What to Bring

We try our best to accommodate the best we can but we also know that catching a fish on your own rod with your own fly is a truly special experience. Throughout the Summer the selection of flies and lines do change but here is a list of essentials that are always going to be good to bring along.

Breathable Waders with non-felt sole wading boots. We do fish from boats quite a bit but waders are going to be required to fish most days in order to be the most effective.

A good Wading Jacket or Rain Jacket. It rains most days in Bristol Bay and a good jacket will make those rainy days just as pleasant as the sunny days.

Bring layers most days we start off with a fleece jacket or a puff coat and if it is June, July, or August we might take a couple of layers off, but it is always better to be able to take a layer off than to need an extra layer and not have it.

5 or 6 weights for small streams and fly-outs. We typically with rig them with an indicator to nymph with or just a standard 9 ft leader and a small streamer or mouse.

The Flies we use vary as the seasons change but we like to use traditional nymphs as well as dry flies for most of the summer until the eggs start flowing and then we replace the dry flies with Beads. The beads we use are in 6, 8, and 10mm sizes and we usually will stay in the more natural colors. With lighter rods we do like throw streamers and mice. Medium-size streamers with stinger hooks and cone or bead heads are very useful because they will sink with a floating line.

7 or 8 weights for the Naknek river or Larger rivers. We will fish these on the main river with Floating line or a 250 or 300-grain sink tip and streamers or floating line and indicator.

Flies for the main river include a lot of streamers with love jointed and stinger hook streamers because these rainbows love to tail nip, but the naknek river in a 1 hook river to remember to trim your front hook. Flies like Sex dungeons, string leeches, and dolly lamas are all must-haves.

9 weights for salmon. If you are fishing for Kings we rig these up with 350 grain or heavy sink tips and big bright flies. If we are targeting Silvers or Chums then we run a floating line and bright flies as well. For Sockeye we nymph them with bottom bouncing rigs with either shooting line or floating line.

Intruder-style flies are the go-to for us when targeting all of the salmon except sockeye. Pink, orange, chartreuse with weighted eyes and a stinger hook we also love using the bright dolly lamas with the heaviest cone heads. When targeting Sockeye we use large nymphs with strong hooks these fish will bend hooks no problem. Pheasant tails, wooly buggers, egg flies, all of the classic Salmon and Steelhead nymphs all work great.

Spey rods. We love the 2 hand game at KTL we like to run 7 or 8-weight Spey rods for trout with a Skagit head and a sink tip and sculpin or leech style flies almost all summer and fall. We also will run 8 or 9-weight Spey rods for Kings with Skagit heads and bright intruder flies.

Bring a Backpack to bring along with every day to keep your fly boxes and extra layers in or even to shed that rain jacket when the sun peaks out.