The old saying in Alaska about the weather is that… “if you don’t like it, just wait ten minutes and it will change”. Normally this is a motto that we live and plan our days by for good reason. Dressing in layers is the name of the game when getting ready for a day of fishing out in the bush of remote Bristol Bay Alaska. Mother nature can be very cruel to folks up here that are hoping for a nice summer day in this region.
No so this year. Considering the area’s panache for crumby weather in June, also known as ‘June-Gloom’, and last year’s rough patch during this same week, it came as a huge surprise to our clients to be able to fish in shorts and flip flops most of the week. The Haynie family was back again, making it twenty years in a row at Mission Lodge. Not a lodge record, but darn impressive for sure. They reminded us that last year we only saw the sun for about 2 hours during this same time period.
While the sun might have kept the King Salmon fishing from really breaking lose, catch numbers were pretty solid for us all week on the Nushagak River. The Togiak River kept kicking out lots of Jack Kings and every other fish that swims in these parts. The flow of Sockeye finally peaked over the weekend, with plenty of fish throughout the entire system. In fact, late in the week a nine pounder was caught on a lake hop way up high in the Wood-Tikchik chain of lakes.
And with all those Sockeye Salmon pouring in, Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park was the happening place to watch large coastal Brown Bears feed on the migrating salmon. The previous week our guests when out to Brooks Falls and hit the park two days after the first bears showed. This past week it was ‘Bear central’ out at Brooks Falls. Fish jumping, bears catching, etc… truly the stuff of t.v. commercials.
