radar years ago.
Funny how something clicks....the point when you realize there a things to do and less time . I've always been busy with bucket lists,....need to step it up though.
 
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