Qwest for the Wall - Day 2

Wednesday, October 12

Today dawned clear and cold, but not too cold. An absolutely gorgeous day for Alaska in October.
Rob and Rick were with Gray Flytalker today, Dad and Tom with Heath. Gray is the picture of the rugged, Alaska guide as we head upriver into the rising sun.

Our second stop of the day was at the run where Rick caught his first fish yesterday. Rick headed up to the same rock where he found the fish yesterday, then glanced at the riffle upstream. Gray's instructions the previous day had been to start at the rock as he had never picked up a fish in the riffle above. Well.....Rick doesn't always listen very well, and that water looked fishy. So on the second cast into the riffle that doesn't hold fish, his line starts screaming out as a bright fish takes off downstream. Hence Rick's Inuit name "He Who Doesn't Listen to Guide." It looked about the same size as the one yesterday, so Rick called to the guide that it wasn't that big. The guide, who was downstream by the fish waiting with the net, thought he wasn't looking at the same fish Rick was talking about, as he proceeded to net a 29-inch beauty, one-inch short of wall status, but a gorgeous fish nonetheless.

Just after lunch, Rick found his way onto the wall at the Middle Elephant Butt run. He was listening to the guide this time, swinging a flesh fly into a run with water little more than knee deep, where you normally would think of walking. The fly stopped and Rick saw a slab of chrome roll sideways just under the surface. "A nice fish!" he thought, and once Gray had it in the net, even nicer. Out came the tape - 30.5-inches. Not enough to displace Tom from the biggest fish of the trip status, but enough to put him on The Wall with Tom.

Rob had spent the day chasing little ones (15 to 18 inchers), but in the late afternoon on our second time through the Counting Station run on his last cast just before pulling out at the boat, he hooked a giant, 31-inches! A great way to finish the day.

Meanwhile, in the other boat with Heath, Dad and Tom had a slow morning, but picked it up late in the day. Dad switched to the out-of-season bead and started picking up a bunch of fish including a 27-inch beauty. Tom meanwhile, practicing his newly discovered art of spey casting, pulled out three beasts late in the day including another wall-worthy fish of 30.5-inches and a fat beast just under 30-inches. We need to teach them how to use a camera (they might be on the guide's camera).