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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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ZERO-ZERO Fishing Report : June 25 – July 2

July 7, 2010 By

A fly-by on the Nushagak King Camp...

Waking up to zero-zero is pretty depressing when you are at a fly-out fishing. But day after day of bad weather could border on suicidal. Over the years at all the various lodges and remote fishing camps that I have ever worked at, when the weather and or the fishing are good, everything about the program seems to be in perfect order. All the lodge employees from the top down tend to look like they really know what they are doing and how brilliant they were for picking such a great place.

However, when the fishing slows down and the weather turns to do-do, suddenly the entire program tends to get over analyzed. ‘Is this a good week for X?’ ‘Is it always foggy this month?’ ‘Are those un-popped kernels in the bottom of the popcorn machine?’ ‘Why do some of your olives appear rounder than others?’ or ‘is the Salmon really fresh’? And hey, after all, this is precious vacation time and very expensive time at that, so you deserve everything to be in order and have things live up to advertised levels or purported quantity and quality. Thus, when the weather tanks and the fishing seems a little off you, too, would start to even wonder about the number of ice cubes in your glass. After all, Alaska tends to be as close to perfect fishing [eh hum - catching] as one will find on this planet. The weather was as dismal and gloomy at best all last week. Morning delays and late dinners seemed the norm, not the exception. And we almost forgot about our gorgeous mountains that had now all but vanished from memory and sight for the entire week.

Fortunately, the fishing not only held steady but actually showed improvement each and every day. This success was represented in the Trophy Board standings. First up was Jon Mills with two entries scored on the same day. One for a bright Sea-run Arctic Char caught while fishing for King Salmon on the Togiak River. His second entry came a little later in the day for a beautiful King Salmon. As nice as his fish was, other anglers were grousing about losing far bigger fish. Sore losers.

Each week the friendly competition builds as everyone vies for the coveted top spots on the Trophy Board. Fishermen knock each other off with bigger and bigger fish. Some of the anglers seem to land on the Board year after year, while others, like our beloved Bob Crispin, graciously watches as his son, son-in-laws, house staff and even the boot-boy all ‘make the Board’ while he humbly sits by and ponders his luck or lack thereof. Bob’s enthusiasm for everyone else’s triumphs has glossed over the fact that deep down, he too wanted to claim a spot on the now infamous Trophy Board, even if just for a day or two. Like Jon’s triumphs, Bob was not going to be denied and scored not one, but two spots on the Board on the same day. Somehow he managed to find the first Pink Salmon of the year at 4.3 pounds which will most likely get bumped in the next couple of weeks. Sorry. His second fish, however, a Dolly Varden char of 4.2 pounds, actually has a chance to last for a while if not all season. After many, many years fishing with us, Bob makes the Board!
In the end, the week turned out to be a memorable one with some very productive fishing which included some arm wrenching Sockeye fishing on the Wood and Agulawak Rivers. The only real setback was the untimely closure for retaining King Salmon on the Nushagak River. Through a series of bureaucratic decisions based on seemly biased interpretations, the King Salmon of the Nushagak and people that rely on them for their livelihood, took a back seat to the commercial Sockeye Salmon fishery. There is a very good and workable allotment system in place, but we all witnessed the perfect storm of miscalculations tempered by the unpredictability of mother nature [weather and fish run timing]. This story is still unfolding, so stay tuned.

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Alaska Fishing Report :: June 19 – 26, 2009

June 26, 2009 By

Mission Lodge Fishing Report

Owner, Dale DePriest enjoying a moment with Mack Chase

Owner, Dale DePriest enjoying a moment with Mack Chase

After a week of warm weather, seemingly unseasonable for this part of Alaska, this past week began with much cooler temperature and rain. The Chinook must have felt our distress at this turn of events and responded by keeping rods bent and drags burning. What more could you ask for to kick of our Mack Chase week than unbelievably good salmon fishing. Mack himself set the tone with a 35 pound king that established a new seasonal record. For almost all of the group salmon was the focus, whether it was Kings on spinners and plugs or Chums and Sockeyes on flies everyone wanted salmon. Nathan Schaub spent a few days along with his pilot cohorts fly fishing for chums. Along with landing 20 chums in an afternoon he set the record for fly caught chum with a beast of a fish that weighed 11.8 pounds.

Tony with a nice King Salmon from the Nushagak River Alaska.

Tony with a nice King Salmon from the Nushagak River Alaska.

Mack’s fishing and card playing buddy, Cookie, set the gear caught record with a 12 pound chum. There were those who took time out from their salmon quest to experience some other fishing opportunities. Mike Phipps and Steve George have taken a liking to the Rainbows of the Kvichak over the years and were looking forward to mining it’s waters again for some large trout. It payed off when Steve landed a trout that tipped the scale at nine pounds. The Agulukpak was again a consistent producer of char and big Northern Pike. Jim Richards tied into one of those big pike and set the lodge record with a fish that weighed 10.5 pounds. Toward the end of the week, after some had had their fill of King Salmon, they wanted to try their hand at Sockeye. These fish have a reputation of being tackle testing fighters and all who hooked into a few confessed their amazement at their strength. Joe Gamertsfelder hooked into the biggest Sockeye of the week, a knuckle buster that weighed 8.5 pounds. It was definitely a week of full fish boxes and big kings and a week of familiar faces that we look forward to every year. Thank you to Mack and all of his friends for making it a great week.

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Alaska Fishing Report :: June 12 – 19, 2009

June 19, 2009 By

fuselage

Our first week of the season at Mission Lodge coasted in on the soft belly of clear skies and a warm breeze. We welcomed back the Benson family, who brought some of their close friends to partake in the Mission Lodge experience. We set out on the first day with resident fish at the forefront of our consciousness, but if we stopped for a moment, lingering there was a glimmer of King Salmon. The Agulakpak produced an abundance of Arctic Char for all of those who fished there and if you had had your fill of them could chase Northern Pike in a variety of bays around the area. It was on one of these ventures that Dave Benson wielding the long rod landed a healthy Pike that weighed in at almost four pounds. While casting hardware along the brushy edges Derek Hopkins hooked into a Pike that pushed the scales at 9.6 pounds.

TThe tributaries along Lake Beverly also produced some great action for Rainbow Trout. Jack Forell set an early high mark on the fly when he landed a gorgeous trout that weighed 4.2 pounds. Another popular trip was out Lake Hop that can take you to multiple stunning, fish producing destinations in one day. For those that were interested in catching Lake Trout this was the trip. The two Steve’s both set benchmarks in gear and fly weighing 4.3 and 3.6 pounds respectively. Our Secret Creek played host to both of the largest char caught this week as well as plentiful Arctic Grayling all too willing to take dries. Paul Lemestre landed a char that was pushing seven pounds on the fly, while Jeff Hopkins landed an 8.4 pound char using spoons. If people we looking for a strictly rainbow trout fishery the Kvichak offers some of the hardest fighting fish in Alaska. Looking very similar to Steelhead, they do not hesitate taking to the air in erratic contortions, then peeling line from reels in hard-headed charges. Derek Hopkins again set a board record when he tied into what would be a seven pound trout that he had a little trouble with bringing to the net.

Toward the latter half of the week we started sending trips to the Nushagak where at first the action was a little slow, but by the final day of the week things had picked up. Aaron Hopkins took home top honors with a King Salmon that weighed in a 32 pounds shattering Debbie Benson’s previous mark of 26 pounds. For our guests in the coming weeks, the King Salmon fishing is only going to improve so look forward to constant action. To our guests this past week, thank you for making the first week of Mission Lodge’s 25th season a great success. We look forward to fishing with all of you next season.

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