Nature Can Be A Real Mother: Nushagak River Alaska 2010

As Portland, Oregon set a record for the wettest month of June ever, we were packing our rod tubes and coolers and headed north to Alaska’s famed Nushagak River to capture first-hand knowledge to complete a website for Travis Moncrief’s Fins Feathers Furs Nushagak King Camp. View it here: www.finsfeathersfurs.net.

Checking the iphone weather everyday for weeks wasn’t providing much hope that the weather would be cooperating. Rain every day was the forecast. Ten hours after leaving Portland we stepped off the plane in Dillingham. It wasn’t bug spray we needed to apply. It was sunscreen. To our surprise, the first four days were nothing but blue skies, 20 hours of sunshine and no wind. There’s nothing quite like an Alaskan sunburn.

Our dates of June 19 – June 25 were well targeted to hit the historical peak of the run, but as nature often does, she changed the schedule on everyone without even so much as issuing a memo. Fishing was still better than anything you’d fine in the lower 48 with 15 to 25 kings per day, per boat, but trips of years past have produced 100 fish days.

Personally, I was hoping to see some bears. I have an odd fascination with these dominant predators, but they were all still high in the mountains and hadn’t started their journey to the riverbanks to feast on salmon. Maybe they knew the fish were going to be late. I did manage to stampede a moose, aka Swamp Donkey, right through the middle of camp. She was moving too fast for any photos.

When the Kings really get moving, Luhr Jensen Kwikfish in the smaller sizes of k13 and k15 are my personal favorites to fish. We’d come prepared with small collection of never-been-fished-before UV coated Kwikfish. While they swam perfectly and hooked up a several times, it was the larger k16′s that were producing the big fish.

The new Luhr Jensen UV Kwikfish did find their way into some photos, we’re just not sure where these shots may come in useful.

The fishing improved everyday and as we boarded the plane, the concensus from all was that the next week would be lights out fishing. But two days later, much to everyone’s shock, the Nushagak was closed to all King salmon retention and bait. The sonar counts were not as predicted and biologist were frantically trying to fax and email Mother Nature for answers.

Till next time…

BDC Lands the Big One!!!

I’ve been chasing this one for over twenty years. Had my first encounter back in college while trolling the local area for whatever would bite. Back in the days, my buddies and I would see him frequently… more times than we’d like to admit. But we just never seemed to be able to get our hands on him. He always seems to taunt us and stay just out of range.

Last week we got our first real opportunity and went after him. Hooking him was fairly easy…I cast out a small plastic lure and he went for it with vengeance.

Once we were certain he was hooked up, the fight began. We had to break out the heavy gear for this one… bolt cutters, a 24ft aluminum ladder and several hundred feet of rope.

There was no way I could handle this guy all by myself. It took five of my closest friends over two hours to finally get him up to the boat.

Getting over the rail was the toughest part. He put up one heck of fight. Darn near broke the windows out and tore up the sides pretty good.

Thankfully, everyone understood what was at stake and never gave him an inch of slack to play with. With three lines firmly attached we finally got him into the boat and lashed down.

That’s when the fun started. Nothing like driving through downtown Lake Oswego at 10 AM on a Saturday morning with a 17’6” Great White shark in tow. The reactions we got were priceless. Actually had one woman convinced we caught it in the lake and recovered several small children and a Chris Craft from its belly.

This shark is destined to become the centerpiece of the offices of BDC Advertising, the company that manages many of the fishing and marine brands you all use on the water. Although, we have not yet confirmed whether Mr. Jaws will even fit in the lobby. It’s possible he could find a new home at Fisherman’s Marine.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a big fish.