2012 Season

Jul 06 2012

Burning Money :: June 29 – July 6, 2012 :: Week 2

Burning Money – No, not burning money on fishing. That is actually an investment in mental health. Here in the land of the midnight sun, Fourth of July fireworks at Mission Lodge takes place around nine o’clock at night with the sun burning bright overhead as if it were high noon. Our fireworks are all noise and offer very little of the visual pizazz you would hope for. So we just call it burning money. But each year we do it anyway as we dearly love this great country and feel it is more than appropriate to take a moment from our vacations to honor its formation and the ongoing fight for freedom from tyranny. You will not see a fishing lodge in North Korea and the few that do exist in the former Soviet Union were built by us Yanks and are seldom enjoyed by the Russian populace — other than the political aristocrats that is. Here’s to our independence.

Fishing this week was again some of the most consistent of the summer as it falls right in the heart of the King, Sockeye and Chum salmon runs. The trout kept showing up more and more each day and the fry pouring out of the lake system had our Arctic Char in full binge-eating mode. It also helps to be a fly out lodge and be able to move around and hit all these different fish species in multiple rivers. When one river is slowing down, the next is just coming into its own. This week, most of them seemed to be ‘on’ and it went from ‘fishing’ to ‘catching’ on most days. The fishing was so good on the Nushagak river system that our state Fish & Game department raised the annual limit back up to four per year. The number of fish coming into the system not only caught up to the mathematical curve the state has put together, but started to surpass it. While the Togiak river was still getting started, it did produce some big fish for anglers willing to give up overall numbers of landed fish compared to the ‘Nush’.

Another added attraction during this first week of July was the return of the Brown Bears to Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park. It is hard not to be in awe of these giant bruins as they show off their varied fishing techniques such as the ‘ambush’, the ‘snorkeler’, the ‘ninja’, the ‘thief’ and of course the ‘class idiot’. See if you can pick these out from the included photos.

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Jun 29 2012

Pork Chops & Pitch :: June 22 – 29, 2012 :: Week 1

Some traditions are just so strong you have nothing to do but just embrace them. In this case the tradition is King Salmon fishing, pork chops for shore lunch and playing the card game known at ‘pitch’. It seems that another tradition has also cropped up this week – bad weather. While it did not slow down our fishing program, it was just plain cold and rainy for at least the third year in a row for this group.

We all cursed the cold weather and the fish seemed to not like it either. The King Salmon run was moving along just fine, but a little slower and in less numbers than the department of fish & game was looking for. According to their formula, the numbers were down for that exact time of year so the department clamped down the limits to only two fish for the entire season [as it turned out, the fish were just a bit off schedule]. It is a bummer when the fish do not follow the exact timetables that we set for them. Such is nature.

Even with the supposed ‘lower than expected returns’ the King fishing was pretty solid most days and absolutely great on the others. There were some slower days for sure, but only compared to the kind of numbers we have come to expect out of the Nushagak River system, which are nothing short of awesome. By any other King Salmon fishing standards, it was still great fishing on even our slowest days.

This week also saw the Rainbow trout fishing pick up including a monster that measured 31 inches caught and released by Steve George. The Arctic Grayling were very active for us, hitting both nymphs and dry flies. These ‘Sailfish of the North’ are some of the biggest you will find in Alaska and could eat their little cousins in Montana for lunch. Literally. Despite catching lots of them this week, no one knocked Frank Blanchard off the trophy board.

As the pictures below will show, the Arctic Char were absolutely gorging themselves on the salmon smelt dropping out of the lake systems. We are taking them both on spinning gear and flies, making for some really hot catching. The only thing missing was a strong presence of Sockeye Salmon. We did manage a few each time out, but are waiting on the big push.

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Jun 22 2012

Opening Week :: June 15, 2012

Opening the lodge each season is a little stressful, somewhat fatiguing and always exciting.

There is stress as one never knows what surprises will await on the various fronts we face; like how the weather will be, is the ice going to come off the lakes on time, will the barge show up with all our supplies and more importantly to all of us – will the fish show up.

The fatiguing part has as much to do with the insane amount of day light we have this time of year and the wicked way it plays on your brain as it does with how much physical work needs to be done to get things ready. ‘How can I be dog-tired with the sun hanging high above the mountain tops?’ Answer: it’s eleven thirty at night and you have been up and going since five am.

With the recent sale of the lodge, many have asked what will things be like at Mission. Well, pretty much business as usual since we have most of the same staff back and a mandate from the new ownership to ‘keep the magic going’. Our founder, Dale DePriest, will be around for a while to give life to the scene, but as most of you know that are close to us, his day to day involvement as been hands off for sometime now. The only noticeable change we have noticed is a new curiosity in town and more friendly waves than usual – like most small towns you have to drive with your hand on top of the steering wheel to be ready to wave.

Our first group of guests included a group of veterans that were part of the Project Healing Waters. It was a great honor to share this part of Alaska with them. They have given so much to our county towards preserving our freedom and liberty. We were truly humbled by the chance to guided them this week. To mark this event, some members of board, who are also longtime residents of this area, came out to dinner one night to help officially launch the new season, celebrate their new venture and honor these war heroes. It was a truly memorable evening and the importance of it was not lost on our guests.

In addition to hosting the Project Healing Waters group, we also brought out four of the top graduates from the Bristol Bay River Academy for some hands on training. These young anglers from the local villages of Koligenak and Naknek got to work alongside our staff to get a feel of what it is like guide here at Mission Lodge. In addition to guiding, we also exposed them to the other side of the job, like spending a night or two at our King camp on the Nushagak River, setting motors on our remote boats and more.

As the photos here show, the fishing was everything we expect of Bristol Bay. While the King Salmon fishing on the Nushagak River started off a bit slow, it built up each day into a full on catching frenzy by mid-week. The kind of numbers of salmon landed per rod can not be published in fear of being called liars. Let’s just say you could measure it in terms of ‘dozens’ of fish per person per day.

Unlike the last five years of glacial-like flows of ice in front of the dock in early June, the ice did come off the lakes on time this season. A few upper lakes were still frosted over, but the main system was clear and full of salmon smolt migrating through the gauntlet of Arctic Char, Grayling and Rainbow trout. Fishing the creek and river mouths proved to be excellent for anglers this first week with strong catches.

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2012 Season

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