Alaska, What can you really even say, just an amazing place. We went up for 10 days this time and it was such a great time. Some of the highlights are as follows, Halibut fishing is always great fun, even the launch from Deep Creek is adventure where they use modified logging skidders to launch the boats on the beach, wind was a bit more than I would have liked but we had our fish in short order, I caught the biggest in our group at right around 60 lbs. The following day it rained all day and rained a lot, we didn’t have any solid plans so we took it easy and did some research on how to catch Sockeye since they were still running strong in the Kenai. The next day we did a flyout trip across the inlet for Silvers, the rain made a mess of the river but our guide has been guiding for 30 years and was able to adapt quickly, the fish were moving along the current seam and there was about 4’ area along the shore that we could fish. Even with the limited space it was still a good time and everyone caught their fish. The next day we tried to hike to the top of the Exit Glacier but I found out that I am not in the mountain climbing shape I need to be in, we made it up about 2.5 miles, it is a very steep trail and there was another 2-2.5 miles to get to the top….now I see why they offer helicopter rides to the top. We made it to the overlook and decided to head back down, going down was actually worse than going up. The following day we had a trout trip booked for the refuge, once we got there plans had to change as the wind was blowing up and we wouldn’t make it to the take out point. After a bit of drifting the trout in the area we could fish were not very active yet, I asked the guide if we could switch it up and go after Sockeye as I had heard there was a late run going on still, he said that was a good idea and he was up for it. We got down to the boat launch and pulled out and headed back into town to change boats and gear. We motor down the lower part of the river to a Sockeye spot….no fish. We practice the Sockeye “fishing” motion, you are trying to floss the line in their mouth while they swim and snag them in the lip, Sockeye don’t feed so all fish are snagged but it is only legal to snag them in the mouth. After about 2-3 hours of no fish being caught we getting a little worried, as was our guide. He was calling around to see how some other guides he knew were doing and was getting about the same report, a couple of guides south of us were starting to get some fish though so that meant another wave was moving in and would be to us in about an hour. Sure enough in about an hour you could see them coming in…..we ended up just short of our limit with 20 fish, it was a great time and our guide did everything he could including staying out later than expected….we on the water from 7am to just after 7pm. All I can say is it makes a big difference if you get a good guide, 2 of our guides are lifelong Alaskan locals and the Silver guide is from Wisconsin and is a retired Alaskan school teacher with as many years of guiding experience. These were all good trips where they let us bait our own hooks, set the drags ourselves and do as we wanted for the most part. The last day we did a 2 mile hike into the Russian River Falls….amazing, just like on TV watching the Sockeye try and swim up the waterfalls, the only thing missing was the bears trying to catch them.
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