Father’s Day was upon us during our June camping trip in the Alaska Range. First thing in the morning, Josh flew back to McGrath to grab some resupplies and the kids and I remained behind at camp. Noel, who always has delightfully wonderful ideas, chirped up as soon the Supercub lifted off the runway, “Mommy, let’s go catch some fish and we’ll have them tonight as a surprise for Daddy’s Father’s Day dinner!”.
With rods and dry flies in tow, plus my camera, sunscreen and baggies, we leaped up on the wheelers, and zoomed off to the creek. Once there we drove up the gravely creek bed, hoping to discover the perfect Dolly habitat for this area: slow moving water pooling up along the creek banks, with black water flies buzzing just above the surface.
Benjamin spotted a likely area, so we pulled over, jumped off the ATV’s and prepped the rods. Amusingly, we used ice fishing rods because they are very lightweight, small and short. To the end of the line we attached a small brown dry fly- the closest thing we had to match the blackish colored flies we were seeing hover over the water. The kids wasted no time flicking their lines in the water. The creek here was a mere 2 feet deep and 3 feet across to the bank. Casting towards the bank, and right into the middle of the flies which hovered over the water surface, we waited anxiously to see what would happen.
On Noel’s second cast, she exclaimed, “I got one!” and with a swift lifting motion, plucked the little 5 inch Dolly out of the water. I grabbed a baggie, filled it with some water and Noel lowered the Dolly into the bag. I gently took out the dry fly and hook from it’s teeny mouth and zipped the bag. “One down! Let’s get more!” Noel excitedly declared.
We were off to a roaring start. We fished in the first location for half an hour, then moved up the creek to another likely spot, a larger pool shown above. We watched the water edges and surface with close scrutiny and soon saw a Dolly rising up to the surface! It grabbed one of the black flies and dipped down into the shallow depths. Noel and Benjamin scuttled over closer and the began competitively casting their lines where we’d seen the fish. This guy wasn’t so easy to hook though, and never did bite their flies. An hour went by and we moved around the creek casting and waiting. Unfortunately, after fishing all afternoon, we didn’t get anymore! The highly anticipated “surprise” fish fry was now looking like a one bite appetizer fry.
We headed back to camp, arriving just in time to greet Josh who had recently landed. We fried up his “surprise” Dolly in canola oil, lightly salted and peppered, and all enjoyed one bite! The Father’s Day appetizer fry was a big hit. The young Dolly was incredibly tender, light and absolutely delightful to the palate. You could taste the nature-to-table freshness! Not very filling though and so thankfully we had some freeze dried meals to fill our bellies for the main course.
Later, we returned to the creek and caught more Dollies. Our catch is shown below- note the orange spotted color pattern of the fish on the right- more closely representing the look that the Dolly Varden is named after (see below). Coloration varies among fish and also depends upon the season as well. During spawning time, they get really orange and quite magnificent looking. They also get a lot bigger than these little ones.
Although I’ve lived in Alaska over 25 years, I never knew how, or why, Dolly Varden got their name. Apparently, according to the article below, they received their name from their appearance, which resembles a brightly colored cloth popular in the 1870’s, while the cloth got its name from the character Dolly Varden (who wore brightly colored dresses) found in “Barnaby Rudge”, Charles Dicken’s 1841 novel.
For some interesting reading plus some neat scientific information on the Dolly Varden, check out this link, https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/education/wns/dolly_varden.pdf.
Another great ADFG link is: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static-sf/region3/pdfs/arcticchardollyvarden.pdf. This one comes complete with lots of great photos of Dollies (see below), plus a detailed description of the differences between Dolly Varden and the very similar Arctic Char.
Happy Fishing!
Alaska Wilderness Mom 