Floating American Creek in Katmai National Park for trophy rainbows and Sockeye Salmon July 2022.

This trip in Katmai NP for 9 people and 3 rafts was meant to provide us a chance to catch large leopard rainbows on a mostly class II river. Little did we know that heavy rains just before and during the trip changed the character of the river from moderate flows with great fishing to high flows which offered little fishable water. We could not scout any of the rapids and there were few places to take out for camping, few eddies, and full banks. There were rapids for most of the 45 miles and braided sections with downed timber blocking some or the routes. It was not unusual for rapids of a half mile and more with a constant speed of 10-14 mph. This was a true wilderness experience as we saw no people on the river until the planes arrived to take us out on day 6.