1. Troutnut Forum
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3. hey alaska guys

I lived in fairbanks for a year and once camped off the denali highway before the lakes. I followed some of the small streams that crossed the road and saw no fish. These streams were so clear it was amazing. Just wondering if there were any fish in these streams and if so how do you catch them. All i had was a spinning rod and some worms and never even had a bite. Also is there any decent trout fishing near fairbanks or is it all down south.

Most of those little streams off the Denali Highway have grayling fishing in them. I think they're hit pretty hard right at the road bridges, but you can run into great fishing if you're willing to walk away from the road a ways (sometimes just 50 yards... although that can feel like a mile in some of the vegetation). I was mostly west of the Tangle Lakes. The Denali Highway is a BEAUTIFUL drive... surely one of the best in the world.

The only fish you'll find in any of those streams are Arctic grayling. Usually they'll hit just about anything. If you didn't catch any on worms you probably just hit a really bad day or were too close to the road. There are supposed to be small populations of dwarf Dolly Varden in a couple of the streams in the Nenana drainage on the Cantwell side, but I haven't caught any.

There are no trout near Fairbanks, except stockers in lakes. It's too far north, so it's all grayling around here. The Chena upstream from Fairbanks, along Chena Hot Springs Road, has amazing fishing for big grayling. Lucky me I'm getting paid to spend most of the summer out there on the river. :)

Troutnut,
What sort of hatches do you have on your streams? When do they start or is it more of a water temp start? Always been curious about that knowing how snow melt affects everything in our freestone rivers here.

Ya, as I was fishing today I started wondering what makes a nymp say to itself,"ya know nows the time! I'm going for it. See ya later guys. Last one up and out is a rotten egg!" Why do I seem to see the mayflies in groups as well? while watch the water I will see nothing and then all of a sudden a dozen will come floating by and then I won't see any for awhile. Do you figure they are siblings?

Steve-


If you're talking about Baetis, perhaps. I'd expect Baetis siblings to be somewhat more geographically concentrated due to the adult female's oviposition behavior.

Ya, Baetis is what I was thinking of and what I saw yesterday. Some seemed a little greener bodied than the photos posted on this site but I suppose that could be because of local enviromental variables..

Gyb-

Perhaps so. The Baetis emerging on April 25th in Wisconsin would likely be B. vagans, which is now classified as B. tricaudatus. As to body color, that can also vary between sexes, and even change within the first few minutes following emergence. However, I don't recall any reference to Baetis dun body color being described as green.

I want to post some pictures from The Chena River near Fairbanks Alaska for identification. How do I post them? No luck so far.

Tiff

Go to the photography section of the board. Start a new topic and instead of clicking submit click "save and add pictures." Then you'll go to a page with a form to add pictures that should (hopefully) be pretty easy.