Alaska Day #4

Today J.J. and I along with three other people in our group jumped in one of our float planes (they are called "beavers") and flew back to the Nushagak River (about 100 miles in the air) to fish for king salmon. At this time of year over 300,000 king salmon enter the Nushagak from the ocean to swim upstream to the spot where they were born to lay their eggs - some will swim as far as 400 miles. All of them will lay their eggs and then die if they don't become food for people or animals before they make it to their birthplace.

In addition to King Salmon there are other types of salmon in the river heading upstream to spawn. About two-thirds of the salmon we catch are king salmon - the rest are known as chum salmon. Both are very good to eat. The king salmon are more prized because they are generally much bigger. There is a limit to how many fish we can catch. We are allowed to keep two king salmon per day but one must be smaller than 30 inches, and we can keep 5 chum salmon per day. Our one week fishing license limits us to four king salmon. Since we can only keep four we end up releasing a lot of kings if they are small in hopes to catch a bigger one. If we have already caught our limit and then catch a big one we would have to let him go. It becomes a guessing game trying to decide whether or not to keep a fish. We don't want to come home empty handed but we also want to land - and bring home a big fish.

We are fishing about 25 miles from where the river meets the ocean and many of the fish we catch have only been in fresh water for a day or less. A lot of the salmon will travel more than 20 miles per day. This is the only time of the year that the King Salmon enter the river.

The Nushagak River is about as wide as the Snake River in Jackson. Our pilot lands the beaver on the river right in front of what is known as "King Camp". This is where our three guides live. They live in tents on the river for about four weeks during the salmon run. They work with guests of the lodge from about 9:00 to 4:30 every day. When not guiding they do what they love to do most - fish. In about two weeks King Camp will be moved up the river about 100 miles for two weeks to meet up with the migrating salmon again. Flying on the beavers is an adventure in and of itself. Each plane can carry up to 7 people and are everyone's primary mode of transportation. The pilots can land and take off on very small areas - as long as it is water.

Today our group caught about 30 Salmon and we kept 10 of them. We didn't catch any big monsters like we did before but J.J. caught the biggest fish of the day again - a king salmon that was almost 3 feet long and weighed 20 pounds. The weather was overcast but slightly warmer. I only had to wear my long johns, wool socks, hiking pants, rain pants, turtleneck, wool shirt, sweatshirt, hat and gloves. I had two additional coats in my day pack that I didn't need today. So that was an improvement.

Fishing for salmon is very relaxing compared to fishing for rainbow trout on the streams. For the most part we just sit in the boat holding our fishing poles waiting for a strike. Sometimes it is hard not to fall asleep. We float downstream in what is known as "back trolling". The guide uses a trolling motor to push the boat upstream against the current to slow it down. It is like we are trying to use the motor to push us upstream against the current but losing the battle. By slowing the boat down our lures spin against the current and look like tasty morsels to the salmon.

Enjoy the photos.