Wilderness Float Trips

not for everyone. In order to be a candidate for an exploratory expedition, you need to be physically and mentally prepared for the host of uncertainties that come with stepping into the unknown. Whether it's chipping in with an axe to cut out log jams, flattening a boulder-bar to pitch a tent, or humping gear to and from the chopper or around un-navigable water, you need to be prepared to burn a few hours or a half-day of fishing here and there if the situation requires it. But hey, you never know, chopping though that log jam may be the ticket to trout nirvana. It's happened before!

Maybe you've had a day or two in Alaska, Canada, Patagonia, or even the remote Rocky Mountains, where everything is perfect - the crowds are gone, your surroundings are mind-blowingly beautiful and the fishing is hot. Now imagine a day where on top of that, no one else has ever fished the river you are standing in.

These are not once-in-a-lifetime trips; these are once-in-history trips.

Non-Inclusions:
Not included in your angling package at Wilderness Float are airfare and travel expenses from your home to Kamchatka, Russian visitor's visa, fishing gear, flies, fishing license, medical evacuation insurance (required), and alcohol.

Travel Insurance:
The Fly Shop® is not in the insurance business, but we offer the Great Outdoors Travel Insurance Plan by Travel Guard coverage as a service with a desire to see your best interests protected. It is impossible to know when an unfortunate situation (loss of luggage, fly rods, illness in the family, or an accident) may occur. However, such things can and do happen, and this insurance can provide a means of recourse against non-refundable financial losses.  Great Outdoors Travel Insurance Plan by Travel Guard

the river and the full cycle of life is laid out in full magnificence. Rainbows are targeted with mouse and streamer flies, and dry fly fishing is often found in the evenings. Some river systems may hold runs of silver (coho) or other salmon, and most have solid runs ofdolly varden. By the middle of the month, biting insects are gone completely.

September:
Fall in Kamchatka. It can be chilly, in the 50-degree range. And with sunny weather can come frosty nights. It is also the most photogenic time of year to be amid the sub-arctic taiga and tundra foliage as it turns to blazing yellows, reds and oranges with a backdrop of snow-capped volcanoes. Trout are easily taken with surface skaters like mouse and floating baitfish patterns. Salmon are in full spawn in late August and September. Literally millions of fish bring the river completely alive. It is an overpowering sensory experience to see an ecosystem so healthy and pristine. Important to note also is that trout in Kamchatka do not get "tunnel vision" for salmon eggs as they do in Alaska, so no need for egg patterns, beads, split shot and strike indicators. Mice, streamers, dry flies and a floating line is usually all you need.

of Anchorage.

The Fly Shop® works with an expert agent specializing in Russian travel who can book your air travel, hotel in Anchorage, and secure your (required) visitor's visa for Russia.

Sample itinerary for one week Kamchatka Trip:
(8 nights away from home - 5.5 days fishing)
•  Wednesday - travel to Anchorage, overnight
•  Thursday - Depart ANC 6:00 a.m.
•  Friday - 4-hour flight. Cross int'l dateline. Arrive Kamchatka 9:00 a.m. Helicopter to river. 1/2 day fishing.
•  Saturday - Fishing
•  Sunday - Fishing
•  Monday - Fishing
•  Tueesday - Fishing
•  Wednesday - Fishing
•  Thursday - Depart camp midday. Flight departs 8:00 p.m. Arrive Anchorage 4:10 a.m. Spend time in Alaska, or continue home.

Staff does all the cooking, cleaning, etc., while you fish until dinner or crack a cold beer by the fire.

Food on our Exploratories is typically very good and plentiful, with the cook utilizing the same fresh, diverse ingredients that our permanent camp kitchens use.

Beer and Vodka are available for sale, but other or special libations need to be brought from the United States.

This is the most hard-core trout fishing trip most people will ever sign up for, but there are no objective whitewater hazards. The most uncomfortable situations encountered on these trips is rain, so it is imperative that all your luggage be made of completely waterproof material.

off their back end which the trout key to. Anglers replicate this action by plopping their flies against the opposite bank and skittering them across the river, on tension and under control. What follows has got to be the most exciting thing in freshwater flyfishing. Since a live mouse in the stomach of a rainbow trout can do some damage, they tend to take the fly with a ferocious, bone-crushing chomp with the intention of killing the mouse before they swallow it. This behavior is obviously on the surface, totally visible to the angler. The skill comes in controlling your nerves to NOT set the hook when the fish merely swirls behind it - sometime 2, 3, 4 or more times - before actually committing.

Dry Fly
Traditional floating line and size #10-18 gray bodied caddis and mayfly imitations are used with staggering success on the Sedanka, especially in July, less so in August, and again quite successfully in September. The fish tend not to be picky on the specific pattern. However, with so much food floating past their feeding lies, it is sometimes critical to deliver a reasonably accurate and truly dead drifted presentation. If the fly floats within an inch or so of the trout's nose the chances of it rising are very good.

Streamer
Salmon smolt and other juvenile fish make up a significant portion of Kamchatka trout and chars' diets. Clousers, woolly buggers, string leeches, baitfish and sculpin patterns all work very well on the Sedanka throughout the season. Small fish elicit a chase response from their predators, so often it is best to give the fly a little movement as it swings through the water column. And like with the mouse, it's best to learn to identify likely structure in the river (tree roots, riffle-pools, rocks, undercut banks, etc.) that offer rest areas for the fish adjacent to heavier currents where they can surprise-attack their food.