There's still some time to catch one of the largest silver runs in history up in SouthEast AK. I was up there two wks ago and the run is extremely strong. The locals out of Yakutat were all but shut down for two wks after the attack, and it really hurt business (I got on literally the first flight up after the shut down). Some of them are offering 1/2 price to try and extend the season, so there are some very good deals. Specifically, I fished with "Hippy" John Matsko on the Akwe, who said he'd charge 1/2 price thru October. Normally he's around $185 a day for a group of 4 to 8 at his camp, you bring in your fresh food & cook for yourself...it's "fish camp" (i.e., not exactly a luxury lodge), but it's great fishing and you have the river virtually to yourselves. I put together the trip: round trip to Yakutat on AK Airlines, stayed in town & fished the Situk & Lost for a couple days with the bears, then flew Gulf Air Taxi down to the Akwe for 3 day/2night, back to Yak for a day of halibut & ling, then back home. Fished my brains out, what was left of them. E-mail me if you want details, lodge names, phone numbers, etc.
As for Yakutat, two things kind of said it all about this village: first, a t-shirt that says "YAKUTAT: a quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem."; and second, the big yellow sign for the Yakutat Lodge (read airport hotel) that faces the bush planes and DC-3s on the runway and reads simply: "FOOD, SHELTER, BOOZE". Fishing was fabulous on the Akwe, still one of the lesser known and fished rivers. Hippy John has the only service and camp above the tidal area (basically the Dangerous, Italio, and Akwe all run out the same general stretch of beach). He runs you up and down the river timing the spots by how far in the swarm will be after the last high tide. Just to make you drool a little, one moring I hooked seven and landed four silvers between 11 and 17 pounds, and shook off several Dollys and cutts in just under 1 1/2 hours. I was using my 8 wt T&T with a versa-tip (hi-d fast sink tip) and weighted silver-bodied alaskabous. One of those silvers I landed after the drag on my Ross BG failed (for about the sixth time) using knuckle & chest as the backup drag! What a blast! Pat Bolton
