After an epic 30 hour flight, Laurie and I, and our good friend Barry Kyte, arrived in Anchorage Alaska. An overnight stay at the Captain Cook Hotel, and we were up and ready for our 8 day stay at Kvichak (pronouced Kwee-jak) Lodge. We meet our group of 12 anglers and boarded the Super DC-3 for a 50 minute flight down to the local village of Iguigig situated on the opposite side of the Kvichak River from the lodge. A short jet boat ride and were docking at the front door (literally) of the lodge. Here we finally met the owner Mike “Slim” McDowell and his fantastic staff. After a refreshing lunch and the group was keen and eager to get on the River and chase the famous sockeye salmon.
With the salmon running 8-10 deep up the river, it took us no time at all to perfect the “sockeye swing”. It was a never ending snag and jag and hang on. The sockeye gave us a good run and some great thrills with their aerial acrobatics and with an 8 knot current running down river, if they got out in the current it was mayhem. After releasing 100’s of salmon, we did not take much convincing from our guide, Scott “Bama” Wilkerson, to try some deep trolling for rainbow trout. We had some awesome afternoons, releasing 20 plus “bows” with Laurie releasing the biggest at 24 inches. The next treat was fly fishing for grayling on dry flies in the shallows on the Kvichak. It is an amazing river system that supports so much fish life and variety.
Slim flew us over to the Katmai National Park (south of the Kvichak) in his float plane, where we got up close and personal with heaps of brown bears….check out the bear photos….watching them hunt and feed on the salmon was spectacular.
After 8 fun filled days with plenty of fish and lots of laughs, Slim flew us back to Anchorage by float plane. This was truely the highlight of the whole expedition. Flying through Lake Clark pass, where the mountains reach for the sky and the glaciers are as tall as skyscrapers, was a vista that Laurie and I will never forget. We are definitely going to make another visit to this amazing part of the world in the not too distant future. If you would like to join us on the next expedition, please drop us an email at julie@australianfishingexpeditions.com
A special thanks to Slim, Bama, Jarod, John & Mary and Barbara.
» Bears and more bears
» Alaska fishing photo album
