Alaska Road Trip: Red Salmon Fishing on the Copper and Klutina Rivers

As many of you bloggers know, it takes time and effort to write a blog. You try to make it somewhat interesting for the reader. What to write about, what not to write about, what pictures to include. It probably takes me an average of 2 hours to write each one. When completed, I read it, make a few changes, read it again, make a few more changes then have Barb read it before finally publishing it.

Once published I read it one more time just in case we missed a spelling error or something else. I published our last blog late at night and went through each of these steps except rereading it once it was published. I did that the next morning. That is when I noticed several spelling errors! Ugh! Nothing major but frustrating nonetheless. One error in particular is still haunting me days later. It was the first line: “Lying in bed, I wake up to the sounds of birds signing outside our camper.” The first error I see is a tense issue, I probably should have used woke instead of wake, but the more glaring issue is that the birds were signing instead of singing!

Now, several days later I am still paying for that error. Every time we are outside Barb will say something like; “How cute, the birds are signing.” or “How do birds learn sign language?” After a few comments like that I started giving her my own version of sign language!   

Our trip from Glennallen to Chitina was filled with adventure. Before getting too far down the road we wanted to check out the Klutina River to see if the reds were running yet. The Klutina is a tributary of the Copper River and has some of the best salmon you will ever taste. We stopped at the bridge right outside Copper Center, the shoreline was lined with about a dozen or so fisherman, one of which was in the process of landing a fish! So back to the truck I went to get my fly rod and give it a try.

This was another species that we had yet to fish, I had talked to a number of fisherman, an employee at Bass Pro Shop and the employee at Copper Central just down the road from the bridge on the Klutina River in Copper Center. Whether you use a bait casting rod, a spinning rod or an 8 or 9wt fly rod the technique was same, you try and snag them as they go up river.

Evidently the reds don’t feed once they leave the saltwater. They hug the edges of river as they make their way to their spawning grounds. The technique used is called “flipping”. It is really a combination of skill and luck as you flip your fly out into the current, let it float down river to where you think the drop off is and give it a little yank as  you pull it out and “flip” it back up river for your next cast. With luck you will hook one as you yank your fly out of the water.

Ready to fish Barb and I settle in about 20 yards downstream from the guy who we saw catch one. He started chatting it up with us right away explaining that he had been fishing for a few hours and that was the first one he caught. He was from Anchorage and was supposed to be at a service call in Glennallen but thought a few hours of fishing was in order.

Our fishing buddy for the day

And his two Reds

Barb and I took turns flipping along with the rest of the fisherman along both sides of the bank. We saw one guy across the river catch one and our new Anchorage friend caught another one but that was it in our 3 hours of fishing. I had one on very briefly but no one else had caught any. Evidently they were not running at their peak yet so we packed it up and made our way towards Chitina.

Barb going flipp'in crazy!

Our set up for fishing the Klutina

It is interesting to finally see this town in person. Some of the Alaska towns we have seen on TV dramatize them as being super remote in the wilds of Alaska with freezing cold temperatures and imminent death around every corner. Don’t get me wrong, they are remote but most of them do have modern conveniences such as gas stations, grocery stores and almost every house has a satellite dish or two.

Saw this gal swimming in a lake

Visitor Center in Chitina

Chitina is on the Copper River as well, just 20 to 30 miles  downstream. This area too had fisherman lining the banks of the river. Except rather than fishing with rod and reel, they were using dip nets. This area is a “subsistence” fishing area where only fish wheels and dip nets are allowed. Only Alaska residents are allowed to fish this area using these methods. The dip netters use a huge net on the end of 20-30’ pole that they dip into the water in the hope that a fish would swim into it. They are allowed 25 fish for head of household and 10 fish per dependent annually. It looks like a strenuous yet successful way to fish as we saw people netting numerous fish and others with coolers full.

A couple of the local dip netters

The fish wheel is an entirely different method. These are floating platforms with big wheels with scoops on them in the water. The current drives the wheel and scoops the fish out of the water as they swim by. The scooped fish are deposited into a big trough as the wheel spins. These were on sandbars along the river where we could not get too close to them.

Fish Wheels lining the Copper River

That night we camped on O’Brien Road right outside of Chitina. There are several pullouts and  two large gravel areas for primitive camping where the fisherman had set up with plenty of room for pretty much any size rig. 

Great boondocking sites along O'Brien Road 

I would not recommend taking anything over 25’ past the last gravel area and down the steep hill to the river. Although there were a few travel trailers down there, the road is pretty steep and rough. Down here there were another couple dozen RV's and tents along with a fish cleaning trailer surrounded by a hundred seagulls and a handful of bald eagles.

The netting/camping area along O'Brien Road

There were lots of eagles in the area.

It was an interesting day in Chitina, a town steep with tradition and history. Tomorrow we are headed to McCarthy and Kennecott another area with a very rich and interesting past. More to come!