Nushagak King Salmon

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 28 2013

JUNE 21 – 28, 2013 :: BIG MACK – ATTACK :: Week 2

After weeks of crazy-warm weather throughout Alaska this spring, Mack and the boys brought with them some cool temperatures and much needed moisture. A ‘burn-ban’ was in effect throughout Bristol Bay. That was about to change. Saturday morning came and so did the nasty weather. Fortunately we were ready with a big new lunch tent at our King Camp on the Nushagak River. Thirty mile an hour winds are no match for a good game of ‘pitch’ from the inside of this palatial tent. Heated by a large wood stove, it is hard to leave this place after a big lunch on a crumby weather day.

A lot of fish were caught in the driving rain of the first day, however the group was concerned that once again, they were facing a cold, wet week ahead. Fortunately the winds and the rain let off a bit and the weather gradually improved throughout the week. The big benefit to those strong South, Southeast winds was how they drove the fish in from the bay in a big, bit way. Over 11,000 King Salmon passed the sonar that Sunday and provided for one the best days of fishing this group has seen in the last ten trips to Mission Lodge.

The other big event we got to see this week was the return of the Sockeye Salmon starting on our change out day, Friday the 21st of June. We typically see the first big push on the Wood River hit around the 28th so they were almost a week early. Great for this group, not so great for those anglers arriving later in the season. Such is fishing.

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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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Nushagak King Salmon

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