A Fishing Excursion

I am not a fisherman. I just am not that into fishing. I have never really quite understood the whole thing. Now, I love to eat fish, especially the kind I can catch around here on the Delta. And I do enjoy throwing a line into the water in hopes that a fish will bite. But I am still baffled by people who are really into fishing.

That said, some friends of mine decided to take an overnight fishing trip up the Little Kasigluk River. They invited me to come along and I welcomed the chance to be outdoors and sleep in a tent. I did not realize at the time what sort of fishing trip I had gotten myself into. Little did I know that I was going to a place so wealthy in its abundance of enjoyable fish to catch. Apparently, it is the type of place that uber-into-fishing-fishermen pay thousands of dollars to hire a guide and be flown to location on a float plane. I was told the particular section of the Little Kasigluk that we went to was particularly good for Rainbow Trout, Dolly Vardon, and Grayling. And, in hindsight, I suppose it was true because we caught a lot of fish.

The Crew

Ross Boring: Knowledgeable River Traveler
& Avid Fisherman

Corey Tolliver: Boat Owner & Avid Fisherman

Dave Cronk: Also Knowledgeable River Traveler
& Avid Fisherman

Myself: Self-Appointed Camera Man
& Non-Fisherman

This trip too had a rough start to it. Corey called me, as I drove to meet him at the harbor, that his boat wouldn’t start and that he was fixing it at his place. Disappointed, I went home and read my classwork for a while. About two hours later, Corey called me and told me that his boat was fixed. Quickly we assembled and got the boat in the water. Corey owns a 20 ft Lund boat with a 115hp 2-stroke motor. It got on step quick, even with 4 guys and a sizeable load of gear. But when we were going slowly we sat lower in the water because of all the weight. It’s a good size boat with a good size motor, with a nearly a flat bottom for going up small rivers.

(Gearing up at the boat harbor)

Just above Kwethluk is the mouth of two rivers that join together right at the end, the Kasigluk and Kisaralik. Both rivers flow nearly parallel to each other. At a couple places they actually have cut over so close that a channel has opened up and it possible to switch from one river to the other by boat. So, when we reached the mouth we took the right Y, which was the Kasigluk River. It was wide at the mouth but the further you travelled up it, the more narrow and twisting it became. It also became much shallower, with mud flats at the beginning and gravel bars later on.

Hitting a mudflat or gravel bar is extremely easy to do if one doesn’t know the river or know how to read the river. By read, I mean look at the shoreline and surface disturbances to determine where the main channel is. In every river there is a main channel that is usually deep enough for a boat to pass through, often at least 3 feet deep if not many more. However, one has to know what signs to look for. The surest sign is to always stick close to the cut bank side of the river. Cut banks form where water is pushing against the outside shore of the river as it goes around a curve, cutting a wall into that side of the shore and digging a deep channel on the river bed. Opposite of cut banks on a curve are generally shallow spots, where mud or gravel is deposited. By driving a boat close to cut banks and away from the opposite shoreline, one can general guess where the main channel will be. Still, one needs to know how to spot shallow water by its surface movement and to judge just how wide the main channel is based on the tightness of the river curve. It takes some impressive driving to make it far up some of these rivers.

(Ross at the helm)

Ross knew the place we were going to and he also knew the river best. After a while of driving up the Kasigluk, he took over from Corey because it took some more expertise in river boating. He pulled some impressive moves with a large hefty boat on a small river. Still, we hit gravel bars often. Corey, Dave, and Ross all had waders on so they just hopped out and tugged the boat off the shallows. I, not being a fisherman, do not own waders and so had to sit in the boat. I felt a bit useless at times. Once, we sucked some mud up into the water intake and had to clear it from the line. On our way up we also passed a couple friends, Andrew and Kristie, that were exploring the Kasigluk River. Eventually, after navigating some 50 miles of the shallow, gravel bar filled Kasigluk River, we reached the Little Kasigluk. Our campsite, Ross told us, was just about ½-1 mile up that even shallower river.

(Ross pulling some impressive river driving.
At the very end we hit a gravel bar. Note the
sound of the propeller hitting the gravel)

We slowly cruised and pulled our way that short distance and got to the campsite. We tied off to a steep embankment and climbed up to a nice flat spot of solid ground. Ross pitched his large tent canopy and we all pulled out some beer. Immediately Corey, Dave, and Ross threw in their fishing lines and from the start they were hit fishing. Ross says that this one particular hole, on this particular horseshoe bend in the river, is the best place. I cannot doubt him because of all the fish I saw brought up and all the talk of how big the fish were for their species. I grabbed a line and threw it in for a while, pulling in a few Dollys and some Graylings. One thing I didn’t realize about the trip was that it wasn’t for food gathering, but rather catch-and-release. I do wish we would have ate more of the fish that we caught out there but that is how they fish I guess. In any case I caught more fish on a rod and reel than I ever have in my entire life.

(Corey & downstream view from campsite)

(Ross cooking, Campsite, & upstream view)

(360 degree view of campsite)

(An industrious beaver)

(Smaller rainbow trout)

(Some of the best fishing was right off the boat)

We pretty much proceeded to get drunk and fish. There was a lot of rum and some whiskey involved and by the end of the night everyone was feeling pretty good. Someone ended up fatally wounding a Dolly Vardon with their hook so we ended up cutting it up to try. I must say, it was delicious. We cooked up some bratwursts and ate those too. Dave brought some excellent fish strips and some salmon spread. It was a camping feast. Of course, the mosquitoes were horrendously bad but some powerful bug spray did the trick, it really was it a life saver.

(Mmmmm...Dolly Vardon)

The next day we all woke up early and a little hung over. One thing I have found though, is that I often feel much better waking up hung over when I’ve slept outside rather than inside. Dave was first to get a hook in the water and his first catch was the biggest Rainbow trout of the trip. Corey became pretty intent on catching one bigger. Ross stayed at camp for a while as the rest of us walked to the opposite side of the horseshoe bend and fished during our walk back along the shore. The morning was beautiful, clear, and warm.

(Corey with his bear protection, a .44 magnum)

(Dave trying his luck on opposite side of the horseshoe bend)

(Dave with a large Rainbow Trout)


(A Grayling that I caught)

(Fishing different holes on our walk back to camp)

When we got back to camp we noticed there were lots of Grayling hanging out under our boat. You could basically just drop a line over the side and pull up a good size fish. Then, I remembered that my camera is waterproof. I stuck it underwater while Dave dropped fish egg bait nearby. I tried to film them as they ate and I think it turned out really well actually.

(Fish video 1)

(Fish video 2)

Around noon we began to break camp to head back down river. We loaded the boat up again and slowly floated back down the Little Kasigluk and then to the Kasigluk. Again, Ross took the wheel because he knew best how to drive those waters. When going down river there is less control than going up so we took it easy and went slowly through the most difficult stretches. Even still we got stuck a number of times. Each time we’d lift the prop and the other guys would hop out and pull the boat out of the shallows. When we came around a gravel bar, we spotted Andrew and Kristie again so we stopped to talk to them. We walked around the gravel bar for a bit and noticed on one part that there were some grizzly bear tracks. I was told that prints that size were from about a 10 foot bear. We continued our float, eventually making it to deeper water so we were able to speed up. We turned into one of the channels to cut over to the Kisaralik River next to us. It was narrow and fun to drive through, but a beaver dam cut it all off. It completely blocked the way so we had to turn around and take the Kasigluk all the way. As we went, the weather worsened, becoming very windy and rainy once we reached the main Kuskokwim River again.

(Slowly making our way back down river)

(Bear tracks on a gravel we stopped at)

(Corey & Dave removing a clog from the water intake)

By the time we reached Bethel after 4 hours of river travel, I was pretty cold and wet. But I really enjoyed myself. It was a blast to get out on the river and cruise around. Plus to be outdoors again, it was so nice. It was also a good chance to test out my camping gear before this summer when I will really be using it. And fishing, well I was immersed in fishing much longer than I ever had before. It was an interesting experience, one that I think I wouldn’t mind involving myself with again in the near future. Although I have a LONG way to go before I could call myself a fisherman.

Sandbars and Twisting Rivers

Summer is officially here!!! It seemed like such a long time coming. This school year kicked my ass. Actually, it isn’t even entirely over. I still have to finish an online course that I need to stay employed next year, so it’s kind of important. But at least I can do that on my own time schedule and not have to wake up at 8am for it. So for now, I have no time constraints except those I’ve chosen to take upon myself. It’s a nice feeling.

One thing I’ve been wanting to do since the river ice broke up is get out on the river on someone’s boat. I don’t own one yet, that is an expense I might split with my roommate next summer. That means if I want to be out on the river I have to ask my friends who own a boat to take me out. On Monday, my friend Andrew had some free time so we decided to take his boat up river for the day. We didn’t have much of a plan; in fact we didn’t have any fishing gear so we could even catch something. Basically, I just wanted to be on the river so it was more exploratory than anything.

(Andrew on the till)

The trip started off a little rough. When we got to the boat harbor, we couldn’t find the boat. For a number of reasons, there are about 3 models of boats that most people use in Bethel. We didn’t know where his brother, who had last used it, parked it along the shoreline. That meant we had look for his flat-bottomed aluminum boat among all the others that look very much like his. Finally we found it and could begin our journey upriver.

(Barge travelling upriver somewhere)

(Fishcamps along Steamboat Slough)

(Fish racks for hanging salmon to dry)

We took off with his 30hp jet motor in search of an interesting stream or river to cruise. The nice thing about jet motors, the type used by jet-skies, is that they have a very shallow draft. His boat only needed 4-5 inches of water to travel so we could go up some pretty small channels. Right outside of town we took a shortcut through Steamboat slough. This slough is lined with old boats that have been abandoned, although there is one that still looks operational (last one in the video).

(The trusty jet motor with Kuskokwim River in background)

(Travelling on Steamboat Slough)

We decided to head up the Gweek River since the further up you go the more drastic the landscape changes, turning from willow line riverbanks to pines and birch trees. Eventually we passed where I had gone on my snowmachine so from then on it was an all new experience for me. Also, the main Kuskokwim river, while wide, is very shallow and so are all of its tributaries. It is extremely easy to hit shallow mud flats that often are exposed during low tide but are hidden under very shallow water during high tide. On the Gweek and other smaller rivers, it is necessary to drive your boat closer to the cut bank side of the river, particularly on curves, because on the other side is where sand bars form. Basically, you are trying to follow the deepest part of the river channel.

Pretty early on Andrew and I hit one of those sandbars. We were pretty surprised since his boat has such a shallow draft but when we looked over the side we were sitting in maybe 3 inches of water. We hopped out and tugged the boat off the sandbar. Unfortunately, when we started the motor up it wasn’t drawing water into the engine to cool it down. Somewhere along the water intake was clogged with mud. This was a major problem because that meant we could not run our motor at all. If we did the engine wouldn’t be cool enough and so we could blow a piston. We quickly drove to a solid river bank and began to figure out how to unclog the line. When we looked for some tools, the ones we needed were not in the boat so we had no way of really working on the thing. Eventually an older native couple from Akiachak drove by and stopped to help us. They whole family chuckled at two white boys who hit a sand bar and didn’t know how to unclog their own motor. Even the old woman knew exactly what to do. They showed us how to remove the mud clog, shared some of their wild rhubarb with us, and left us on our way.

We continued onward, this time being cautious to follow the river channel and not cut corners. Later we saw a beaver slink down into the river’s edge and then a female moose eating at the riverbank. When we approached a Y in the river, we decided to take the right fork. This it turned out was not the Gweek River anymore and, now having looked at the Topo map of the area, I realize now it actually doesn’t have a name. Perhaps the locals have a name for it but the U.S.G.S. does not. This river quickly reduced in width to a large stream. This made driving through it very fun because of all the tight quick turns. It was a blast just flying through such a narrow waterway. Since we were further upriver, that also meant there were actual trees so there were also obstacles to be avoided. Trees hung low over the water or had fallen in and were barely submerged. At one point, we came around a corner and spooked a snowy owl. It took off in flight and stayed right next to our heads for about 5 seconds before turning in toward the trees. It was crazy, I’ve never been that close to an owl before. I feel like I could have reached out and grabbed it.

(Offshoot of the Gweek River)

(Beaver dam under construction)

Eventually we turned around and headed back toward Bethel. On the way it started raining so that made it pretty cold. It still isn’t that warm up here so you cool down pretty fast when wet, plus rain stings when you’re going 30mph. However, one really cool thing came from being in a rainstorm. For the first time since I’ve lived in Bethel, I saw lightening. Two lightening bolts at that! I’m not sure why but Bethel never gets really hard rainstorms. It must all fall on the mountains before it reaches us, or something, I dunno. We seem to only get precipitation when there is a southernly wind. In any case, I was excited.

(Rainstorm in the distance)

That pretty much concludes the trip. We made it back to Bethel and had enjoyed ourselves for the day. Hopefully next time I'll be able to do some fishing and bring home king salmon.