My first trip to Alaska, Yakutat 2000

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Alaska Adventure 2000

Alaska is a place that I have always dreamed of visiting and when I received a call from my buddy Dan in late March asking if I would like to join his group going to Yakutat in June of this year I was flabbergasted. This was an opportunity to fulfill my life long dream! June seamed a long way off, but before long , June 17th appeared on the calendar.

Eight of us met at Dan’s at 5:30AM. At 5:45 a stretch limo arrived and we were off to the San Francisco airport. At the airport we were joined by an additional three for the flight to Anchorage.

In the late afternoon our 737 landed at the airport in Yakutat like a fly on fly paper due to the short runway. As we collected our bags and fishing gear, five of us went to pick up the somewhat dilapidated vans we would be using for transportation during our stay. We all made our way to the lodge a short distance away that would serve as our base of operations for the next six days.

We all met at the lodge for dinner that night with great anticipation, Yakutat is known for large populations of big Kings, feisty Sockeyes and large Halibut . After breakfast each day we will split up into groups of three to five for various types of fishing and meet each evening of the trip for dinner in the lodge to share our experiences and fish tails.

This is my story and I’m sticking to it………………………..


Day #1: 7:00AM Yakutat Harbor, Halibut Trip
Four of us meet with our halibut guide for the day on a 25’ sport fishing boat set to chasing flaties. After a thirty minute ride in changing seas we stop and anchor. An hour later with no action we move to another location and once more nothing. Now our guide gets serious and we run farther out in to Yakutat Bay where we start off with a few dogfish. Then Al hooks up on a strong fish, fifteen minutes later an eighty pound halibut comes to the side of the boat. Our guide gaffs the fish and grabs his 410 shotgun to put it down for a nap and it misfires upon application. After three more tries with the 410 and no success he pulls it into the fish box still kicking and closes the hatch. Larry hits the next one, a seventy ponder, and in twenty minutes it is subdued in the same manor. Then 10 minutes later it’s Andy’s turn, as he whacks another fish in the seventy pound range. The landing is handled as the two before. We continue to fish the same location for another hour then, as I sat on a bucket half asleep Al wakes me from my day dream with “DAVE you have got a fish!” I awoke and set the hook. This fish took off with a powerful run, Andy grabs my shoulders as he sees me stager trying to gain my footing upon the strong pull of the fish. That first run pealed more than half of the ninety pound test line off the reel. I started to crank the reel, after ten minutes of pumping and cranking the halibut puts on another run. This one not as strong as the first and stops allowing me to again gain line. One more short run and the fish tires enough for me to work it to the side of the boat. Our guide takes one look and has every one not directly involved in the fight get into the boats cabin for safety. Our guide tries for another live landing but is nearly pulled overboard. Someone opens the cabin door and hands Gary the loaded shotgun after a shot of WD40 on the firing pin. I am very relieved to hear the muted BANG of the shell discharging and then he drags the monster into the boat, 63 inches at 185 pounds (now that’s a fish). As we motor in I can’t believe my luck, the biggest fish of my life! Upon our arrival at the dock we are met by the owner of the fish processing house, he loads the fish into the trailer behind a four wheel ATV to take back to the plant.

Day #2: Situk River, Salmon Drift Trip
After a breakfast meeting with all. Then we hook-up with our guide for the day, Tom, and I grab a couple of chairs from the rooms to use in the drift boat (no seats in the boats, just hard aluminum benches) and we drive 13 miles up to the starting point on the Situk. We find the boats stowed under the bridge, pull the bench and replace it with the chairs, get prepped and launch. As we drift down river our guide explains that there are only about three good holes to fish so it’s the run and gun approach, row hard, then fish hard. A light rain falls in intermittent spurts but the scenery is beautiful bald eagles sit in the trees by the score, otters frolic and we even spot a small mink with a with a fresh wound on it’s behind (apparently the loser in some recent scuffle). We find the first hole above the forks, our guide pulls the boat into an eddy and drops anchor to rig the K15 Quickfish lures we will use. Ron pulls up the anchor, and moves the boat to the top of the hole. Tom and I let out thirty feet of line and lock the reels. Within fifteen seconds I get hit but react too quickly and pull the lure out of the fishes mouth. Then not ten seconds later the rod is pulled hard and the fight is on, this fish is strong and wastes no time moving down stream in lighting runs. It’s all I can do to hang on, after fifteen minutes my arm is burning and the King shows no sign of giving up. Another ten minutes and our guide tails the fish to shore, a quick bonk with a big stick and he thirty-five ponder is dispatched. Our guide gills and bleeds the fish, leaving the gills on the bank and moves the boat back into the current. Immediately an eagle that has been watching us from a near by spruce tree swoops down, grabs the gills in it’s talons, and returns to it’s tree top perch for a meal.
The next fish is Toms, I will rest my arm and watch. Again as before within fifteen to thirty seconds Tom hooks up on another Situk King, it puts in a hard fight and is subdued as before right down to the screaming eagle performance as we move off the bank. Now seventy pounds of salmon are in the boat and it’s not over yet. Again the boat is positioned and tom hooks up again, this fish runs down river and wraps on a log breaking the 30 pound line like so much rotted thread. Lure lost, our guide rigs another, and we move back up river into the same spot for Tom to do a repeat performance only this time it’s the same fish and we are able to retrieve the lost lure. We catch and release another from the same hole and we move on because there’s a lot of river between us and the pull out. As we move to the next hole at the forks there are so many eagles it’s hard to fathom, they are every where. At the forks six more Kings are caught and released (three apiece) and again we move on. Farther down the last good hole is reached and four more kings fall for the Quckfish lures and we move on. About thirty minutes later we find Walt and Andy with their guide in a pram powered by a seventy horse jet outboard. Walt has landed a King, a twenty pound Steelhead and some Sockeyes. Andy has a few Socks and has been swimming (not by choice) and is chilled to the bone (the water here is icy cold). We continue down river as fast as possible as the weather takes a turn for the worse, rain followed by a cutting wind as the temperature falls twenty degrees (at least it felt like it to me). At this point our guide is rowing for all he is worth and we pray for the wind to stop blowing us back up river.

Day #3: Situk Sockeye Salmon
After another breakfast meeting we were again off to our adventures, today Bill, Walt, Tom, Andy and I were to fish from jet powered pram for Situk Sockeyes. Unfortunately Andy will not be fishing today due to a sinus infection aggravated by his untimely dunking on the previous days outing. The rest of us met the guide at the lower river launch ramp and were soon motoring up river to the first hole. We pulled up the gravel bar Bill, Tom, and I got out while frank positioned the boat so Walt could fish. Tom waded about ¾ of the way to the other side, Bill positioned himself just in front of boat and I started rigging my rod on the gravel bar. Our guide for the day hooked a couple of fish but none were securely hooked and got off. After a few minutes Tom in typical under stated fashion says “hay Bill and Dave there is a bear behind you”. I look up from my knot tying to see a young grizzly bear of around 400 pounds moving in my direction sniffing the air curiously. Although startled fear had not entered my thoughts, Bill on the other hand was a serious planner and had forgotten to have a plan for a bear visit. Bill began screaming at our guide “What do I do? What do I do? Our guide calls back “get out your camera and take a picture”. Then we began yelling and throwing rocks at the bear and he left. Our guide could tell that Bill wasn’t too comfortable at this location and we moved up river to another gravel bar. This time we were fishing in a crowd, twenty or more anglers in the next 100 yards. Walt hooked and lost a couple of fish, but Bill, Tom, and I hadn’t quite figured out how to fish them yet. After about an hour we got back into the boat to move up river. Then about 200 yards below the fish counting station our guide spotted a herd of Socks penned in by some fallen logs. He positioned the boat just outside the hole locking the fish into it (logs above and below the fish, the bank on one side and our boat on the other) they weren’t going anywhere! For the next two hours the five of us ripped the reds. Another beautiful day on the Situk, great fishing, great fun and great friends.

Day #4: Fly Out to the Akwe River
Andy was happily feeling much better because we were scheduled to fly to the Akwe River at 11:00 AM that morning for an over-night stay and more BIG king salmon. We would be joining Gary and Brice who had flown in the day before. We drove to the airport and reported in with the small airline we would be flying with. As we loaded our gear and climbed aboard the small Cassia 185 Andy and I were very excited at the chance to see the area from the air. We weren’t disappointed, the views were impressive. From glaciers to the left (white and stately), open tundra below (lush and green), and wide beaches to the right (with rows of frothing surf). The only concern was the very black clouds ahead and the bumpy ride already in progress. We entered the clouds and it was as expected, the ride got rougher and hail bounced off the windshield. I looked at our pilot and saw he was cool, calm, and relaxed a quick glance at the gauges showed all in the green so all fears were forgotten. Off in the distance I could see a small flag and three red balls marking our spot to land. We dropped down and touched the beach with one small bounce and we had landed in the most remote place I have ever been.
We were greeted the Akwe guide and Brice who had ridden a four wheel ATV down to the beach. The guide had brought an eight wheel Argo ATV to carry Andy and I with our gear to the jet prams that would take us to the lodge. As we moved up river to the lodge we stopped to meet Hippie John who was with some other clients that had flown in for the day. He was just as I pictured him, a thin grizzled old hippie with reddish hair, beard and a watch cap pulled down over his ears. He greeted each of us with an exuberant hand shake and pat on the back saying he would see us later at the lodge. We motored up to the lodge, well it looked more like two 12 X 16 foot shacks with plywood walls and a canvas top. We stowed our gear and a quick lunch (egg sandwiches). Then we grabbed our fishing equipment and jumped in a boat for a quick trip to “Littleton Hole”. We arrived to see Gary sitting on the bank blind casting a Pixie lure. As we talked with Gary and Brice, Gary hooked up and fought a thirty plus ponder to the bank. Then we all started casting and Brice hooked into another fish about the same size, landed and released in twenty minutes. They explained that it took 1800 casts before you were allowed to catch one, they had fished all the previous day without a strike and they were due. It wasn’t long and Brice hooked and landed a jack that we kept for dinner (good thing or it would have been egg sandwiches for dinner too). We ended up the day at the King Hole with out a hook up and then were picked up and jetted back to the lodge for a salmon dinner. During dinner I asked Hippie John if he had any problems with bears here? He said sometimes but he had bear medicine, reached in his pocket and pulled out a rifle cartridge and handed it to me. On the base it read 458 WinMag, commonly used for elephant hunting. He said “you hit them with one of these and there ain’t much fight left in-em” We lay down on our plywood beds for a restless nights sleep.

Day #5: Still at Hippie Johns on the Akwe River
I get up at 6:AM, I think I got three or four hours sleep. Slide back into my waders and we set out to fish with Hippie (Icker will bring out our breakfast later). Andy and I are dropped at the Littleton Hole and on the fourth or fifth cast I hook into a monster! Thirty minutes later Andy tails the fish and we drag it onto the bank. Another big stick dispatches the hog and I record my biggest salmon yet at forty pounds. Then Icker shows up with our breakfast, egg sandwiches (what else). Now it’s Andy’s turn he hooks a fish and fights it for 20 minutes and wins. Another Akwe King in the mid-thirty pound range is released. A few minutes later I hook another fish about the same as Andy’s last one is landed and released. Soon after Icker comes by with Gary and Brice to move us to the King Hole. But first we go back to the lodge to pack and stack our gear for the return flight and have a hearty lunch of, you guessed it egg sandwiches!

After lunch we returned to the King Hole for the rest of the afternoon. Within the first half hour Andy hooked and in twenty minutes landed his best fish of the fly out, a fresh forty pound King. Then Gary moved to the other side of the river and Andy and I watched him hook and land six kings in the next three hours. Around 5:PM Hippie John came flying around the bend in the jet sled to load us up for the ride to the planes for our departure. He seamed to be in a drastic hurry, “get in we are late, hurry let’s go” he kept repeating. We arrived at the landing strip and the last plane had yet to arrive. But that’s Hippie John, his clock is wound a little tighter than the rest of us. The second plane arrives a few minutes later and we load up. As we taxi away Hippie John is waving frantically, it looks like we forgot to load the trash (gee I wonder how that happened?), the pilots ignore him and were gone. On the flight back, Gary has the pilot drop down to get a look at a dead gray whale on the beach. We land back at Yakutat to dead batteries in both vans. Yakutat had a crime wave, local kids came through the parking lot and turned on everyone’s lights. Then to add insult to injury we got in a traffic jam, there were two trucks in front of us on the way back to the lodge.

Day #6: Situk River, Salmon Drift Trip
On our last day Andy and I are scheduled for a drift trip on the Situk. Today is the first day that we see the sun. The drift down to the first hole is in bright sunshine that brings out the true beauty of Alaska and we drink it all in. We drop into the first hole and it’s the same drill as my first day on the river, we both hook up on three or four thirty to thirty-five pound Kings Quickfish lures and we head down river.
Just above the forks we spot a squadron of Sockeyes in a small hole and we beach the boat. Now we switch tactics and go for the reds. After we have hooked and landed a few, remove the gills, and put then on a stringer. Andy whacks another one the head and continues to fish. Then he sees a weasel trying to drag off the fish by the nose. He tries to chase off the weasel with the tip of his rod, but the weasel persists and won’t give up. We continue to catch Sockeyes until we have limits and again head down river. We reach the forks to find another boat in the hole, so we continue on until we reach a snag of logs stacked in the river. As we pass we see a pile of Kings stacked behind the snag. With no other way to fish the hole, our guide rows up above and we climb out on to it. First we drop a Quickfish with a ¾ oz. Weight above it into the slot. A fish moves in, passes the lure, and grabs the weight, and slaps the lure with it’s tail. This is repeated two more times until a fish grabs the lure. Andy and I head for the boat, moving it around the logs as andy passes the rod to me. We try to horse the fish out but it won’t come snapping the line. It’s getting late and we now head down river to the pull out and our days end.

Day #7: At The Lodge
This day brings our trip to an end as we all pack our gear and head to the airport for the flights home.

We all had a great time and made new friends along the way. We arrived at the San Francisco airport around 10:PM, collect our luggage, gear, and fish boxes. Then we all board a buss type limousine for the ride home. We toast our group and it’s extraordinary leader / planner, Dan for memories to last a lifetime.

Tight Lines Dave
Akwe River King

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great fishing adventure.....friends on a fishing trip many = many great memories......thanks for sharing.