Mission Lodge :: News BLOG

Mission Lodge Fishing Report
August 1, 2008

Our days are full of water moving, faint wet sounds, river water running over stones, dripping from finger tips, water falling from it’s upper origins to the sea, wet sounds of oars dipping, being pulled through. We rise every morning to move to this watery world, search it’s depths, unlock it’s secrets, find another level so mysterious and complex it can only be taken for a deeper kind of truth. Sharing these things with our clients is one of our passions, seeing the broadening smiles on faces as they grasp the intricacies of fly casting or that trout of a lifetime is brought to hand. This past week we saw many of our guests have that experience, have that greatest day of fishing ever as Jonathan Schuyler did on the Upper Togiak, landing a handful of large trout, the largest being 8.2 pounds, and a bunch of dolly varden and char. Pinks and silvers continued their head-to-tail migration up the Nushagak, wearing anglers out and advancing the cocktail hour. For those who sought fish on the fly the pink salmon are agreeable quarry chasing subsurface or surface flies aggressively. A couple records fell while on Salmon Hops on the Nushagak; Tim McDonald landed an 11.5 pound silver on gear and Jonathan Schuyler pulled in a six pound humpy. The Upper Nushagak was the site of some furious action for rainbow trout, dolly varden , and grayling. Dave Dziedzic landed a large king on the fly while fishing the Kulutuspak, a plenteous tributary of the Nushagak, that weighed 26 pounds. While spawning chum salmon are the initial instigators of a feeding frenzy among our resident species the sockeye of No Name Creek began dropping their eggs this week helping Nic DePriest to hook and land a 28 inch rainbow and after a couple of casts a 26 inch trout. This, along with a large haul of trophy grayling, made for a great end to the week. When reflecting on a week of fishing one can see two parallel lines. One is the angler. One is the desire to catch fish. What bridges the two? What makes a connection inevitable? There is a third line. It comes out of dreams, visions, intuitions, prayers, out of the deepest levels of self. It’s not generated by cause and effect like the other two lines. It’s a line that cuts across causality, cuts across time. It has no history that we can recognize or understand. But it forces a connection. It puts a person on the path of their destiny. Thank you to all of our guests this week for bringing the very welcome sunshine. We look forward to seeing all of you next season.

Look into the heart of an angler. Look past the clothes layered against chilled air, against cruel, cutting wind, against the hovering squadrons of biting flies to see a persistence and determination to mine the infinite beauty of something as simplistically complex as fish from humbling surroundings. It’s a curious thing to wonder what some must think as we tuck our chin inside our collar in an attempt to hold off the cold before punching that cast out over a whispering current. It’s that persistence that we see in our guests on a daily basis as they work the water for that tug on the end of the line.

Being the end of July our fishing begins to transition, following a transition in species from King, Chum, and Sockeye Salmon to Silver and Pink Salmon, but this season has been an exceptional season for our Kings on the Nushagak and the switch has been seamless. All week our guest venturing to that mighty tannin river returned tired from landing so many fish and our guides were saying that it is just as good now as it is during the typical peak time of the return. Thrown in for good measure was the arrival of Pinks and Silvers. Combine those incredible light tackle fish with the heavy pull of kings and you have an already exciting day taken exponentially higher. The early chums have begun to set up on their reds and drop eggs sending expectant Dolly Varden and Rainbow Trout into a frenzy. Greg and Max Engel experienced this first hand while fishing the Upper Nushagak and it’s tributaries. They landed too many fish to count including a four pound Dolly Varden that put Max atop the trophy board. During one of their two trips to this amazing destination they took the opportunity to fly fish over a pod of staging King Salmon, managed to hook five and land one that weighed 18 pounds.

The splendor and excellent fishing afforded by our lake hop had most of our guest requesting that trip at some point during the week. Gayland Skaggs reeled in a Grayling from Nuyakuk Lake that weighed 2.3 pounds during one of their two lake hops. It seemed that no matter where you went this week good fishing was found and we went to a variety of destinations, marking the first time this season where we have diverged from our steadfast diet of salmon fishing. No Name Creek was again a great producer of trophy grayling on dry flies and massive, feisty rainbows. Despite some tough weather and never letting it get us down we put together a great week of fishing and enjoyed all of our guests. We hope to fish with you all next summer.

1 1/2 - 2 Pounds Halibut (thawed)
1/2 cup Sour Cream
1/2 cup Mayonaise
2/3 cup Fresh grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Lemon (juiced)
1 small bunch of Chives (or green onions)

This is one of Guy’s favorite halibut recipes that is very simple and rather quick to both prep and prepare. As with most Halibut dishes, figure on a portion size of about 4 - 6 ounces. Combine lemon juice, mayonaise and sour cream. Add 1/2 cup of the grated parmesan cheese and mix well. Cut your halibut into 1 inch cubes and arrange on a sheet pan (a sheet of parchment paper will speed clean up) appoximately 1/2 inch apart, in groups of six pieces. Add a dollep of your mixture on top of each cube. Sprinkle each cube with remaining parmesan and bake in a pre-heated oven at 350° for 8 minutes. Use a spatula to plate each group of halibut cubes. Garnish with the chives or green onions.