King Salmon

Jun 26 2015

JUNE 19 – 26, 2015 : BURN BABY BURN :: WEEK 1

The start to 2015 was a burner. Most of us left very warm weather in our home states to come up to Alaska and find… you guessed it, warm weather. While it was still a solid twenty degrees below temps in the likes of New Mexico and Texas, it was just plain hot and dusty up here. So much so that thunder and lighting started up all across the state, including here in Bristol Bay. A somewhat rare event in these parts. Within a day or so, over three hundred fires where burning around the state with over dozen inside of our flying radius.

As you might have heard, our snow pack was low. Around the lower lakes it appeared that there had been no snow and we all feared the water levels would be similar to the Rio Grande on the Mexican border. Turns out, the snow in the upper reaches of our river systems, especially the Nushagak system, were actually better than last season and all rivers where running at a very optimum level and quite cool. Good news for fishing.

The local species benefited the most from the mild spring and were in great physical shape, with most of the trout recovering nicely from an early spawning season. While streamers worked good, fishing for them with mice patterns was at its best. Rumor has it that mice rival rabbits in the fertility department and matching this furry hatch was our pleasure.

Our first group of the anglers were mainly here for King Salmon however, and early in the week it started a bit slow, but built up nicely as the week went on. The last couple of days saw escapement numbers of fish into the river that rival anything we have seen over the years and the angling success matched it. Game on.

The only glitch we ran into from a fishing standpoint goes back to the fires. One fire in particular had broken out on the tundra a couple of miles off of the Togiak River and depending the direction of the wind became an issue as we could not get into that river system a couple of days. Time to do a rain dance or two.

Jul 12 2013

July 5 – 12, 2013 :: Seeing RED :: Week 4

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.

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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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King Salmon

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