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Trout trips are still available and early Kings should be moving into the lower PM in decent numbers anytime now. Half day early morning trips are not only a great way to learn our downriver King techniques, but also a great way to be there when it happens! We will begin scouting the lower river this week…
I got back from Alaska on Sunday afternoon with mixed emotions after having one hell of a summer up there, but after a couple of days of rest, time with my family and preparation I am now stoked and ready to start over again here on the home water. Come join me (or us!) for a great day on the water, we’d love to have you!
Week 7 in Alaska was awesome as you can imagine and we had a great group in camp. John and I started the week off on Sunday by fishing with my cousin James for the day and had a great time catching Silvers, Rainbows and yes, even the Pinks! (For some reason some folks don’t care much about the Pinks, but I think they’re a fun bend in the rod, aggressive to the fly which is awesome in its own right and kind of cool to look at early on. ;^)
The “elusive” Pink...
…an average Silver...
…and a decent Bow from Sunday.
On Monday we headed over to Brooks only instead of fishing I opted to climb (more like hike) Dumpling Mountain with Ashley, James girlfriend. We’d been talking about it all summer, but never had a Saturday with good enough weather to do it on and Jim agreed to let her out of camp for the day. Unfortunately, my camera lens had a smudge on it that I didn’t realize so my photos didn’t come out quite the way I’d like, but you get the idea!
The view of Brooks River from the first overlook.
Looking out toward Margot Creek from a bit further up.
Looking over Naknek Lake from near the top we kicked this things butt to the tune of “Kung Fu Fighting” one of this summer’s camp theme songs amongst the guides and staff. ;^)
Top of the post marking the peak.
Adding our rocks…
One of our goals was to build a snow man and do a snow angel on one of the snow packs near the top, but once we found it we discovered that would be a bit dangerous. The snow was, as you can imagine, basically ice and while it doesn’t look like it from the photos had you slid off that pack you probably wouldn’t stop going for quite some time!
I held onto the rock and made an “improvised” snow man anyway!
There were lots of cool peaks along the ridge...
The entire trip up and back, even after hiking to the far side of the mountain before heading back to the peak and then down, only took us 5 hours (4 hours and 58 minutes from flag to flag to be exact!) and it was awesome. On the way home we tried to show our snow man off, but you would need a telescope!
Our snow man is located here...
Tuesday was a fly out over to Fetherly for my first time along with John, Jim, Dave, Steve and Scott. Great little river over in the Ugashik area where we found lots of Char feeding behind spawning Sockeyes and some pretty big Grayling…
Dave with one of his many!
These would be “average” from what we saw.
I think these jokers had some fun!
The double that finished our day...
On Tuesday night half way thru a bottle of scotch and a few beers deep Walt, John and I wound up hatching a plan to fly out over to the Moraine River, a place that Walt’s been wanting to return to for the last 20 years and one that John hasn’t seen when it wasn’t blowing 50 – 70 miles an hour and raining sideways… The flight over and back was spectacular as was the entire day!
Gazing at the mountains and bears at the confluence of the Moraine and the Funnel.
Fishing bear…
Heading my way...
…going past...
…and cutting the group off!
You might think from looking at those non zoomed photos that we should have gone somewhere else or backed up, but what you can’t see is that it was pretty much like that all the way around us and just holding ground was the best bet at the time. (Luckily, it’s “pretty much” just fish that they’re after.)
Lots of bears like this as well. Full belly nap time!
We spent the better part of the day hiking up the Funnel where we saw a few Rainbows, but found that the fishing was still subpar up there before hiking back out to the Moraine. Once on the main river it was apparent that the rainbows were just moving in as we would watch one big fish after another moving up river right along with the Sockeyes. Wound up making a pretty good day of it and I can honestly say it was one of the most enjoyable days of my entire summer…
Walt fishing just above the confluence.
Chillin’ on the ridge and watching the show...
My second largest of the day.
We named this bear Chip and the sibling Dip after the camp dogs...
Spent Thursday out with Walt and Friday out with Miles on the Naknek and had two more fine days of catching… I started laying off the photos a bit on both Thursday and Friday since you only need to see so many Silvers, Rainbows, Pinks, Etc…, but I did get a few.
A silver starting to color from Thursday...
A “GIANT” King Salmon! ;^).
A couple of the many Loons around.
My last Silver of the season taken right in front of camp.
Our BBT Alaska Dates for next year are August 3 to 10 and August 10 to 17. Anyone booking and placing a deposit now will get this year’s rate until we hear otherwise, so lock your spot in now!! Also, as mentioned before we did have some cancellations this summer for this fall and many of those include the Motel. Give us a call as we have scattered openings throughout the season as well as a new large block on September 30 and October 1 & 2.
Think I’m going to get off here now and go for a short fun float with Tess who is restless and ready for a swim.
Tight Lines All,
Steve
Alaska 2013
Want to fish some of the best rivers in Alaska (Katmai/Bristol Bay Area) without spending an arm and a leg??? Then join us for next summer’s BBT Alaska trip. Week one: August 3 – 10, 2013 and week two: August 10 – 17, 2013. We have room for twenty guests each week. OUR PACKAGE PRICE PER PERSON IS $2,295.00 ($200 LESS THEN BOOKING DIRECT) and includes:
• Six full days guided fishing
• All your lodging and meals
• Transportation to and from the Airport in King Salmon, AK
Argentina 2013
The dates are January 12 – 19, 2013…we are taking deposits now to hold your spot! Treat yourself to a trip of a lifetime! The package price per person based on double occupancy is US $3,450.00 and includes:
• Six full days guided fishing (with expert, local bilingual (Spanish-English) fly-fishing guide)
• All your lodging, meals and beverages (including beer & wine with meals).
• Transportation to and from the Airport in Bariloche
