Tangle Lakes Grayling Academy | 20024

Overview

Our trip to the Tangle Lakes this year was a trip in honor of Pudge Kleinkauf, the founder of Women’s Fly Fishing Alaska. It was such a pleasure to get to take a group of ladies back out to Tangle Lakes with her in mind! Our weekend included some very Alaskan weather, cloudy and rainy, but our ladies are tough Alaskans and were still eager to stay out all day catching fish regardless of the weather. The weekend consisted of a brief classroom style fly fishing 101 course, lanyard making activity, casting lessons, float tube, and walk and wade fishing throughout the Tangle Lake system, a fly tying course, and delicious meals provided by the Tangle Lake Lodge staff. 

Our clients reported learning a lot about fly fishing, fly identification/selection, and reading water techniques. Additionally, you could see their confidence in their fly fishing skills come to life on the water over the weekend. Plentiful numbers of grayling were caught during our trip and it was a great weekend for all! 

Day 1

On Friday evening we arrived and got settled into our cabins and enjoyed the incredible views of Upper Tangle Lake. After a bit of socialization and taking in the scenery, we enjoyed a delicious dinner of homemade lasagna, garlic bread and salad. Following dinner the ladies enjoyed making fly fishing lanyards before bedtime.  

Day 2

Saturday morning started off a bit rainy while we enjoyed coffee and a breakfast buffet style meal. Following breakfast we jumped right into our classroom style “fly fishing 101” course. Our ladies learned a lot about rods and reels, fly selection, knot tying, and fish handling. The rainy weather cleared up just in time for casting lessons and practice. Once the ladies were feeling more confident in their casting skills we ate a quick lunch at the lodge and then headed down to the lake to put their new skills into practice. The afternoon consisted of a mix of float tube fishing and walk & wade fishing in the outflow area of Upper Tangle Lake. Despite the sporadic rain the grayling were schooled up in pods and actively feeding on both top water and subsurface flies and the ladies stuck it out in the weather until dinner time! Dinner on night two was a delicious homemade taco bar. Following dinner the ladies participated in a fly tying course and learned how to tie two types of flies - griffith gnats and damselflies while we reminisced about Pudge a bit. We retired for the night and fell asleep to the soothing sounds of rain while inside our cozy lakeside cabins.

Day 3

On Sunday we woke to cloudy weather and enjoyed coffee, homemade blueberry pancakes, bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs for breakfast. After breakfast we geared up in waders and headed back out to enjoy some more walk and wade fishing at the outlet of Upper Tangle Lake and further down into Tangle River. The ladies had another successful morning of catching grayling of various sizes, and discovered that the grayling put up a feisty fight in the faster current further down in the river. Following fishing we enjoyed homemade pizza for lunch at the lodge, said our goodbyes, gave lots of hugs, and started our drives down the beautiful Denali highway back home.