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Opening Week :: June 15, 2012

June 22, 2012 By

A King Salmon from Bristol Bay's Nushagak River

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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July 25 – 29 : BBNC

July 29, 2011 By

The second leg of our late July ‘corporate week’ was a pre-board meeting team building event. What made it special to us is that it included a majority of Alaskan business & community leaders. It is not often that we get the chance to show our neighbors a side of Alaska that they have not seen while growing up here. In many cases it was just a matter of showing off a different perspective on an area that they knew like the back of their hand. However, it was surprising to all of us combined, was just how much we had to offer the ‘locals’. It was truly a special time and we were honored to be able to share what we do with in their backyard.
The King Salmon were pretty much done for the year, but chrome bright Silver [Coho] salmon more than made up for the lack of fresh Kings. We got some tremendous weather on the first full day of fishing and still managed to land a bunch of acrobatic Silvers [they like crumby weather as a rule].

Our wonderful resident species were in full charge mode and it was really special to demonstrate our conservation philosophy and practices with the end benefit being the incredible catches of Rainbow trout, Arctic Char, sea-run Dolly Varden and Arctic Grayling. I know that many of the guests were shocked by the shear volume of catches and subsequent releases. At the conclusion of the trip we all agreed what a special fishery Bristol Bay truly is.

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July 22 – 25 : Avail TVN

July 26, 2011 By


Have you ever been roped into something that you just dreaded? An invitation that your career could just not say “no” to? Well, as hard as it is for our readers (past/future guests) to understand, part of the group that showed up to the lodge had everything but ‘going to Alaska’ on their bucket list. Really. Hard to imagine, eh?! So in true Mission Lodge style, the magic of Bristol Bay Alaska grabbed them and then the bug of fishing caught hold, deadly infecting their psyche and overwhelming their attempt to resist.

This was a post Board Meeting outing that went far beyond any old ‘team building’ adventure. This was a truly life changing event for many of these city folk and it was our pleasure to watch their transformation. Not since our last high-tech corporate invasion had we seen such enthusiasm for learning our sport and raw energy. We sincerely hope that the Avail TVN gang will invade us again someday for another round of Alaska fishing adventure.

Fishing was as strong with King and Chum salmon tearing reels up and volumes of resident species eager to reward anyone willing to wet a line. These end of July time periods are by far the biggest variety of fishing options that Bristol Bay will see each season and provide a very diverse mix of angling choices. And if you are interested in Bear viewing – this is as prime as Brooks Falls will get all year.

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July 15 – 22 : Lights, Action cameras

July 23, 2011 By

It is not often that we decide to have a film crew join us, but one of our former guides put in a good word for Team E Media to film an episode or two of their Pursuit Channel series. As luck would have it, world class photographer John Konkal was back again this year working on his Alaska series that will soon grace all the rooms and halls of Mission Lodge. John does some amazing work as seen below in part of the weekly photos. What was the real bonus for the film crews was to have John shooting some addition GoPro video. This water tight cameras can be mounted to about anything; your head, the plane, the boat and even our own view – the ‘Net-Cam’. The GoPro shoots in true HD with the wide format we are now accustomed to on the flat screens TV’s in most of our homes. Check back this winter for fun video short films.

And what’s a fishing video without fish. Many of the salmon species were now staging in the various spawning grounds with the Dolly Varden and Rainbow trout hot on their heals. There was just enough ‘fish-able’ salmon in the lower rivers to provide some a couple of days of great action on King and Chum salmon. As the week went on and the weather held strong the upriver salmon started to drop eggs, which in turn helped us land some beautiful trout, char and Arctic Grayling.

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July 8 – 15 : Seeing Red(s)

July 15, 2011 By

We had a interesting mix of return clients this week with Linda Ford coming back up after almost two decades. She had liked the first experience so much that she decided to share it with your extended family this time. We also had the Powell’s come back after a 4 year break, this time bringing back both dads to enjoy some King & Sockeye Salmon fishing. Also back again this year were the Norm & Matt Heckler. And had the Den Hoed brothers again this year along another wine maker from Washington State, Rob Newson of Boudreaux Cellars. It was fun to watch the bonding of family and new friends as the week went on. For two families, it was a pretty special experience to share indeed.

The weather was cooperating and the daylight proved too much to handle. After a couple of late, late nights, Andy finally asked when it got dark around here. That would be August! It is always amazing how much energy you get from the sun shining down despite long days of fishing we had a hard time keeping up with this group.

The second week of July is almost all salmon all the time. Almost. This is also when the larger Rainbows start to show up and this year was no exception. The King Salmon fishing remained strong as long as groups spent the time on the water to hit the ‘bite’. Our local Sockeye Salmon run was in and ascending the Agulawak River in full force offering up easy limits and knuckle busting action on fly rods. With all the Sockeyes in area rivers, the bears were thick at Brooks Falls and continued to wow visitors. The big Alaskan Brown bears were keying in on the returning salmon in places like the Moraine, where larger Rainbow trout that were eager to bite our flies.

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July 1 – 8 : Independence Week

July 8, 2011 By

Alaska Airlines Salmon Express

By the very definition of the word LUCK, when you arrive to the fishing lodge on the ‘Salmon Jet’, you just know that great fishing awaits. We were all just lucky to be in Alaska this week and even luckier to be in famed Bristol Bay region of the 49th state (there are only 50 in case you’re wondering). After last week’s incredible fishing we were a bit concerned that our luck might run out on what was now shaping up to be one of the best King Salmon seasons in over a decade.

But no, when you land on the Salmon Jet that sports the massive image of a King Salmon — you are lucky indeed. The weather on Friday was ‘blue bird’ and over the course of the week slowly slipped back into the drizzly and rainy conditions all Salmon fisherman love to hate. And with that weather came even more King and Sockeye Salmon to supplement all the fish already in the system. It was just plain action. Counting fish became difficult even if you were just counting the ‘doubles’. Most boats started to brag in terms of the number of triples and quads being hooked! King fishing was just off the hook to so speak. Beyond what we here at Mission Lodge have come to think of as great fishing.

As tradition would have it, we saw many of our long time clients show up including Mel Brown, who has now come for his 26th season in a row to Mission Lodge. Mel is lucky indeed to hold this record. The not so lucky clients where those that either were back for their second time or even a few that came for their very first time, because they were now spoiled for the rest of their lives. It would cost them many fortunes and Lord knows how many seasons to have the stars align like this particular week. So hard to feel too sorry for their soar arms.

Fourth of July was again celebrated by burning some of Dale’s money in the land of the mid-night sun. Our annual fireworks display always sounds much better than it looks as the sun shines bright and high in the 10 pm sky.

In addition to the nutty King Salmon fishing, the Sockeye Salmon were now running in the system at full force, making for super days of reel (knuckle) busting action. It is a great bonus to add a few of these chrome beauties your fish box.

As the week ended, the storm system built up into monster, impairing our onetime departures schedules slightly. The awning on the porch came out as we watched the rain fall and fog clear. After such a fast and furious week, it was nice to slow things down a bit. Just a bit.

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June 24 – July 1 : Mack Attack

July 4, 2011 By


Week two brought back a returning group of King Salmon fisherman from New Mexico and Texas. For the last few years they have been coming a week earlier, but decided to take advantage of an opportunity that arouse in our schedule and shift to this third week in June in hopes of hitting the King Salmon even better than normal.

This schedule change sounded good on paper, but with two incredible days of salmon fishing the week prior we were all a bit nervous. Day one was like waking up from a bad dream, only to realize you it was not a dream and happening right before your eyes. Slow, slow fishing. Turned out there was a big commercial opener the night before in the bay, slowing things down. Day two, still slow. We even had a scouting party of anglers go to the Togiak River for Kings. They came back with a couple of larger fish in the upper thirty pound class, but otherwise very slow. Panic creeps in over the lodge. Not that we show it, but we were all feeling the pressure to provide the kind of fishing Bristol Bay is famous for and our reputation to deliver it.

Had they missed the run? Was it still slow from the blockage of the nets from two nights ago??

Day three of their trip dawned with nasty weather and down spirits. Four anglers opted to stay in and play cards by the fireplace. Sounded like a good call. We broke up the rest of the gang by sending a group up to the Agulawak River for Sockeye Salmon [which were now pouring by the dock in huge waves] and had another group go trout fishing. The remainder of the lodge went back down to the Nushagak River with little expectations and kind of feeling like they had drawn the short straw for the day — wrong!

The waves of porpoising Sockeye Salmon passing the dock in the morning should have been our indication that fish were in. The bluster weather the night before and still dark skies with wind in the morning should have also been a clue that fish were literally being blown in from the bay at near record levels. .

The boys on the ‘Wak had more Sockeyes landed by noon than they could handle and the trout fisherman enjoyed some good catches of Arctic Char, Arctic Grayling and some Rainbow Trout. It was the Nushagak group that floated across the dock with a spring in there step and broad smiles on their faces. Over 6,500 fresh King Salmon entered the river that day and it became a game of how many could you land in one day? Twenty to forty fish hooked per rod was the norm. Fishing was so good one of our pilots called in on the satellite phone at lunch time to report on the fishing… “there are two boats floating by camp with fish on, doubles on. Wait, now they have a triples!” It was just enough info to pull the boys away from the fire and card game to brave the weather.

The next two days the Nushagak River continued to provide some of the best fishing these boys had EVER seen. Truly spectacular fishing. Thursday brought us a high pressure system and another big commercial ‘opener’ and slowed things back down to real world levels.

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