Chasing Steelhead

By: Rick Rouse | April 01, 2009 | Travel

We just arrived at the river, and Kent and I were walking upstream just exchanging small talk. It’s been a year since we last spoke and we wanted to catch up on each other’s life. We were mid-sentence when we heard the cry, “S-T-E-E-L-H-E-A-D!” It was Kay who was hooked up, so we picked up our pace to witness the fight.
When we got there, the fish was in the middle of a dance, jumping and running up and downstream like steelhead do.

In about 15 minutes, the battle was won and Kay was the winner. The fish, a bright 15-pounder, was a chrome hen (female) straight from the sea. And Kay, who had a grin as big as the fish, was holding it up so we could take the photo. Seconds later, the fish was returned to the river to return to her upstream migration.

Kent is Kent Brekke, a guide and a full-fledged captain of the Chester B, based in Petersburg, Alaska. The Chester is almost 60 feet in length and 20 feet wide. It looks like a houseboat, but built like a Sherman tank, and it is as comfortable as a five-star hotel. Kent knows this area of Alaska well — he’s been hosting and guiding people like us for more than 30 years.

Kay is Kay Toolson from Eugene, Ore., and he has been a friend for longer than I can remember. Also along on our trip was his bro, Brent, from Logan, Utah, along with my son, Jason, who happens to be co-publisher and creative director of this magazine.

Alaska is a big place; it’s our 49th state. Sarah Palin is the governor.

If you’re a fly-fisherman, you know Alaska’s reputation for fishing. Most people, including a lot of fly-fishermen, know that Alaska has a fantastic run of steelhead in the spring. Unlike some of the rivers in the lower 48, the Alaska rivers and streams are pretty short in length, so the steelhead come in, spawn and return to the ocean quickly. They don’t hang around for months like they do in river systems like the Columbia and its tributaries.

Steelhead are actually rainbow trout born in the rivers that flow to the sea. They’re cousins of the same steelhead that inhabit our own Malibu Creek, but much larger. In Alaska they will range from six to more than 20 pounds, and when hooked, will give you a fight like no other sport fish.

Our trip began at LAX and took us through Seattle where we changed planes for a 1.5-hour flight to Ketchikan. When we arrived, the weather was a lot different from Malibu. It was really cold and rainy. It was almost cold enough to snow on us, and was, in fact, snowing at the top of the mountains. To us fly-fishermen, that is steelhead weather at its best.

The geography in this part of Alaska is pretty amazing. Mountains rise right up from the sea. The rainforest is steps away. Glaciers are almost everywhere. Picture the perfect wilderness and it’s right there.

Ketchikan is a small tourist town that is visited by hundreds of cruise ships and thousands of people during the summer. Gift shops dominate the landscape. Luckily, we arrived just before the onslaught.

Our plans were to take a chartered floatplane on our arrival in Ketchikan to meet the Chester B about 100 miles away in a secluded cove. From there, we would cruise around, live aboard the Chester B while spending our days hiking up rivers, searching and casting our flies for the elusive and hard-fighting steelhead trout.

But our plans went awry. The low-hanging clouds and precipitation that generally hang over southeast Alaska delayed us. The poor weather forced us to spend our first night in Ketchikan. The air charter company said weather would be better in the morning and advised us to chill out and make the best of it. And we did.
Although there aren’t any fancy hotels, we did stay at a great place in the hills above town. The hotel is called the Westmark, and the rooms were very comfortable. It had a nice bar and restaurant that made it pretty easy for us to wind down. 

The next morning we were met at the floatplane dock to take our hour-plus trip. The flight was spectacular. We flew over miles and miles of wilderness, and it was easy to see why it would be easy to get lost in those woods.

When we finally saw our home for the next five days anchored in a bay, we circled and our plane made a perfect landing on the water. We knew we were in for a great, great time: great meals with fine wine, good fishing and great scenery, and most of all, a lot of laughs. The Chester is the perfect craft for this trip. It has two staterooms to sleep four very comfortably. The only downside is that there is only one bathroom for the four of us. Mornings were tough, but we are tough guys.
Upstairs in the main lounge there is enough seating for all of us, and we are surrounded by windows with a view of the landscape. Cruising from river to river, you’ll run into seals, whales, porpoise and even some killer whales. Bald eagles are everywhere.

We cannot reveal our exact locations because Captain Kent swore us to secrecy. The last thing he wanted was to have his rivers and creeks inundated with people as a result of this story. Frankly we don’t blame him. The rivers we visited are really special, and one of the reasons they’re so great is because you never see anyone else.

Even though we can’t spill the beans on the names of the rivers and creeks we fished, I can tell you every one is different and pretty spectacular. If you’ve ever been on one of the giant cruise ships that travel up and down the inside passage, then you have a taste of what this part of Alaska is all about, but being on your own chartered boat in the middle of nowhere is really something special. You actually get the feeling that you’re in a place where no one else has been before.

Every night we were anchored in a small bay with waterfalls everywhere. The views out of every window are out of a dream — but it’s real. And when you step ashore and take a few steps into the giant spruce forest, it brings out senses you never thought you had. Ferns and the grasses along the creek are as green as you’ve ever seen, yet you realize in a few more seconds you could get lost, and in that beautiful, wild forest live grizzlies and black bears that could take your head off with just one swipe of their paws. That’s truly the raw beauty of it all. After all, Alaska is the last frontier, one of the last wild places on our planet, and for us in Malibu, it’s easy and quick to get there.

If you love to fly-fish as we do, this place is one of the best in the world — if not the best. Depending on the time of year, you could catch any one of the five species of Pacific salmon. In the spring or fall, many of the rivers carry a run of steelhead — the prize we were after. Steelhead get their strength and size from living and growing up in the ocean, and when they arrive in the rivers they don’t feed, so catching them is pretty difficult. No one knows why they strike the fly. They are born in fresh water and return to spawn at their birth site after spending up to three years in the ocean. Unlike Pacific salmon that die after spawning, steelhead can return year after year to repeat the cycle.

The spring run of steelhead in Alaska begins in early March and runs until June. Mother Nature perfected the timing of the spawning runs so that each species doesn’t interfere with the next. When all of the salmon have completed their cycle, some Alaskan rivers get a fall run of steelhead.

Steelhead are a prized game fish. You’ll never see wild (not hatchery raised) sold commercially in supermarkets.

Fishing for these mighty fish is like hunting without the kill. Kent knows the area well, and in fact can spot fish holding in the water. As you walk up river, you’ll find likely spots. The technique is to cast your fly across and let it swing downstream. You may cast this way a thousand times between “takes,” but when you feel the tug, you’re in for a real fight — especially on a fly rod. When you finally land the fish and hold it in your arms, you will see how special and how truly beautiful they are.

I didn’t mean to get too carried away with the fishing because it’s like frosting on the cake. The best part of the whole experience is living aboard a boat. All the meals are home-cooked. Dinners are freshly caught Dungeness crab, Alaskan prawns, salmon or halibut along with great side dishes and salads. Everything is homemade including bread and dessert. After a long day on the river, especially if it’s been raining, you get pretty famished. Kent and his crew serve a lot, so you’ll never go to bed hungry.

Coming in from the river each day, you are greeted with a cold beer and appetizers. Everyone relives the day with fish stories, and smiles are everywhere. We talk about the day and what is in store for tomorrow because tomorrow brings us to a new river and new experiences.

There’s just so much to see and do in this part of the world. Best of all it’s only a few hours by plane from Malibu. It may sound a long way away, but it’s a lot less of a hassle and a much better adventure than a trip to Disneyland. We wish we could tell you more, but it’s a trip that you must experience for yourself, fishing or not. Contact the Alaska Department of Tourism at http://www.travelalaska.com for more information about Southeast Alaska. Or you can reach Kent via e-mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

And tell him you read about it in Malibu Magazine.

Remember, our captain swore us not to say too much, and you know you never want to upset the captain. 

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