Alaska River Float (Goodnews) Tips and Suggestions

Dekartes

Kill Pebble Permanently
A side note on the camping.... You won't want to camp on the tundra anyway. By rules you have to be on a sandbar when off the Refuge. Really not ideal to set up a camp above high water on the Tundra.... You'll see when you get there. If the water is that high, your trip is over and your running for your life. Goodnews and Kanektok take a lot of water to hit that level. I have never had a native on the Goodnews talk to me about camping. They can though. I have been asked for a fishing license once on the Kanektok down low. That's in many trips.
 

Dekartes

Kill Pebble Permanently
You going with Papabear, or someone like that? They give you a bunch of info, but you do it on your own?
 

Shad

Life of the Party
It's just like salmon fishing here, but it's generally much more productive. WIN!

Purple egg-sucking leeches with bubble gum pink heads outfished everything else I tried in a Bristol Bay trib a few years back, but almost everything got bit at least once. Fun fishing. Anyway, those worked, and they are an easy tie. Of course, when coho are on the bite, the fly doesn't seem to matter much.

While you're there, you should definitely try the wog (topwater) thing. Not much is more fun than watching coho eat flies off the top. Even in Alaska, with great numbers, it doesn't always work, but your odds are a bunch better up there. As mentioned, if you fish a dropper fly, it will get eaten, and that can lead to doubles when the wog starts chasing the hooked fish around the hole. Never experienced it myself, but I've heard the legend.

Have fun!
 

Mossback

Fear My Powerful Emojis 😆
Forum Supporter
My trip is fast approaching. We are doing 7 days on the Goodnews River starting 8/27. I started a thread a while back asking about flies (link) and posts about lines etc and got some good suggestions from @Eastside @BN2FSH @SculpinSwinger @Matt B @O' Clarkii Stomias @Creatch’r among others I'm sure.

Well the gear and flies are pretty much all accounted for, but it dawned on me the other day I have spent no effort in learning about how to actually fish the rivers up there. I have lots of experience with trout fishing rivers in the lower 48 and beach fishing for coho in the PNW, but I have never fished for salmon in rivers or for trout in rivers with heavy salmon populations and it will be my first time fly fishing in AK.

Looking for a crash course on techniques, water to look for various species, etc. Being late August, it's primarily coho time. I believe it's a pink year so perhaps pinks to contend with too. Will the trout be holding and feeding in the same kind of water they do down here plus behind spawning salmon? Will salmon holding water be obvious (visible fish)?

On top of general fishing techniques, I would love any intel specific to the Goodnews and bonus points for late August/early September info.

Appreciate any feedback!
Winds can be quite high at that time of year. As in blow the tent right across the tundra, whether you are in it or not.
Be prepared...
 

Porter2

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
From my personal experience….Bring your pontoons high on gravel bars. When it rains the river can rise so fast (it’s unbelievable) …. We had the unfortunate 330 am wake to retrieve a couple
floating away pontoons one early am. When it rains it can put like a tropical storm on. Get off the river and find temporary shelter ….in addition I would keep food good xxx yards from camp. Bears!

Grab your favorite 6-7 weight with a hefty
Leader and throw some mouse flies…. Hit the opposite bank and quickly jolt them back into the water with your retrieve. . Make it look like a leap in to the water. Quick jerks on the line. Make it look like a leap and desperation swimming. Oh my…. If you do…. (Best in later evening from my experience. 10 pm or later)

Watch your back cast… if it hits the water you might catch a fish 😜. And try hauling a forward cast with a sizeable trout attached, could break a rod…. True
Story

And the most important thing is when you gotta go no.2 pick a spot and go fast. Bury it ofcourse get the hell out of there. Don’t invite Bears. God luck!!!
 

mtskibum16

Life of the Party
Watch your back cast… if it hits the water you might catch a fish 😜. And try hauling a forward cast with a sizeable trout attached, could break a rod…. True
Story

And the most important thing is when you gotta go no.2 pick a spot and go fast. Bury it ofcourse get the hell out of there. Don’t invite Bears. God luck!!!
That's funny! haha And speaking of bears, how far away is it recommended to stash food (and #2s) away from camp? I'm sure "the further he better" but realistically what is a "safe" minimum?
 

JS

Mankie Old Chum
Forum Supporter
That's funny! haha And speaking of bears, how far away is it recommended to stash food (and #2s) away from camp? I'm sure "the further he better" but realistically what is a "safe" minimum?
Cook and eat well away from where you sleep. That said, by this time of year the bears are quite full of salmon.

I had to camp off the river on a the convergence of three bear trails set off a high bank. We had bears in camp almost every night. Not fun. Mostly because we were eating a lot of spam and not disposing of the cans far enough away, as the fog kept us from getting resupplied for a week. Bears down there have seen a lot of humans by late august, they’ve been dusted with bird shot enough to keep mostly to themselves.

But there is always one asshole. Just keep your wits about you.
 

Porter2

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
That's funny! haha And speaking of bears, how far away is it recommended to stash food (and #2s) away from camp? I'm sure "the further he better" but realistically what is a "safe" minimum?

Think we did about 75-80 yards or so down river from campsite. It was sizeable.
On average of course. A couple places we selected to camp it was a bit closer due to space available. Just be smart. And remember for every bear you see there is 10-15 that have seen you (just didn’t notice them).

Also good news 18 years ago was more desolate than today. The upper lake and river residential bears in that area were very scared of you and ran away. But has you moved down river, started seeing the huts and jet sleds the bears didn’t run away so much, some stood ground. Had to be aware and move around them far and wide. Just use common sense and add extra distance.
 

Dekartes

Kill Pebble Permanently
We use a lightweight bear fence and leave food in camp. Don't know if it is needed, but we have left camp for hours and never had anything ransacked. We had bears walk through our camp several times this year; they are keyed on fish. Pretty fun to watch them stick their heads underwater to locate fish. Lost count of the bears. For sure over 20 this year. Be cognizant. You hear noise (although they are spookily quiet) it is probably a bear! Twice when gathering fire wood I ended up near a bear. I made myself known and slowly left the area. There are a lot of them.
 

JS

Mankie Old Chum
Forum Supporter
Ok, story time….

Scariest encounter with a bear up there was probably not the most dangerous, but scared the hell out of me just from the sheer demonstrative effort.

We had a big boar cruising a high bank above us, just me and two guests, and I was keeping an eye on the bear and also trying to get the sports into trout, which wasn’t hard, but the little depressions the nicer fish would hold in needed pointed out quite often. Sport hooks up on a good fish and I start heading toward him with the net, and right behind me that boar jumped off the high bank and into the river….not to mess with us, but just because he was fishing too. The noise that big turd made behind me made me make noise as well. Not the super tough variety 😂.
 
Top