A Great (and Unique) Trout Fishing Experience

​The rainbow trout opener was another first for us at Angler’s Alibi in 2018.  We wanted to share what our lodge fishing guides and I have been experiencing for the past several summers with some guests on the now annual trout opener in Bristol Bay Alaska.  This trout opener is always on June 8, and has been a good break for the staff to head up river and target trout on mice patterns, dry flies, or swing flies.

We only took 4 guests for this special opening event and the results were actually better than we imagined they could be.  We started out by splitting up the guests into two groups.  One group headed up to a special place where they camped out for the midnight opener while the other pair headed up river to some very solid places in the Alagnak River Braids for that first cast of the season at midnight.

The group that was on the overnight got lines in the water at midnight and fished until about 3am, landing more trout than they could ever imagine on mice patterns.  The rainbow trout were extremely concentrated with an appetite that was literally ferocious.  By 3am, our guests were tired out and ready for bed, so they went back to the tent for a short rest.  By 10am, they were back at it all day until the pick up at 5pm.  One of the anglers in this group was quoted as saying:

“This is literally the best trout fishing I have ever seen in my 35 plus years of trout fishing all over the country,” they went on “After several trout openers in Yellowstone, this is by far the most superior opening day event ever!”

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