GPS Coordinates:  57°14’31.13″N 154°24’15.10″W

Trip Questionnaire: Please click on the link below. This will take you an electronic questionnaire form that we ask you to complete and submit to The Fly Shop. Please be sure to click the “Submit” button at the end of the form. The information provided will help us — and the outfitter best coordinate your trip.

THANK YOU! Click HERE

Ayakulik River Camp Specialized Supplement Gear List

Anglers headed to Stig Yngve’s Ayakulik River Camp to fly fish for king and sockeye salmon, silver salmon, steelhead or Dolly Varden will find the gear and techniques similar to that used for these species elsewhere in Alaska. As always, there is no substitute for quality equipment, the value of which is immediately apparent upon hooking into your first wild Alaskan gamefish!

Remember that the Ayakulik Camp only has a limited number of spare rods and reels. They are intended only as emergency back-ups should anglers, for whatever reason, find themselves in a pinch. As a general rule, you’ll need to bring all your own fishing and personal equipment with you to the camp.

King Salmon

King salmon are the largest fresh/cold water animals to target with a fly.  Ayakulik kings average 15 – 25 pounds, with trophy specimens in the 40-pound class.

Single-Handed Fly Rods:
For those anglers that like to use a single-handed rod, the Ayakulik River is best fished with a 9’ or 9’ 6” graphite rod designed to cast a 9, or 10-weight fly line. Each angler should have two rods available for the trip. Each rod should be rigged with a different fly and fly line combination. This saves time changing reels, spools and lines – maximizing your time on the water and swinging flies through and over salmon.

Single-Handed Fly Reels:
A high quality, single-action (direct drive) fly reel with rim-control feature is what to look for in a fly reel appropriate to handle mint-bright Chinooks. The reel should be equipped with a smooth, reliable, preferably disk-drag system.  Reels should be filled with a minimum of 150 yards of 20 or 30 lb. high-visibility backing.  Hatch, Ross, Hardy, and Galvan reels are an excellent choice.

Fly Lines for Single-Handed Rods:
The proper collection of fly lines is critical to your success and will get your fly in the proper location in water column. You need two lines or line systems to effectively fish the Ayakulik River, a floater and a sink tip. Scientific Anglers and Rio both make excellent lines for the various situations you will encounter.

Two-Handed Fly Rods:
Two-handed rods are very popular and excellent tools for covering the water. In the last three years we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of anglers using two-handed rods. Two-handed rods are arguably the most efficient tool to fish anadromous species; they make it easy for a lot of anglers, especially those with shoulder or elbow problems.

When considering a two-handed rod, don’t automatically go for the longest and strongest rod on the market. Get together with a casting and rod expert, and test several different weights, lengths and manufacturers until you find the rod that best fits your casting style, as well as the type of water and lines and flies you will be fishing.

Two-handed Spey rods are also effective when fishing for kings. Their advantage is that you can cover a lot of water very efficiently, while maintaining amazing line control, given the 13 to 15 foot rod length.  Scott, Echo, and Sage each produce excellent two-handed rods.

Two-Handed Fly Reels:
Fly reels should be of high quality and capable of holding at least 200 yards of 30-pound micron backing. Saltwater models are the best choice, as they are built to stand up to screaming runs with smooth, reliable drag systems. Outside palming rims are nice when a fish is in close. Quality reels include Abel, Hardy, Galvan, Hatch and Ross.

Fly Lines for Two-Handed Fly Rods:
The majority of the time you will find kings in fast, deep water.  This type of water calls for fast sinking lines that get down in a HURRY! A good assortment of 25- 30 foot shooting heads is useful and should include sink rates I – VIII, or tungsten T-14 – T-20. For running/shooting lines either mono or factory running lines work the best behind shooting heads and should be no lighter than 25 pounds in strength. Scientific Anglers, Rio, and Airflo are great choices in quality lines.

Skagit style lines are basically shortened, condensed shooting heads developed in the Pacific North West by a hard core group of anglers that were looking for a way to cast sinking tip and large weighted flies long distances, with a very short compact casting stroke, and small D-Loop. These lines have become very popular with steelheaders due to the fact that they are easy for both the expert and novice to cast, not to mention extremely useful in situations where room for a back cast is limited. These lines also work very well for people who prefer to fish shorter 12’-13’6 foot rods.

If you are uncertain which line you should select to properly match your rod, do not hesitate to contact us. We are experts in this field and we are happy to assist you in preparing the correct rod/line combinations.

Leaders & Tippet:
Keep it simple. You will need four 9’ – 16 to 20 lb. knotless tapered leaders, preferably Fluorocarbon. In addition to the tapered leaders you will want to bring fresh spools of 12 lb., 16 lb, and 20 lb. fluorocarbon tippet, or good old fashioned Maxima Ultra Green tippet. Many guides forego tapered leaders altogether in favor of straight lengths of 15# and 20# Maxima.

King Salmon Flies:
Flies used are standard attractor patterns tied on stout hooks, sizes 4 to 2/0.Your flies should vary from heavily weighted to non-weighted. Colors should range from black, to orange, pink, purple, flame, red, chartreuse, or any combination thereof. A large weighted black streamer can be deadly. Comets with bead-chain eyes are highly effective. Large egg-patterns like large Glo-Bugs, King Caviar, and Egg/Sperm flies and the Egg-sucking Leech (black/purple) tied on a long shank stout hook work well.

Silver Salmon, Sockeye Salmon & Steelhead

Fly Rods:
Single-handed rods are perfect for silvers, and sockeyes, as casting distance is not critical, but actively stripping the flies back in is. The steelhead fishing is largely swing fishing or dead–drift presenting, but the single hand rods are also perfect for this. We recommend a 7 or 8-weight graphite rod, 9’ or 9’ 6” in length. Generally speaking, a floating line is all you’ll need, though a Type III 15’ sinking tip can be a very effective and recommended streamer line, particularly for steelhead.

Fly Reels:
A high quality, single-action (direct drive) fly reel with rim-control feature is what to look for in a fly reel appropriate to handle ocean-bright coho and sockeyes. The reel should be equipped with a smooth, reliable, preferably disk-drag system.  Reels should be filled with a minimum of 150 yards of fresh 20 lb. high-visibility backing.  Hatch, Ross, Abel, and Galvan reels are an excellent choice.

Fly Lines:
The proper collection of fly lines is critical to your success and will get your fly in the proper water column. You need two lines to effectively fish the Ayakulik River with a single-handed rod.

  1. Floating Line: Preferably a weight-forward fly line, and Scientific Anglers makes some of the best. When conditions are right a floater can really come into play; either fishing a weighted wet fly for steelhead, or skating a Pink Pollywog across the surface for silver salmon.
  2. 10’ – 15’ Sink-Tip: This can be an important line for covering varying water levels on the river. A Type III is a perfect sink rate.  We highly recommend the Scientific Anglers Sink tip.

Leaders & Tippet:
7.5 foot leaders tapering to 12-15 pounds are perfect for these species. Or it is also quite effective to use straight sections of 10#, 12# or 15# Maxima Ultra Green.

Two-Handed Fly Rods:
Two-handed rods are very popular and excellent tools for covering the water. In the last several years we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of anglers using two-handed rods. Two-handed rods are arguably the most efficient tool to fish anadromous species; they make it easy for a lot of anglers, especially those with shoulder or elbow problems.

Spey rods are definitely not necessary on the Ayakulik due to it’s moderate size, yet many choose to use them both because they make the casting effortless – particularly if a high bank or tall grass makes a traditional back cast problematic – and because many people simply enjoy the casting mechanics of the double-handed rods. There is no right or wrong choice in this respect on the Ayakulik – you should feel comfortable bringing the tools you most enjoy fishing. If you would like to join the two handed revolution, now would be an opportunity to start! Spey casters can simply cover more water more effortlessly and the The Fly Shop® team of experts have all the tools to work with novice and veterans alike! Give us a call if you have any questions.

The most popular choice of Spey rods for steelhead are in the #7 and #8 weight category between 12.5 and 14 feet long. Your choice of rod for the trip is a matter of personal preference, though we have found that the lighter, relatively shorter rods are about perfect for every situation on the Ayakulik. If you are having trouble deciding which rods are the most suitable for you, we would be more than happy to give you some expert advice, based on our experience there!

Reels:
This is probably the most important part of your tackle system! A reel of mediocre quality will not withstand the brute force of a fresh sea run trophy. Any high quality single action reel with 150 + yards of backing capacity with a good drag system will work fine. You hard-core guys know your classic Hardy’s and other noise makers will sing regardless of the drag system.

Fly Lines for Two-Handed Fly Rods:
Skagit style lines are basically shortened, condensed shooting heads developed in the Pacific North West by a hard core group of anglers that were looking for a way to cast sinking tip and large weighted flies long distances, with a very short compact casting stroke, and small D-Loop. These lines have become very popular with steelheaders due to the fact that they are easy for both the expert and novice to cast, not to mention extremely useful in situations where room for a back cast is limited. These lines also work very well for people who prefer to fish shorter 12’-13’6 foot rods. On the Ayakulik the Skagit system works well for steelhead and it is not necessary to have super fast sinking tips to swing for steelhead – often an intermediate tip is all that is needed here.

If you are uncertain which line you should select to properly match your rod, do not hesitate to contact us. We are experts in this field and we are happy to assist you in preparing the correct rod/line combinations.

Steelhead Flies:

Silver Salmon & Sockeye Salmon Flies:
The Ayakulik River coho and sockeye fishery is a typical Alaska summer/fall-run scenario – big, chrome-bright fish in the 8-15 pound range flooding into late-season rivers with cold water temperatures. The fish are aggressive to the fly and screaming hot when hooked, and cohos are often as aggressive to a surface popper as to a weighted streamer fished mid-depth. Floating lines – particularly those with extended, bulky front tapers – are usually all the angler will need here, though sink-tips can be quite effective for those who like to strip streamers. Traditionally-tied flies should be on hook sizes from 4 – 1/0. Egg-Sucking leeches should be full and long, up to 4 inches in length. Flies should be tied full with lots of flash in varying colors and color combinations.  Don’t be afraid to tie and throw larger flies for these fish, they love ‘em.

Contact Numbers:
If you have any delays during your travel to your destination, i.e., missed airlines connections, cancelled flights, weather delays, etc. please call the lodge direct and let them know your situation. Stig Yngve’s Phone: (907) 942-7820 (there is not actually a phone at the Camp – this is a number to reach Stig, either at his Kodiak home address and/or in the field, as he can access voicemails from the field through his satellite phone).

Alternatively, you can email Stig Yngve at his camp with his summer email address: kodiakrambler@gmail.com  Stig’s sister will be monitoring his emails during the season and relaying them to him via InReach.

You can also leave this number with your family and business in case of an emergency. You are always welcome to call The Fly Shop at Toll-Free (800) 669-3474 or (530) 222-3555, travel@theflyshop.com. We are open seven days a week 7:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m., California time.

Please Note: Sheets and bedding are provided. You do NOT need a sleeping bag.

Communication at the Camp: 
Pinnell Creek Camp does not have WI-FI available for their guests – if you must have communication at camp, you should bring your own satellite phone or other satellite communication device.

Alaska State Sport Fishing License:
The easiest way to handle your fishing license is to pre-purchase it online through the Alaska Department of Fish & Game at: http://www.admin.adfg.state.ak.us/license/

Statewide: Anglers are reminded that effective January 1, 2012, footgear with absorbent felt or other fibrous material on the soles are prohibited while sport fishing in the fresh waters of Alaska.

You are also free to contact us with specific equipment and trip preparation questions at (800) 669-3474 or travel@theflyshop.com.  We are extremely familiar with the techniques and equipment needed to best take advantage of the fishing opportunities on the Ayakulik.