papafsh
08-09-2006, 05:53 PM
Well, my first trip to Alaska was truly an awe inspiring adventure, that was shared with two of my sons which made it even better.
We arrived Monday morning July 31st. After getting the rental car (they are not cheap) we drove the Seward Highway (1) from Anchorage to Soldotna.
Checking in at All Alaska Outdoors Lodge a very nice place, but were only there till Wednesday as they had a group of 72 people arriving.
Monday was an open day so we fished the Russian River till about 11:PM, where we caught several RB's and Sockeye, which they call "Red's".
Tuesday we drifted the upper Kenai with Bruce Nelson Float Fishing service, RB's, Dolly's, and Red's, none of which were more than average size.
Wednesday we took a wheeled plane fly-out with Natron Air to Polly Creek at 6:AM, Tim the owner pilot, flew us over Cook Inlet which was truly awesome! We landed on the beach there and fished all day alone, except for the Mexican migrant workers who were camped the other side of Polly Creek. They were there digging razor clams commercially for some outfit and lived in those blue tarp covered shacks in the pictures. We were told to watch out for a sow brown bear with two cubs but we never saw her.
We caught Pinks, Chum, and Coho, some of them very large and saw the backing on our reels many times. After a break for lunch and to rest our arms a little, we moved up stream about 300 yards and switched to lighter rods to spend about two hours catching smaller Dolly's, we used a simple hook and two bead set-up and caught these little scrappers almost as fast as we could land and release them, man that was fun!
We then finished the day with the salmon again until the plane came back for us around 6:PM. That night we moved all our stuff over to Captain T's place, Little Bear Lake Lodge. Harry and Barb Temple were excellent hosts and we enjoyed several fine meals together, including fresh Sockeye on the grill...YUM! Harry is quite the guy, fished and hunted all over the country, with mounts on his walls to prove it, and videos and stories that would amaze you. Barb has been in Alaska since she was 18, so was an avid outdoors woman herself, and a great cook too.
Thursday we flew with our guide, Kenny, on Talon Air and targeted Coho, in a river I can't remember the name of. We did catch our limits, and this was the only day we actually kept any fish, except for a few Reds from the Russian River. It rained buckets all day and we did get hassled, at one point, by a 3 year old male brown bear. This river was mostly sand bottom with brush so thick on the banks, you couldn't see into it more than a couple of feet, which I found kinda' spooky. There were many bears around and we did see a bunch of 'em.
The plane that day was equipped with floats and had been built in 1952. It had a new $500,000.00 turbo-prop engine and was way cool! the power it had was incredible!
Friday we hiked in 2 miles to the Russian River falls, saw pools crammed full of Reds at the base, then hiked back down along the river almost 3 miles to the campground fishing all the way. There were a lot of other people here fishing for Reds, not for fun but harvest. We caught a few Reds and RB's, my son Tony got the biggest RB he's ever caught, and we saw many more very big bows that paid us no mind at all. Tony's RB was caught on a large coho fly, green/white, that he found along the bank :confused:
So it was a great trip and I would sure like to do it again next year. I took the WFF Feather Craft 7wt switch rod and the TFO 8wt. Both performed exceedingly well, however one of the ring eye inserts on the Feather Craft rod came loose, I pushed it back in and it was ok, but did continue to pop out every now and then. Other than that all went smoothly.
Here's a few pics, I'll put the rest of them in the gallery as soon as I get the time.
LB
We arrived Monday morning July 31st. After getting the rental car (they are not cheap) we drove the Seward Highway (1) from Anchorage to Soldotna.
Checking in at All Alaska Outdoors Lodge a very nice place, but were only there till Wednesday as they had a group of 72 people arriving.
Monday was an open day so we fished the Russian River till about 11:PM, where we caught several RB's and Sockeye, which they call "Red's".
Tuesday we drifted the upper Kenai with Bruce Nelson Float Fishing service, RB's, Dolly's, and Red's, none of which were more than average size.
Wednesday we took a wheeled plane fly-out with Natron Air to Polly Creek at 6:AM, Tim the owner pilot, flew us over Cook Inlet which was truly awesome! We landed on the beach there and fished all day alone, except for the Mexican migrant workers who were camped the other side of Polly Creek. They were there digging razor clams commercially for some outfit and lived in those blue tarp covered shacks in the pictures. We were told to watch out for a sow brown bear with two cubs but we never saw her.
We caught Pinks, Chum, and Coho, some of them very large and saw the backing on our reels many times. After a break for lunch and to rest our arms a little, we moved up stream about 300 yards and switched to lighter rods to spend about two hours catching smaller Dolly's, we used a simple hook and two bead set-up and caught these little scrappers almost as fast as we could land and release them, man that was fun!
We then finished the day with the salmon again until the plane came back for us around 6:PM. That night we moved all our stuff over to Captain T's place, Little Bear Lake Lodge. Harry and Barb Temple were excellent hosts and we enjoyed several fine meals together, including fresh Sockeye on the grill...YUM! Harry is quite the guy, fished and hunted all over the country, with mounts on his walls to prove it, and videos and stories that would amaze you. Barb has been in Alaska since she was 18, so was an avid outdoors woman herself, and a great cook too.
Thursday we flew with our guide, Kenny, on Talon Air and targeted Coho, in a river I can't remember the name of. We did catch our limits, and this was the only day we actually kept any fish, except for a few Reds from the Russian River. It rained buckets all day and we did get hassled, at one point, by a 3 year old male brown bear. This river was mostly sand bottom with brush so thick on the banks, you couldn't see into it more than a couple of feet, which I found kinda' spooky. There were many bears around and we did see a bunch of 'em.
The plane that day was equipped with floats and had been built in 1952. It had a new $500,000.00 turbo-prop engine and was way cool! the power it had was incredible!
Friday we hiked in 2 miles to the Russian River falls, saw pools crammed full of Reds at the base, then hiked back down along the river almost 3 miles to the campground fishing all the way. There were a lot of other people here fishing for Reds, not for fun but harvest. We caught a few Reds and RB's, my son Tony got the biggest RB he's ever caught, and we saw many more very big bows that paid us no mind at all. Tony's RB was caught on a large coho fly, green/white, that he found along the bank :confused:
So it was a great trip and I would sure like to do it again next year. I took the WFF Feather Craft 7wt switch rod and the TFO 8wt. Both performed exceedingly well, however one of the ring eye inserts on the Feather Craft rod came loose, I pushed it back in and it was ok, but did continue to pop out every now and then. Other than that all went smoothly.
Here's a few pics, I'll put the rest of them in the gallery as soon as I get the time.
LB