my 2010 Alaska trip

[jwmiller33]

My family and I took our second annual trip to Alaska, and I thought I'd share some pics and some stories. We flew in to Anchorage and then rented a van and an RV and drove straight to Soldotna and stayed at the All Alaska Lodge.

This place was extremely nice and on a beautiful trout lake. We stayed here for 3 days, and after each day of fishing, we would come back and I'd take the canoe out on the trout lake for about an hour and throw some panther martins and catch some really nice rainbows. The lodge had top of the line canoes and paddles to use, which was extremely nice to have.

Didn't get any good pics of the rainbows but I caught about 15-20 in the 2-4 pound range. It was very fun to come and wind down each night after a full day of salmon or halibut fishing and throw a few casts for some trout.

The first day in Soldotna, we went out of the Cook Inlet and chased some Halibut around. Everyone in our group limited out and got their two fish. The biggest halibut we caught this day was a 45 pounder and a 50 pounder. Both very nice fish, but little did we know, these would get blown out of the water later on in our trip

We had trouble fitting all of the halibut filets in the cooler for the car ride home back to the lodge.

The next day, we did a fly in and chased sockeyes. This was my favorite day of the entire trip. Being by yourself, with no boat traffic, and hooking into 10lb fish nearly every other cast is something I will never forget. We were fishing in Wolverine Creek (I think is what it was called), and there were fish literally jumping every two seconds. You would cast over them, and reel until you felt one, and set the hook. I found out how hard it is to hook them in the mouth. It would be much easier if you were fishing in a narrow river where the fish were only going one direction, but when you are in a big pool and they are swimming around freely, it is quite a challenge to hook one in the mouth. I guess thats what you get for flying in and fishing them where they stage before they make their run up the river to spawn.

This was our plane:

This was on the way in:

This was flying over a glacier on the way back:

After we all limited out on sockeyes, we went back to our lodge and to our surprise, found a camera crew running around. Turns out, Larry Csonka was staying in the lodge next to us, and was up there filming a couple shows. It was really cool to meet him and talk to him for a few minutes. It's not everyday you meet someone who has their own fishing show. Very nice guy, but he is also very quiet!

We then left Soldotna and drove to 6 mile creek where we did some white water rafting. I had never done any white water rafting before in my life, and this was an awesome eye opening experience at how fun this stuff is! Nothing like jumping into 38 degree water and swimming across the lake to open your eyes in the morning (what they do before they let you get on the rafts). It was extremely intense doing class 4 and class 5 rapids. It is one of the best white water rafting rivers in North America. Also, my step dad informed us after we finished that if the river was an inch higher, they would have closed it down because the conditions would have been too rough/fast.

Here are a few pics from our white water rafting:

To be continued on next post...

[jwmiller33]

The biggest fish from our first halibut charter day were in the 45-50 lb class. Very respectable fish on any boat.

We then went and drove to Seward for one last day of halibut fishing. We took a two and a half hour boat ride out into the ocean to get to our spot in 6 foot swells. I have never gotten sea sick before, but, I was a little green almost the whole day for this adventure. We had 6 people in our group total, and four of us ended up "chumming" over the side of the boat (not me). Even one guy who used the patch ended up hurling, so it was pretty rough out there. We SLAYED the halibut. I was fishing out of the back of the boat and was jigging on bottom with a 5lb weight when I got a bite. By this time, I had reeled in several halibut in the 10-50 lb range, and knew how they fought. This fish immediately took about 20 yards of line and I knew it was a bigger fish. I ended up fighting it for about 15-20 minutes before I finally got it to the surface and saw it was a huge halibut! The captain, Hill, shot it in the head and it took two guys to pull it into the boat. My fish ended up weighing in slightly over 105 pounds. My step dad had to one up me, and about a half hour later, caught a 110 pounder. Reeling these suckers in in 200 feet of water is definitely a rush!

This picture doesn't do it justice:

We ended up catching a ton of black sea bass as well, along with some yelloweye. We also hooked into a couple ling cod too, but they were out of season so we had to toss em back.

We ended up bringing over 150lbs of halibut and black sea bass to the processor in Seward that day.

And finally, the reason almost everyone goes up there, the KINGS! Last year, we did the majority of our fishing on the Little Su, but with low water levels and the low number of fish coming thru the Little Su, we ended up going over to the Deshka river for our king fishing this year. Lots of nice fish caught in our group and all around us. Unfortunately, I only have pics from the first two days/fish (of five days total) on the Deshka because my camera battery died after that. I had a personal goal set of 35 lbs to put one up on the wall, and was really hoping to hit that goal this year because I want to put one of those beauties on my wall really bad. The biggest I caught ended up being a 31 pounder, which is nothing to frown upon.

Here is my first king of the season. I think this one was about 25 pounds or so.

And my biggest one of the trip, caught on the second day, weighed in at 31 pounds after being bled out and sitting in a cooler for a couple hours so it was probably a little heavier then that.

All in all, we ended up bringing about 425 pounds of halibut, king and red salmon and black sea bass back to MN with us. I now have more halibut and salmon then I know what to do with! I've been cooking it almost every other day (on a daily rotation with salmon and halibut). I've also been giving all my friends several pounds of fresh halibut and salmon to free up some freezer space. Last year, we got all of our fish smoked and brought it back with us on the plane. It is actually much cheaper to bring it on the place with you, as long as you pack it in boxes that are 50lbs or less. Otherwise, you have to pay a ton of money to get it overnighted from the processor. This year, we just got all our fish frozen and vac packed into 1/2lb packages (no smoking). So we have raw fish for the rest of the year until we make it back next June.

I am extremely grateful that my step dad is buying two jet boats in Alaska and storing them up there. One is going to be a bigger (about 25 ft) with a 125 hp jet. The other one is going to be a lot smaller with a 75 or 90 hp jet on it as well. He is also in the process of buying a small house/cabin up there, most likely in the wasilla area. We went and bought camping gear (tents, cooking stuff, cots, etc) and we are storing that, along with our boat up there, and we are going to do a 5 day drift trip next year instead of what we have done in the past. I am very much looking forward to the drift trip because it will be nice to get away from all the motor boats, and it will be really fun to do some riverside camping. I am very blessed I have the opportunity to have our own boats up in Alaska and have a place to stay and all our own equipment. Now all I have to do is buy the plane ticket!

[Sherpa]

Looks like you had a great trip. These pics definitely have me pumped up for my trip. I leave a week from tomorrow and I'm staying for three weeks. Good to see you did the fly in trip. Alaska is so awesome to see from the air. Looks like the fishing was great for you guys. Did you see any bears while you were up there?

[jwmiller33]

thanks sherpa! i remember talking to you after i posted about my alaska trip last year. The fishing was pretty good, I wouldn't say great, the king fishing could have been a lot better, but we still managed some nice fish. The action just wasn't as fast as we would have liked. The Deshka was opened to bait on the last day we were there so it was fun to learn how to fish with bait, as I had only used spin n glos, kwik fish, and vibrax before that.

We did not see any bears, but we saw over 20 moose. We even saw some twin calves (I don't know if they usually have one calf or not but we saw some twins).

The fly in trip was AMAZING. It was my favorite part of the whole trip. The water was crystal clear and with my polarized glasses, you could just see the schools of reds and cast right into them. I wish I would have brought my camera on the boat but I forgot it in the plane that day. The red fishing was by far the most fun I had on all of the 10 days of the trip. When you manage to hook one of those buggers on the tail end, it is just like trying to reel in a king. It is also fun because its not "one and done" like it is with kings (daily limit of reds is 3 i beleive).

Where are you going on your trip Sherpa?

We are going back for the silver run in a month or two, whenever that happens to be. We don't have our tickets bought yet but it is going to happen.

[jwmiller33]

L]Good to see you did the fly in trip. Alaska is so awesome to see from the air.

Alaska is amazing from the air. Here are a couple more pics from our fly in/during the flight.

This pic is really cool. Look at the fresh water lake on the left, and the glacial melt stream on the right. It is amazing that water can vary so differently in color

[Sherpa]

Wow, you are going back again this year. That is awesome! I love fishing silvers. They tend to be more aggressive and will strike your lures much more than reds in my experience.

I think it is fairly common to see moose with two calves but it's usually just one.

It's great to be able to get out to the remote areas in a small plane. I used to go to the Naknek River every summer for a week and that is some of the clearest water I have ever seen. Being able to see the bottom clearly in 20 feet of moving water is amazing.

You are right about hooking one in the tail. They take off like a missile. So fun.

I'm not sure exactly where we are going to fish. We will probably just try to find out where they are running and go there. My dad lives up there and has a little two seater airplane so we have lots of options. I think we will probably hit the Kenai. My dad wants to dipnet it this year to fill up the freezer. My brother that lives up there wants to go to Whittier and do some boat camping and fishing. And I have a brother in law that lives on Kodiak Island so I might take the ferry out there for a few days. He is a fishing addict like myself and has a boat out there so I really hope I can make it. I'm sure I will do a good amount of just flying around to with my pops too. I can't get enough of that and I want to learn more about flying so when I go to get my pilots license (someday) It will be that much easier for me. That's as much as I have planned as of now for my trip. I'm sure there will be lots more going on.

Great pics by the way. Thanks for posting.

[tacklejunkie]

The biggest fish from our first halibut charter day were in the 45-50 lb class. Very respectable fish on any boat.

We then went and drove to Seward for one last day of halibut fishing. We took a two and a half hour boat ride out into the ocean to get to our spot in 6 foot swells. I have never gotten sea sick before, but, I was a little green almost the whole day for this adventure. We had 6 people in our group total, and four of us ended up "chumming" over the side of the boat (not me). Even one guy who used the patch ended up hurling, so it was pretty rough out there. We SLAYED the halibut. I was fishing out of the back of the boat and was jigging on bottom with a 5lb weight when I got a bite. By this time, I had reeled in several halibut in the 10-50 lb range, and knew how they fought. This fish immediately took about 20 yards of line and I knew it was a bigger fish. I ended up fighting it for about 15-20 minutes before I finally got it to the surface and saw it was a huge halibut! The captain, Hill, shot it in the head and it took two guys to pull it into the boat. My fish ended up weighing in slightly over 105 pounds. My step dad had to one up me, and about a half hour later, caught a 110 pounder. Reeling these suckers in in 200 feet of water is definitely a rush!

This picture doesn't do it justice:

We ended up catching a ton of black sea bass as well, along with some yelloweye. We also hooked into a couple ling cod too, but they were out of season so we had to toss em back.

We ended up bringing over 150lbs of halibut and black sea bass to the processor in Seward that day.

And finally, the reason almost everyone goes up there, the KINGS! Last year, we did the majority of our fishing on the Little Su, but with low water levels and the low number of fish coming thru the Little Su, we ended up going over to the Deshka river for our king fishing this year. Lots of nice fish caught in our group and all around us. Unfortunately, I only have pics from the first two days/fish (of five days total) on the Deshka because my camera battery died after that. I had a personal goal set of 35 lbs to put one up on the wall, and was really hoping to hit that goal this year because I want to put one of those beauties on my wall really bad. The biggest I caught ended up being a 31 pounder, which is nothing to frown upon.

Here is my first king of the season. I think this one was about 25 pounds or so.

And my biggest one of the trip, caught on the second day, weighed in at 31 pounds after being bled out and sitting in a cooler for a couple hours so it was probably a little heavier then that.

All in all, we ended up bringing about 425 pounds of halibut, king and red salmon and black sea bass back to MN with us. I now have more halibut and salmon then I know what to do with! I've been cooking it almost every other day (on a daily rotation with salmon and halibut). I've also been giving all my friends several pounds of fresh halibut and salmon to free up some freezer space. Last year, we got all of our fish smoked and brought it back with us on the plane. It is actually much cheaper to bring it on the place with you, as long as you pack it in boxes that are 50lbs or less. Otherwise, you have to pay a ton of money to get it overnighted from the processor. This year, we just got all our fish frozen and vac packed into 1/2lb packages (no smoking). So we have raw fish for the rest of the year until we make it back next June.

I am extremely grateful that my step dad is buying two jet boats in Alaska and storing them up there. One is going to be a bigger (about 25 ft) with a 125 hp jet. The other one is going to be a lot smaller with a 75 or 90 hp jet on it as well. He is also in the process of buying a small house/cabin up there, most likely in the wasilla area. We went and bought camping gear (tents, cooking stuff, cots, etc) and we are storing that, along with our boat up there, and we are going to do a 5 day drift trip next year instead of what we have done in the past. I am very much looking forward to the drift trip because it will be nice to get away from all the motor boats, and it will be really fun to do some riverside camping. I am very blessed I have the opportunity to have our own boats up in Alaska and have a place to stay and all our own equipment. Now all I have to do is buy the plane ticket!

What charter in Seward did you use? I took my oldest son up there a few years ago and we did Crackerbox or something Cracker charters

[jwmiller33]

tackle junky- our captain was Hill Norvell, his charter is called FishWithHill[dotcom]. he was very experienced and an extremely good captain. he has been on several fishing shows before, including a couple with Larry Csonka. He knew his stuff and he knew exactly where to go to get the BIG fish. We will be going again with him on our trip next year

[jwmiller33]

I'm not sure exactly where we are going to fish. We will probably just try to find out where they are running and go there. My dad lives up there and has a little two seater airplane so we have lots of options. I think we will probably hit the Kenai. My dad wants to dipnet it this year to fill up the freezer. My brother that lives up there wants to go to Whittier and do some boat camping and fishing. And I have a brother in law that lives on Kodiak Island so I might take the ferry out there for a few days. He is a fishing addict like myself and has a boat out there so I really hope I can make it. I'm sure I will do a good amount of just flying around to with my pops too. I can't get enough of that and I want to learn more about flying so when I go to get my pilots license (someday) It will be that much easier for me. That's as much as I have planned as of now for my trip. I'm sure there will be lots more going on.

Great pics by the way. Thanks for posting.

yes i can't wait to go back for silvers! i havent caught a silver yet, so i am looking forward to the experience. thats good to know they are more aggressive then the reds and actually strike. i find it kind of weird how you fish for reds, because they actually dont bite at all.. i guess the concept of fishing for a fish that isnt going to bite a little weird!

where does your dad live? that is awesome he has his own plane up there. if there is anywhere in the world i could have my own plane, it would be up in alaska. the amount of amazing lakes and rivers you have access to up there is nearly unlimited. and with a plane, you can say goodbye to all the combat fishing holes.

i'm extremely jealous you are going to kodiak island! i really wanted to go there this year but it didnt end up working out. do you see a lot of bears on that island? how about when you fly around with your pops, do you get to see a lot of bears? i imagine there will be a good chance we end up seeing one when we do our 5 day drift next year.

are you going to only be targeting kings? or sockeyes too? when exactly do the silvers start to run? i have learned from asking so many different people that it really depends on each individual river, like the silvers/kings/reds dont all run at the same time across the board on all rivers. i cant wait to start living up there and start learning all of these seasonal movements first hand

i was doing daily reading on an alaskan fishing forum for weeks prior to our trip and it seemed that the consensus across the board was that this year, the numbers of kings are at near record lows... have you heard similar talk sherpa? i know the little su was almost non existent for kings when we were up there during our 10 days. just seems like the counts are kind of down this year compared to when we were there last year.

[Fish Head]

What an awesome report and photos! Thanks for sharing! I was up there June 5-12th myself. I'll definately be going back again! Alaska is great!

[jwmiller33]

What an awesome report and photos! Thanks for sharing! I was up there June 5-12th myself. I'll definately be going back again! Alaska is great!

where did you go/fish? catch any big ones? what river were you on?

[Fish Head]

We stayed in Homer a few days and Soldotna a few days. We went out on the salt water for a Halibut/Rockfish combo trip and that was great! We were supposed to fish the Kenai, but obviously they closed that at the last minute, so we ended up doing a couple float trips on Kasilof. We were thinking of doing a fly-out to Wolverine Creek for Sockeye, but we were there a little too early for that.

Next time, I think I'll be going mid-late July. We'll fish the Kenai, do that fly out for Sockeye and fish Halibut, Rockfish and Lingcod in the salt.

[jwmiller33]

We were supposed to fish the Kenai, but obviously they closed that at the last minute, so we ended up doing a couple float trips on Kasilof. We were thinking of doing a fly-out to Wolverine Creek for Sockeye, but we were there a little too early for that.

Next time, I think I'll be going mid-late July. We'll fish the Kenai, do that fly out for Sockeye and fish Halibut, Rockfish and Lingcod in the salt.

yes we were planning on hitting the kenai too but kind of expected it to be closed when we got there judging from reading all of the EOs the week before our trip.

sounds like you were looking at doing the same flyout we did (to wolverine creek). it was an absolute blast and we cannot wait to get back and do it again next year. that place is really something else!

[Fish Head]

What day were you at Wolverine Creek? We were thinking about doing that on June 11th, but we were told the sockeyes hadn't started running there yet.

[jwmiller33]

i think we were there on june 13th or june 14th. cant remember exactly. i'm not sure what you mean by "running". we fished wolverine creek, and what that is, is a large pool where there isnt (much of) any current or anything, and all the sockeyes stage here until they make their run further up the river to spawn. our guide was telling us, they basically all sit here and stage/wait, and then one sockeye will make the jump and start leaping up the rapids. after one goes, they all go and make their way all the way up to where they spawn. after they decide to leave this staging area/pool, they are no longer accessible to fish unless you are going to do some serious hiking

there were literally HUNDREDS of sockeyes staging in wolverine creek when we were there, maybe even thousands. just judging from the extremely large number of fish i saw swimming and jumping, and we were only there for a half of a day (doesnt take long to get a limit). i guess you could call this place we were fishing a resting area in their run. because they start running from the ocean up this river, then get to the spot where we were fishing and it is basically a big pool, like i said. i wish i would have taken a picture of the rapids they swim up once they leave this pool. its hard to believe any fish could actually swim up this.

who were you going to do you fly in with?

[traveler]

JW; sounds like you had a great trip...congrats on getting into triple digits on the butt (I'm still waiting to do that!)

Too bad the kings were slow, but you still managed some nice fish.

Couple things...you described your Wolverine trip as being the only boat. I've done several flyouts but avoided the Wolverine one because I've heard (reliable) stories about it being "bumper boats" over there. Maybe you were there early in thier season? I'm thinking thats the case.

If you want to do a flyout for silvers in August, see if anyones fishing the Chuit...it's a cool little creek and you can catch silvers on the fly there, if you're into that. Sight fishing no less. I know there are hassles there with the native corp. sometimes, so you'd have to ask about that.

We flew over to the Nushagak (2 1/2 hrs. one way) a few years ago...pics are awesome:) What a cool ride, eh?

Good luck in August...I've never gone then, can't stand not being able to fish for kings!

[jwmiller33]

traveler, yes i know we had good timing with the wolverine trip because our guide had mentioned the same thing. he said normally there were a lot more boats out there then were there we were there.

thanks for the info on the Chuit. Catching silvers on the fly would be awesome. I caught a couple reds on the fly in the ninilchik river when we were around that area. we brought our own rods and reels and tackle and everything so we could do our own fishing when we weren't with guides, and it turned out to be a blast. i hooked into a really nice sockeye while on the fly and he took me for one heck of a fight. i landed him about 1/4 mile down stream from where i hooked into him. it was a blast. i can only imagine what its like getting into some silvers on the fly.

what do you mean about the native corp hassles with the Chuit? is that one of the rivers that has special regs for the natives?

[traveler]

I don't think the regs are any different...it has to do with access. The native corp wants to control it, guides want to be able to bring people over. Do a search on the AK forum you've been frequenting and I'm sure you'll dig up some info, or just ask guides when you ask about booking. We fished less than 1/2 mile from the salt and the pinks were fairly thick, then some fresh silvers would pulse up and you could pick them out and drop a fly on them. I had some flash flies I tied myself so it was cool to catch them on those.

That being said, silvers aren't my favorite. They're cool to catch, but they don't have the torque of a red, and they're my least favorite of the big 3 (kings, reds, silvers) for table fare. Kind of soft...but still good:) I can most of my reds and have canned salmon all year!

[Sherpa]

Hey JW, You will love fishing silvers. My dad lives in Chugiak which is between Anchorage and Palmer/Wasilla. There is a little airport about a mile away that he keeps his plane at. It is a great setup, I'm so lucky to be able to go up there to this. He does not have floats on his plane so we are still limited by that. I think in the future he will have floats though.

I have still never been to Kodiak yet. Hopefully this year though like I said. We do see a lot of wildlife from the air. Lots of moose and a good amount of bears too.

As far as what we are targeting I am going to leave that up to my dad for the most part. If there is a decent king run going on anywhere I am going to push for that though. I don't really care to much as long as we can get some fish on the line. I think the silvers may even start to run now in some rivers. Like you said though it's different for every river.

I think the Kings started off really slow and then picked up late this year. They are still not where they need to be though.

Are you planning on moving up there? That would be a good move. I will probably make the move someday.

[jwmiller33]

sherpa-i can't wait to get into the silvers. ive never fished them before, so not sure what to expect. what kind of tackle do you use? i'm pretty familiar with tackle used for kings as i have logged a lot of hours targeting kings. ive mostly used kwik fish, spin n glos, vibrax/blue foxes and plain hooks with bait. do you troll or cast for silvers?

i know exactly where your dads place is at. i have done the drive from anchorage to wasilla about 15 times. we have stayed in wasilla or just outside of it a bunch of times (both in lodges and camping). that is really a great area with tons of great rivers within a couple hours

i am hopefully going to move up there within the next few months. i just graduated college and have been pursuing jobs in the anchorage area. also have applied for jobs in wasilla and as well as fairbanks. the only bad thing about alaska is there aren't a ton of finance or accounting jobs, which is what i have a double major in. i'm not too worried tho. i'm really hoping i will be getting a call one of these days. i can't wait to pack up the truck and do the drive out there. mapquest says two and a half days, or roughly 3k miles. it will be a long drive but i will be so flippin excited, it wont matter to me one bit. plus, i'm sure the drive is much more scenic then your typical drive thru the midwest, which i am accustomed to, so that will be a plus. the best part about being up there will obviously be the fishing. i dont care about the long, cold and dark winters, as i love the cold and will have many hobbies to pass the time. i will be bringing a snowmobile, all my ice fishing gear and my hockey gear, so the winter months will pass pretty fast. also, i'm really pumped to have my own place up there so my friends can fly up and visit and stay with me for fishing trips. that will be the best part! it will take me a while to learn the fisheries around me, but i already have a pretty good start from the trips i have taken. if there is a time in my life where i can move somewhere out of state and live for a few years, it is now, before i settle down. i'm not the type of guy who can spend my whole life living in one place. the world is too big and there are too many places to see to live a sheltered life in one place your whole life. carpe diem!

[Sherpa]

Sounds like you have the lure selection you need for silvers. I definitely toss a lot of spinners like a Vibrax or my favorite is a Bolo. I have only found Bolos in AK so I would grab a few when you get up there. Get a few colors and be sure to get a couple red and silver ones to look like a chunk of spawn floating by. When legal definitely try tossing spawn out there. I'm sure you know that by now though. We like to save our eggs from the females we catch to have fresh spawn. You can cure it yourself as well. My dad just puts borax on it and lets it sit in the sun.

Good luck with the job hunt. You could always try to get hired on at a lodge or on a charter boat to get you up there for now. It would be a good way to learn AK and meet some people.

I have done the drive once to AK. It took us about a week with a stop for one day in Edmonton for truck repairs. I think we drove around ten hours a day. We saw the northern lights almost every night on our drive. It was pretty cool once you got out of the flat areas north of the Dakotas.

That is a very good idea to bring your snowmobile. Get used to the word snowmachine because that's what they call them up there. There is some amazing riding going on up there. Mountains everywhere. Be safe though. I would recommend learning about avalanche safety. I think there might even be classes you can take. I know my brother always wares a beacon that they can use to search for you if you are buried. I would not do to much riding alone. Sleds are very popular up there so you should not have trouble finding people to ride with. I don't get up in the winter very often anymore so I haven't really ridden much up there myself but my brother is way into it so I get to hear about it a lot.

JW we should fish sometime in Duluth and you can pick my brain. I will be gone all of this month starting Tuesday. Possibly after that though.

[jwmiller33]

yes sherpa we should definitely get together and fish somewhere in duluth a few days. do you still hit the river a lot or where have you been fishing mostly this summer?

[Sherpa]

I fish the river mostly with it being so close. Now that I think about it, I have not fished one MN lake this year since open water season besides Superior (crazy). I have been hitting the Wisconsin lakes a lot though. I have fished Nebagemon, Upper Lake St. Croix, Amnicon, and Spooner Lake as well. I have even been going up the Nemadji from where it dumps into the harbor. Trying a lot of new areas this year I guess. What about you? Where have you been fishing this year?

I can give you my e-mail or whatever and we can try to find a good time to hit the water. Just let me know.

[hotrod1]

jwmiller, you mind if I ask what a trip like this cost?