The Kvichak River 2005

The Kvichak River drains Lake Illiamna, which is by far the largest lake in Alaska.  The Rainbow Trout that inhabit the giant lake can get huge.  Chris and I had wanted to fish the Kvichak during the Fall for many years.  In October 2005, we were able to put a trip together. This photo is taken from the Cabin that we rented in the village of Igiugig.  The view is of the Kvichak River as it flows out of Lake Illiamna.

We arrived on the Kvichak a little late in the Fall.  Many of the Rainbows had already returned to the lake by mid-October.  The water was extremely high and the fish were spread out fairly thin, however we were able to find a few. I was not able to get any of the larger fish.  This is the first Rainbow either of us caught - about 16 inches.

While I fished almost exclusively with Egg Patterns behind the few spawning Sockeye that we found, Chris used an Egg-Sucking Leech.  I caught a few more fish, but Chris was able to find the larger ones. This is a nice 22 inch fish that Chris caught while standing right next to me.

Where legal, I generally fish two Egg Pattern flies in tandem (like nymphs).  This allows me to fish two color variations at once. On rare occasion, I have caught two fish at once on this double rig.  These fish were both quite small, but it was fun nonetheless.  Although we didn't take any photos, we also caught quite a few Arctic Grayling (I doubled up on Grayling twice).

Our last day was cold and windy.  This is fairly typical of the weather during the Fall on the Kvichak.  In fact, the weather forced us to spend a night in the village of Iliamna just 30 miles from our destination of Igiugig.  This kind of weather makes a trip to the Kvichak River hard to plan this late in the Fall. This 17 inch Rainbow was my largest and last of the trip.

The year 2005 was very good to Chris.  We went on several fishing trips together and he caught the hero fish on virtually every trip of the year.  This adventure on the Kvichak River was our last of the year, and it proved true to the trend. On literally the last cast, Chris hooked this amazing Kvichak Rainbow.  It fought so strong and deep that I was certain that he had snagged a Salmon.  We didn't even get to see the fish for the first 15 minutes.  Finally, this 28 inch Rainbow came to and held right behind the motor where we could see it.  It took Chris about 45 minutes to coax this strong fish the last 10 feet.  Beautiful!