Kodiac Island – My Greatest Fishing Adventure – Photo Essay Part One

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My 1996 fishing trip to Alaska’s Kodiac Island, with friend Les Priest, was the greatest fishing adventure of my life. In the previous outdoor news column, I told you about that adventure, including our raft trip down the Karluk River. In this column, I begin a two-part photo essay of that trip. Enjoy!

 

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Kodiak’s brown bears are the largest in the world – and we had lots of close encounters with them on the Karluk River. Our guides stayed up all night to keep them out of our campsite, and they were a constant presence – and concern – during the day while we fished for King salmon.  My scrapbook contains several pages of photos of bears!

 

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These bears took great interest in our fishing. They sat and watched us, paraded up and down the opposite shore, and sometimes even got out into the river with us. The bear shown here jumped into the river and bit Pete Gosselin’s bobber in half! And every night, bears would raid camp and steal any fish we tried to keep.

 

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A brown bear ripped the bark off this tree about 100 feet behind my tent and played with the bark – throwing it and retrieving it – as he walked along.

 

 

 

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This sow with triplets was an unusual sighting. She paraded past our tents at our first campsite – and let her cubs frolic in the river. We were surprised to see her again at the end of our trip. She’d traveled the entire river right along with us! These were second year cubs with a good sized sow for a mother – but she never bothered us.

 

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This bear ambled up behind our tents one evening. The guides took their guns out and we stalked close enough for a series of photos. When the bear stood up and eyed us, however, we retreated quickly! But he took off in the other direction – at a slow pace, not at all worried about us.

 

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Kodiac city on Kodiac Island was the start and finish of our 2 ½ week adventure (2 weeks stretched 4 extra days when bad weather in Kodiac city prevented our float plane from picking us up). The snug harbor is fogged in a lot – but MAC’s Sporting Goods, featuring a huge brown bear – kept us occupied.

 

First Adventure

ab586286-323d-4cee-86ed-3bc920474e43Port Lions Lodge, nestled on an ocean bay with gorgeous views out into the open sea or inland to snow-capped mountains, with Bald eagles by the dozen on the shore which could be enjoyed from the comfort of the Lodge’s living room. The owners kept us well fed and the banya (sauna) soothed aching muscles after a day of pulling in huge Halibut. Bald eagles feasting on the leftovers once the Halibut were cleaned were plentiful and entertained us every day. They liked to sit on the walkway that crossed the bay, with stunning mountains to their back.

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The small stream close to the lodge offered tremendous fishing for Sockeye salmon. This gorgeous pool, rimmed by bear tracks, was filled with salmon which we caught for several hours until growling stomachs returned us to the lodge for a fantastic lunch of grilled salmon and King Crab legs. We used spinning rods and fished “Alaska Style” this time, dragging a lure across the pool to snag a fish, all of which were released after great fights.

63c9d430-c331-4438-987b-0b61f016285bHalibut fishing turned out to be much more fun than I anticipated. We landed fish up to 135 pounds (my biggest was 85 pounds) using Dolly Varden trout for bait. Hauling those Halibut up off the bottom of the bay was a hard job. And once in the boat, they can be very nasty. Our guide clubbed most of them. A tiny lady caught the 135 pound fish and insisted on hauling it up on her own. It took nearly an hour and when the fish approached the boat, our guide took out his handgun and shot it! We tied it to the back of the boat and hauled it home. The lodge owner’s daughter, 15-year-old Laura, filleted all the fish, a job she’d had at the lodge for 3 years. She did a superb job. The day before we fished for Halibut, the lodge’s clients had caught an Octopus and used it for bait to catch a 275 pound Halibut.

a7c28299-85ae-43ed-9ff8-576fcb478d5bLodge owner Steve took a “day off” to take us to a secluded tidal river to fly fish for Dolly Varden trout. Dozens of sea turtles vied with puffins and scenery to keep us occupied on the boat ride north to Fog Nok Island. We anchored in the bay and walked to the river which produced Dollies as soon as Les figured out we needed green flies – a green deceiver worked best. On an earlier trip, we could only catch these green-tinted trout on spinning gear and lures – but this day they grabbed anything green that was tossed their way.

6ed9a15d-6747-4ea2-893a-8c36908cefefWe kept three trout that Steve cooked in tinfoil over charcoal briquettes which, with roasted potatoes, provided the finest shore lunch I’d ever had. Afternoon fishing was good, and I was still casting from the boat as we pulled away from shore at 7 pm. Steve radioed home to tell Peggy we’d be late for dinner. Fishing this good can become an obsession! I’ll never forget that day of Dollies. As the tide went out, the trout moved into the bay where it was common to catch 2 and 3 pounders – great sport on light fly rods.

Adventure Number 2

906b92af-2866-4438-8a20-40e72eef8a3cSaltery Lake Lodge on Kodiac Island was another great adventure. Owner Bill flew us in and out of this rustic hunting/fishing camp with its spectacular wilderness setting on Saltery Lake. Bunkhouse #4 was our home for two days while we fished the river and lake for Rainbows, Dollies, and Sockeye salmon. The lodge was comfortable, serving food home-style in great quantity. Roast turkey dinner with 4 desserts – not a place to visit on a diet! The views alone were worth the trip, and you could catch Dollies right off the dock in front of the lodge. At the fish weir they hand counted every salmon, which we found in abundance in the small wade able river.

Next Adventure

The amazing Karluk River – where we got stuck for 4 extra days! The final column in this three-part series.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.