Aniak is one of the most-watched fly fishing films ever made, earning over three million views and standing as a benchmark for Alaska fly fishing cinema. Filmed on the legendary Aniak River in southwest Alaska, this T-Motion short captures the raw scale, wildlife, and explosive surface takes that define fishing in the Last Frontier.
Spanning 663,268 square miles, Alaska has long drawn filmmaker Todd Moen and his camera north. In Aniak, he journeys to Aniak River Lodge, hosted on one of Alaska’s most productive and untouched salmon rivers. The Aniak River, a 95-mile tributary of the Kuskokwim River, drains the Kilbuck and Kuskokwim Mountains and winds through vast Alaskan tundra, home to rainbow trout, Arctic grayling, Dolly Varden, sheefish, northern pike, and all five species of Pacific salmon. The film centers on a legendary mouse-skating fly fishing adventure, as Brian O’Keefe pulls mouse patterns through log jams, across riffles and runs in the upper reaches and tributaries of the Aniak. What follows are unforgettable attacks from massive, leopard-spotted rainbow trout, violently crushing the Mr. Hankey mouse pattern in shallow water, some of the most iconic surface eats ever captured on film.
Special thanks to Brian O’Keefe, Sam Sudore and the guides and staff of Aniak River Lodge, R.L. Winston Rod Company, Scientific Anglers, and Eddie Bauer for making this expedition possible.
Learn more about fishing the Aniak River at Aniak River Lodge.
