DEPARTMENTS

Editor’s Creel 10
Fishing for a Compliment 16
Book Review 18
How to Choose 22
Loaded for Bear
Advertiser Index 74
Fish Alaska Services Guide 76
Fish Recipe 77
A-Ward’s Alaskan Halibut Supreme
Final Drift 82

Fish Alaska
Special Section

Fish Nome Alaska 62
Fly fishing expert Pudge Kleinkauf shares her love of the remote,
but reachable, Seward Peninsula.
It’s not just where the Iditarod ends,
it’s where the real fishing begins.

Make Your Own Steelhead Jigs 20
Dave Kilhefner shows you how simple it is to expand your steelhead arsenal.

Do Fish Think? 29
While we bumble about on the surface, those silvery-sided creatures are showing a very different nature to researchers. But, of course, every steelheader and trout fisherman already knows how smart they are. by Daniel Bagur

Banking on Steelhead 34
Fishing from the bank for Alaska’s finicky steelies is (relatively) easy if you follow these 12 steps. by Scott Haugen

Steelhead Dreams 40
Why fishing and catching are really all the same to someone who is on a personal odyssey for the “fish that matters most.” by E. Donnall Thomas, Jr.

Hot Days & Cold Nights on the Karluk 48
Publisher Marcus Weiner leads a trek to Kodiak to fish the famous Karluk for metalheads of prodigious size and quality.

Mousing for Trout 54
Wham! and Wham! again. There is nothing like the strike of a hungry trout on a skating mouse fly. And you just might catch a few other finny things as well. by Tyson Radley O’Connell

COVER/Greg Thomas with a nice steelie from the Anchor River. © Troy Letherman