North 40 Fly Shop eMagazine October 2017 | Page 53

ing tide of super-aggressive chromers charging
upriver. This provides fabulous fishing with gor-
geous scenery to boot.
In 2017, just a month or so ago, in fact, I
visited the Kanektok, which is located south of
Bethel. I fished this river extensively from 1990
to 2010. But this would be a special visit, as my
21 year old son, Cole, had spent his first guiding
season for the fine folks at Alaska West. Mon-
tana Sage rep Kurt “Little Guy” Kruger joined me
for the last week of the season with the boys of
“Phi Kappa Kanektok.”
ARCHERY-MUZZLELOADER-RIFLE
After touching down in the native village of
Quinhagak, along with an upriver boat trip to
one of the finest remote camps in the history of
Alaska sportfishing, ol’ Kurty-Boiee and I wast-
ed little time racing off to the ditch. We found a
back-end slot below camp that was chalk-full of
bright bliss. Cole’s Rabb-IT Leech produced im-
mediately and for the rest of the afternoon the
crushfest was on like Donkey Kong!
The following morning would kick off with
what I call proper silver fishing, meaning a typ-
ical fall day on the K-Tok. First you find a hole
loaded with silvers. Then, first up is the popper
brigade, which is challenging in a way that re-
minds me of an arch ery hunt—it’s all about the
method. To catch these fish on poppers we
eased in and looked for the most aggressive
fish in the run. The visual aspect to “wogging”
is simply fantastic, as the chase and grab is
mega—and I mean mega—cool.
Next up was the muzzleloader portion where
Cole’s Rabb-IT Leech took center stage again.
We opted for RIO’s Big Nasty floating lines,
thrown from 8-weight Sage SALT HD and X rods.
We made our first casts and I remember
yelling to Kurt, “Don’t cast unless your ready to
fight one.” That’s because all of us were already
hooked up. We found that a steady 14-to 18-
inch strip, with a slight pause between strips,
was the can’t-miss call, as it usually is on sil-
vers. Singles, doubles and triple hookups were
the order of the morning.
Soon, young Cole and Kurt changed their
focus to rainbow trout and walked up the bar.
They brought out the trout spey sticks, meaning
Sage ONE’s in 2 and 5-weights, and proceeded
to swing their way down with tasty flesh flies,
aiming specifically for “Bow Bow.” Kurt had al-
A beautifully colored western Alaska rainbow
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