We don’t need no stinking rope course to be the greatest team building experience anywhere. Oh no, we are talking fishing for chrome bright King Salmon, fly casting lessons followed up the next day with fly fishing for fresh Sockeye [Red] salmon, late night pool tournaments, competition karaoke and hearty rounds of ‘liars poker’. And to finish off the trust-building portion of our course – up-close and very personal Brown Bear viewing! Yah, now we are talking ‘team-building’ Mission Lodge style. It is an amazing place to spend time with friends and co-workers, building bonds that go far beyond the week at the lodge.
The weather was not the gorgeous blue sky days that we were all hoping for and was actually on the cold side of things, even by Alaska standards. How cold? Let’s just say the gift shop saw a run on capilene long underwear, polar fleece and high end Simms Goretex jackets. Despite the gloomy conditions, we were able to fly out each day with minimal delays and get to all the places we wanted to fish. The Nushagak continued to produce crazy good numbers of bright King Salmon and the Togiak River lived up to its reputation by producing larger than average King Salmon.
Trout fishing remained on the slow side compared to years past due to high, colder water. Between the record snow-packs and steady rain, the river and lake levels were staying right up at there early summer levels. On the ‘Lake Hops’, it was pretty shocking to see the giant fields of snow still on the mountains in this region. Such is Alaska.
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