Russian River, AK

Mouth to Upstream 1/4 mile

comments (1)

Outing Information

Date: Thursday, June 28th, 2007
Start/End Time: 11:15am to 4:30pm
Best Fishing Time: -
Rating: Fair

Classification: Public
Water Temp: -
Water Clarity: Clear - 5'+ visibility
Water Level: -
User: Jason Hansen

Pictures

Fish Caught

Rainbow Trout

Caught	Avg Size	Pattern	Optional Fields
1	14"	#16 Black Disco Zebra Midgeling
1	14"

Total: 1 fish Top Patterns: Disco Zebra Midgeling (1)

Weather

Skies	Morning	Afternoon
Sunny	X	X
Precipitation
None	X	X
Wind
Light - 5 to 10 knots	X	X

Air Temp High/Low: 75.0°F / -
Wind Direction: -
Weather Front: -
Barometer: -
Moon Phase: 88% Full (Waxing gibbous)

Other Patterns Tried

No other pattern information for this outing.

Hatches

No hatch information for this outing.

Insect Seining

No seining information for this outing.

Fishing Partners

Karl Sloth

Waypoints

No waypoints were saved with this outing.

Tides

No tide information was saved with this outing.

Notes

Interesting morning. Karl and I spotted a sockeye salmon near the mouth of the Russian in a side channel. I waded around and started fishing a #6 purple egg-sucking leech while Karl stayed near the bank and spotted. After a few casts I snagged a 10" dolly varden, spooking the salmon. Karl walked around and fished the upper stretch of the side channel while I fished the lower part where it rejoined the river. I had spotted a couple decent fish just below a shallow shelf and spent an hour or two fishing to them. I tried lots of flies and had some interest in an orange Glo Bug but never got a hookset. I finally changed to a #12 black Disco Zebra Midgeling and hooked a large 20"+ fat rainbow. I didn't have my net and there were lots of people around, so once the fish started running downstream I couldn't follow. I was able to turn him and start horsing him in, but pulling a fish in straight with its mouth toward you is never good, and the hook pulled out before I could land him.

Awhile later I was walking the west side of the Russing, spotting fish, and I spotted a very healthy silvery sockeye in the middle of a riffle. After many poor casts and poor drifts, I got a good one and had a valid inside-the-mouth hookset. He screamed downstream, jumping once, then settled in. I walked down a bit and reeled him in some when he started thrashing on the surface and threw my fly. :(

I spotted and fished a very nice rainbow in a riffle but never got him to take anything. And I later fished to a small rainbow Karl had spotted and he actively took my black disco zebra midgeling.

The afternoon was done when Karl and I had a brown bear pop up out of nowhere about 20 yards upstream from us. He wasn't huge and was preoccupied with fish carcasses so we were able to watch him from a distance for a few minutes.