Hosted Trip Recap: Alaska’s Naknek River Camp - Part 2

Hello and welcome back to the recap of our hosted trip in Alaska two weeks ago! If you haven’t read the first part of the recap, follow the link here to read it: Naknek River Camp Recap Part 1

 This was an amazing experience with our customers and we cannot wait to get back next year. We only have ONE SPOT LEFT. If you’re looking for a trip of a lifetime, now is the time to get on board! We will likely be adding additional dates due the high demand of this trip, stay tuned for these.

Our 2026 trip will be August 29 - September 5 and will be focused on the large migratory rainbow trout of the Naknek. These fish grow upwards of 36” and will be everywhere in the river feeding on sockeye salmon eggs. This is an excellent opportunity for a true trophy! If anyone is interested in joining, please email Xavier ( xavier@goldenflyshop.com) or follow this link (Naknek River Camp) to get more information on the trip and get booked.

The second half of the week was just as amazing as the first half. Our group split up to fish two different creeks that were easy to access with a short boat ride. Two of our guests went to the same creek loaded with big rainbow trout that I went to on Monday. The guide knew how far we went and opted to hike in further to not harass the same fish we were catching a few days prior. Much like our previous experience, these guys had an amazing time sightfishing trophy rainbow trout in small water. 

The rest of our group went to the opposite side of the lake in hopes of catching dolly varden and rainbow trout in a slightly larger stream. This stream is still very small and is about the same size as Clear Creek during its low flows. The size of this creek, in combination with great clarity, led to fantastic sight fishing for both species. At this creek, each of our guests connected to great fish. One of our guests hooked into a true gem, a 30” rainbow sitting in just feet of water! And yes, the guide and he spotted this fish before making a cast at it. Talk about an adrenaline rush! Unfortunately, the rainbow won the fight; after bullying him for about five minutes the fish ran straight into a log jam and off he went. There’s not much you can do with a fish of that caliber when you only have a 5wt. Aside from that fish, everyone lucked into some dolly varden. One of our guests even caught a coho salmon down at the mouth of the creek. Yes, he also caught it on a 5wt! 

One of our guests was looking to do some hiking to find some more untouched water (sounds familiar?). So I joined him and was ready for another adventure. Sure enough, this panned out in our favor. The very first run we fished I hooked was a very good rainbow trout that ran me 100 yards downstream. After a decent amount of running, we were lucky enough to land this fish. While walking back up to that run, our guest hooked into a giant dolly varden that we saw jump from downstream. He was fortunate enough to battle it for 30 seconds or so as it continued to jump and roll near the surface. This fish eventually won the battle and popped off, but talk about an amazing way to start our day!

After a few fish landed, we continued to work our way upstream in hopes of a big dolly varden. After landing a trophy dolly varden that I was fortunate enough to sight fish in skinny water, it was our guest’s turn for a big one. The guide set him up in a good seam where fish were likely to be holding. Meanwhile, I walked the side channel that barely had any water, yet had quite a few salmon spawning. Sure enough I spotted a fantastic fish! I told our guest to reel up and get over here! He made a few casts, but due to the skinny water the fish didn’t like seeing the indicator and had already seen his bead a few times. My rod was rigged with a different colored bead, so I took my indicator off and handed him my rod. After a few tightline drifts through the run, we saw the fish move a couple feet to its left to eat his bead. Hooked up! After a fun fight in skinny water and keeping the fish out of log jams, he was able to land a great dolly varden.

This was just the start of our amazing day. We were able to hook and land many more trophy sized dolly varden. Additionally, our guest also hooked an incredibly large rainbow trout that was larger than any of the dolly varden we landed. But these small water ‘bows certainly know what they’re doing and they seemed to have our number that day. Regardless, it was an amazing day filled with many fish and plenty of doubles! For those considering joining this trip, this particular creek is not an easy wade. These were honestly the most slick rocks I’ve ever experienced and without good footing it was easy to get swept up in the current. Hiking high up in this creek is not for everyone, so if you’re planning on joining, set realistic expectations with this location!

On our fifth day of fishing everybody but one guest set out to the main river to target coho salmon and rainbow trout. Many of our guests were looking to fill their cooler with salmon meat and this day the tides and weather finally lined up to make it happen! Lots of salmon were caught amongst our guests, while our boat had lackluster success. Instead, we opted to fish for rainbow trout once we realized the salmon spots we were hitting just weren’t producing. We bobber dogged and chucked-and-ducked and caught a ton of fish. Nothing giant, but we caught a few fish 20-24”. The reason I say these fish aren’t giant is because the Naknek produces fish over 30”! That said, we had a ton of fun and weren’t complaining one bit. It was an awesome day with three of us in the boat laughing, shooting the crap, and just great vibes. It certainly helps when you have an amazing guide who loves joking around as much as you do!

One of the guests wasn’t particularly interested in bringing salmon home. Instead of hitting the main river, he wanted to go chase pike. I gave him a few flies for pike that were easy to cast on his 8wt and off he went! He caught numerous pike and eventually had his fill. Instead of sticking out pike for the rest of the day, he and his guide opted to jet down to where the bigger rainbows were beginning to show up on the main river. After learning how to throw the chuck-and-duck rig, he was able to catch a few two foot rainbows that ripped him up and down the river. It was clear to see that the migratory fish were showing up, but the giants were yet to arrive.

Finally, it was our last day of fishing. A bitter-sweet feeling; reminiscing on an amazing week that you don’t want to end, while still feeling all the anticipation for our day to come. Everyone was eager to see what the day had in store for us. The group split up once again with everyone having different goals in mind for the day. Two of our guests set off to the same creek on the lake with the dolly varden and rainbow trout. Much like our goal, they wanted to hike way up and fish uncharted territory. Not only did these two hike up, but they hiked further than anyone at the lodge has fished before! These two started fishing where we finished our day on the creek two days prior. Needless to say, they had an incredible day catching trophy dolly varden and rainbow trout. Even though Alaska has amazing fishing everywhere, if you’re willing to hike further than most don’t want to go, you’ll experience the best fishing available just like here at home!

potentially fish for rainbows. They started the morning hot, hooking a dozen coho salmon and landing 7 of them! They had plenty of fish ready to be brought home, so they wanted to change things up. It was apparent that the biggest of the migratory fish hadn’t shown up yet, but just in case they had, they went hunting. Our guests did not come up disappointed in their final day push! Both of them landed ten or so fish between 20-24” which was more than enough for them! Thoroughly satisfied with their day, they could’ve caught nothing else and would’ve left Alaska happy gentlemen. Well, the Naknek had something in store for them. When making a drift near the end of the day, our guest hooked into something much larger than the rest. It was known immediately that they’d be in for a long battle. After a few hard-pounding minutes, our guest was lucky enough to find one of the first giants to migrate into the river! Laying in the net was a beautiful 28” male rainbow trout. These fish were bound to show up at any minute, and they finally arrived on the last day!!

To not repeat the timing of this year’s trip, we will be going two weeks later next year. The reasoning behind this is the sockeye spawn will be at least one to two weeks underway, thus drawing the large migratory fish from the lake and into the river. This year the large fish showed up on the last day, whereas next year they’ll already be there waiting for us! The sockeye in the main river don’t spawning until much later than their cousins higher up in the system. Salmon spawning timing is much like an insect hatch but reversed; the salmon will start spawning higher up in the system and work its way downstream. That’s why we saw salmon spawning in pretty much every creek, but they hadn’t started until the second to last day of the trip. To repeat what I’ve already mentioned, we’re coming later to time the spawning more effectively and get into the large migratory rainbows!

To wrap up the final day, two of our guests and myself departed for one last fly-out in hopes of large, leopard rainbow trout. We flew to a particular river very similar to the Dream Stream or Miracle Mile; this short river sits between two lakes and receives large runs of sockeye salmon and rainbow trout. Much like the other smaller water options we had previously fished, the salmon were in here thick and the trout were gorging on their eggs! All three of us had a spectacular day catching beautiful leopard ‘bows of all sizes. The bonus of this river was the beautiful backdrop! Wrapping around the lakes and river was a beautiful mountain range that had fog rolling in and out of it all day. The water was gin clear and you could see every fish in the river, including giant whitefish that would sit at your boots to eat whatever bugs or eggs you kicked up. It was truly a fantastic experience, the only downside was one guest and myself were coming down hard with a nasty cold that ended up ruining the rest of the evening for us. With how amazing of a week it was, it felt like an even trade at the end of the day.

I hope you enjoyed reading along in our second part of our hosted trip recap to Naknek River Camp in Bristol Bay, Alaska. If you’re interested in joining our 2026 hosted trip, reach out to me via email ( xavier@goldenflyshop.com) or follow this link here: Naknek River Camp. Take care and we’ll see you in the shop soon!