Following up on my recommendation, a group of enthusiastic anglers visited Alaska to fish in various rivers and the ocean. After the meeting in Anchorage we went by a private plane to a comfortable lodge located in the southwest of Alaska.

This lodge built on the most beautiful lake is one of the most popular in Alaska, and you need to book it more than 6 months in advance.

It may seem that there are a lot of good lodges in Alaska. Yet, most of them are located close to civilization and roads. In some lodges there are problems with guides and fishing, and practically in all of them the food leaves much to be desired.

For the years of my fishing trips around Alaska I have thoroughly explored this richest land and have carefully selected 5 places where we can take clients of any level.

Everything has coincided in this lodge: the location, the guides, the rich fleet of boats and planes, the excellent accommodation, and the perfect cook which is the rarest thing of all.

After an excellent lunch we went fishing. On the first day we were fishing for red salmon in the lake where the lodge is located.

At the confluence of a small river all the fishermen using either spinning or fly fishing techniques were able to catch worthy silvery trophies.

On the following days we flew by hydroplanes to various rivers and lakes

That gave us the opportunity not only to catch a variety of trophies,

but to see different climatic zones of Alaska

from dense forests and calm wide rivers and lakes to small tundra rivers flowing into the ocean.

The lodge is located so that when you fly in any direction of the world, the landscape changes completely.

From the plane we could watch snow mountains and rams, mountain rivers and bears fishing in them, or lakes on the plain in cold and clear water of which elks like to stand.

The most prestigious trophy in the fresh waters of Alaska is the Chinook salmon or “king salmon” as the locals call it, or royal salmon.

To catch this prestigious trophy for a spinning rod is not difficult at all here, and all the adherents of this technique showed excellent results.

Some especially lucky anglers managed to catch a dozen of Chinook salmon a day.

There were 2 inveterate fly fishermen in our group (Vadim Titovets and Alexander Zaikin) who had been to the best fishing places of our planet and had achieved excellent results everywhere.

Their purpose was to catch the Chinook salmon by the fly fishing technique, but it was achieved not at once. First, only dog-salmon were interested in our flies, and though the fish were quite worthy and the fighting was exciting, everyone was waiting for the first Chinook to strike.

Alexander Zaikin was so good at catching the dog-salmon that he had a strike practically at each cast.

It was Alexander who caught the first Chinook trophy, though it was not so large. Watching Alexander’s casts I also caught a medium Chinook, and that finally confirmed the correct choice of the place and fishing technique.

Fly fishing for Chinook salmon requires great patience and constant changing of the fishing points.

The fly which was very efficient yesterday can be of no use today, and again, it is necessary to start picking up the key to this intractable silvery beauty.

We flew to different rivers and even spent a night in a comfortable camp on a very interesting river where large Chinook salmon come into extremely narrow anabranches in tundra.

At the confluence of 2 rivers the spinning anglers caught 30-50 chums per each. There were not so many Chinook salmon, but the chum conquered all the fishermen with its strength and quantity, so, nobody wanted to move on.

However, fly fishermen went to the anabranches for Chinook. The fishing here is unique and unrepeatable. To catch a large and fresh Chinook in a small river with the width of 5-10 meters is still the most unusual fishing event I have ever taken part in.

Vadim got the largest trophy, and all the fly fishermen were finally satisfied having caught a few fish per each.

While fishing we cooked tasty dishes from the freshly caught fish.

The weather was not always favorable, but the excellent Simms fishing gear and our friendly company did not let us down, we always felt warm and cheerful.

After fishing in the lodge, we went to the Pacific coast of Alaska where deep sea fishing was waiting for us.

A comfortable boat brought us to the verified fishing spots located far away from the standard fishing places where most Americans fish.

The excellent gear, the experienced guides and the skipper constantly winning fishing championships provided us with the result. The fishing was a success. Our first trophies were two rasp fish.

And then we caught a real monster! Just look at it:

Yellow eye rock bass do not only look good in the photos, but also have excellent gastronomic qualities!

By the evening halibut became active,

and some trophies went to our table directly from the ocean depths.

The oceanic fishing in Alaska is diverse, comfortable, and it complements the fresh water fishing perfectly.