Pathfinder's Alaska Trip (Caution: Fish Lite)

[Pathfinder101]

Ok, so a few weeks ago, I found out that my team at work won a trip to a conference in Seward, Alaska, and we are all super-stoked since none of us have ever been to Alaska.  But, with the trip, there are a couple of "catches".  The first catch, is that we actually came in second place in the competition, so we weren't going to fly in commercial aircraft (that distiction was for the "first place" team), but in military aircraft (we are all active duty military).  Specifically, a C-23 Sherpa.  The only problem with that is that it is an unpressurized aircraft, so it's not exactly comfortable.  Or fast.

[Pathfinder101]

So, we show up at 6:00am at Fort Lewis airfield, load up, and take off headed north.  20 minutes into the flight, we are aware that we appear to be turning around.  Of course, we all have earplugs in (absolutely necessary), so we can't hear the pilots or the crew.  After a few minutes we are informed that the "gyro" has quit working.  Being that the gyro is basically the compass, it is evidently a necessary piece of gear to find Alaska, so we head back to the airfield to get it fixed.  By noon we were back in the air, but severely behind schedule.  5 hours later we landed in Ketchikan airport (blame it on the headwind).  The weather in Ketchikan was, predictably, horrible.  Horrible enough for the pilots to decide that we were going to have to spend the night and try to take off again in the morning.
So, we checked into a hotel with a restaurant.  And a bar.

 

[Pathfinder101]

We didn't actually get kicked out of the bar in Ketchikan, but I am not sure why.  I don't really drink much anymore, and now I remember why.  Turns out hangovers hurt waaaaayyyy more than they used to.  And when you load up at 7:00 am in an unpressurized aircraft for another 4 1/2 hours in bad weather, they hurt even more...  The weather didn't seem any better to me than it did the night before, but the pilots said we were good to go, and off we went.
2 1/2 hours later we landed to refuel in Yakutat.  When we were taxiing in we could identify two buildings; one with a sign that said "FOOD, SHELTER, BOOZE" and another that was an ancient, rusty hangar that had been converted into a Fly Shop.  I could tell right away that I was going to like Yakutat.
...more to come...

[shoot-em-dead]

keep it comming. 

[Pathfinder101]

If I would have had just a little more time, I think I could have staged a full-fledged mutiny of the aircraft and forced us to spend the entire 3 days in Yakutat.  I think that would have been fine with most of my team, since most of us fish, and the ones that don't could have found something to occupy their time at "FOOD, SHELTER, BOOZE".  Next time I will be better prepared...
I think the pilots sensed something was about to go down, because they quickly and efficently herded us back on our flying boxcar for the last leg of the flight to Seward.
We landed at 3:00 pm, checked into the cabins, and ran out to get fishing licenses.  We had missed all of the required training for the day, so once we were settled in we decided to hit a couple of inlets and try to pick up a Silver or a Pink.
Turns out (as is usually the case with me when I fish out of state), we had just missed the pinks, and the silvers were just getting started.  There were just enough fish in the water, but not enough to make a decent showing.  Evidently not enough stupid ones for me to pick one up on a flyrod.
A couple of guys caught pinks by snagging them at the mouth of an inlet stream (legal there).  But all I managed on flies was one confused looking 6 inch ling cod. 
Beautiful scenery though, and after almost 5 hung-over hours flying in crappy weather it ws nice just to stand out in the water and wave a stick.

[Pathfinder101]

We fished until dark (about 10:45pm there), and headed back to the cabins.  We found out that our team had been drawn to go out the next day salmon fishing in the bay.  Some local National Guard guys had volunteered their time, the Army had provided boats and gear, and we got lucky and got our names basically drawn out of a hat to spend a half day chasing silvers.
So, we were up at 6:00am and down at the docks.  Took off about 7:30 and blasted out from Seward into the bay.  Beautiful morning.

[BLKBEARKLR]

Loved fishing out of Seward when I was stationed there, lots of good goat hunting along the opposite shores also.

[Pathfinder101]

Although we had good gear, a nice boat and knowledgable locals, we just couldn't overcome the fact that the run hadn't really started yet.  SGT Noyes, one of my team members was the only guy in our boat that managed to land a fish, about an 8lb Silver (Coho).

[Pathfinder101]

We couldn't really have asked for a better day (except for the fishing) though.  We saw seals, whales, porpoises and one boat even saw an orca.  I wasn't quick enough on the draw to get pics of any of the wildlife, but the scenery was gorgeous.

[CoryTDF]

Mark,
How in the name of GOD can you go to Alaska and not catch a salmon? You forgot to sacrifice a virgin before you left didn't you! How many times must i remind you to pay homage to the fish gods? 

[Pathfinder101]

Mark,
How in the name of GOD can you go to Alaska and not catch a salmon? You forgot to sacrifice a virgin before you left didn't you? How many times must i remind you to pay homage to the fish gods? 

That must have been it.   

[Pathfinder101]

Most of the rest of the day was dedicated to a banquet and a couple of lectures.  Since this was the last day of the conference, we were scheduled to go home the next day, but that afternoon we got some good news; the Sherpa we flew over in needed some maintenance, so we would be staying an extra day...

At the banquet we called a quick huddle and came up with a plan.  One of our guys used to live in Homer, and he said that we would be virtually assured to catch fish SOMEWHERE between Seward and Homer.  So, amongst the Salmon, Halibut and Steak buffet we planned a fishing tour of the Kenai Peninsula.

[Pathfinder101]

We were up the next morning and off to Homer.  Wow.  Alaska is BIG.  Really, maps don't do it justice.  Mountain range after mountain range after mountain range....  And river after river after river...
So much ground, so much water.... we honestly didn't know where to start...
So we started asking around, and got the same story time and time again; "you should have been here last week" or "you should have waited til next week".  Same story all across the peninsula, too late for pinks, sockeyes are rotting on the banks (and boy were they), and the silvers are just getting started.
We stopped on the Kenai (near the mouth), and stumbled down to the banks where some locals were fishing.  Of course, after talking for a few minutes with a pretty friendly guy (ex-Navy, retired probation officer who was more than happy to take a group of "GIs" under his wing for a few hours), we discovered that we didn't really have any of the gear or bait that we needed to fish there (I had surrendered my fly rod at this point in favor of a rented spinning rod in the desperate hope of catching something (ANYTHING at this point).  But he rigged us up, we tossed out into the current and gave it a go for a few hours...

[Pathfinder101]

After a few hours of little to no action (1 bite amongst the 5 of us) Chuck (the local who rigged us up) made us follow him to his house, where he dug into his freezer and loaded us up with some fish.  What a great guy.  At least we weren't going home empty handed.  And we were off again towards Homer to hit a local spot (the lagoon out on the "Spit").  Along the way, we passed over a place called "Deep Creek" that looked really good and was pretty close to the ocean.  There were a few people fishing there, so we decided to stop and give it a try for an hour.

Turns out we should have been fishing there the whole time.  None of us actually caught anything, but there were definitely fish in the river.  We saw quite a few silvers and a bunch of sockeyes that weren't quite dead yet (close though).  We saw several silvers landed (one double out of the same hole), and I hooked a sockeye that I got about halfway in before the hook tore out of his rotten jaw.  We probably should have stayed there until dark, but we were planning to hit one more spot before we had to head back, and we wanted to see Homer.

[Pathfinder101]

The moose season had actually started that day, so the critters were a bit scarce, but we did manage to see one lone cow in a swamp a few miles outside of Homer.  We made it to Homer and drove out onto The Spit (the long sandbar that juts out from the town of Homer into the bay).  There is a fishing lagoon there that still had some pinks in it, so we gave it a shot for a few hours (I got back on my flyrod at this point, since no one was catching anything on spinners or bait) until it got dark.
We headed down to the end of The Spit, saw the Eagle Tree (my camera battery was dead by now, so I didn't get any pics), and finished the day with a beer and a clam chowder at the Salty Dog Tavern.