Anchorage Daily News

DENALI HIGHWAY -- On the 78th day of their Alaska vacation, Jerald and Diana Basol parked their well-traveled motor home along this dusty highway to stretch their aging legs and eat supper beside the fast-flowing, fly-fishing waters of Clearwater Creek.

Jerald, 69, walked down to the rocky bank and wondered if his most coveted fish, arctic grayling, lurked somewhere in the confluence of Little Clearwater and Clearwater creeks.

Grayling are the most commonly fished species along the 135-mile Denali Highway, a rugged and scenic road that connects Paxson and Cantwell three months of the year. Between the sleepy Alaska hubs lie just a few lodges and private cabins.

The rest is left for glaciated terrain, spruce forests and plenty of crystal-clear lakes and streams that offer some of the best fly- fishing opportunities in the Interior.

"I think we've found the most beautiful place in the world," Jerald said. "I've been dreaming of this for 20 years."

Though instincts told Jerald to throw on waders, rig his five-weight fly rod with a beaded Pheasant-tail Nymph and fish for grayling in an eddy on Clearwater Creek, common sense told him to just lay low.

The other day, Jerald and his wife hiked four miles along some rugged terrain in search of Arctic grayling. The trip was a success as the happily married couple of 23 years ate one of the 15-inch grayling Jerald caught on a mosquito.

But it was the hiking, not the fishing, that was the mightiest feat for Jerald, a retired auto mechanic and college teacher from Williston, N.D., who had hip replacement and shoulder surgery in the past year.

"I wouldn't have been able to do this a year ago," he said as the afternoon sun beamed off the Clearwater Mountains.

But thanks to modern technology and a boyhood dream, Jerald and Diana have toured Alaska since May 14, enjoying more of the Last Frontier in four months than some born-and-raised Alaskans witness in a lifetime.

The once-in-a-lifetime trip started decades ago when Jerald was a child. He would patiently wait for his uncle to buy Alaska Sportsman magazine.

"I'd get them when he was done reading it and read it cover to cover," he said. "I've read so many Alaska stories."

Now his wife is writing one of their own. Diana keeps a diary of their trip, which started May 14 in their North Dakota driveway with a goal to live on the road and visit major destinations around Alaska, mostly to fish for salmon, arctic grayling and trout.

They first drove to Bellingham, Wash., where they loaded their used 1996 Fleetwood RV into one of the Alaska Marine Highway System's ferries.

From Bellingham, the Basols jumped from one Southeast town to the next: six days in Ketchikan, three in Petersburg, 11 in Juneau, three in Sitka, back to Juneau, four in Skagway and four in Haines.

Once they hit the road system, the goal was to walk the streets of Alaska towns they could easily access by vehicle: Soldotna, Homer, Seward, Anchorage, Fairbanks.

They wanted to drive to McCarthy, but they realized the McCarthy Road dead ends at the Kennicott River.

"We've having a good time being tourons," Jerald said. "You know what a touron is?

"A tourist and moron mixed together."

Jerald certainly isn't a dope when it comes to catching fish with a fly rod. He belongs to a fly-fishing club in Minot, N.D., a town just north of Bismarck in the central part of the state.

He grew up fishing for rainbow, cutthroat, brown and lake trout and splake in Montana and North Dakota streams.

Compared to those places, Alaska takes fishing to another level, Jerald said.

Salmon are the preferred species for most anglers visiting Alaska. But ever since Jerald can remember, he's wanted to catch an arctic grayling on a fly rod in Alaska.

"This has been my dream," he said, "to feel a grayling fight on my five-weight fly rod."

And that is one reason he and Diane decided to drive the Denali Highway. It's a stretch of road not suitable for all vehicles -- especially rental cars.

The dirt road is laced with jarring potholes and stretches of annoying washboard between Paxson and Cantwell. Visitors need to plan as the highway has only three places with gas and food -- Maclaren River Lodge, Gracious House and Tangle Lakes Lodge -- for 135 miles.

But there are plenty of upsides to driving the road this time of year. Fall begins early here, meaning blueberry picking is now taking off and the vibrant autumn colors of birch and aspen trees and the tundra should peak soon.

And the fun part -- if you enjoy winter -- is it can snow any time of year. Jerald and Diana just missed the wet snow that fell on July 28 and accumulated high in the jagged mountains of the Alaska Range near Tangle Lakes, a perfect place to camp and fish for trout, grayling and burbot.

"Don't even talk to me about the weather we've had this summer," grumbled Alan Echols, owner of the Maclaren River Lodge. "We've had maybe three days of sun."

But lack of sun doesn't keep fish from attacking flies. Late-July rain showers helped produce new hatches, making fly fishing a joy for the Basols.

Jerald and Diana took three days to camp and fish for grayling along Brushkana River, a tributary of the Nenana River that begins high in the Talkeetna Mountains.

One day, they caught and released at least 15 grayling, keeping one for dinner. Jerald started with a beaded Pheasant-tail Nymph and switched to a mosquito, an artificial fly the grayling couldn't resist.

Asked when they plan to return to North Dakota, now that they've been on the road for 78 days, Jerald gave a retirement-like response.

"Whenever," he laughed.

DIP NETTING SLOWS

Copper River dip-netters are still catching some fish at Chitina, but the season is beginning to wind down and fishing is slow.

Charter operator Mark Hem said it's getting late in the season and the number of fish passing through Chitina is dwindling.

"The good word is, if you need them catch them while you can," Hem said.

The sonar counter at Miles Lake has been pulled out because the number of fish passing it dropped under 2,000 per day last week. The total sonar count for the season was 717,000 fish.

For the latest update on dip netting at Chitina, call Hem's hotline at 1-907-823-2200 or Fish and Game's at 1-907-459-7382

SILVERS KEEP ROLLING

After an early and productive start, silver salmon fishing in the Mat-Su remains good.

Sportfish biologist Dave Rutz at the Department of Fish and Game in Palmer suspects it has as much to do with low water temperatures as the number of fish.

"It's not looking like the strongest run ever; it's just a real mediocre run that came in early," Rutz said. "I think the water is so cold they're just really getting after the lures."

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner contributed to this report. Find Kevin Klott online at adn.com/contact/kklott or call 257-4335.

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