While we were flying in to land on the bank of the Swezack River, the pilot, who is also the owner of Newhalen lodge, kept flying around an area that he said have about 12 wolves inhabitating. There was only one there and he was eating something that we could not tell if it were fish or furry. He looked up at us and then continued eating.
We had to land about 1/2 miles from the Beaver ( A sea plane or a pontoon plane) and he just put down on the shore. This was a small wheeled plane. Then the Beaver came down to pick us up to bring us to the fishing spot. They only have three Beavers and there were two groups fishing for Salmon that day so they had to use two planes and ours just had wheels, no pontoons. Just flying to all of these rivers is great fun. I actually got to ride in the co-pilots seat a couple of times. Boy what a thrill that is when the pilots swoop down to see if they can spot where the fish are holding in the rivers. In the morning we saw a very large bear walking up river ( We struggle to maintain in the rivers and they walk like they are on the ground. Incredibley strong. ) looking for Silver Salmon. He just slowly kept walking up towards where we were fishing until the guides told us to let him pass and the go back fishing. What a great time to grab a cup of coffee...... At lunch, the guides were cooking bacon for cheeseburgers and some beef for Coney Island Dogs, when a bear circled us. You could tell he was smelling the air. When he got too close ( I mean 40 to 50 Yards away ) one of the guides went towrds him and was shouting and the bear ran away. Guess he didn't like Coney Island Dogs. Thank you, Alan Di Somma Phoenix, It's Arpaiolicious! http://www.azflyfishing.net/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Mark Romero To: virtual fly box Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 9:18 PM Subject: [VFB] Re: Alaska Trip love these stories Alan.........keep it up..................i've travelled alllllllll over the world.....but VERY little (one trip to Cnadaof it was for fishing. Fished a LOT in the states.......but somehow Alaska seems like a forin' country (couldn't figure out how to spell it, LMAO),..... if someone was to offer me a all expense paid trip to anywhere in the world to fish for a month........but the catch was that it'd be the last time i could ever go anywhere to fish.....outta the country.....no matter who paid. i'd take Alaska in a N.Y. minute. That's the one place i REALLY wanna fish some day............more than any other that is. Gonna have to settle for Ireland next July for now..... hehehehehe..... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [VFB] Re: Alaska Trip Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:05:33 -0700 I actually hooked two Sockeye. Boy are they hard fighters. also snagged one. That was fun but hard to get them off quickly. I thought the big Rainbows fought hard till latched on to a Silver. I caught a big male that had already turned red, and two other males that were just starting to change. The bucks are a lot stronger then the hens. While we were there we saw a hugh Wolf. A bear that was about 50 feet from us but only woke up whene a plane was landing or taking off. Then went back to sleep. After we took off I saw him come from where we were fileting the Salmon and he had threee in his mouth and just looked up at us as were were taking off. Like he was saying " It's about time you guys left me something to eat after waking me up all day". Thank you, Alan Di Somma Phoenix, It's Arpaiolicious!" http://www.azflyfishing.net/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Bliss To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 7:53 PM Subject: [VFB] Re: Alaska Trip Alan, The trip sounds absolutlely incredible. I agree on the salmon. I thought catching sockeye was an absolute rush. I am envious of you. Glad it was fun. Mike On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 3:44 PM, Alan Di Somma <[email protected]> wrote: Tony and all: I was not ably to use the Chili Demons or any of the 50 or 60 dz. flies that I tied. At the lodge the guides rig up your rods every day by making leaders and setting up a bobber and a 6 or 8mm bead. That worked all day every day, and the reason is they tell you there are so many eggs floating down the rivers and that is all the trout key on. The trip was the best fishing I have ever had despite loosing some big rainbows. I also caught a lot of big 'bows. This really sounds demeaning, but when you got an 18 or 20" rainbow on, it was almost like you wish they would break off just so you have more time fighting 24 26 and 28" fish. I had fish break me off as i tried to lift my rod tip on many occasions. One big one on the Battle River took the egg and just expoded down stream and all I could do was hold the rod up as high as I could. It was into the backing in a flash and then SNAP. The knot at the fly line broke. Didn't untie, just broke. The next day the pilot/guide saw a line way down stream and picked it up. Lo and behold there was a fish on it. He tried to bring it in hand over hand, but it broke him off to. It was my fly line from the day before. I caught many 24 and 26 " rainbows and got to land a 29" on Sunday. I was playing a rather large rainbow on Friday for about 20 minutes when we finally got him into some slack water. The guide was just about to jump out and net him when he decided he had enough of this silliness and turned and ran away. We both got some very good looks at him and he was well over 30". On Saturday we fished the Swezack River(not sure about the spelling) in Katmai National Park for Silver Salmon. I thought big 'bows pulled hard. HA!!! The second fish I fouled hooked in the tail......Holy Crap!!!! It was around 29-30" long and must have been extreemely agitated that I was pulling him the oposite way he wanted to go because he did not give up easily. Could not land him, but the guide did manage to get the hook out of his tail. The fisrt day out I caught a 20" Grayling. The state record is 24" so I was very gratified. Got to see many many bears. They seemd better at catching fish then me and the rest of the crew put together. Thay could care less about us being 20-30 yards away. They just jumped right in the river and started knawing on Sockeye. one bear jumped in right across the river from me and chowed down a Sockeye, moved down about 30 yards and found another to his liking and then moved down about 70 yards and ate that one also, with out ever leaving the river. And he was in the swift current!!!!!! Good thing 'Fisherman' season wasn't open yet.....LOL Thank you, Alan Di Somma Phoenix, It's Arpaiolicious!" http://www.azflyfishing.net/ How did the Chili Demons do in Alaska. You might of not got to use them Tony -- Mike Bliss Aloha from Hawaii ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.409 / Virus Database: 270.13.112/2388 - Release Date: 09/22/09 05:51:00 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.409 / Virus Database: 270.13.112/2390 - Release Date: 09/23/09 05:52:00 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
