The Alagnak River is 70 miles long(although we only float about 40 miles of it), and is located 250 air miles South West of Anchorage in what is known as the Bristol Bay region. The river flows through Katmai National Park, which is known for its abundance of Grizzly bears. You will probably see upward of 10 bears a day.
The Alagnak is an easy river to float, with few obstacles or hazards. The fishing is fantastic. All five species of salmon are present in huge numbers. Millions of salmon spawn in this river every year. On even numbered years(Pink Salmon are only present on even numbered years), the river is absolutely full of fish.
I floated this river twice in August, about 14 days each time, with 2 days to rest between trips.
I personally caught 900 salmon(Kings, Pinks, Chum and Silvers), before I lost count. This does not include the hundreds of Rainbows, Grayling and Dolly Varden.
Besides the fish, there is all kinds of wildlife such as wolves, bears, fox, moose and birds of every kind you can imagine.
We send our rafts and equipment to Anchorage about one month before we left home. Our outfitter then shipped everything to Kulik Lodge. From Kulik Lodge we loaded everything onto float planes for a 20 minute trip to the headwaters of the Alagnak,where we assembled and loaded the rafts for a fishing trip of a lifetime.
As usual I fished using only spinners, while my friends used fly rods. I took 70 pounds of spinners, 8 rods and 6 reels. I probably had over 1000 spinners. I lost about 150-200, most due to hang ups.
This is the plane we took on the 250 mile flight from Anchorage to Kulik Lodge, where we transfered to float planes for the short trip to the headwaters of the the Alagnak River.
Kulik Lodge. Jim and Rick are sitting on the bench.
This is the crew. From left to right, Rick Hulsey, Me, Cheryl Herbst, Jim Herbst and Rich C.
AKA "City Boy".
We have been been dropped off at the lake near the headwaters of the Alagnak. Here we are assembling and loading our rafts for the short trip to the river.
Our rafts are assembled and loaded.
This is me with a King I caught at the headwaters. Since it was August, we were not expecting Kings to be in the river, boy were we wrong. We didn't bring any King gear. I caught this King on a 10lb. spinning rod and a Shimano 2000 Sustain reel with 8lb mono. Took me the better part of an hour to land it.
This is the begining of the Alagnak river. You can see the lake in the background.
Picture of us floating down the river. I am the one behind the oars.
We have just unloaded all of our gear and are getting ready to set up camp. The first thing we do when we find a camping spot is to unload everything and get the camp set up. Our first priorty is to set up the tents etc. You never know when it will rain.
This is our cook shack/rest area.
Cheryl inside the cook shack.
View from camp looking upriver.
Cheryl with a Pink Salmon, also known as humpies. Only the males have humps. These are the smallest of the salmon species. They usually run from 3-10 lbs. They only come into the river on even numbered years.
This is a female Pink Salmon. Notice the pink and gold spoon.
This is a pink that I caught, notice the spinner in its mouth.
Jim with a nice pink male.
