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Searun-

This grayling trip was on the Denali Highway in Alaska.

Tightloops-

The four weight will be great for grayling if you are fishing a smaller stream. If you are fishing bigger water or in windy conditions a five weight might be nice. Most parts of Alaska are often windy. I used the four weight on a small stream, but when I fished a little bigger water where a lake dumped into a stream where it was windy I used the Granger with a DT5 line. Even if you use the four weight in bigger water and in the wind you can probably catch fish close to you. The first night I fished the biggest fish I caught was hooked within a few feet of where I was fishing. I took some three weight rods with me, and I did fish a couple of them, but I felt the four and five weights were a better match for the fish. The grayling seemed to be longer than normal and seemed very heavy for so early in the season. Ice out was only a couple of weeks before I fished, so they must have a good supply of food in the lake under the ice.

I have an old 7'6" 3 7/8 ounce Orvis rod that is marked for a DT6 line. It is a very powerful rod that is very good for rainbows. If you were coming a little later most of the fishing would be beads and flesh. You might want a longer rod then for easier line control. Maybe it's too late, but you might still get some good dry fly and streamer fishing in now for rainbows with your Battenkill. You could always use the graphite rods for rainbows if the Battenkill doesn't work well. I've used an eight weight graphite rod for big rainbows and dollie varden and it really wasn't overkill. I usually use seven weights, and sometimes six weights.

I hope that the king run on the Kanektok is better than the runs in South Central Alaska. Most of our king seasons were closed early through emergency orders because the fish just haven't shown up. Yet the sockeye runs on the Russian River and in Bristol Bay have been strong. On the Russian River they opened the sanctuary very early and raised the limit to 6 fish too. In Bristol Bay the commercial fishers have harvested more sockeye than the canneries can handle.

It has been very hot and dry in most of Alaska lately. The stream levels may be low. There are more than 70 active forest fires. What would be beautiful blue skies are ruined by smoke. Even though Anchorage doesn't have any fires, the smoke seems to have blown in and settled. Hopefully it will be windy enough on the west coast that you won't have to fight the smoke. My eyes were really irritated from it last week.

I've never fished South Western Alaska. The Kanektok is supposed to be a fantastic fishery. I haven't heard much about the Arolik. You'll probably have good guides who are not from Alaska. They probably won't understand your desire to fish with bamboo rods so you'll just have to show them!!!!! Looks like your primary fish will be kings, rainbow, and dollies with possibly sockeye and grayling available. I would think that it would be too early for coho.

I rode my bike down to Ship Creek last weekend to see how many king salmon were in the stream. I met a very nice couple from South Africa down there. We talked for a long time about the fish and the fishing. I hope that they were able to get down to the Russian River and catch a salmon.

I hope that you have a great trip and that you find many fish!