Nushagak-Part 3

The light on Saturday morning was such a welcomed site. It was was one of those mornings when it was difficult to take a bad photograph. Everywhere I looked the light was hitting objects a certain way that made you see them like you've never seen them before.

As I mentioned earlier, we all got on the river as quick as possible, breakfast would have to wait until later.














Brad buzzed us up the river to one of our more productive fishing spots. The stretch of water is situated next to a large stand of pine trees and a little backwater swamp. I had to keep reminding myself to think about the amazing fresh air at my disposal. You could smell the trees from the boat and all I kept wishing was that there was some way to bottle that experience and bring it home.

The fun part about this fishing spot was the beaver who occasionally wondered out to the boat to remind us that we were near his home. He would sneak up to the boat and in flash, "SMACK" his tail on the water and scare the hell out of us.
















Once the sun broke the tree line and hit the cold water, the fog rolled in. Fog can create some interesting effects which make it easier to take great images. All the rain from the previous day had caused the river level to rise dramatically. In addition, the water clarity resembled chocolate milk from all the mud being washed off the river bank. Needless to say, the angling was slow so I went fishing for photos.














After the fog burned off and the sun returned, so did the bugs. This time the misquitoes were joined with a prolific hatch of Caddis flies. They were everywhere. Thank goodness for the person who invented the head net.













We did manage to catch a few fish that morning. One king was over 20 pounds so we kept it and brought it back to camp for cleaning. Breakfast is served at 10:00am weather your there or not so we headed back to meet up with all the guides and guests for a killer FinsFursFeathers Camp feast.

Nushagak-Part 2

I arrived at FinsFeatherFurs Camp on Thursday afternoon. My good friend Brad was finishing up his job of detailing the fleet of camp boats with the new company logo. He did a great job and the camp owner was thrilled with the improved look.














Our first full day of fishing began with cloudy skies that soon turned to rain..non stop rain mixed with cold wind. It was pretty miserable. We landed a handful of fish but the conditions really took the fun out of it. The silver lining was that the inclement weather chased away all the anoying insects. Most of our rain gear was so wet that it stopped performing as a repellent and started acting more like a sponge. The camp kitchen tent, which had the only wood stove, was cluttered with soaking wet clothes and gloves along with numerous, frozen fisherman all jockeying for a place to thaw out their frozen appendages. It felt more like late March then mid June.

It was such a relief to wake up the next morning and see sunlight. There was an intense excitement around the camp as fisherman scrambled to get on the river early in order to make up for the time lost the day before.

Nushagak-Part 1

So, when I left off I was waiting for my contact to arrive so I could get a ride up the river to the fishing camp. After waiting 1 1/2 hours after our scheduled meeting time I had to make other arrangements. The nice folks at Penn Air made room for me on small plane they had headed for Portage Creek. As it turned out, when I checked out of the hotel the attendant informed me that my contact had just been there but couldn't reach me so he left.

Funny, even on these small planes the pilot still runs through a whole check list of safety rules. This one included a part about keeping my hands and feet away from the controls. You don't hear that on a 747!

Can you tell that this guy was all business?
















The welcome sign at Portage Creek, a thriving metropolis.....not!

What you cannot see in the image are the bullet holes that convey the warm of this community.















This is the shuttle service from the airport to the river. By the way, that structure in the background is the main terminal building for Portage Creek Airport. It doubles as the place where the town stores all the broken down vehicles.















The lovely main port at Portage Creek. You would be wise to wear your waders when using this port.

What you cannot see in this picture are the swarms of misquitoes. They acted like they hadn't been fed in days.

Alaska

My 3rd fishing trip to Alaska started at 3:30am Wednesday morning. This year I will be pounding the Nushagak River for King salmon with my good friend Brad. The weather is predicted to be sunny and mild for most of the trip but as long as it does not snow, I could care less about the weather. Hell, even snow won't stop us from getting on the river.

My trip started with a flight from Boston to Minneapolis. After a brief layover, it was a 5 hour flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage. What was scheduled to be a 4 hour layover turned into a 5 1/2 hour layover...ugh! We finally departed Anchorage around 5:30pm, Alaska time, aboard an 18 seat, twin prop plane that I needed to stoop over in order to walk down the aisle. We arrived in the small town of Dillingham around 7:00pm. From Dillingham I was scheduled to board a float plane to the area where the camp is located but unfortunately, the delay in Anchorage caused me to miss the flight going to the camp. So instead, I hitched a ride into town with a guy in a classic Alaska style pick up truck, lots of rust and virtually no muffler system. In Dillingham I spent the night at the Bristol Bay Inn and at the time of this writing I am awaiting my contact to meet in the lobby.

Today is going to start with a 90 minute boat ride up the river to our camp. Luckily, I just looked out the window and saw the sun so the trip should be quite pleasant.

The image above was shot on the plan trip from Minneapolis to Anchorage. Whenever I see these mountains it means that we are getting close. These mountains are visible for about the last two hours of the flight. I can always count on having a stiff neck by the time I arrive because I just can't stop looking out the window at these gorgeous peaks.

Jim