The Ultimate Fishing Destination - Part 2

...continued from July 5

Alaska is a fisherman’s dream come true and a vexing problem all rolled into one. With so many places to go and so many different fisheries to explore where do you start? I began my quest to discover Alaska at the Orca Adventure Lodge in Cordova at the southern entrance to Prince William Sound, where we fished for silver salmon in early September of 2002. We made trips to more remote rivers with famous bush pilot Gayle Rainey. Twelve days of incredible fishing, even more incredible scenery, liking flying over the Bering Glacier, only served to whet my appetite for more.

Next I did a two week driving trip from Anchorage to Talketna to Denali National Park and back to the Kenai and Russian Rivers to fish for wild rainbow trout so I could write a story for Field & Stream called “Rainbow Road Trip.” Most recently I spent a week at Icy Bay Lodge in the most remote area of Alaska’s Lost Coast region. We waded shallow bay waters sight casting to huge silver salmon with Mt. Saint Elias, the second tallest mountain in North American, and four major glaciers as the back drop. The region has the highest concentration of brown bears anywhere in the world. We came around a bend in a heavily wooded trail one morning on an ATV and there was  a huge moose standing on the trail. We would slip off to sleep each night serenaded by the baying of roving packs of wolves while the huge Bull Mastiff, Zeus, kept the bears out of the lodge area during the night. The glacier-fed waters of Icy Bay were the most beautiful color blue I have ever seen and I can see it in my mind’s eye right now.   

If you can only go to one exotic place to fish in your lifetime, make it Alaska. It will be a trip you will remember the rest of your days. The only problem is once you experience this majestic, truly magic place you will want to go back again and again and again. I do.

-Gary Caputi