Cloudy with intermittent periods of rain.

Purple egg sucking leach

Between 100+ days on silvers, and countless large dollies, this week was full of highlights. One highlight that sticks out is J. D’s 24-inch rainbow caught on a mouse. J.D and his son/fishing guide Connor set out to see if they could catch a single fish on the mouse. Moments later, J.D had caught his first trout on a mouse.

As always, we are seeing lots of birds: Mallards, Teal, Pintails, Widgeon, Harlequins and Geese. We are also seeing all the shore birds along with lots of Eagles, Goshawks, Falcons, Ospreys and Tundra Swans

What a week to wrap up the 2018 season on the Kanektok! Great river conditions, another spectacular group of guests, and tons of fish. This week, the river really came into shape following last week’s storm. As the river cleared, silver slews materialized at every bend. The fishing in this high water is lights out. We fished a lot of top water, and when that began to slow down, subsurface put high numbers in our log books. Whether you were targeting silvers, or colored Dollies, it felt like you could catch as many fish as one could want. The Chosen in August is one of a kind. It’s been an incredible season with lots of change. From high water to low, it’s amazing how fast the summer flies by us. A big “Thank You” to all of our wonderful guests who make this possible, without them we would not be able to do this every summer. Now it’s time for Kodiak!

The first half of the week was some of the worst weather we have had in a long time; wind and a lot of rain. Wednesday through Friday it has been beautiful. Warm clear and sunny.

Pink and purple lama.

This week we saw some of the worst weather we have had on The Chosen. Rather than mope and complain our guests battled high winds, stuck it out, and caught tons of fish. The highlight of the week was our guests and their perseverance through adverse conditions.

“Water is up, gosh darn guess I need to go catch 50 Silver Salmon” -Daryl Bradford, CA

As always we are seeing lots of birds: Mallards, Teal, Pintails, Widgeon, Harlequins and Geese. We are also seeing all the shore birds along with lots of Eagles, Goshawks, Falcons, Ospreys and Tundra Swans

A lot has changed this week on the Kanektok. August storms brought the river back to almost the same level it was when the season began. The river is high, cloudy, and fast. Despite the less then favorable conditions the fishing is still pretty darn good. The high water has really brought the silvers in. Green water, slews, and seams off the main river are loaded with fish. This week the game plan was simple; find the fish and catch them until you can’t anymore and then do it all over again. The spots have transformed- we’re catching fish in places we were walking last week. The fishing is still fantastic!

Rain and wind with the occasional sunny afternoon.

Pink and purple lama.

Stu Brandes and his family have been coming up and fishing with us for over twenty years. While he may not be as quick as he used to be, his passion for fishing and infectious attitude has not wavered since his first trip. This week’s highlight was listening to Stu tell jokes to our camp. His delivery is unparalleled.

If you aren’t having fun here, you don’t know how to have fun! -John Newman, Lanesville IN.

As always we are seeing lots of birds: Mallards, Teal, Pintails, Widgeon, Harlequins and Geese. We are also seeing all the shore birds along with lots of Eagles, Goshawks, Falcons, Ospreys and Tundra Swans

The fishing right now on the Kanektok is just about as good as it gets! Silvers have been pouring into the river, and the spawn is on. This week we fished for everything. Sockeye continue to march, the Chums and Humpies are still aggressive, and the Rainbow and Dollie fishing is on fire. Several Chosen river grand slams were recorded in our log books. A typical day consisted of bouncing between Silver sloughs in the morning, followed by floating for Trout and Dollies in the afternoon. With more fish showing up every day its looking like its going to be another great Silver season.

Most days were dry and over cast and we had a few days of drizzly rain.

Dry flies are working for Silvers and we had some fun with skating dries for Dolly Varden.

This group has been fishing with us every year for over 15 years so it was great to see everyone and catch a bunch of fish and have some laughs.

Of all the fishing lodges that I have been to this one is tops!! Doug Unruh

A first class fishing experience in remote Alaska. Beautiful scenery,skillful guides and lots of fish! Richard Reinhart

Best run lodge I have been to and I have been to a bunch all over the world. Rufus Williams

We saw several moose and bunch of bears. Lots of birds along the river including Bald Eagles, Mallards, Pintail, Wigeon, Green wing Teal, Canadian Geese, Tundra Swans, Mergansers, Common Loons, Sandhill Cranes, Arctic Terns, Long tail Jaegers, Glaucous winged Gulls, Bald Eagles, Ruffed Legged Hawks, Kestrels, Harlequin ducks, Osprey, Peregrine falcons, Golden crowned Sparrows, Swallows, Common snipe, Greater yellow leg, Ptarmigan, Ravens, and Crows

The river is filling up with chrome bright Silvers and the water level is perfect for fantastic fishing Rainbows and Dolly Varden.

Most of the week was dry but Thursday was wet and windy.

Nothing new this week, all of the same flies are working well…

The ridge on the other side of the river has had bears foraging for berries almost every day this week. It has made for some great bear viewing. Now if they will just stay over there we will all be happy.

The best fresh water fishery on the planet!! Darrell Webb West Lynn,Or

Lots of bears and lots of birds including Bald Eagles, Mallards, Pintail, Wigeon, Green wing Teal, Canadian Geese, Tundra Swans, Mergansers, Common Loons, Sandhill Cranes, Arctic Terns, Long tail Jaegers, Glaucous winged Gulls, Bald Eagles, Ruffed Legged Hawks, Kestrels, Harlequin ducks, Osprey, Peregrine falcons, Golden crowned Sparrows, Swallows, Common snipe, Greater yellow leg, Ptarmigan, Ravens, and Crows.

Silvers are starting to show in good numbers and the river is plugged with spawning Kings, Chums, and Pink Salmon. And there are still some Chum Salmon showing up.

The weather was a little tougher this week. We battled the wind and rain most days. Its starting to cool off a bit too.

Pink G-string for the salmon; Mouse for the rainbows, and skaters for the Dollies.

This week is one we look forward to all year. A group of guests that is both family and close friends of the LBC staff. Shore lunches, late nights spent playing cards, and awesome fishing. This week’s highlight was our guests. We look forward to doing it again next year!

“This is our 18th Father/son Fly fishing trip with the Duncan’s and it was another memorable trip! Great fishing, great guides, and first-class food. Just fabulous. Looking forward to next year.” -Joe Chornyak SR. Powell, OH

As always we are seeing lots of birds: Mallards, Teal, Pintails, Widgeon, Harlequins and Geese. We are also seeing all the shore birds along with lots of Eagles, Goshawks, Falcons, Ospreys and Tundra Swans

The fishing on the Kanektok is lights out! Chums, Humpies, Sockeye, and Dollies continue to march up river in a steady stream that has not wavered since it began in June. Silvers have started to show up and can be caught consistently in the back sloughs. The Rainbow fishing is the best its been all year with fish starting to transition off the banks to behind the spawning salmon. This week we fished a little bit of everything. You never know what your going to get in early August. Our guests got the Chosen at its finest! Colored Dollies, mouse eating Rainbows, and chrome Silvers and Sockeye. Its hard to beat Alaska in August.

Cold, rainy, windy. The type of weather that makes you appreciate sunny and 70. .

Pink and orange Squidro

With so many nice fish caught this week, it is difficult to pick a single highlight. In addition to a handful of big Kings, Albert’s 30+ inch Dollie stands out as one of the fish of the week. While demonstrating “proper” Dollie fishing technique, Albert hooked and landed the biggest Dollie our camp has seen in a long time. It’s not everyday a fish is big enough to impress long-term guide, and Quinhagak local Albert.

One Bear, Eagles, Osprey, Arctic Turns, Mink, Beaver, a long-billed Curlew and a lone cow moose.

The wave train of fish has finally begun, and another fantastic week of fishing is now behind us! The Chosen fished great this week. The water is high, the river has a little tint, and the Salmon and Dollie fishing is on fire. This week our guests focused heavily on Chums and Kings. The Kings are now spread throughout the river; with patience and dedication, nice fish have been caught. Chums occupy every bit of slack water that we can find. They are big, aggressive, and were the culprits of a few busted knuckles. The Sockeye and Dollie fishing has also taken off. The few shallow bars that we have are full of marching fish. The Rainbow fishing has been a little bit spotty with the current water conditions. We are hopeful that when the water warms up, so will the trout fishing. With fish marching throughout the river, it’s an awesome time to be on the Kanektok.

Most of the week was cold with light rain showers. We had three days that were dry with high overcast and winds gusting to twenty mph.

The Dolly llama was the go to pattern this week and the incredible edible egg pattern in peach is working well for dollies and rainbows.

One of our guests Alex Kelly caught a chrome Chum on a mouse pattern this week. Over the years we have caught all five pacific salmon on the mouse but it always gets the heart rate up when a big salmon hits the mouse pattern. Even though the weather was cold, ten year old Jenson Pierre took the polar bear challenge and jumped in the river on the last night!!

Amazing as always. Above and beyond. You made the third generations introduction to tradition as good as it gets. Thanks Alex Kelly, Seattle,Wa

We saw several bears this week and several moose. Lots of birds along the river including Bald Eagles, Mallards, Pintail, Wigeon, Green wing Teal, Canadian Geese, Tundra Swans, Mergansers, Common Loons, Sandhill Cranes, Arctic Terns, Long tail Jaegers, Glaucous winged Gulls, Bald Eagles, Ruffed Legged Hawks, Kestrels, Harlequin ducks, Osprey, Peregrine falcons, Golden crowned Sparrows, Swallows, Common snipe, Greater yellow leg, Ptarmigan, Ravens, and Crows.

This was another great group of guests! We had a lot of laughs and caught a ton of fish! We are still waiting for our summer weather to get here….

We had a relatively dry week with several days of sunny weather and temps in the low seventies. Finally some summer weather!! I swam in the river on several days.

The skaters were working great this week on Dolly Varden. All the same flies for salmon and trout.

The river is teeming with fish, there is literally a non stop procession of Kings, Chums, Sockeye, Pinks, and Dolly Varden marching by camp.

A complete Alaskan fishing experience.Quality fishing, quality guides and quality food. Especially the salmon dishes that will long be remembered. Ken Spint CA

We saw several bears this week and several moose. Lots of birds along the river including Bald Eagles, Mallards, Pintail, Wigeon, Green wing Teal, Canadian Geese, Tundra Swans, Mergansers, Common Loons, Sandhill Cranes, Arctic Terns, Long tail Jaegers, Glaucous winged Gulls, Bald Eagles, Ruffed Legged Hawks, Kestrels, Harlequin ducks, Osprey, Peregrine falcons, Golden crowned Sparrows, Swallows, Common snipe, Greater yellow leg, Ptarmigan, Ravens, and Crows.

TThis was another great group of guests! We had a lot of laughs and caught a ton of fish!

We had another relatively dry week with only a few very minor rain showers.

All the same flies are working and Peachy egg patterns are working well for trout and Dollies..

The highlight for me this week was having my wife Joanne and daughter Sammi in camp. Sam is now doing a float trip from Kagati lake with our float crew! We have also had a bear eating Blue berries on the other side of the river from camp every night. It makes for great bear viewing but to be honest we are hoping that he decides to move along.

Best wilderness and fishing experience in Alaska!!! Tom Bertuccini, Lafayette, LA

We have been seeing a lot of bears and we also saw a wolf this week. Lots of birds along the river including Bald Eagles, Mallards, Pintail, Wigeon, Green wing Teal, Canadian Geese, Tundra Swans, Mergansers, Common Loons, Sandhill Cranes, Arctic Terns, Long tail Jaegers, Glaucous winged Gulls, Bald Eagles, Ruffed Legged Hawks, Kestrels, Harlequin ducks, Osprey, Peregrine falcons, Golden crowned Sparrows, Swallows, Common snipe, Greater yellow leg, Ptarmigan, Ravens, and Crows.

The guests this week have fished with us for so long they are like family. We had a lot of laughs and caught a ton of fish!

We had a great week of dry weather with only a few brief light rain showers

We threw the mouse pattern and the Dolly llama a lot this week. All color combinations of the Dolly Llama were working great.

This might sound crazy but one of our boats watched a cow and calf moose attempt to cross the river. The cow crossed the river and the calf stayed on the other side and was vocalizing to her mom that she was afraid to cross because the water was swift and deep. The cow moose swam back across the river and the calf somehow got on her back and she swam it to the other side. I have never seen or heard of this. I have seen bears do this many times but never a moose. I repeatedly questioned both my guide and the guests and they are sticking to their story…

Dave Duncan and Sons Base camps and Float Trips are the Rolls Royce of Alaskan fly fishing. Roy Brisbois, CA

We saw several Moose this week. Lots of birds along the river including Bald Eagles, Mallards, Pintail, Wigeon, Green wing Teal, Canadian Geese, Tundra Swans, Mergansers, Common Loons, Sandhill Cranes, Arctic Terns, Long tail Jaegers, Glaucous winged Gulls, Bald Eagles, Ruffed Legged Hawks, Kestrels, Harlequin ducks, Osprey, Peregrine falcons, Golden crowned Sparrows, Swallows, Common snipe, Greater yellow leg, Ptarmigan, Ravens, and Crows..

We have been very fortunate that for the last month we have had very little rain. The river is finally in great condition and it is filling up with with great numbers of King, Sockeye and Chum Salmon and the Dolly Varden are thick!

Cloudy with sporadic periods of sunshine.

Pink and purple lama

It’s not every day that you can teach a man like Jim Teeny something at a fly fishing camp. A man of his stature has done and seen it all. On the Fourth of July a handful of the guides and guests went down to Quinhagak to celebrate. When Jim tried to hop on a bicycle that was intended to be gifted to the kids, everyone realized the man looked a little unsure of himself. Another guest, Susan Mueller came to Teeny’s aid. With a little coaching and reassurance Jim was off to the races. The highlight of the week was watching Jim Teeny learn how to ride a bike!

“Embrace the Chaos” – Gabe Samson, Manhattan

As always we are seeing lots of birds: Mallards, Teal, Pintails, Widgeon, Harlequins and Geese. We are also seeing all the shore birds along with lots of Eagles, Goshawks, Falcons, Ospreys and Tundra Swans.

The Chosen is firing on all cylinders right now! Our annual Teeny and company week was filled with laughs and bent rods. King fishing has been good especially on dark cloudy days. There are record numbers on Jack Kings in the river, making the bigger Kings tougher to catch, but with patience and confidently fished flies some quality fish have been landed. The Chum fishing is lights out! Unlike the last couple of years Chums can be caught pretty much anywhere. As expected Dollies and Sockeyes are beginning to show up. They haven’t been targeted much but we have been keeping a close eye on what they have been doing and where they are holding. The rainbow fishing has been variable. In stretches where the clarity is poor the fish have been tougher to locate. However, in our upper stretches the clarity is great and the fish have been predictable and aggressive. The short, The Chosen is fishing awesome, we have more and more fish pouring into the river every day and the season has just begun!

Sunny with intermittent spells of drizzle

Pink and purple lama

While snooping through some slower corners of the river one of our boats encountered a clear, slow backwater; prime territory for trophy grayling! After some scrutiny, our guide spotted the violet shadow of an exemplary specimen of the species, darting back and forth in the current from the inlet. Some time, tippet and a myriad of refusals later the perfect cast and a pink flash-teeny drew the fish across the stream to eat! As the hooting and hollering ensued on the bank, the grayling seized the moment to rush directly at our hero, thrash on the surface AND … spit the hook. Another encounter with the norths finest koi/sailfish/whitefish look alike.

TBD

As always we are seeing lots of birds: Mallards, Teal, Pintails, Widgeon, Harlequins and Geese. We are also seeing all the shore birds along with lots of Eagles, Goshawks, Falcons, Ospreys and Tundra Swans.

The Kanektok is fishing really well right now! The river is dropping, the clarity is returning, and the fish are beginning to pour into the river. The fishing this week improved with each passing day. The Kings have been coming in strong and are starting to fill the runs in the lower and middle river. With the water higher than normal, we were most successful on Kings in the slow seams and back-sloughs. Just like Silvers in August, the Kings are stacked throughout the sloughs and can be hooked on pixies, glows, and swung flies. On days when it all came together the fishing was all time! The Rainbow fishing has picked up in conjunction with the speed and clarity of the river. Slower water and deep presentations seem to be the trick for numbers of salmon and Rainbows. The persistent rodent enthusiast will likely find a mouse eat when the clouds burn off as well. While not quite in full force Chums, Dollies, and Sockeye were all caught regularly this week. With sun in the forecast and an amazing week now behind us it feels great to be back in the grove on the Chosen!

Absolutely beautiful! With the river as high as it is, you would probably expect to hear that we have been getting lots of rain, but the weather couldn’t be more different. It’s been sunny, clear, and cool the majority days since we arrived.

TBD

TBD

TBD

TBD

As some of you may have heard through the grape-vine the lower base camp, that we have had for 30 years, has eroded away. When we realized that we were going to have to move camp we were bummed yet excited at the chance to reset and restructure LBC. Now with the camp close to finished we can’t wait to get back out on the water and welcome another year of amazing guests that make this whole endeavor possible. The river is coming in to shape! There are tons of new channels to be fished, and we are hearing reports of locals already getting into Kings and Chums in the lower river. Only one more week until the 2018 season on the Kanektok officially begins!