Fishing in Alaska on the Alagnak River
by President Sam Bishop
Black bears I am used to, but Grizzlies, I am not. On the Alagnak River in SW Alaska I was blown away by the size and brute force of the critters. In an area where we could barely stand due to the current flow, a big male walked up the river, moving upstream as if the water wasn't even there. He was fishing by burying his head, searching as he walked. He was successful too!
Last year in early September, I fished the Kamchatka Peninsula for trout. This year I wanted to compare, so I did the same in the Alagnak River of Alaska. Actually the accommodations were better in Kamchatka, because they had wooden A frame huts to stay in each night as you waded and drifted down river. On the Alagnak, we were on the ground in tents, which was okay, but not quite like a level bed raised off the ground. By the way, if you go, take a bug net, or the gnats get in your eyes, mouth, ears, everywhere. In the tent it sounds like thousands of raindrops smacking the material.
As we all know, fishing is always great. It is the "catching" that is the variable. The water was very low in our area of the Alaskan Peninsula this year and while we caught a number of rainbows in the 15 - 22 inch range, it was not superb (see picture), but a very interesting trip nevertheless.
A week of Coho Salmon fishing Prince of Wales Island in SE Alaska followed that adventure. In 20 years of going there, I had never experienced three straight days without a fish on the bank and was getting very worried. But finally with a lot of rain to raise the water flow in the rivers, the Silvers moved up river and we got our boxes full. There will be a couple of smoked fillets at the January fundraiser for you to sample.
My public apologies to our Board of Directors, as I completely missed the September board meeting. I was so wrapped up in personal September fishing that I didn't look at my calendar properly. My only half-assed excuse is that I was "Gone Fishing".