ALASKA FISHING REPORT JULY 1-3, 2016 

The groups consisting of strangers and people of different age (the youngest member of our group was 18 while the oldest was 80) usually need quite a lot time to get adjusted to each other, but this time it happened instantly.

1st day of fishing (July 2).

We met at a lodge located on a beautiful lake at about 11.30 a.m.

It took the members of the group an hour and a half to come here from Anchorage by a private plane, and 20 min by boat. I got acquainted with the people I had never met before and placed the quests so as to provide them with the maximum comfort.

There are separate houses in the lodge. There is a house with a living room, 2 spacious bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a terrace.

There are cozy rooms, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a bar in the main building.

I cooked the light-salted caviar on toasts from black Russian bread and the cooks prepared lunch.

We discussed the plan for the rest of the day, and decided to fish for the char in the lake. We had a chance to enjoy its gorgeous view during lunch.

I had explored the water area before and was sure that our fishing would be a success. Most anglers in this group preferred using my tackle. Although, the local char can weigh up to 9 kilos, you don’t need to use too powerful tackle. Light spinning rods and fly fishing rods can deliver light lures over long distances, let the anglers feel the strike, and enjoy fighting against this uncompromising rival..

Char fishing in Alaska is in many ways random, but in this unique place, the char flocks were hunting for smaller fish not far from the mouth of the river flowing into the lake.

Every 5-10 min the water practically “boiled” as the char clamped the terrified smaller fish to the water surface. On the surface, the smaller fish were attacked by seagulls. At the same time, the char allowed us to approach the feeding place, and when the flocks of smaller fish tried to hide under our boats, we could watch the whole battle in the absolutely clear water.

Yakov with his son were the first to come to the fishing spot, and by the time the rest of the group arrived, had caught 6 fish already. We were fishing from 3 boats and were constantly talking on the radio to know about all the catches. The fish struck perfectly, soon we were satisfied, and the fishing excitement typical for the first day of fishing fell.

We often caught two or more fish at once. The thing is – char are quite jealous to their competitor’s success, thus, by catching one you can easily provoke the rest of the flock to strike. Aram and Mikhail mastered the tactics and were able to catch many worthy specimens.

According to the guide’s advice, Aram tried to lead the lure as close to the bottom as possible (the depth in the place of fishing reached 15 m) and while he was leading the lure for the second time a real monster struck. But after a 10-minute fight the thin braided line could not withstand, and unfortunately, the trophy of the day was lost.

We caught dozens of fish, but took only 5 fish to cook. The char is not so good at freezing, so, we took the exact number of fish we could eat for dinner.

We were satisfied with the results of the first day of fishing. We all had quite a long dinner together. The cook made a lot of delicacies and fried the char we had caught. By the end of our meal, it seemed that we had known each other for a long time. Mikhail turned out to be a gorgeous narrator, and we all enjoyed the stories about his trips.

The next day, we decided to go by 2 hydroplanes to the rivers where my previous group had caught a lot of large Chinook. There are 5 rivers which Chinook enter in 30 minutes of flight from the lodge. The owner of the lodge and I considered all the possible options and chose the best ones for the trophy fishing. We planned our week stay in the lodge so as to be able to fish in a new place every day, and we chose the rivers with the minimum pressing for the Chinook fishing.

2nd day of the fresh water fishing in Alaska (July 3). In the morning, after breakfast each member of the group got a large hydro bag to put the things for our overnight stay in a tent camp. To maximize the fishing results, I suggested spending a night in a comfortable camp on one of the Chinook rivers. Thus, I wanted to spend more time on the river, and get the most of the early morning and the evening which are the most efficient parts of the day for the Chinook fishing. The group supported the idea, and not only because they wanted to catch more fish, but also because they wanted to spend more time in the untouched nature of Alaska.

Some members of our group wanted to go hiking in the neighborhood of our lodge, but the forest around the lodge was thick enough, so, we decided to do it around the camp surrounded by tundra and small hills.

The nature of the southwest of Alaska is incredibly beautiful and diverse. There are a lot of rivers, lakes, and hills. Our lodge is located in the valley with coniferous and deciduous forests surrounded by the high mountain chain with snow caps. There is real tundra behind the mountains extending to the very ocean. During our 25-minute flight we could observe 3 landscape types, saw a few elks, bears, and reindeer.

Our first fishing spot was a medium river in tundra. We disembarked about 50 km from the ocean.

4 boats with our new guides came up to the hydroplanes. We boarded the boats, 2 anglers per boat, and went downstream to the fishing spots.

There are professional guides on all the rivers we fish, they stay here for the whole season, and every day they fish with various clients from our lodge on the same river. This system is extremely effective, as the guides are exploring the river day by day and know all the places with the maximum concentration of Chinook and other species of the local and passing by salmon.

While the group was fishing with the guides I arranged everything for lunch. We brought caviar, light-salted Chinook, smoked red salmon, salads and other appetizers from the lodge.

The fish soup from the Chinook caught by Mikhail and Aram was the main course. By the way, they brought me the fish an hour after the start of fishing. The male weighed up to 10 kilos, and the female was about 6 kilos. First, I boiled the heads, spines, and tails, then I strained the broth, and added onion, potatoes, carrots, spice, and Chinook filet to it.

The smell attracted a skinny fox that stayed till we left and ate the fish I gave her. But I was very attentive while cooking, as the smell of food could entice bears too.

But fortunately, everything was OK, no bears came, and the anglers arrived just in time. While they were taking photos with the catch, drinking vodka and white wine which had been chilled in the river, I was talking to the guides.

The largest trophy of the day weighed 16 kilos, and a few larger fish were lost because of snags. It is interesting that the trophy specimens in this river usually stay right under the steep bank with a large number of trees fallen into the water.

The depth in this place is about 3 meters, but due to a very strong current, even the heaviest lures need more time to sink properly. The only tackle capable of “piercing” the strong current and reaching the bottom (where the most outstanding specimens are) is a foam plastic cone with a sinker and a pair of hooks with the pieces of specially prepared caviar.

The “Alaskan tackle”, as I call it, is usually led from a boat slowly moving downstream, but in this place, it was more efficient to throw it up to the overhanging branches close to the steep bank. It was not that easy, and when a fish struck, it was extremely hard to fight against it. But, nevertheless, we took good trophies and a lot of medium and small fish.

We had a meal, got into the hydroplanes, and headed towards new adventures. We were watching an amazing diversity of Alaskan nature while flying. As we approached the sea, the mountains retreated, and we flew over tundra with an incredible number of rivers and lakes of different size.

The flight was about 40 min. The hydroplane landed on a beautiful lake and we met our new guides.

The tents resemble canvas houses with the plank floor and mosquito nets. You can stand at full length here, sleep in beds with clean linens and warm blankets, and have a hot shower. The anglers were impressed.

I had not told anything about the camp before, not to spoil the surprise.

We caught a few worthy specimens of the chum and trout before dinner. But we came to this beautiful river to have an opportunity to fight the Chinook which had just entered the river (the camp is 3 km from the sea).

Brian cooked a delicious salad, steaks, potatoes baked in the oven, and a chocolate dessert for dinner. After dinner, we were sitting on the veranda admiring the sunset. We could not believe that we were alone on the river, and the nearest settlement was 150 km away from us…

To be continued!

In the upcoming season we’ll be glad to arrange an excellent fishing for you in Alaska and not only!