Was it fishing with some wine tasting? Or wine tasting with some fishing? Either way it was one heck of a good week of great fishing, great wine and even better friends. We joke with the ring leader Mr. Messina, that he can come hang out all summer with us – with or without his generous staff of premium Washington state ‘Reds’. To up the ante this year, instead of just bringing wines, Marc brought the wine makers. Our livers should recover my next season. Regardless of his sharing of some wonderful wines, Marc is a very easy going group leader who brings up an energetic group of anglers each year.
Also back this year was Alan, Mike, Larry and Jim who have been on a multi-year hiatus from Alaska. It was great to catch up and even better to remind them why coming to Mission Lodge should be on their radar each year!
King salmon were still going strong this week with the hot fishing shifting from the Nushagak over to the Tog. Board records fell all week with some fun back and forth. Sockeye fishing held on just long enough to fill a few fish boxes, but by week’s end it was over. Basically it was a full week early this year. One never knows what mother nature has in store.
