Some last glimpses of liquid water for the year in interior Alaska

Jasn,

It is in the low 30's here in Detroit at 10:40pm...Even though it snowed here for the first time this season, it looks a bit chillier where you are! :)

Spence

Jason - as usual great pics of great places.
ya gotta wonder how those critters survive - thank whatever for the hyporheic.
creno

We've had quite a bit of below-zero weather already, although that hurricane in the Bering Sea brought some slightly warmer air (teens) up into the interior today.

Scary thought to reflect on those pics...went in after my bird dog when taking a walk along the river. She went after a duck sitting in the puddle.
Now we no longer walk along the river in the Winter time.

How beautiful!

BRRRRRRRR...but, beautiful. Any fishies still in those nearly frozen waters, Jason?

Jonathon

There are burbot in those waters, Jonathan, but they're safe from anglers until the river freezes enough for ice fishing.

Ice fishing is the only other form of fishing I do these days besides fly fishing. I haven't pulled out the spinning gear since 2007, just a personal challenge to see if I can catch everything I want to on fly gear. But, since I'm not much of a steelheader - throwing any significant weight on a fly rod is no fun for me and now BOTH pairs of waders have leaks in them - I will be pulling out the ice-fishing gear in the coming months and drilling some holes in the ice...How about you, Jason?

Jonathon

I might do some ice fishing, although I'm not sure about burbot. I don't have an auger, just a spud, and it's crazy hard work spudding through 4 feet of ice to set a burbot line out on the river. Half the time, the hole will punch through to solid ground, a slurry of frazil ice, or muddy water, and you have to go somewhere else. I've never had much luck with it. I put a lot of burbot in the freezer this spring running setlines off the bank for a few weeks after ice-out, though.

I'm more likely to do a bit of ice fishing on lakes with friends who have augers. But I don't do all that much of it.

Good to see some well composed Winter pix of the Tanana River. I lived in the village of Tanana for 30 years and took many great shots like yours of the Tanana and Yukon rivers. I had a fish camp 20 miles upriver from Tanana on the Yukon and a homestead on the Tozitna River. I used to operate a test fish wheel project at the mouth of the Tanana that counted migrating salmon into that drainage. I found your site while looking for aquatic insect information relative to trout fishing. Thanks for the great site I'm sure to visit it again.

WF

Hi WF,

Glad you liked the pictures. I'm sure you've got some great stories from your time in the Alaskan bush... feel free to share them here if you like!

Jason