Sportfishing is Alaska’s number one sport and outdoor recreation activity. More people participate in fishing than in all other Alaska leisure activities combined. Alaskans spend their vacations, holidays, days off, and time before and after work in pursuit of fish. A large percentage of visitors to the Great Land spend their time with rod in …
Bill Johnston from Omaha, Nebraska, and I met at Anchorage International Airport, where our trip to fish Iliamna began. Bill had won Alaska Outdoors magazine’s Alaska Dream Trip Contest, the prize being a fishing trip to Alaska fishing for a week with the magazine’s editor. We were whisked to Era’s flight to Iliamna almost before …
Gary Chilcote, our pilot-guide, informs Lee Fisher, my fishing partner, and me that the species of fish we intend to do battle with is “Chum salmon!” “Chum salmon?” my mind asks. “Chum salmon! Call them by their real name. Dogs!” Dog salmon, I’m told, inherited their name from Alaska Natives who use the four other …
Margaret’s rod tip drops quickly, and she shouts, “Oh, oh, oh, fish on!” It’s obvious there is no king on the other end, but the first fish, nevertheless. In less than a minute, the team of Don, the guide, and Margaret boat a small Dolly. No sooner is the Tad Poly back in the water …
Something got me thinking about fishing the Newhalen River. Although putting the trip together may require more planning than a trip along the road system, it can be satisfying and within almost anyone’s budget. My first trip to the Newhalen River was in my old 1948 Stinson Voyager. My daughter, her friend, and her friend’s …
From reading books and writing reports as part of his school studies, John Rosedale got the idea he wanted to come to Alaska. As John talked about Alaska, his father, Miles, conceived an idea for a father-son fishing outing. Miles’s business schedule demanded him to fly monthly from his home in Arcadia, California, to Oregon. …
Enid Brown, a Bering Sea Eskimo, has taken thousands of fish. As a young girl, growing up along the Fish River, she spent her summers in the fish camp. She was taught how to catch fish in a subsistence net by her mother and her grandmother. She had never fished with a fly rod and …
The Florette C doesn’t look like any charter boat I’ve been on, and the captain is also quite different—she’s a lady, Dianne Dubuk. The boat doesn’t have the traditional rack on back with broomstick-like halibut rods hanging overhead. Other boats’ decks are flat at the back, allowing six anglers to belly up to the rail …
The last angler on board the Florette C arrived at precisely the designated departure time. Even before introductions could be extended, Captain Dianne Dubuk was detailing the features of her boat, Coast Guard safety requirements, the location of snacks, and the lunch menu. It was a beautiful, early March morning. Winds were calm; the sun’s …
Nearly everyone hearing about Rainbow Bay Resort jumps to the conclusion the lodge’s namesake is the resident fish taken right off the end of the dock. Not so. The next obvious thought, still about fishing, is the lodge’s proximity to native rainbow waters. Wrong again. The name has nothing to do with fishing. Fishing the …