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Tangle Times
by Pudge Kleinkauf
 Something
new happens every year on every trip. This year, it was an Arctic grayling
with freckles and a visiting porcupine on the Tangle River trip.
Porkies are so slow-moving that I wasn't surprised to see a couple of
them squished by fast moving cars on the road into the lakes. But that
same slow progress made watching a large fellow across the river from
our camp site extra rewarding one night.
Our visiting porky was contentedly sniffing along the water's edge when
we saw him emerge from the bushes and waddle along the bank. He intimidated
a large sea gull into leaving a promising bit of something, and he turned
his ample back-side to us more than once to give us a fine view of his
quills at rest. He was great.
As for the grayling with freckles, she was quite a looker. The delicate
beauty of grayling usually reveals itself in the aqua and pearlized pink
and gold that dusts their gill plates. This girl also had the tiniest
freckled dots on the edges of both those plates. Their resemblance to
freckles on the smooth cheek of a youngster was unmistakable. It was especially
gratifying to release her to hopefully make lots of babies in her image.
Weather was warm and dry and water was low for this year's trip to the
Tangle Lakes/River area. Our worries about finding fish were unfounded,
however. Yes, the water was more concentrated in some areas, and no, the
fish weren't always were we were used to finding them. Still, we were
rewarded with some great fishing.
Most days our #12 elk-hair-caddis flies got real work-outs as fish after
fish rose to take them. At times we switched to yellow or red humpies
or parachute Adams' just to give our eyes something different to focus
on. The sunny days produced some world-class glare on the water, and at
such times, the white posts or wings on the flies became absolutely essential
to visibility.
One afternoon after a hot and dusty up-river hike, we were rewarded
with lots of fish in the fifteen to sixteen-inch range. "They're
all concentrated in one large pool where most of the water is," Diane
pointed out to Leslie. She was right. The fish had moved from some of
their customary runs down into a safe pool where the water was both deeper
and cooler. With our polaroid glasses, we could see them flash and then
slide up from below to sip our flies. At one point, we had them almost
fighting over who got to take our offering.
Lots of "doubles" characterized the afternoon. Two fish on,
two photos, and two safe releases. Over and over again. A rain storm in
mid-afternoon seemed only to make the fish more eager. They'd been just
waiting for us, it seemed.
Our only enemy this trip was the wind. At times it blew so hard that
the poor little bugs had no chance to hatch, and the fish just hunkered-down
to wait it out. We'd try and try to cast, usually having to revert to
our side-arm cast, but the dry-fly fishing mostly came to a screeching
halt.
 Nymphs
saved the day on a couple such occasions. The old reliable gold ribbed
hare's ear brought success, as did our favorite yellow soft hackle. Our
usual bead head nymphs didn't seem to be as effective and were constantly
getting hung-up in the shallow water.
Golly, it was hard to leave. Uncrowded water, lots of birds, and some
outstanding wildflower viewing were as special as all the fish. I wonder
what treats next year will bring? Join us and find out.
Tight lines,
Pudge
Used with permission of Women’s
Flyfishing
Pudge Kleinkauf is also the author of Fly
Fishing Women Explore Alaska
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