Story: Patience in Alaska

August 30, 2023 By: Spencer Durrant

rainbow trout

Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie/Flickr

Alaska isn’t the first place we think of when we talk about patience. It seems like – from Instagram and YouTube, at least – the fishing is always fast and furious in the Last Frontier.

That’s not always the case, however, as you’ll find out in this excellent story from Phil Monahan over at the Orvis blog. He recounts a day he spent guiding on the Copper River near Lake Iliamna, in some of Alaska’s wildest country. Phil was with a father-son team who came upon a big Alaskan rainbow, patiently sipping small bugs.

What follows is a classic story that feels more at home on a spring creek in the Rockies than in Alaska. But it proves the value of patience in all types of fly fishing.

Make sure you read the story, which you can do here.