Brooks River fishing in Katmai National Forest, Alaska
- The Trout Bandit
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
This is part two of a contribution authored by my friend and, often, fishing companion, Lars Hudnall of Falmouth Flats Fly Fishers. All photo credits belong to Lars, except otherwise indicated.
Fishing in the company of bears
Brooks River is only two miles long. I had mentally prepared myself for crowds of anglers and combat-fishing conditions, but was pleasantly surprised by the amount of open water. While we did occasionally run into other anglers, I never felt cramped or crowded and certainly never had to compete for space. I suspect being there early in the season and site accessibility – you can only get there via boat or float plane – contributed to the low density of anglers.
Brooks River Falls bisects the river at approximately its halfway point. Below the Falls the river is characterized by a series of small oxbow turns, small islands, a firm bottom composition, and a moderate flow rate. Above the Falls is rockier with swifter current. We primarily fished the mile section below the Falls, but I hooked – and even managed to land – my largest rainbow above the Falls.
Unlike the “plop and drop” method for targeting the sockeye runs in the larger Naknek River, fishing at Brooks followed more conventional fly-fishing techniques with nymphs under indicators and swinging or stripping streamers. I did manage to coax a few trout to the top with an elk hair caddis and PMD, but the vast majority of action came sub-surface with pheasant tails and copper johns under an indicator or stripping Dalai Lama type streamers.
The rainbow trout we encountered at Brooks were in the 18 to 20 inch range. Hooking and landing them was little different than similar sized fish in the mountain west and a 5-weight rod on 3X leader and tippet was adequate for the task. But the sockeyes making their run up the river provided a more explosive angling adventure. There’s some debate as to whether the salmon are still eating by the time they arrive at the Brooks River, but whether a feeding strike or an aggression strike, there was no doubt when one of these big, angry fish hit the nymph or streamer offering. Those targeting sockeye at Brooks favored a 6-weight rod with 0-2X leaders, but one member of the group managed to wrangle a monster to the net with his 5 weight outfit. Whether this was a case of superior angling skills or incredible luck is still being debated.
Landing a sockeye often required a different approach: Letting the fish run against the heavy drag of the reel until it stopped (or you ran out of line and backing) and then walking it down while steadily reeling in to maintain pressure and prevent any slack in the line. Trying to strip or reel the fish back to your static position was folly and almost always resulted in a lost fish. It was not unusual to walk a hundred yards or more to close the gap with the salmon until it tired sufficiently for the guide to put it in the net.
We were only scheduled to visit Books once during our week on the Naknek, but were fortunate enough to divert there for an additional afternoon mid-week (our scheduled destination was overly crowded) and then again for a full day when NRC gave us the option to return a third time. This is a key element in the “fishing with bears” experience. During our first day, we saw the occasional bear wandering along the beach or streamside, but always at a distance of 100 yards or more. The bears were more prevalent on the second visit, still mostly sighted at a distance, but with one encounter that required members to move to maintain the 50 yards distance requirement.
By our third visit to Brooks, on our last fishing day at NRC, the bears were a constant presence along the riverside trails, crossing the river, or popping out of vegetation next to our fishing spots. At one point, one of our group expressed his frustration at not being able to fish more than 20 minutes at a time before being forced to move by a transiting bruin. I noted that we would probably catch a thousand fish in our lifetimes, but were unlikely to ever experience anything like this again.
It’s important to note that this was not the first time I’ve encountered bears in the wild or even fished with them in close proximity. The Shenandoah, Yellowstone, Grand Teton (the famous 399 and her quads), Glacier - I consider it a privilege every time I’m fortunate enough to see them in their natural environment. On our first trip to Alaska together, my wife and I were treated to the sight and sound of a young grizzly charging up a trail toward us (it paid absolutely no attention to us as it ran by at a dizzying speed). On our Alaska trip prior to Naknek, we spent more than an hour fishing with a sow and two cubs clearly visible in the run above us. But Brooks was different. Previous events were a single encounter over a week-long trip. Here it was dozens of encounters in a single afternoon.
Our trip to the Katmai peninsula was more than just fishing with the bears on the Brooks River. We caught rainbows at every spot we fished, king salmon – and even a chum salmon - at Big Creek, grayling at Idavain Creek, coolers full of sockeye along the Naknek River, dolly varden at Margot Creek, northern pike in the sloughs near NRC, and large grayling and the rare leopard trout (a rainbow sub-species) during a fly-out side trip to the Alagnak River. But as I noted during the last day, we may catch a thousand fish in a lifetime, but will never experience anything like fishing with the bears at Brooks River.
Author’s Note: This article focuses on the fishing experience at Brooks River in Katmai National Park, but this was only one of seven distinct locations fished by our group during our weeklong excursion in Alaska. A detailed presentation covering all aspects of the trip – transportation, lodging, meals, fishing locations, gear, flies, fish landed, packing lists - can be found at this link: FFFF Alaska 2025 Trip Report.