Time: 10:00AM – 1:00PM

Location: 30 yards upstream to mouth

Fish Landed: 7

Dennis Creek 06/23/2011 Photo Album

The Rainbow Point crew decided to change it up a bit on Thursday and visit some other tributaries of Lake Illiamna. The weather was fairly gentle by Alaska standards which made it practical to fire up the cabin cruiser that had picked us up Monday in the rain and head south. The guides tied a jet boat to the rear of the cabin cruiser, and Mike piloted while Jordan, Jared, Dr. McKenzie and I enjoyed the ride.

Cabin Cruiser Anchored

Dave Lands a Nice Rainbow at Dennis Creek

We stopped at the mouth of the Gibralter Creek and dropped off Jared and Dr. Steve and the jet boat, and then Mike chauffeured Jordan and I over to Dennis Creek. Jordan and Mike anchored the large vessel safely off shore, and then the three of us moved up the creek around 30 yards and began fishing. Jordan guided me while Mike directed and used my camera to take some great pictures. Jordan tied a white leech streamer to my line, and I began making long casts to the far bank and then swinging the streamer across the river to a point directly below. I repeated this process and systematically covered the water all the way to the mouth of the creek when we quit and had lunch at around 1PM.

Dave Casts Streamer Toward Dead Branch

A Rewarding Pose

My back became sore from making the long casts with weighted flies, and I paused to rest several times. I landed 7 of 11 hookups using this method. One was a 22” rainbow that I landed after we crossed the creek above the mouth and fished from the opposite bank. Landing that fish was lots of fun, and Mike captured a nice sequence of photos of me playing the fish and bringing it to net. Two trout were 12-13” rainbows and the rest were in the 15-16” range, clearly nice fish by Colorado standards. I lost two that leaped from the water after hook set and appeared to be in excess of 20 inches from a distance.