We’re delighted to share owner, Wayne McGee’s, July report from ATA Lodge on the Alagnak Wild River in Alaska. Over to you Wayne:
July on the Alagnak wild and scenic river is something that every outdoor lover should experience at least once in their lifetime, whether they are a fisherman or not!
It’s like stepping back in time, where salmon run so thick that you feel as if you can walk across the river on them and where wildlife roams undisturbed by modern life. Anglers can step onto the river with the feeling they are exploring a wild and pristine landscape.
Fishing in July has been phenomenal. The lodge has been full all month long, and guests have enjoyed an incredible taste of the very best of what Alaska has to offer.
The June fishing for big, strong and hard fighting trout was amazing, and the trout fishing remained very good in July as well. Then the salmon started to move into the river, and the fishing has been ‘lights out’!
July is the month that various species of Pacific salmon start to enter the Alagnak River system. It’s hard to believe but we get in excess of four to six million salmon into the system from late June through September.
The sockeye started coming in a bit earlier this year and when they arrive, they bring with them the costal brown bears who feast on them as their main food source after having come out from their long winter’s hibernation.
Once the Sockeye started to come in, they arrived in remarkable numbers, with some tides seeing more than 100,000 salmon entering the river at one time. They can be seen swimming up the margins of the river, nose to tail, two to ten wide and two to three deep, sometimes in an unbroken procession that lasts for hours, everyday.
This continued throughout July and between early July to about the 22nd of the month, many anglers were able to catch their legal limits in under an hour.
We are still waiting for final estimates as to the total number of sockeye that returned to Bristol Bay this year, but a couple weeks before the end of the month, the estimate was already standing at over 54 million.
Anglers are not the only ones enjoying catching fresh sockeye salmon along the river banks. The bears put on a show for everyone, every day, jumping in and splashing around trying to get lunch for themselves. These incredible creatures feast on the salmon they catch, doubling their body mass in just a few short months each summer. It is a real privilege to witness this spectacle every year.
The Alagnak River is a true cornucopia of the very best of what Alaska has to offer. Each sunrise brings another special day full of surprises and delights to tantalize the senses. After the sockeye salmon lead the parade, we start to see the king of the river, the mighty chinook salmon trickling into the system. Whereas we may get as many as four million sockeye, we only get 15,000-30,000 kings. This is considered a good run anywhere in Alaska where king numbers are threatened, with many king fisheries regularly closed to sport fishing.
Fortunately, we have never faced any closures to king salmon fishing on our river.
We get a very late run of kings on the Alagnak River compared to most other rivers in Alaska. Also, our location 52 miles upstream from Bristol Bay means that most kings we catch will have some colour to them. They start to change colour, from chrome bright silver to a vivid darkish red, very quickly once in fresh water.
Not everyone who wants to will have the good fortune to hook into a king salmon while they are here. But it’s an unforgettable event for those who do. Kings are strong, and they fight hard. A big chinook will put your skill as an angler the test, exposing any weakness in fishing technique or your tackle. This river is full of heartbreak stories of ‘the one that got away’.
By the middle of July, the chum salmon start to enter the river. We get a big run of chum salmon, perhaps as many as 600,000 to 800,000. When they first come in from the ocean bright and fresh, they are incredibly strong. They pull hard and just when you think you may be able to slip a net underneath them, they will turn and take another blinding run again….and again…taking you deep into your backing, sometimes multiple times.
When taking the boats down to the tidal areas of our river, it is not uncommon to have three, four or even five anglers with all their rods bent at the same time.
Whereas June and September represent the best time of the season to target our big, hard fighting leopard rainbow trout nearest the lodge, we still catch plenty of great specimens in July as well in our home waters. You will have to hunt for them once the salmon start to flood the river, as they get displaced by the sheer volume of salmon that are streaming through and filling up their normal lies. So, they may not be in the places we tend to fish for them in June. But those guests who put in the time and effort will normally be rewarded by catching some of the most beautiful specimens on earth.
Out trout are special indeed. They are ‘extra-spotted’ and have fantastic crimson stripes and cheeks. Growing up in the swift current of the Alagnak River, they are incredibly strong as well. Even with a smaller one on the line, some guests think they have hooked a big salmon.
Arctic grayling are also fun fish to catch on dry flies. They will bite a dry fly any time of the season. And when you catch one, there are usually quite a few more in the same area. Our grayling average over 15 inches and it is not unusual to catch many each day up to 18 or even 20 inches.
While most of our guests don’t feel the need to ‘Fly Out’ on one of the many adventures offered at ATA Lodge, some do like to visit and experience some of what the region has to offer. This often involves getting in a float plane to go places that you can’t get to any other way. Brooks Falls is always a great destination in July, with the sockeye salmon jumping over the waterfall while bears catch them as they are concentrated beneath the falls, or when they start to jump over the falls to get up to their spawning areas upstream.
Another popular excursion is to visit the Katmai Coast, landing on the beach to view bears in a Jurassic Park type setting. There is also the ‘valley of 10,000 smokes’, which is like a lunar landscape and was created by a huge volcanic eruption of over a century ago.
These excursions are incredibly scenic, flying over volcanoes, glaciers, crater lakes, mountains, river deltas and the dramatic coastlines of the Katmai Coast, which is part of the ‘Ring of Fire’.
Of course, fly outs are for fishing too. But the fishing on our home river is usually so good, that no-one really wants to fly out most of the time. Having said that, all the sockeye that have been swimming right past our lodge for over a month now, have reached their spawning gravels in the headwater of our system. So the trout fishing starts to heat up in those small streams from the end of July, and on into August. That’s why this time of the season we normally start to do fly outs to see what was happening on many of these free stone creeks at the top of our system and in the region surrounding ATA Lodge. Those that took advantage of these opportunities had a fantastic time.
If you are interested in visiting Alaska Trophy Adventure Lodge or would like information on any of our other destinations in Alaska please contact Alex Jardine. Alternatively call the office on to +44(0)1980 847389.
