I will be camping at the brooks campground in katmai national park the last week of july.I would appreciate any info from someone who has fished there before What type of gear to use and fish to expect any tips would be appreciated.
thank you

If its Sockeyes you want, Sockeyes you will get. Im not going to go into fishing for Sockeyes because it's just a snag fest. However, you may run into some rainbows which are definately worth the time and effort. There are some BIG bows in that river. If the Sockeyes are not dropping eggs, you can do one or two things. The rainbows will be keyed up waiting for the spawn and will be less selective as far as egg patterns, so I would use glo-bugs or battle eggs in brighter colors. The second option would be to swing leeches. If the Sockeyes are dropping eggs, then in my opinion there is only one way to fish. BEADS,BEADS,BEADS. Brooks is fly-only water so in order to stay legal you can only fish a bead within two inches of a fly. In other words a bead can only be used as an attractor. So get yourself some tiemco 2457 size 10 and tye some weak chironomid pattern, and peg your bead no more than two inches above the "chironomid". As far as where to fish. I would walk up to the upper lake and fish my way down, its really not that far if you have all day. Get yourself a good pair of polarized glasses and keep your eyes open. Oh yeah there will most likely be alot of bears, but the bears at Brooks make Yogi seem scary. I would recommend keeping your distance though because I swear there is a Park Ranger behind every tree and they are sticklers about people keeping their distance form the bears. Good Luck, next time you go to Alaska I would recommend the last week of August through September. That is if you are a Rainbow junkie like me.

thanks for the info pocket most appreciated

The bears might be fairly acclimated to humans as a whole, but I've seen some mighty pissed off sows with cubs wandering the river and getting upset at fishermen in a hole they want is not uncommon. See one of these and get the heck outs the way!!! I agree with the earlier post about fishing the upper river. It's well worth the walk and you'll get rid of most ofthe human river traffic. Brooks isn't about solitude, with lots of people hammering in and out every day. The lodge buffet is killer though. Starve yourself for a day then go PIG OUT! I make a day trip there every year in late July and find the rainbows usually in a good mood for globugs deaddrifted under an indicator.

Thanks for the information chuckn duck. I will be there from 7/25 to 7/29 with my wife.If you want some company hiking up to the lake and you will be there then,let me know. It will be my treat at the buffet

johnstaar fished the alagnak last august what a blast lots of bows char graylings copper color spinners worked good for the grawlings as for the bows blue fox spinners in blue body just hammered them, we were suppose to float the river for 8 day's but lost 2 because of upside down float plane but had a good time and lots of bows biggest about 9 lbs many 4 5 6 lbs