TOGIAK RIVER, Southwest Alaska
The Togiak is remote which means float
planes are the only way to reach it. Once
you’re there, you’re treated to a plethora of
salmon and trout.
fishing Dolly Varden on the Geech employed
salmon-colored beads used about three feet
below an indicator. Tate and I had great
luck and immediately hooked a pair of
good-sized Dollies. I’d never seen a sea-run
Dolly before. They’re a lean, hard fighting
fish with a bright silver body sparkled with
pink spots. We ended up seeing quite a few
as we hooked seven doubles in a row. These
three- to five-pound fish ripped line off our
5-weights and forced us to run up and down
the gravel bank. As we kept from stumbling
over the rocks we were giddy with delight as
we fought these fish. After an hour of con-
tinuous action, a lot of laughs and countless
fish we decided it was time to head back to
the lodge. It was a perfect start to our Alaska
Journey.
Back at camp, everyone shared their
stories over a sumptuous meal prepared
by Carla and her crew. Young 10-year-old
Ethan, wide-eyed and excited, told of hook-
ing and landing a 20-pound king. Bryce and
Brodie, a 13- and 10-year-old brother team,
reveled in the tales of how they each fought
more than 15 chums. Craig, the boys’ dad,
had caught a 24-inch rainbow swinging his
spey rod. Others told of fishing for pinks
– “till our arms fell off!” During our first
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A big king puts an 8-weight fly rod to the test. Below is the results of a hard-fought battle.
half-day of fishing we had landed 40 savage
chums, 30 chunky Dollies, four rainbows
between 17 and 24 inches and several kings
over 20 pounds. Not a bad start to a week-
long adventure!
“Wouldn’t it be cool if we could catch all
five species of salmon,” one of the boys had
asked over dinner. Wouldn’t it! That night,
after our meal and a movie, we all went
to bed with images of catching the Togiak
Five. Our most difficult fish to land would
likely be a silver salmon, which had not yet
entered the river system.
As you can imagine, the fishing program
at TRFA offers a wide-variety of unique
angling opportunities that is hard to find. To
begin, fresh, bright king salmon blast right
up the Togiak River direct from Bristol Bay.
These big, hard-fighting fish, which average
around 20 to 25 pounds, can get into the
50-plus pound range. Most anglers chase
after these monsters with conventional
gear, such as back trolling Kwikfish, back-
bouncing eggs or fishing floats. Turns out,
the Togiak is also a very good location for
experienced anglers to spey cast for kings.
Ken and his son Max, along with one of the
other dads, Craig, hooked and landed some
beautiful kings on a spey rod using 12- and
15-foot sink tips and big gaudy flies like the
Morrish Cold Medicine. The kings usually
run from the second week of June to the
end of July.
Come August and September anglers
experience some truly great silver salmon
runs with mind-boggling numbers. The
silvers (along with the chums, pinks and
sockeyes) are usually fished either conven-
tional or with a 7-8 weight single hand fly
rod, floating line and a lightly weighted pink
bunny leach. They average six to 12 pounds
and max out at 20. These acrobatic fish are
fun to catch and deliver a full days’ worth of
entertaining action.
From late June to mid-August, chum and
sockeye salmon enter the system. A chum,
sometimes called “dog salmon”, is a big, ugly
salmon with wild tiger stripes and danger-
ous teeth. They run from eight to 15 pounds
and are not particularly good eating. But
they can sure bend a rod and the action is
plentiful. The sockeye, a smaller plankton
feeding salmon, are known as one of the
best tasting salmon in the river and can run
up the Togiak by the millions. And last but
not least there’s the pink salmon. In the