ANOTHER TRIP OF A LIFETIME!
Let me begin by giving God all the Glory. For a person who spent at least half his life as a “blasphemer,” God as been good to me. “He has cast my sins as far from Him, as the east is from the west.” This is the fifth year in a row we have been to AK and each time it has been “the trip of a lifetime.” Of course the motivating factor for us being here is the fact that Brent, Bregitte, and the girls live here.
Trip Report
Brent and Bregitte have made this float before and found the timing near perfect. They encountered the “infamous” smolt hatch the headwaters where the Nonvianuk Lake turns into the river. We were hoping to do the same but we were a bit too early as the water temps were in the low forties and needed to be closer to fifty. We did catch “copious” numbers of large lake trout at the headwaters of the Nonvianuk River. Unfortunately fishing for the rest of the trip did not live up to our expectations.
We only caught 10 rainbows on the entire trip! We are trying to console ourselves with the fact that several were over twenty inches and the biggest was 24 (Brent). If given the choice of doing what we did or catching a bunch of smaller fish I would stick with what we had. I can catch tons of smaller fish in AR every trip. And remember that these are “native” fish in a very wild environment. We probably saw 10 people the entire trip and five of them were the first two days.
Bregitte, Rosemary, and Caroline seeing us off from Anchorage.
From Anchorage we flew to the Kulik Lodge operated by Katmai Air.
This is where the action began.
We set up camp. Notice the impressive “bear fence.” Too bad we could never get it “hot!”
This is how we eat, oatmeal in the morning and Mountain House at night.
Didn’t take us long to get into the lake trout many over twenty inches.
While we did get a couple of smaller bows at the lake but our best fish came on the Alagnak.
I’m missing some pics so I hope Brent can fill them in. My best fish of the trip was also the last.
Our last camp at Estradas.
The flight home was not without its perks. Flying over it was cloudy but coming back was clear and beautiful.
We had a great time. The best part was being with my son. Seven days and not one cross word or conflict ( maybe a little sarcasm).
May add a few more pics as time allows. One more week left in AK but the fishing may be done.
God Bless!
AAA Trout 