This year was different…. I should have known when everyone I talked to in Bristol Bay said, “It’s been pretty wet this Summer.”

I thought, “Ahhh, that was last week, it’s almost August, it can’t be that bad.” Put a big old check mark in the “WRONG” column on that one. On the day we were to fly to the lake we woke up to dense fog, drizzle and 50 degrees. After 8 hours in standby mode, some overpriced burgers and a few cigars the weather lifted, we climbed in a Beaver and were off to the lake. The lake was beautiful and I got that same warm fuzzy feeling I always get when the plane takes off and leaves you in a wilderness so immense, untouched and gorgeous.

We pushed on into the river and I immediately took note of the water level. It was at least 6″ higher than I had ever seen it, but running clear and the fish were cooperating. We caught some chrome sockeyes, huge grayling and a couple nice rainbows on our way to the first camp. As we set up camp, a bear wandered down the other side of the river eating berries and enjoying the day. I too was enjoying the day and soon forgot the 36 hours of travel it took to get there.

The next day was nice, fishing was a little slower than usual, but we still caught a bunch of fish including some 20-22″ bows, trophy grayling and the odd salmon. Still looking good. Then as we set up camp #2 it sprinkled, lightly at first, and then stopped. Soon the showers became more frequent and by noon the next day, the wind had increased, temperature had dropped into the mid-forties and it was raining. Ugh… but alas, this can’t last longer than a day… can it? Four and a half days later we were still wishing it would stop raining. For the rest of the week we had a 5 minute and 10 minute break in the rain, total. The river blew out by the fourth day, but luckily we were in salmon country and the slough fishing was fantastic.

Despite the weather, we did our best to keep spirits up. We ate well, fished hard and tried to keep at least our sleeping bags and pads dry. That mostly worked. I’ve never been in a situation that tested my gear that sternly, but I can say without question that Patagonia makes good rain gear, MSR makes one heck of a parawing shelter and beavers do a good job of collecting and curing firewood. I was disappointed in one North Face tent that leaked badly by the second day and a few of the dry bags were suspect, but all in all it was a good trip. The fishing was great as usual, one angler in the group completed the week with a super grand slam, all five species of Pacific Salmon, grayling, rainbow trout, dolly varden, lake trout and whitefish. I was lucky enough to land the five salmon grand slam in a single hole, with one fly, in less than a hour, without moving my feet. Needless to say, I retired that fly.

In the end, we came out unscathed and felt like real men, although I was still shaking the water out of my ears in Anchorage. I’m chalking this trip up in the “experiences I’ll never forget” column. Next time, I’ll make sure to bring more industrial garbage bags and more fuel for the fire.

This nice SW Alaska leopard rainbow found a big pink salmon bugger in dirty water

Doubles on Dolly Varden were a regular occurrence, we even had a quadruple hookup on salmon in the lower river.

An abandoned seagull nest with a lone unhatched egg frames a soggy gravel bar campsite.

The Softshell fishing jacket is a custom embroidered windproof, water-resistant jacket, made of storm-bloc material and is the perfect jacket for a windy drizzly Fall fishing day. Available in sage or black.

The Mirco-fleece is a quarter-zip custom embroidered, soft, fast drying, durable shirt. It makes a great mid-weight layer for Fall or Winter fishing and is embroidered with our custom purple peril logo. Available in black or driftwood.

For more details on this great new clothing and to see available sizes and colors, please see the fishing jackets and shirts page on our website.

Jeff is now branching out his Idaho operation and starting a small all-inclusive lodge based out of the native Yupik village of Goodnews, Alaska. He has arranged great five day all inclusive fishing trips for Kings, Silvers, Chums, Rainbows, Dollies and Grayling and will working out of the village July and August 2009.

He has a few bookings left for his first season and takes a maximum of four anglers per week. This is an incredible opportunity to fish one of the greatest rivers in Alaska for half of what other similar operations are charging. To learn more about these trips, visit Jeff’s Goodnews River Webpage or call him at 208.476.3791

You can also call us at 503.515.3533 or Email us for more information

Additional photographs of the river, scenery and fish can be seen on a few of our archived image galleries.
Goodnews Gallery 1
Goodnews Gallery 2

This short film follows a group of friends from a extremely remote Alaskan lake SouthWest 55 miles to the Bering Sea. The stream in this film sees less than four float trips per year and until the late 1990’s was considered unavigable. The first two days of this trip consisted of dragging rafts over endless shallow gravel bars until the South Fork of the river connected with the North Fork some 15 miles from the lake. From there on, it was smooth sailing and constant action. At times, the term every cast was a reality and not an exaggeration. When a fly was cast over a chum or sockeye spawn bed, it was never more than a few seconds before a 16″-25″ rainbow grabbed the presentation. This is the story of the fishing trip of a lifetime.

This video may also be watched on our website at smallstreamoutfitters.com

For more info on this video email us!

Follow us on Twitter and FacebooK! We’ll be tweeting and posting away; fun stuff like fishing reports, articles and general fly fishing comments. Submit your comments and fishing stories, we would love to hear from you.

Tight Lines,
Small Stream Outfitters

More fun steelhead pics and film to follow!

Upon stepping off the plane in Yakutat, I was greeted by sunny skies, a warm breeze and temperatures near 60. Not exactly typical April in SE Alaska… an omen for the week to come. Excited to hit the river, we quickly strung rods, jumped into waders and were walking upstream from tidewater by 3pm.

We were greeted by a few anglers along the trail, and then a few more and some more after that. We looked at each other… kinda like fishing at home isn’t it? We walked about a mile and a half and stopped at a pool that looked fishy and free of other anglers. I made a few casts, nothing. It was a deep pool and I wasn’t feeling the bottom. Removing the indicator from my fly rod, I started another pass. The line stopped, I lifted and was in to my first fish on the trip. A chrome bright fish of about 12 lbs. The trip was off to a good start! We crossed the river to the other side of the pool for a better drift and began working the pool. We hooked 4 more in the next 15 minutes and started to think our dreams of the steelhead trip of a lifetime was about to come true.

Ah wait, but these things don’t just happen. This is fishing and this is a fishing trip. When has everything gone perfectly? Never, and we like it that way. Those imperfections, in my humble opinion, add flavor, memories and laughs for years to come. This trip was to be no exception.

After that pool of brilliance, the next 3 days were a good/news bad news scenario. The good news was, we were all getting pretty tan, drifting the river in t-shirts in Alaskan April. The angling pressure lightened up some and we caught a few nice fish. The bad news was it wasn’t close to 10 hookups a day, in fact it was more like an average day in Oregon. Couple hookups here, a couple there. Nothing to write home about. We saw a couple boats doing really well and every other boat getting fish few and far between.

Slightly dejected, we chartered a boat for the bay, to reset moods and get in on the wiggle. We only caught one halibut, but boy was it a nice one and finished up the day with a bunch of black rock fish. Just like the fish I remember catching off the jetty in Newport when I was young, only these guys were substantially bigger. The bbq that night was spectacular and it prompted a plan and change of fishing styles for the next day of steelheading.

The general agreement was these fish were acting more like Summer steelhead than Winter Steelhead and why not fish them that way, when the sun was on the water. So when the orange fireball hit the water the following morning, we went small and dark… really small and dark. The first place we stopped we went 5 for 9 and the good fishing continued the until the end of the trip. We hooked and landed plenty of steelhead and finished the adventure on a high note.

The jury is still out on if I would go back. The only thing that would keep me from visiting the Situk and Yakutat again, would be angling pressure. Other than that the people are very friendly, as are the other anglers. The shuttle and river access is easy, there are nice places to stay, good food to eat and cold beer to drink. Aw, but I just answered my own question. If it’s that good, it’s been found…

Next trip I hope to need my map and compass!

-Jesse Sampson
Small Stream Outfitters

ps. During our trip we also shot some excellent film footage to be used in the next edition of The Headwater Chronicles. Stay tuned for pictures and a film preview in the upcoming months.

As for the fishing… the Fall season was a mixed bag. Sea-Run Cutthroat fishing was very solid, although we didn’t see any massive 20″ fish like we did last year. The numbers of fish appeared to be very similar to 2007. Coho fishing on the Sandy was very good as usual and better than average at the coast. As for the Coastal Chinook… the season was a disappointment once again. Numbers appear to be very similar to last year’s poor return. We saw slightly better runs in some locations and slightly worse in others. Predictions are for above average returns in 2009 and 2010, but we aren’t holding our breath for that one.

NEW FLY FISHING FILM ON LINE
I took some time off from guiding in October to acquaint myself with Noah. While that kept me off the water, it gave me some much needed time in the office to finish up the editing on our second film. On November 4th, we released Chapter 1 of the Headwater Chronicles. N59 – A Journey to the Bering Sea is a short (5:45) film that tells the story of a wilderness fly fishing adventure. It chronicles the journey of nine anglers that float from a remote lake 55 miles to the Bering Sea. The film is available on our website The Headwater Chronicles and also on Hook.tv We are excited to produce more episodes and hope to shoot two in 2009 for release in late 2009 or early 2010. Stay tuned for more info on those!

WINTER STEELHEAD SEASON 2008-2009
With Chinook season tapering off, it’s now time to think Winter Steelhead. My personal favorite! Nothing is more exciting then seeing a 15lb chrome steelhead bursting out of the water tail walking across the river. We are now booking the 2009 season, so contact us early for the best dates. Any trip for 2009 booked before December 31 will honor 2008 rates. Beginning January 1, there will be a ‘09 rate change. We will be fishing coastal streams like the N. Fork Nehalem and Nestucca beginning in min-January and then we’ll begin to move over to the Sandy in March and will continue to fish that through May. Predictions are for an decent return this season, which translates to about 1-3 hookups per day.

From all of us at Small Stream Outfitters we hope you have a wonderful upcoming holiday season and are able to get out and wet a line!

Tight lines and best wishes,

–Jesse Sampson
]]> http://www.smallstreamoutfitters.com/fishingreport/small-stream-outfitters-december-2008-newsletter/feed/ 0 http://www.smallstreamoutfitters.com/fishingreport/small-stream-outfitters-launches-new-website/ http://www.smallstreamoutfitters.com/fishingreport/small-stream-outfitters-launches-new-website/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:45:17 +0000 Jesse http://www.smallstreamoutfitters.com/fishingreport/?p=23 Small Stream Outfitters is proud to announce the launch of our newly redesigned website! We’re still at the same www.smallstreamoutfitters.com address but have an entire new site. New features include; updated descriptions of Oregon Rivers and the fish we chase, plus a new seasons page that makes it easier to plan your trip for the perfect time of year. Also, on the new site are updated photo galleries and new ordering systems for flies, rods and merchandise.

We welcome your feedback, please Email us with any comments!