TWO DAYS before leaving on a nine-day float trip down Alaska’s Lake Creek, I got a text from my fish-crazed, Alaskan brother-in-law, Nino, telling me what I should bring on one of the fishiest rivers in the Last Frontier. He was lending me his 8-weight setup, along with a box of streamers and, of course, beads (orangish for behind silvers, whitish/peach-colored for behind chums).
All I had to buy was some leaders, tippet, egg hooks, Peg-its (for pegging bead an inch above the hook), and some split shot. I don’t often flyfish with egg patterns back home in Colorado, in part because I don’t often flyfish. I’m primarily a whitewater boater. Knowing this, Nino was setting me up for early success.
At the Lake Hood Airport, I meet up with…