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Doc and Dave returned to Hook-M-Up 7 years after their last adventure. They had high expectations. Dave & Doc arrived in Aniak from Missouri on Sunday afternoon. They flew in on Frontier Flying Service.
The first thing they asked me was: “Are the fish biting” Are they even here?” I answered them, “We’ll have to see.”
Monday morning, the first day of their adventure, we checked out two fishing holes that produced only 3 chums (tiger salmon) of which each of us caught one.
So we decided to move to a new fishing hole up the Aniak River a few miles. The question on the boat was, “Are the fish biting?”
I know the Aniak River and conditions and I kept an eye out for fish moving on the surface. Finally I spotted movement on the surface about a half mile below where we were fishing!
I slowly moved the boat into position. With the first cast into the hole, Doc nailed a nice 20#er King! After catching and releasing the fish, Dave cast his line out and hooked a king. We were finally in the hole and everybody was happy!
This was the way it went the rest of day 1, day 2 and day 3. Many of the fish we hooked we so big, they wold take all the line off our reels before I could get the boat moved to catch up to them!
On the evening of day 3, after a great home-cooked dinner, we decided to do something different for the rest of their adventure. We decided to pack up a tent, sleeping bags and a grub box. The next day we hit the Aniak River going about 35-40 miles. It was full of fish! We had kings, tigers, dolly varden, arctic char, grayling and a few pike. Doc said that he cast no more than 4 times before he caught a fish, but he usually got one on every cast.
What a great end to a fabulous adventure fishing on the world class Aniak River.
So the answer to the question, “Are the fish biting”? was a resounding “Yes!” And as far as their high expectations for this year’s adventure, it went way beyond their imagination from the adventure they had 7 years before.
Oh by the way, the “honey hole” we fished we fished at for 3 days…we just couldn’t pass up the chance to try it again on the way down from our overnight adventure. I caught 2 kings that were over 30# plus, and Dave caught the first silver for Hook-M-Up’s season.
The Aniak River did it again!
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