An Alaska Adventure--Tuesday (Part II): The Bears of American Creek

Rick and Tom flew with Jose to American Creek for a chance at some big rainbows and arctic char and, of course, lots of grizzly bears.  American Creek had been an astounding fishery, but it hadn’t had nearly as many rainbows in recent years.  Our last visit we caught mostly char and no size at all (which in Alaska means a Washington trophy). However, this year had reportedly seen an increase in rainbows and in size, so it was with eagerness that they returned.

As the float plane approached and landed on the small river, it was hard to tell if the river was muddy in the orange light filtering through the early morning clouds. The edges looked clear, while the middle looked off color. We found both to be true. In the slower water near the lake where the plane landed, the water at the edge was clear for a few feet but became off color in the middle where the current was flowing. The plane had left, so we were stuck here for the day to make the best of it.

We ran upriver about as far as you could go with the small outboard, noting with concern the limited visibility of about 12 to 18 inches and the significantly higher water level from Jose’s last visit. We passed a half dozen brown bears on the way up, a regular occurrence on this river, but were all by ourselves where we stopped. There were dead sockeye everywhere, layered a foot deep in the back waters and hundreds of eggs swirling on the bottom in the eddies. 

It's this food source that helps these fish get so big. Although the visibility wasn’t great, we were hopeful, as the stream wasn’t completely blown. That hope was quickly rewarded when Tom, after missing one in the hole upstream, hooked into a good fish just above the root ball of a fallen tree and a mess of woody debris. With Tom’s mad skills and the assistance of Jose, this 28-inch rainbow was netted, a great start to the day!

Keeping it out of the root wad!

Rainbow reward

 However, the great start didn’t continue as much as we would have liked. We hiked and fished about a mile upriver, and ran into a few fish (Rick had a 26-incher to the net and a smaller one in the net), a moose, and a bear (safely downriver). It wasn’t until we turned around a came back to where we started that things got interesting.

Rick's rainbow

Meandering moose

Biting bear

Tom quickly caught another nice rainbow,   then hooked and landed a char that had seriously been pigging out!   Rick finally got the right drift where Tom and picked up his last rainbow and got this nice ‘bow and three others in quick succession.

Things slowed down in the honey hole, so Rick moved downstream to a nice run we hadn’t yet fished. He returned to the boat after breaking off to get a new bead from Jose, then headed back down. While looking for rainbows behind the sockeye still spawning, he heard a big splash and looked to the right to see the hind end of a huge bear that had just climbed up on the grassy bank about 30 to 40 ft away. Rick retreated upriver (not running, and surprisingly without his heart racing at all) as the bear carefully watched him from the bank. Rick stopped a “safe” distance away on the other side of the river and got out his camera while the bear climbed back in and continued fishing, still turning occasionally to keep his eye on Rick. What an amazing sight!

Zoom in to see where the eyes are looking.

Based on the size of the fish, American Creek is back. It was a good day, and if the water had been clear, was almost certain to have been epic.

After we all returned home, we once again were casting for coho in the river below the lodge. Shan was the only one to connect and he was much more careful in where he put the salmon after he bonked them.  “The river giveth and the river taketh away.”  We then headed to the lodge for a wonderful dinner.