Another day off in the 49th state gives me the choice of hopping on a plane and going fly fishing or staying at the lodge and doing laundry, I think I will go fly fishing! One of the cool things I can do here is if weight and weather allow I can hop on a plane already Taking a guide and clients out and fish on my own for my day off. Obviously clients come first and get the good water first but There is plenty of water and most clients are average fly fisherman at best leaving plenty of fish behind them! Today I am heading to the American river in Katmai National park, More specifically the Upper middle part as it is a long river and only parts can be coverd in a day. The first thing you will notice about this part of the river is it is classic pocket water fishing. For the most part it is shallow and fast so you must pick apart the river to find holding trout. I hop of the plane and hike 30 minutes to the river. I was really hoping for good weather so I could throw dries as the american in my opinion is the best dry fly fishing in alaska hands down and can rival anywhere in the west. Anyone who says alaska doesn’t have good dry fly fishing has never fished here. There can be huge caddis hatches and big fish will crash them. I had one client this year use a size 12 elk hair caddis all day and catch 10, yes 10, rainbows between 23 and 26 inches. However the weather was pretty poor for dry fly fishing and when I got to the river the sockeye salmon were pairing up which was a first for this year. I knew from the number of pairs and trout sitting behind pairs that it was time for a bead. I was somewhat exited as when the fish get on eggs the fishing turns absolutely stupid however nothing beats getting big fish on the surface. I rig up my setup and cast in a big slick and wham a big fish slams it and tears up the water. It is a big char, probably 4 pounds or so! The american is not only loaded with trout but char as well. Char can get a bad rap for the simple fact they are not bows but these fish are still hot and can get to 14 pounds on this river! I work my way down to another slick and pull out 3 bows on 3 casts all around 17 inches. As far as Bristol bay rainbows American fish are smaller on average than many rivers like the Moraine, Naknek, Kvichiak, Kukakalek and so on and top out at around 27 inches however These american fish are just simply amazing fighters, pound for pound they may be the strongest. They run hard and fast and jump like crazy. The real thing that makes them fun is the way they change directions, constantly going up, down around rocks, slow or fast. Keeping a tight line on these fish is a supreme challenge. I continue to work my way and continue to catch fish, it’s aboslutely ridiculous. Every cast to good looking water yeilds 2 to 3 bows and/or char! In fact after a while i’m exclusively sight fishing to bigger fish just to keep my self interested! Of course it’s worth noting that during my fishing there are bears everwhere, probably saw 25 different ones and most are fishing for salmon right on the river so i’m pretty damn close. However they are so interested in salmon they hardly notice me, exept for when I foul hooked a big sockeye 40 feet from a bear which then charged after my fish in distress which happened to be 15 feet from me, lets just say i snapped the line on purpose real quick! Besides the bears I also saw lots of eagles and a pair of nesting perigan falcons with their young ones which was very cool. At the end of the day I have no Idea how many fish I caught, probably around 50 trout and char, saw tons of wildlife and besides my co worker and his 2 clients never saw another human soul. I’m glad I chose that over the Laundry!