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| DVD REVIEW |
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| Our first stop on this tour of Alaska's best fishing takes us to King Salmon Alaska. We travel to King Salmon and the Naknek River, home of the Fox Bay Lodge. This lodge is managed by Don Grieve, who is known for mastering the waters of Oregon and the Northwest. From the arrival to the minute I had to take off, I felt like this was as comfortable as my home. I can't speak highly enough about the hospitality of the people at this Alaska lodge. It is only a short flight from anchorage, and then only a short jet boat ride up the Naknek, and the action begins.  The Naknek River is a short river by Alaska standards, and it does not take long for your fishing guide to get you on top of the fish. This is one of the best rivers in Alaska for hooking into a good number of King (Chinook) Salmon. With large runs returning every year. In fact they get all five Alaska Salmon, Silvers (Coho), Reds (Sockeye) Humpy's (Pink) and Chum Salmon too. There are also excellent opportunity's to hook into some Artic Char, Grayling and some Pike. To make this an honest review I must say that they do not have the largest Pike, and it is not a fish they target on a regular basis. And why would they, the Naknek is rated as the best Rainbow Trout fishing river in the State of Alaska. And we were after trophy monster rainbow trout, the fastest fresh water fighting fish in the world.  Now this is Alaska we are talking about, there are a lot of rivers in Alaska. And there are a lot of rivers with incredible fishing, world class fishing. Making a statement like that is bold, and I would not have believed it had I not experienced it myself. When you go on a fishing trip, I kid you not; the most common thing you will hear is "you should have been here yesterday". The impressive part of that statement is when you are experiencing some of the best fishing of your life, and the guide says you should have been here yesterday" for a moment it is perplexing, a conundrum of world class fishing. Before I came to Alaska, I had been to places that say that every day. When they said that to me on the Nak, I believed them, I did not think they were lying to me. However it just did not seem possible that the fishing could get any better. Then you start to catch a couple more fish as the fog burns off the water, you see these fish, thick with eggs. The tens of thousands of Salmon that they are feeding echo along the river as the fishing gets better by the minute. The Salmon eggs are practically oozing out of each chunky trout's mouth. Which means at this point in the season there could not be better bait or lure than that which resembles a Salmon egg. I won't go into the specific bead color or the light glazing that Don chooses for each part of the season. I promised secrecy by life and limb, but I will say he has it down to a science. And the way it's rigged up, allows for a perfect hook in the side of the mouth almost every time. Which is important when you are handling Alaska native trout that are almost twenty years old.  So it's a combination of large runs of Alaska salmon feeding the trout, and it is also the genetics of the Naknek Rainbow. These bows are not as colorful as some of the other bows around the state. But for anyone that appreciates different trout species, and variations from within that species, they will love the plentiful numbers of lunker Naknek trout. For three days in a row, we averaged a dozen fat hog bows over 26inchesevery day, and I could not even count the number of Rainbow Trout that we caught that were over twenty inches. Between three people I could easily say it was over fifty a day. And we still had enough time to limit out on Salmon every day. The only rare occurrence was the one or two thirteen inch or smaller trout that we caught every day. I was left wondering, where are all the small trout. It was a pleasure to fish with both Don and his father while I was there. If you book a fishing trip I would request a day with each of them if it is possible. I can only describe it as a rhythm, as far as the difference between the two. That both posses the same fishing knowledge, but like a fingerprint, every master fisherman is different. Both were a pleasure to work with, and both of them were kind enough to catch some monster fish while I was there filming. Fox Bay Lodge had great food and comfortable cabins.  Every morning, you wake up, eat a good breakfast, and head out for some Alaska fishing. Almost on schedule there was some kind of Alaska wildlife playing in the water every morning as we left the lodge. The first day is was a Seal that had found its way up the river. This Seal took a journey up from the ocean to prey on the stacked up Salmon making for an easy meal. The next day we were greeted before we even got into the boat, a whole family of young Otters were traveling down stream. And the third day it was only a short trip down the river before we ran into a couple young Brown Bears, who were like minded in their own pursuit of Salmon. You start out your day set in a good mood because you know you are going to be catching some world class fish, but then you see something like a couple of Brown Bears rolling and playing in the water, the day just gets better. The scenery, the fishing, the wildlife all combines to make this an incredible trip. |
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