The Kanektok Klan

It really has been the summer of the "K." All the half-dozen rivers I fished in Alaska are rich in K's: Tikchik, Nuyakuk, Nushagak, Agulukpak, Agulowak, and Kanektok. Let's not get into the tributaries, either (Nukluk, Kanuktik, Klak, Upnuk, Koneruk, Klutuk and Tunravik). If I'd gone a little past Ekwok, I might have tried for chinooks at the mouth of Koklong creek. Targets for next year include the Kisaralik and Kasigluk rivers, or perhaps the Kwethluk or even the Kukaklek branch of the Alagnak again.

On this last leg with the Kanektok Klan, the K factor really kicked in. Kommunikation between our two waterkraft was karried out on walky talkies like this:

"This is the Kanektok Kid hailing King Kanektok, do you kopy?"
"King Kanektok here, karry on Kid."
"We just lokated a large pod of Kohos at the Nukluk konfluence, river right."

Kamping with the Klan was a whole different kettle of fish than camping alone. For one, bear-safe practices were kept to a minimum. We kept all our food in two big coolers that rode in the rafts by day and sat amid the tents at night. Our boats were quickly sprinkled with power bar wrappers and other stinky stuff, such as waterlogged turkey jerky. In the end, I committed the worst of all infractions myself, when I completely forgot about a ziploc baggie of salmon roe and left it outside of King Kanektok's tent by accident. Good thing a bear didn't come around that night, or it would have been quite a showdown!



But good company is a great thing. We had some memorable feasts on seared coho fillets and smoked char, all washed down with three varieties of single malt scotch and draughts from two separate bags of good wine, each containing five full bottles each. Dead tired from a day of fishing and full of good food and drink, we tended to sit around the fire and listen with amusement as the level of discourse descended like water down a cascade. However, we did come up with some practical thoughts, such as how to most effectively beat off any bears that might come into camp . . . .

One undeniable benefit of having some fishing buddies is the ability to fish while on the move. I've been known to hook a few from the inflatable kayak, but it's pretty hard work keeping the boat pointed the right way and the line free of slack at the same time. With a skilled rower like Bluegrass Bill or Jet (using our usernames from ncffb.org for a moment), you can fish very effectively as you float on down. Both this nice rainbow and this colorful char were hooked while just floating on down the Kanektok.





Of course, having a pal take your picture with the fish -- the so-called "hero shot" -- is also pretty kool. Our group took that to an even higher level with a high-quality film camera manned by the talented GM, creator of films on the Arolik and Kisaralik rivers, as well as our local treasure the Trinity. GM did more filming than fishing and earned his indian name, "Fishes with Camera." I hope to poach a few bits of his film to post here if I can. Definitely, I will try to obtain and post some his excellent still shots, not least because one of them depicts what is probably the biggest rainbow of the trip cradled heroically in my very own hands. For now, here's a nice coho taken for me by flys4b8 (who cracked me up badly one night by talking about "socko" salmon, a cross between the sockeye and coho, apparently):



So stay tuned for those additional pictures and any other tales that come from my rekollektions in trankwility. Krikey!