i am comming

[fishkid]

Well looks like i will be comming up to alaska for around 3 years for a start. I will be living in chugiack just north of anchorage and going to school at UAA. I will be working at an excavating company in anchorage over the summer. I hope to find some good fishing and good hunting exspecially duck hunting if they have that around that area. If any one has any tips on types of fishing gear to bring up that would be greatly appreciated. Or things your able to hunt around that area.

[Sherpa]

Hey fishkid, congratulations to you on the move to one of the greatest places on Earth. My dad lives in Chugiak. That is a great location being close enough to Anchorage but not in it. As for fishing gear You will want a heavy action rod and good sized spinning reel for salmon. We use a lot of vibrax type spinners for lures. You will also want to get some coho flies. Coho flies are everywhere so don't worry about finding them, because you will. We put a good amount of weight about 18" above them to get them down to the fish. The basic technique is to cast upstream and just reel in as the current takes your lure. There is also a lot of good trout fishing in AK. For that you would probably want a more medium sized setup. And you are going to need chest waders, I recommend neoprene they are warmer. The fishing opportunities are almost endless up there. Google Alaska combat fishing so you know what you are getting into. Be prepared to fish pretty close to a lot of other people if you don't have a boat. Some may be turned off by this but once you get a salmon on and it takes that first run on you will be grinning ear to ear. You are going to be located in the middle of some great fishing areas From the Susitna and Deshka rivers in the mat/su valley (palmer/wasilla) to the rivers of the Kenai peninsula and plenty more outside of those. I have even caught salmon at the mouth of peters creek that runs right through Chugiak and dumps into the ocean. There is also some lake trout and northern pike fishing to be had. Northerns are basically considered an invasive species up there so I believe the regulations are pretty loose for them.

I don't know to much about the duck hunting but I know a lot of people do it. I have seen many different kinds of ducks up there so I imagine the hunting is good. They do have ruffed grouse and spruce grouse as well. The ruffed grouse were introduced about twenty years ago (in southcentral Alaska) and haven't completely flourished yet but you can find them. My dad being from MN originally just about has a heart attack every time we see one. They also have Ptarmigan. They are about the size of a grouse. I have seen them but never hunted them. As far as big game there is moose, Dall sheep, Sitka black tail deer, caribou and probably more that I'm not thinking of right now.

Sorry if that got to long winded. If you have any other questions let me know. If I don't know the answers I can definitely ask people up there.

[Shoot2Kill]

Well looks like i will be comming up to alaska for around 3 years for a start. I will be living in chugiack just north of anchorage and going to school at UAA. I will be working at an excavating company in anchorage over the summer. I hope to find some good fishing and good hunting exspecially duck hunting if they have that around that area. If any one has any tips on types of fishing gear to bring up that would be greatly appreciated. Or things your able to hunt around that area.

Hey man...

I lived in AK for 5 years and left in the summer of 2005. Get ready to leave MN behind forever once you get there.....I'd still be there if I could but I won't get into that. AK is one giant playground - endless things to do, the fishing is insane and is like nothing you've ever done unless you've been there. It is AWESOME. Living in Chugiak will get you close to some good duck hunting.....access and places to duck hunt around the Anchorage bowl is not like access and places to hunt around MN....fewer spots for sure, but access is not a problem since it's all state land.

Take any kind of fishing gear you have (rods/reels) and just be prepared to buy what you actually need when you get there. Lures are a different story, not much of what you would use in MN applies to much up there. Come to think of it, I have a box chuck full of Russian River flies that will proabably just continue to sit in my garage until the end of time unless I move back....if you're interested I'll send them to ya at no charge to help you get off on the right foot up there and help you save some $$ because AK is EXPENSIVE. Where do you live now in MN? If you're close to St Cloud you could stop by and I can talk your ear off about AK and show you a million pictures.

King salmon are EXPLOSIVE and words cannot describe how fun they are to catch....

This is me in my younger years...

A 6 man limit of Red Salmon from the Russian/Kenai River....pound for pound one of the hardest fighting fish in AK right behind the Silver Salmon.

Hunting - you won't be an AK resident until you've been there for a year...until then you will pay nonresident prices for licenses and the big game licenses are spendy. My advice would be to spend that first year getting to know AK and getting to know someone that hunts there - you'll understand when you get there. It takes a while to figure out, but is no doubt worth it. Find someone the first fall that you can tag along with, you'll learn far more than anything you can read online. To give you an idea of what you can do once you get it figured out - I killed a bull moose with my bow, a black bear, 5 caribou, and a 9 foot brown bear in 3 seasons....the hunting there is AWESOME once you are up and running.

Feel free to email me, I'll help you out any way I can because someone did the same for me when I went up there and I've not yet been able to return the favor to someone. [email protected]

Ryan