Goodnews River Alaska Float

Long overdue report, been a busy few weeks after. Had a backcountry river float on the Goodnews River in late August/early September. SW Alaska had been getting hammered with rain. We showed up and learned no flights had gone out for two days which led to seeing way more of Bethel than we hoped. Got lucky and were able to jump the queue due to location of our float with only a day of delay to our trip of seven days.

Had a break in the weather and got to start with clear skies, sun, and good spirits.



Found some stinky rotten pinks right out of the lake and they provided side action for much of the trip.



Got in to some nice rainbows late on the first day and early second and hopes were high.



Got to a slow non-fishy stretch of river and decided to pick up the pace and cover some ground to make up time. Turns out we should have spent more time up high where we found some nice bows. Saw plenty of wildlife though and missed a pic of the wolf we saw.



To be continued….

 

[mtskibum16]

After pushing 21 miles the second day trying to catch up, salmon were on the brain that night at camp. We were rigging up as dusk and discovered the northern lights were overhead.



Weather turned wetter and colder and the big rainbows and dollys we hoped for disappeared. The third day was mostly small dollys, some grayling, and a couple smaller rainbows for the group along with a couple sockeye for me. We did find some good schools of smaller dollys up to about 18” where you could catch about as many as you cared to. Fun times on a slow day.



The coho were coming…I could feel it!

 

[mtskibum16]

The rest of the trip was coho coho coho and everyone got in on the fun!

 

[mtskibum16]

After a day of nothing but coho we fished lots of nice trout water hard but had no success. River seemed high but clear, and we were pretty stumped. Luckily the coho kept on coming!

 

[mtskibum16]

Looking back now, it seems silly to be slightly disappointed in the fishing. We caught a ton of fish. But the river was streaky and we’d go many miles of hard fishing with no fish. In the end, I think conditions played a role, but there was lots of water that just wasn’t too fishy looking. I’d float it a bit differently in hindsight, but it was a fantastic trip overall. Lots of good food and drink along the way - we really weren’t roughing it. Top notch camping and adventure. I’d be happy to answer any specific questions about our outfitters (good and bad), the river, gear, etc so hit me up.

Last spot for the cover to our yet to be released music album. Open to band name ideas.

 

[Matt B]

Excellent! Those are some very nice RBs and silvers. How did your flies work out? Did you have the best box of the bunch? Any topwater silvers?

 

[Aleforme]

Wow, what an amazing trip. That's a ton of fish!

 

[mems]

Looks like you had a great trip. Glad the coho showed up for you. It was pretty spotty for them last year, on the Alagnak.

 

[Chucker]

Last spot for the cover to our yet to be released music album. Open to band name ideas.

I don’t know about the band name, but after a week long float, the song is definitely “smells like dead coho”!

 

[Billy]

What a great trip!

 

[Buzzy]

Awesome report! Some fantastic rainbow trout and monster coho!

 

[mtskibum16]

Excellent! Those are some very nice RBs and silvers. How did your flies work out? Did you have the best box of the bunch? Any topwater silvers?

Most definitely had the best fly box haha! I only used one type of coho fly but went through most of them. We found lots of fish, but usually spread out in smaller schools. Never took the time to swap flies and try to catch them in a different way. Had we been able to stay overnight somewhere with a good fishing hole I probably would have, but honestly I was surprised at how fast paced the trip was with very little down time. Part of that was due to the lost day of course, but we didn't catch enough fish that I was like "ok this is boring, lets try topwater."

Looks like you had a great trip. Glad the coho showed up for you. It was pretty spotty for them last year, on the Alagnak.

This trip would have been pretty bummer without the coho. The rest of the fishing was mediocre at best.

Awesome report! Some fantastic rainbow trout and monster coho!

Nice class of coho! I'd say average size was probably 7 lbs with plenty of 10+ lb fish. A nice change from Puget Sound fish.

 

[mtskibum16]

I wanted to tie some of my previous threads to this fur future reference if people are searching the subject.
Fly Discussion
Line Recommendations
Trip Recommendations

For fly gear, my favorite addition was hands down the Wulff Ambush line for coho. We were often fishing along brushy banks or up against trees and the ability to roll cast or single back cast and easily get big clunky flies out there was really nice. Thanks to @Creatch'r for that rec.

This fly ended up being about all we needed for coho. I think 3 out of 5 of us caught all our coho on this pattern. But It does feel like anything pink and jiggy would work. Many of the coho we encountered were nippy like late season beach fish in Puget Sound. There could be some benefit to a stinger pattern too.



As for rainbow flies....not enough consistent action to draw many conclusions. I think they were all taken on flesh flies though. I spent lots of time with a single hook 2-3" long bunny strip flesh fly with a bead in front of it. I also spent a bunch of time throwing dolly llamas with no success.

The most productive dolly flies were purple egg sucking leeches. I don't think we encountered an over 18" or so though.

All the normal camping/trip gear was helpful. Two really nice items were my buddy's Gazelle gazebo and some insulated waterproof kinko gloves I brought. The gazebo was awesome for a shelter away from rain and bugs. We used it as a camp kitchen and hangout area. After a few days of wet cold sandy hands it was nice to throw some gloves on for setting up camp or rowing. Two comfort items that I could have gone without but were nice to have.

 

[SurfnFish]

Great write up...and always good to hear about how well the gear worked out....waders, jackets, thermals, etc...so any tips on same would be great.

 

[Florida Man]

Fantastic photos and some great looking Coho. Loved the photo of the Northern lights.

 

[Creatch’r]

I wanted to tie some of my previous threads to this fur future reference if people are searching the subject.
Fly Discussion
Line Recommendations
Trip Recommendations

For fly gear, my favorite addition was hands down the Wulff Ambush line for coho. We were often fishing along brushy banks or up against trees and the ability to roll cast or single back cast and easily get big clunky flies out there was really nice. Thanks to @Creatch'r for that rec.

This fly ended up being about all we needed for coho. I think 3 out of 5 of us caught all our coho on this pattern. But It does feel like anything pink and jiggy would work. Many of the coho we encountered were nippy like late season beach fish in Puget Sound. There could be some benefit to a stinger pattern too.

View attachment 35550

As for rainbow flies....not enough consistent action to draw many conclusions. I think they were all taken on flesh flies though. I spent lots of time with a single hook 2-3" long bunny strip flesh fly with a bead in front of it. I also spent a bunch of time throwing dolly llamas with no success.

The most productive dolly flies were purple egg sucking leeches. I don't think we encountered an over 18" or so though.

All the normal camping/trip gear was helpful. Two really nice items were my buddy's Gazelle gazebo and some insulated waterproof kinko gloves I brought. The gazebo was awesome for a shelter away from rain and bugs. We used it as a camp kitchen and hangout area. After a few days of wet cold sandy hands it was nice to throw some gloves on for setting up camp or rowing. Two comfort items that I could have gone without but were nice to have.

Full credit to @Dustin Chromers on the ambush. He recommended it to me a few years back and it’s been my favorite freshwater salmon line by far ever since. It’s just flat out a great fishing tool for exactly what you describe and more.

 

[Creatch’r]

Glad you got to have a proper alaska experience! You just never know what Mother Nature is gonna give ya up there and it seems like you came in prepared for anything and pulled off a successful trip. Great job man! Thanks for sharing!

 

[MGM]

Thank you for the great report! Brought back a ton of memories, I fished the lower Goodnews for a day in Sept 1983. Bristol Bay Lodge had a spike camp on the lower river. Ron McMillan flew our party of 4 there in his Beaver for the day. On his first approach to land on the river he had a bird strike and aborted the landing. Chico Fernandez was in our party that day and I'll bet his grip marks are still on the top of that seat. I was too excited to know better but Ron came around again and landed safely. Ron took Chico and his partner in one skiff upstream and the spike camp guide took my buddy and I downstream in the other skiff. The guide told us he wanted to fish downstream because he had fished the river upstream hard the evening before. We caught a number of really nice rainbows very similar to the ones pictured in your report but we couldn't get them released fast enough as there were a fair number of larger than average fresh coho's in the river, I took my largest coho of the trip there on a bendback fly that Chico had given me. Makes me feel good to know that good fishing still exists on the Goodnews River. Sorry to hijack your thread, just wanted to share that while I can still remember it. Thanks again for your report.

 

[mtskibum16]

Great write up...and always good to hear about how well the gear worked out....waders, jackets, thermals, etc...so any tips on same would be great.

Missed this back then, sorry. We didn't have much for gear failures but I'll add my highlights and lowlights.

Gloves: having some thick latex style gloves was nice for moisture management and a bit or warmth. The waterproof Kinco gloves mentioned above were a mint comfort item for camp and rowing.
Waders: I have been using Patagonia waders the last handful of years and they have proven tough. I did send them in right before the trip for a zipper pull replacement and leak test and ended up with a new pair (they couldn't fix the zipper).
Jacket: Another highlight was my Arcteryx Atom LT that I wore under my waders pretty much the whole trip on the river and off. A lowlight and near huge pain in the ass was I decided to try to limp my old Redington wading jacket through one more trip and the zipper started failing. So make sure you have a good quality rain jacket in good shape. After your waders it's the next most important piece of gear. We more waders and rain jacket all day, took them off getting in the tent at night and back on getting out in the morning. Don't skimp here!
Clothes: I pretty much lived in heavy fleece pants, a mid weight base layer shirt, sun hoodie, and Atom LT jacket under the rain gear. I had some layers to adjust but safe to plan on cold and wet and you need to know yourself. Good idea to have a couple extra warm dry layers in the event you soak through.
Chair: Bonus luxury item is a chair. Wasn't a must but it was nice to sit in the evenings. Find something small and light but that has big feet that will hold up in the gravel and sand. I got a Nemo Moonlite Reclining Camp Chair and it fit the bill.
Fire starter! My buddy was fire chief and he got us a fire started every night despite a couple being in wet wet conditions. The one night that we almost gave up was when the top choice fire starters were gone and the backups failed. We got it but we had to work for it.

 

[Brute]

Looking back now, it seems silly to be slightly disappointed in the fishing. We caught a ton of fish. But the river was streaky and we’d go many miles of hard fishing with no fish. In the end, I think conditions played a role, but there was lots of water that just wasn’t too fishy looking. I’d float it a bit differently in hindsight, but it was a fantastic trip overall. Lots of good food and drink along the way - we really weren’t roughing it. Top notch camping and adventure. I’d be happy to answer any specific questions about our outfitters (good and bad), the river, gear, etc so hit me up.

Last spot for the cover to our yet to be released music album. Open to band name ideas.

View attachment 35289

The Floaters...