Tag: copper

Alaska, Lagniappe

The Last Frontier

By Tom Burnett

We made so many memories during our #30daysinalaska adventure.  We visited and fished four different regions of the state, with Anchorage being our “home base” where we usually spent a day or two before heading off to our next stop.

Our first lodge experience was at Intricate Bay Lodge (IBL) on Lake Illiamna.  This area is part of the Bristol Bay area of Alaska which includes many different rivers and lakes.  Our week at IBL was an amazing first trek during our time in Alaska and included fishing 5 different rivers…. Copper, Alagnak, Gibraltar, Battle and Moraine Creek.  We experienced fly out fishing in sea planes guided by our pilot and his plane “T-Bird and the Dirty Girl”.  While we had many highlights along our trip to this region, which also includes Katmai National Park, one of our favorites was our “Guide Talk” with the guides of IBL.  

After flying back into Anchorage, we ventured up toward Denali National Park, home of the tallest peak in the US.  We were very lucky to actually get to see Denali right before we dropped into the little village of Talkeetna, which was the setting for the TV show Northern Exposure.  In Talkeetna, we found great food, quirky shops and some awesome music.  Nearby, we also found Montana Creek, which was one of the spots we fished without any guide, which is always interesting for two reasons;  1…. we were on our own in serious bear country, and yes, we carried our own bear spray and,  2… we used our own wicked smart fishing skills (chuckles) to find good holding spots for fish… picked our own flies to use… and yes, caught fish, including our first Chum!  

Our third week in Alaska found us traveling to the small native village of Quinhagak, then jet boating up the Kanektok River to our tent camp at Alaska West.  If I had to pick one river that was simply “lights out” awesome fishing of all of the TU Top 100 Trout Streams, it would be the Kanektok.  We had a blast exploring this river from where it flowed into the Bering Sea all the way up to where Togiak Wilderness Area begins.   We fished the main channel and the braids targeting species from salmon (Silvers, Chum, Pinks, Kings and Sockeye), to Rainbow Trout, Dolly Varden and Grayling.  While the scenery in the area was breath-taking, it was the fishing that was the big draw.  We held our largest “Guide Talk” on the last evening in camp that turned out to be a hoot.  

Our last week in Alaska was on the Kenai Peninsula where we were joined by fishing buddy James Kelley.  Guides from both Alaska Troutfitters and Mystic Waters Fly Fishing showed us the Kenai, Russian and Quartz Creek.  Wading the Russian and Quartz, watching for bears and picking off rainbows and dollies along the way was just exhilarating.  The Kenai was just so impressive with its size and color which is caused by the glacial silt in the water.  The pictures you see in our “The Last Frontier” video aren’t doctored in any way…. the river is truly that color of blue!  

We hope you enjoy this “highlight” video of our time in Alaska.  We had to pick just a few favorite photos, otherwise the video would be a full length movie!  Enjoy…. and….

Ramble On

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Alaska, Lagniappe

The “Alaska Experience”

By Tom Burnett

At almost every turn in Alaska, whenever something happened, we were greeted by the phrase “It’s a part of the ‘Alaska Experience’”.  I cannot tell you how many times we heard that phrase… from guides, to airline employees, to fly shop owners, to merchants, to restaurant servers and more.  I think it’s part of the lexicon for Alaskans to remind you that you’re definitely NOT in the lower 48 anymore.  

While I will be writing much more later, I wanted to share just a few of the “happenings” which cause this phrase to be uttered.  You’ll note that I’ve included one picture to this gallery post to depict each of these “happenings” that coincide with each of the sections below.

Rain & Wind

When we arrived in Anchorage, it was sunny and 72 with no wind.  When we left Anchorage for Intricate Bay Lodge, the clouds had formed and were a harbinger of things to come.  At dinner the first night, our host shared how the past week at the lodge, the temps were in the upper 60’s and 70’s with sun and no wind.  As it turned out for OUR week at IBL and in the Katmai NP area, we had temps in the low-mid 50’s with winds in the sustained 20-30 mph range …. gusts exceeding 40mph… and rain regularly pelting us.  We had one sunny (but windy) day in the Katmai area.  When we went to fish the Kanektok with Alaska West, we had a similar experience, albeit with less wind, but similar rain… and yes, one day of sun!  

I can still hear Chase at IBL and Cole at Alaska West telling us… “It’s a part of the ‘Alaska Experience!’”  Mind you, Chase said it when we were landing at “Pothole” near Moraine Creek in a rainstorm with a ceiling of maybe 200’ for T-Bird to land the Dirty Girl… repeated it as we carried the rafts, coolers, paddles, etc… up and down the ridge to our put in spot…. and then as he fought those sustained 30 mph winds with 40+mph gusts for 7 hours. 

Cole used the phrase when we arrived at Quinhagak along the Kanektok River in a rainstorm without our rain gear as we were about to embark on a 30 minute jet boat ride upriver to our Alaska West tent camp.  We were wearing trash bags as rain gear on our legs, covering ourselves as best we could, which leads me to the next “Alaska Experience” topic.

Picture 1 Note:  We’d just finished a day long raft trip on Moraine Creek in crazy harsh winds and rain.  The knees you see just sticking up are our guides who were exhausted from fighting the wind.  Barb is the one all covered up in the bottom of the picture trying to avoid the weather.  We waited like this for about 30 minutes before “T-Bird and the Dirty Girl” arrived to pick us up and fly us back to the lodge.

Luggage Issues

You see, we HAD actually packed our rain gear, right on top of our luggage, expecting to get it at the terminal in Quinhagak when we landed.  Our plan was to put it on in the terminal before boarding the jet boats for the trip upriver.  Great plan…. right?  

As it turned out, right after we boarded the Ravn Airlines “Nanook” in Anchorage for our flight to Bethel (an intermediate stop on the way to Quinhagak…. more on this another time), a ground crew member came aboard and informed us that several bags had been “bumped” from the flight due to weight restrictions, but that they’d be on the very next flight to Bethel.  When we arrived in Bethel, after a long delay there due to “Rain and Wind” (see above), we found out that both Barb and I had been the “lucky losers” and our bags had been pulled in Anchorage.  No worries however, they were coming on the very next flight to Bethel, then onto Quinhagak.

I’ll spare you in this version of our “Alaska Experience”, and just say that our bags DID make it on the next flight from Anchorage to Bethel, but the airport in Quinhagak was closed due to…. you know what…. “Rain and Wind”.  We didn’t see our bags, with our rain gear right on top, until noon the next day.  Our “note to self” for our next trip to Alaska was…. in addition to carrying on all your medications, passports, toiletries and such in our carry on luggage, pack full rain gear as well.  

Picture 2 Note:  The two “big” bags in the top 1/2 of the picture are the ones that got “bumped” from the flight.  The bottom 1/2 of the picture shows the bus and trailer that is holding all the bags that DID make it on time to Quinhagak… as well as the rain that was coming down at the time.

Travel

First of all, just getting to Alaska isn’t the easiest of things to do…. but once there, the REAL fun begins.  Alaska is known as the “Air Crossroads of the World” due to the number of flights that occur daily, including all the sea plane flights.  Since there are only a few roads in Alaska, most travel is done via plane.  Each small village, many of which are native Alaskan villages, has an airport.   If you look at the Ravn Airlines map, you’ll see just how many destinations there are in Alaska.  Ravn operates 10 “hubs” for flights to all the villages it serves.  Even more so, this doesn’t take into account all the private float planes stationed around the 3197 “officially named” lakes (and 3 million+) lakes that dot the landscape of Alaska.  

So…. the “Alaska Experience” of course includes jets, prop planes of assorted sizes and for sure, float planes including our fav, the “Dirty Girl”.  In addition to planes, there are also rafts, drift boats, jet boats and a bit larger boats for tooling around the waters of the state.  We were even introduced to a new aviation moniker…. IFR flying.  When the ceiling is incredibly low, you go IFR…. I Follow River!  We came to think of it as an amusement ride, banking left and right as you parallel the river below, only about a few hundred feet up.  

I have to say, the jet boat rides were an adventure as well, with that same amusement ride feel to them.  We traversed some landscape that you wouldn’t have imagined navigating by just looking at it.  

Picture 3 Note:  Just a few of our transportation adventures during our “Alaska Experience”.

Wildlife

 Yes…. there is wildlife in Alaska… lots and lots of it.   At times, we would have to remind ourselves of where we were to remember what we might encounter.  While in Anchorage, we really weren’t TOO worried about bears, but definitely had to watch out for moose.  When we were on the rivers in Alaska, we most definitely had to watch out for bears.  Amazingly, we did… kind of…. get used to seeing them around us.  We were always aware and looking around regularly, but really weren’t too afraid when we saw one for two reasons.  One… the bears had ample supplies of food with all the salmon in the rivers, and two, our guides had both bear spray and carried hand guns, just in case.  Our only “sketchy” times were those in which we ventured out to the rivers on our own, without guides.  Needless to say, we always had bear spray and we made LOTS of noise along the way.  We still saw bears each time we went out, but really never felt too threatened.  We also encountered moose and more eagles than you could count.  We came to appreciate all of these wildlife encounters as a part of the “Alaska Experience”.  

Picture 4 Note:  The wildlife in Alaska is so spectacular, especially the moose, eagles and of course, the bears.

Fishing

The ultimate reason we came to Alaska was to fish the final 5 rivers of the TU Top 100 book… Kenai, Russian, Copper, Alagnak and Kanektok.  That said, we also came for the “Alaska Experience” shared in this post whether we realized it at the time or not.  The fishing in Alaska is EPIC to say the least.  There are so many species to target…. so many big fish to battle… and so many rivers, creeks and lakes to explore.  We had an absolute blast fishing them all and yes, are already plotting our next trip to Alaska in 2020.  

Picture 5 Note:  On our last day on the Kanektok, our guide put us on 6 different species of fish… this pic captures 4 of them… Chum, Rainbow, Sockeye and Silver (Coho).    We also caught grayling and dollies that day.

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Alaska, Intricate Bay, Lagniappe

Intricate Bay / Katmai NP Fishing Highlights

By Tom Burnett

Our first week in Alaska brought us to the Intricate Bay Lodge on the shores of Lake Iliamna.  Our transport there was via seaplane with “T-Bird and the Dirty Girl“.  As you’ll hear and see in our highlights video above, this place truly was “Fantasy Island”.

We fished for 6 straight days, including the day we landed at the lodge and were met by our guides for the week.  To get to the rivers in the area, the Copper, Gibraltar, Battle, Alagnak and Moraine Creek, we took the seaplane, jet boats, a big boat and even rafts.  It was always an adventure.

Wildlife along these rivers was abundant, especially the bears.  They put on a show for us repeatedly.  As you watch the video, see if you can spot the fish that jumps when the bear pounces in the river…. and how my eyes move from fishing to the bank in one of the videos because I had an audience.

All this, and epic fishing, what a week.  Our rods were bent with great regularity and usually with an 18+ inch rainbow on the other end.  These fish fight incredibly hard and don’t give up without making a few runs and jumps first.  However, we landed our fair share during the week… the video highlights just a few.

Finally, one of the questions we always ask our guides is “What is it you hope people do or have when coming to fish?”  When we did our “Guide Talk” with the Intricate Bay Lodge guides, Chace explained what we think is the most important….. check out the video above to find out!

We are already hoping to get back to this incredible spot, with these incredible guides and the lodge which is awesome.   For now, we hope you enjoy the video of highlights above.

Ramble On!

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Battle Creek, Copper, Guide Talk, Moraine Creek

Intricate Bay / Katmai NP

By Tom Burnett
Our “Guide Talk” with the Intricate Bay Lodge guides was an epic one.  In this case, we had 5 different guides during our week at IBL and rather than interview them separately, we decided to do just one big, fun “talk” with them all.  What this did was make what is normally an 8-10 minute video into a 39 min video.  I know, it’s long, but ohhhhhhh is it worth it.  So to help you view the video, we’ve segmented the video so you can jump to those sections you might enjoy immediately.  We hope you’ll watch the entire video, however, as the amazing, hilarious guides we’d had tell stories, share ideas and give great fishing info.  If you’d like to watch the entire video at once, click here.  Otherwise….
Meet all five of our guides (and pilot “T-Bird”) as they share their background information and first guiding experience.  They came from all corners of the US (and world) including Wyoming, Maine, Alaska, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Patagonia.  We even had a power outage during introductions to remind us we were “off the grid” at IBL.
The Copper River is the “home water” for IBL as it’s only a short, but erm… what’s the right word?…. intriguing?… surprising?… unnerving?… stimulating?…. “ride” on a jet boat from the lodge across Intricate Bay, Lake Iliamna.  Chace Booth, head guide at IBL explains what makes this stream so very special.
We fished 5 different streams in the area, two that fed into Lake Iliamna (Copper & Gibraltar) and three inside Katmai National Park (Moraine Creek, Battle Creek, Alagnak).  The guides pick their favorites and explain why in each case.  Our favorites were….. stay tuned 🙂
A question we always as our guides is the “One Fly” question.  If you only had one fly to fish the river, what would it be.  We knew the two we’d fished most all week with them, but it was interesting to hear their take on it.  Make sure to watch if you’re wanting to fill your fly box in advance of your trip to fish these streams.  Also, we found out that BEARS enter into this discussion in a most interesting way.
A favorite of ours to ask our guides is what kinds of crazy questions their clients ask.  Chace jumps in on this one with one of the questions we’ve heard repeatedly along our River Ramble…. “Why did I lose that fish?”  His answer is most enlightening and comforting.
We saw 8 – 10 bears on a daily basis while fishing the area streams.  We were briefed a bit on day one by our guides, but it really doesn’t prepare you for the reality when a bear jumps into the hole you’re getting ready to fish and proceeds to fish it and then walk right over to the gravel bar you’re sitting on.  It does however beg another crazy question.  Watch to see and hear all the ways our guides…um…. “deal” with such situations.. including the “Alaska Insurance Policy”.
Not sure how to explain this, but listen to this segment to hear how Evan helps his guests have a great experience while at IBL.
Another of our favorite questions seeings as we always try and sample what’s “local”.  However, when you’re at a remote lodge, local is a relative thing.  T-Bird even hooks up Evan with a classic.
If you’re going to go all the way to Alaska to fish, you want to maximize your time with your guides on the water.  Listen while the IBL guides share their best tips on how to make sure you get the most of your Alaska fishing experience.  Their tips are valid for any destination fishing trip you might take.
Barb and I can tell you why we loved the lodge, the meals, etc…. but the biggest reason is the guides and the feeling of a family fishing trip you get.  Hear the guides perspectives as our “Guide Talk” concludes.
Our time at IBL was incredible special.  Keep rechecking our blog site for more posts from our time at IBL and our other stops from our “30 Days in Alaska” ramble.
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Alaska, Intricate Bay, Katmai National Park

Alaska – Part 1

By Tom Burnett

PROLOGUE:  We are just back to a spot where there is wifi and cell service.  We’ve been in a “remote” location for the past week and honestly, we have limited wifi/cell now as I write this post.  Since we talked about this being our “30 Days in Alaska” trip, I decided to share our day by day adventures in that way.  Also, with such limited wifi/cell, it’s impossible to post the kinds of videos, guide talks and highlights we’ve done before.  We’ll update everything once we have strong wifi/cell, with some amazing video footage we’ve shot here so far, but for now, we’ll share some favorite pictures (hopefully) that dovetail with each part.  Here goes….

Day 3:  Intricate Bay trip begins

After a quick stay in Anchorage, we continued our journey with a flight in a 10 passenger single prop plane from Anchorage to a small native village, Iliamna (pop. 109), which sits on its namesake, Lake Iliamna.  It is the largest lake in Alaska and the third largest lake entirely in the US with an average depth of 144’.  However, we weren’t to our first fishing stop just yet.

We were met at the Iliamna Airport by Brian Harry, the owner/operator of the Intricate Bay Lodge (IBL) which would be our home for the next 7 days.  He brought a large passenger van up to the door where we loaded all our gear and took a two mile drive to a lake, where our next transport was waiting…..  not a boat, but……the “Dirty Girl”, officially known as a “de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Mk.I Beaver”…. yes, a float plane.  

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I’m going to pause here, and do some reflecting…. Barb and I have talked about ultimately writing a book about our “River Ramble”.  Neither of us are writers, as our high school english teacher Mrs. Seiter would definitely tell you, especially me.  I mean, our senior paper which was our “final” and counted for much of our grade was to be on our favorite author…. you know…. Chaucer, Shakespere, etc….. So of course, I wrote mine on those famous authors Charles Shulz and Walt Kelly.  It was titled “Peanuts, Pogo, People and Politics” and while I thought it was EPIC…. Mrs. Seiter disagreed.  I did pass Senior english, but barely.  The point of all this is, after this last week, we’re now committed to writing a book about this adventure and as I write this post, I’m finding myself starting to write it….. SO…. since this is a blog and not a novel, I’m going to try and hold back a bit…. ok…. a lot.  Now back to our abbreviated blog stories!

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We flew over Lake Iliamna, landed in Intricate Bay and taxied to this beautiful lodge where we were met by the entire staff;  we felt pretty special (and relieved we’d survived our first float plane ride).  After settling in, we threw on our waders, headed back to the dock, jumped in jet boats, and headed for the Copper River, one of our Trout Unlimited Top 100 Trout Streams rivers.  (Note to self, brevity in blogs… you can do it!).   The ride to the river was an experience that can only be told in video, so stay tuned for later (see Prologue). 

After landing a few nice rainbows, our guide for the day, Monte, took us to a great looking hole and just as we were about to jump out of the boat and start fishing…. BEAR!  Yes, a young brown bear walked up along the bank, staring down into the river exactly where we were going to cast and began searching for fish.  Ultimately, he dove into the river, ran up and down the “run” we were going to fish, tried unsuccessfully to get a fish, decided to “snorkel” for fish (yes, it’s a real thing they do, snorkeling for fish) and then run over onto the same gravel bar where we’d docked our boat, at which point Monte grabs his bear spray and begins to scream at the bear.  We learn over the course of the week, step 1, scream…. step 2, spray with bear spray…. step three, pull gun.  Honestly, step 1 did the trick all but one time when step 2 was deployed, and never step three, but it was always an option as each guide was always “carrying”.   I share all this now, so that in later days writings, I’ll just say “bear experience” to encapsulate these moments.  Bottom line of the day:  We checked off our 96th river in our quest to fish the Top 100 Trout Streams in the US.  

After more fish, we headed back to the lodge for dinner.  Thank goodness they had a keg of Alaskan Amber, we needed it.  We also got our itinerary for the next day after dinner, written on the chalk board….  7am breakfast, 8am shove off, Copper River, guide… Chace.

Day 4:  More Copper River adventures (pic 1)

We had a full day on the Copper River with Chace, who was the “head guide” at IBL.  Again, we had this amazing jet boat ride to get to and then up the Copper River, having a mama duck fly directly in front of our boat part of the way.  We learned that the boat, which was flying upriver, came near her babies and she flies away in front of the boat to lead us away from them.  If only she’d known we were going fishing she could have chilled out instead of flying like crazy ahead of us.  

The day was much like Day 3’s fishing; we’d move upstream finding great “runs” to fish, hook into some nice rainbows and move.  It was all using the jet boat to move from spot to spot, we never fished from the boat, we always got out and waded a section of the river.  Which lead us to another “bear experience” here and there.  Actually, on both day 3 and 4 we saw 8 bears along and in the river.  We were fishing a “run” when Chace said “turn around”.  When we did, we saw this huge bear “snorkeling” down the channel right behind us.  I’ll never say we got “used” to being in such close proximity to bears (within 10-20 yards), but we’d come to realize that with hundreds of thousands of sockeye salmon in all the rivers in the area, they weren’t really the least bit interested in us, unless of course we were in their favorite fishing hole (see Day 3 above).

At the end of the day, we decided we’d like to try fishing for some of the sockeye salmon that everyone else was actually fishing for…. as we’d been targeting rainbows all day.  You really aren’t technically “fishing” for sockeye as the guides called it “flossing”.   Essentially, you’re throwing out a line with a small fly/hook on the line and dragging it through a mass of sockeye just holding in a spot.  Eventually, the line will go into….. wait…. brevity Tom…. write more in a book…. onward.

Day 5:  Moraine Creek (pic 2)

All of our guides asked “Why isn’t the Moraine on the list?”  Truly, I don’t know why.  I think it was in the original 1999 version of the book, but for some reason, not the 2013 version we are following.  In any event, the “Dirty Girl” landed in a spot called “Pothole” where we carried rafts, paddles, fishing gear, dry bags, lunch bags and more up a ridge where we staged everything before going back down the ridge and into Moraine Creek.  Whew!

This day was pretty much like the other days, so far, except for two things:  we were in a raft floating downstream and…. the “W” was happening.  The “W” was howling at a steady 30mph with gusts to 40+.  Our guides were fighting it all day to keep us in good drifts.  Oh, and I didn’t mention it was raining and a windchill that was ridiculous with that much “W”.  All that said, we caught lots of gorgeous rainbows, had a bear encounter that was a bit too close, but ultimately it only lead to “step 1”, although “step 2” was out and ready.  I think our guide Chace was ready for a massage after rowing us down the Moraine.  Everyone was exhausted as we awaited the “DG” to come back and pick us up for the trip home.  It was fun seeing her land directly ON Moraine Creek, then “sail” back down to pick us up.  It’s one thing watching drift boats and rafts coming downstream in the current toward you, quite another seeing a float plane doing it.

Day 6:  Alagnak River. Battle Creek. Moraine Creek and HOME! (pic 3)

We could easily write a short novel about day 6.  Let me try and summarize it.  From IBL, we were the first to even fish the Alagnak  this year and probably ever, but T-Bird and the “DG” got us there along with our guide Hayden after we’d dropped off two other guests and new friends from Italy, Ferdinado and Eleonora, at the Moraine.  However, when we landed in Kukaklek Lake,  whose outflow is the Alagnak River, one of the TU Top 100 trout streams, T-Bird said “We may have to fly out of here soon.  If the waves on the lake get too high, we’ll be stuck here”.  

OK…. no pressure…. we’re wading downstream into the Alagnak River, our pilot has warned us that we may have to leave at a moment’s notice…. and we HAVE to at least get a fish out of this TU Top 100 trout stream.  In 15 minutes, swinging a Dali Lama stream, tug…. tug…. tug…. SET!  Got’em!  We netted a small rainbow, documented the catch and then, hightailed it back to the “DG” to get out…. mission accomplished.

So, with all this excitement, dropping off a group, then flying to the Kukaklek, snaring a rainbow from the Alagnak and racing upstream back to the float plane, it was only about 10am.   Where to next?  We debated a lot, and for the sake of time, we decided to head to Battle Creek and in this case, it was the first time this season that anyone from IBL had been to Battle Creek.  We fly in, land and begin our taxi toward the mouth of the river and find ourselves in shallow water until ultimately, the “DG” runs aground and cannot move.  It was the first trip of the season to this spot and the river channel had moved…. as it turned out it was about 40 yards away.

Long story short (I can do this), we fished Battle Creek, I caught the biggest rainbow of our time there (25” and VERY fat), we fished about two hours, came back to a “beached” boat and found out that we didn’t have enough gas to make it back to the lodge.  T-Bird calls the lodge on a sat-phone, finally gets hold of Mark to bring us gas, but Mark hasn’t been to this location, so we’ll need to fly to the Moraine pickup spot.  At this point Barb politely asks “Do we have enough gas to get there?”  After assurances from T-Bird, the adventure continued.  

We now had to move…aka… PULL the “DG” about 40 yards across shallow water, literally dragging it over the gravel in about a foot or two of water to get it to the new river channel so we could take off.  We landed at our Moraine River takeout spot, Mark landed soon after, we loaded about 15 gallons of fuel into the “DG” and with perfect timing, here comes Ferdinando and Eleonora with their guide Chandler.  We grab them and head back to the lodge.  Again…. WHEW!  But Bottom Line:  We crossed off the Alagnak River…. we are now at 97 of the TU Top 100 Trout Streams…. and most importantly, we’d had the most adventurous day being first to the Alagnak AND Battle Creek.

Day 7:  Gibraltar River…..ummm… No.  Moraine…ummmm…. No.  Battle Creek…. YES!!! (pic 4)

Our day was supposed to have been a nice, short float plane ride to the Gibraltar River for fishing.  However, when we flew over, the Iliamna Lake was getting swells that caused T-Bird to go into “Plan B”, the Moraine.  When we got to the Moraine, the weather actually worsened to the point we couldn’t land there either, and T-Bird had to go to IFL navigation…. “I Follow River”.  We got an amusement park ride at this point as T-Bird literally didn’t just follow the river but flew low over it, below the worsening cloud cover, weaving and banking left and right until we were able to get some clearing.  We then went to Plan C, back to Battle Creek.  This was good, because now that we did our “recon” the day prior, we knew where the channel was and easily made it to the river and had 2 hours of great fishing.

When the weather cleared a bit, we got back in the “DG” and flew over to the Moraine and repeated what we did on Day 5, albeit with no rain and slightly less wind.  We were fishing all day with Chandler who it turned out worked in Bozeman for a time at Yellow Dog Fly Fishing as well as at one of our favorite fly shops in Livingston, Sweetwater Fly Shop.  Great day and a great, uneventful ride back to IBL.

Day 8:  Gibraltar River… YES! (pic 5)

To get to the Gibraltar, we ferried over in IBL’s “big” boat, towing a smaller jet boat behind.  We beached the big boat, got in the jet boat and headed upstream to fish.  We’d fished a few holes, caught a few nice bows and lots of smaller ones when Chace, our guide, decided he’d walk the boat downstream and let Barb “nymph” a bead through a run from the boat.  I was to follow down, wading and swinging a leech.  The picture of Barb drifting down with Chace guiding her was too priceless not to capture, so, I got out the camera and took a picture.  I put the camera away, took my rod back to cast and proceeded to fall into the Gibraltar.  

The Gibraltar is not a big river, in fact, where I fell in, I’m guessing its only about 20-25’ across.  When I fell into the river, I immediately did what you’re supposed to do and got my feet downstream.  Barb and Chace turned and saw me, so Chace pulled Barb to shore and started up to help me.  However, this one day I had forgotten my wading belt.   Unfortunately, this allowed the river to completely fill my waders with water and begin pushing me downstream.  I dug my heels in, but I was no match for the river.  Little did we know at first, I was really in a bad spot, unable to move at all and ready to head downstream weighing about 400 pounds with water-filled waders.  Chace comes and I grab hold of his legs.  I am in the river, arms wrapped around him as he literally drags closer to the bank.  We had to unbuckle my waders to get the water out of them to get me “light” enough to continue pulling.  When he finally had me beached, I stood up, stripped down to my skivvies, and contemplated what’s next.  We were a few miles upstream, there is no one around anywhere, and I’m standing nearly naked on a gravel bar.  Of course, both Chase AND Barb wanted pictures of me now….. LOL!

Chace went downstream to the big boat to get another rod since I’d lost mine in the river.  Luckily Monte had an extra fleece, which while two sizes too small, I managed to fit over my head and was thankful to have it and Chace had an extra pair of socks which helped me to stay warmer.  I pulled on my base layer pants, which were still soaked and cold, put on my waders and boots, and we continued to fish, of course.  

Not only did we continue to fish, Barb had an over 30 fish day and I caught some massive rainbows.  We lunched on the banks of the river;  told stories and laughed hard.   At the end of the day, standing in the middle of the river in about 3.5 feet of water, Barb and I had a double of beautiful rainbows.  What a way to finish the day.

Retrospect is a wonderful thing.  At the time of the fall, I wasn’t worried, I figured that I had Chace, Barb and a boat downstream of me and I’m a good swimmer.  However, I’d never swam as a 400 pound guy, wearing a water sock set of waders in fast moving water; it was like having bricks tied to my feet.    As I reflected on it, and as Chace and Clair told me later, I was in serious danger in that moment.  There is a reason you always wear a wading belt.  I’d simply forgotten mine at the lodge and assumed I could make it that day.  After I had the “accident” I took the belt off my fishing pants I’d been wearing beneath my waders and securely pulled it tight around my waders.  

Day 9:  Heading Back to Anchorage

After saying goodbye to all the IBL staff, we all got back on the “DG”, flew to Iliamna, unloaded then reloaded for our flight back to Anchorage.  At this point, we said goodbye to our 7 new friends we’d shared the week with at IBL: Arturo, Arturo, Jr., and Raquel (Mexico);  Ferdinando and Eleonora (Italy); Hadley (NC) and his son, Sherwood (San Francisco).   It was an experience we shared and we’ll all never forget… the “Alaska Experience” as we’d heard it said… but more on that in another post.  For now, it’s time to continue our “30 Days in Alaska” and….

Ramble On!

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Alaska

30 Days in Alaska

By Tom Burnett

When we started out on this three year “River Ramble” to fish the Trout Unlimited’s Guide to America’s Top 100 Trout Streams, we knew we were saving the five rivers in Alaska for last.  The other 95 were “easy” in comparison, as we were able to drive to every one of them.  Alaska posed a bit of a different problem as you can see from our cover photo for this post.  We have to fly, on float planes, to get to several of these last 5 rivers.  So on Friday (July 20), instead of firing up the SaraLinda and heading out, we are headed to Bozeman-Yellowstone International Airport and heading north for “30 Days in Alaska”.  

We’ve been advised by all the places we’re staying in Alaska to bring the usual…. rods/reels, waders/boots, polarized sunglasses, fav fishing hat, comfy clothes and necessary meds/toiletries.  Additionally, we were told to bring…. a mosquito net for our heads, 95% DEET bug spray and, of course, we’ll have bear spray with us.  While our guides will likely be packing heat, we’ll definitely be packing bear spray.   

As we’ve been planning our trip, we got out the maps to see just exactly where we’re going.  Alaska is our largest state in land mass and our most sparsely populated.  As you can see from the map (pic 1 above), it’s bordered by two Canadian provinces to the east (British Columbia & The Yukon), the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the south, and to the west, it shares a maritime border in the Bering Sea with Russia.  Remote seems an appropriate description.  But it’s also the home of our highest peak, Denali, and some of the most breathtaking scenery and wildlife on the planet.  While it’s definitely a fishing destination of anglers around the world, “It’s Not About the Fish” applies here as well.  

We’re really breaking up our time in Alaska into 4 segments (pic 2 above), each with its own unique character.  After a short stop in Anchorage, we’re off to Intricate Bay on Lake Illiamna for a week of fishing in which we’ll check off two of the five rivers, the Alagnak and the Copper.  But just to get to fish these two rivers, it requires a “normal” plane ride from Anchorage to Illiamna airport followed by a float plane (pic 3) to get to our lodge at Intricate Bay.  Fishing the Copper River will be easy as the lodge is located near where the Copper flows into Lake Illiamna.  The Alagnak is more of a challenge… aka… a float plane once again to get there.  You’ll also notice on the picture, Katmai National Park and Preserve (Brooks Falls in particular, see pic 4), which we’ve been told is a “must see”, along with yet another float plane trip to get there.  You can see why the SaraLinda just wasn’t an option.   

Segment two is all about sightseeing (along with a little fishing of course) along the road between Cooper Landing and Denali National Park and Preserve.  After we get back from the Katmai/Lake Illiamna area, we’re back to Anchorage, then driving down to Cooper Landing to fish the Russian River (one of the Alaska 5) and do some sightseeing in Seward.   Then it’s back through Anchorage and up to Talkeetna, which began as an Alaska Railroad town.  It’s also a “basecamp” area for exploring Denail and fishing a creek that was recommended to us, Montana Creek.  Yes, we’re definitely fishing MORE than just the five TU Top 100 trout streams in AK.   Then we’re off to Denali National Park and Preserve for a full day of sightseeing.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed the weather will be good and we can actually SEE the mountaintop.  After Denail, it’s back to Anchorage for…..

…. Segment three, which requires a flight from Anchorage to the small town of Bethel, another flight to the even smaller native village of Quinhagak and finally, a 30 minute boat ride up the Kanektok River to our next basecamp at Alaska West (pic 5).  So far, we’ll have been staying in a room, with four solid walls, but not at Alaska West.  Here, we are staying in “tents”, with floors, but basically canvas stretched over a frame that has two single beds inside, a lantern and that’s about it.  The bathrooms are “out houses” strategically located around the tent sites.  There is a dining tent, a drying tent (for waders/boots), a lounge tent and a shower tent.  You can see why they call it a “Tent Camp”… LOL.  This is truly an Alaska bush experience, at least as “bush” as we’re willing to try.   However, the camp is located directly on the Kanektok River which means, no float planes, just getting into jet boats and moving to various sections of the Kanektok, which is the only river we’ll fish this week.

Segment four begins when we boat/fly back from Alaska West to Anchorage.  We’ll meet up at the airport with dear friend James Kelley who is coming to Alaska to fish with us for a week on the Kenai Peninsula.  Once we grab our gear from baggage claim, we’re headed back to Cooper Landing to fish the Russian and Kenai Rivers, both on the TU Top 100 list.  We’ll be floating through the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge fishing the Kenai and hiking along the Russian River.   We’re staying in Cooper Landing in cabins along the Kenai River and enjoying all the “fishing, food, friends and fun” we can.  

After this segment, we head back to Anchorage to catch flights back to Bozeman (Nashville in James case).  Our “30 Days in Alaska” will have been complete.  However, along the way, we plan to “Blog” on our River Ramble site and/or update our Instagram feed every day (well, at least every day where we have internet access).  We hope you’ll follow along with us on our journey to Alaska.  

Ramble On!

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