One morning I convinced Nichole to take a ride with me up the Dalton Highway A.K.A. "The Ice Road". Although, there is no ice yet, it is still a dangerous road as the tractor/trailers fly down this road at 70 mph. The road is half gravel and the other half asphalt. I would rather it be all gravel as the asphalt is worn out and frost heaves can launch your rig into the air at any moment.

Our first stop provided little fishing opportunity, but we did manage to catch a Bald Eagle sitting atop a Spruce tree looking for dinner.

As you can see forest fires are common up here and they burn everything. I will say though that Alaska seems to allow for quick growth of the vegetation and the animals do come back quickly.

We picked a perfect day to explore this highway although, we made it to the Arctic Circle before we had to turn around and head home. It will actually take about twelve hours to drive from Fairbanks to Dead Horse Alaska. We made it sixty miles south of Cold Foot Alaska!

One day we will drive all the way and spend the night in a Dead Horse hotel which are actually not too bad for a small room.

My friend Darrell Carter convinced me that we needed to float the Chena River in his raft. Now as a kid, a raft was one of those Sevlor inflatable rafts that your parents bought for you at Bi-Mart or K-Mart. When I arrived at Darrell's house his raft was one of those white water river runners that you see guides using on the Mckenzie River in Oregon. This is the only way to float if you do not have a drift boat folks!

The Chena River was low and clear so we expected to catch the Grayling and were surprised to see the River full of Salmon too. The Kings were bright red and the Chum Salmon were in their full "Urban Cammo" colors coming up the river.

Darrell found this spectacular fish while chasing down the Arctic Grayling. It was immediately released, back to the river to finish spawning.

We floated about three miles of river and it took all day as the fishing was exceptional and we really did not want to leave the river.

Darrell has lived in Alaska his entire life and knows where the best honey holes for fishing are as well as the best areas to hunt.

After Tim Pritchard arrived up here, I managed to take him down the Alaska Highway to attempt some fly fishing. I would say that for someone who has never done this type of

fishing before he preformed admirably as you will see by the photos I have posted.

The sky was especially blue on this trip and the sun was shining, so at least we had the weather in our favor. There has not been many days that the sky has cooperated on the weekend.

Tim has really taken to fly fishing and these Arctic Grayling fight like wild Rainbows back home. They are amazing creatures and the blue colors on their bodies really shows well. Their dorsal fins stick up high in the water like a sharks fin and these fish sky out of the water when hooked. It is quite common to catch as many as twenty in one deep fishing hole.

Arctic Grayling are not too picky when it comes to the flies they will take. I have caught them on size #10 Royal Trude's all the way down to a size #20 Hare's Ear Nymph. I really think that the movement of the fly and whether or not the fish are feeding on top or on the bottom more than color and size does. The great thing about these fish are that on most of the rivers they are catch and release so they grow to above average sizes of 16" to 20" fish.

This is another Arctic Grayling that Tim caught and as you can see the size of the fish compared to the fly rod.

I will say that we caught our fair share of smaller fish too, but no one ever shows those photos! It is always the bigger fish as it makes a better picture to share.

There are many rivers to fish in Alaska and all one has to do is get off the road and explore. I walked up the Chitna River to explore the Arctic Grayling fishing and found the water to look just like blue Gatorade. Incredible places like this are rarely explored because there is ample fishing along side the road. But to really view Alaska you have to either walk in, fly in, or ride in. So far I have walked, but I have really only been here two months so I have plenty of time for the other! I also wanted a pistol or shotgun with me as it makes Nichole feel better about me fishing Alaska.

More to come!