NO SEE UM LODGE 2012

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Wow, another great visit at No See Um Lodge!  We enjoyed excellent fishing; we continue to be enamored with the Alaska wilderness; we had tons of fun – both on and off the rivers; we feasted on wonderful cuisine…. What more does anyone need?  This was our ninth consecutive annual visit to No See Um and we’re already anticipating our return next year.  Below is snapshot of some of our favorite photos from this year’s trip.  To see even more photos and read the details associated with them, please read our daily diaries. 

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Monday, July 30:  After making our way from home to Phoenix and then to Anchorage, we finally boarded our PenAir flight to King Salmon.  Upon arrival, we were greeted by Chris Anderson and other members of the No See Um Lodge team.  After gathering up luggage (and after a few individuals bought fishing licenses), we transferred to the lodge via float planes.  Everyone quickly settled into their cabins, we enjoyed a wonderful luncheon salad prepared by Chef Gerald, assisted by his team of Melissa and Jess.  Then, we enjoyed a couple of hours of fishing on the Kvichak.  Caleb served as our guide and we were accompanied by fellow anglers, Cheryl & Peter.  Fishing was tough due to high water conditions.  However, Ed did manage to catch & release a beautiful 23 inch rainbow.  The perfect way to begin this year’s adventure!

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Ed's 22-23 inch rainbow;
a great way to start the trip!
Us with Chef Gerald and
his assistants, Melissa (center)
and Jess (left)

Tuesday, July 31:  Today with had the pleasure of fishing the Lower American with Caleb once again being our guide.  After being dropped off at the river by John Holman, owner of NSU, we used a boat stationed on the river to work our way into the braids.  Once there we tied up the boat and hiked up a side stream to look for char.  Talk about hitting the spot!  We caught and released an unbelievable number of these beautiful fish.  We also each landed several 20 inch plus char with the largest being 23 inches.  It was a great morning!  After our hike back to the boat, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch.  Then, we went in search of rainbows on the dry fly and again we had success.  We had to stalk the rainbows; that is, find one that was surface feeding.  Then, we tried a variety of flies until we could get one of these beauties to hit the fly.  Boy, when one did, you definitely knew it.  They are great fighters and we had a blast!  We were able to land three of the rainbows and each was over 20 inches in length.  Obviously, we enjoyed another great day of fishing!  At 5:00PM, John returned to pick up us and we were back at the lodge before 5:30PM.  There we enjoyed pre-dinner cocktails and sharing stories of the day with our fellow anglers.  Then Chef Gerald prepared a wonderful “surf & turf” Alaska style – that is, steak and king crab legs – so we all had a feast.  Before retiring for bed for the evening, we joined some of the guides and staff for a final cocktail on one of their cabin’s outdoor porches.

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Ed's first char of the trip
A look at the char underwater
(hey, we had to try the new
waterproof camera!)
A fellow angler
Lindy with her own
beautiful char

[ T O P ]

NOTE:  We refer to the fish in the areas we fish as “char” when they actually are either Arctic Char or Dolly Varden Char.  Both species have similar coloration and inhabit the same locations.  The only true way to differentiate the species is to count the pyloric caeca (worm like appendages on the pylorus, the section of the intestine directly after the stomach) which means you would have to kill and dissect the fish.  Since we “catch & release” only, this isn’t an option so we use the generic “char” to describe these beauties.  By the way, both of these fish are closely related to the Lake Trout and the Brook Trout which are char – not trout.

Wednesday, August 1:  We flew this morning to one of our favorite spots, the Morraine River.  Parker was our guide and after landing, we quickly began the trek down to the river.  It was a brisk windy day so we knew casting was going to be a challenge.  Also, the water was pretty high at the area of the river that we opted to fish.  To add to the challenge, Lindy forgot to include Ed’s “svelt” soles (i.e., simulated felt) for his Korker boots so wading for him was “like walking on bowling balls” (an exact quote).  While there were a few pods of salmon in the river, the numbers we had expected to find were not there.  So, under Parker’s guidance, we tried our best to find any rainbows which might be gathering with the salmon in anticipation of the salmon spawn and subsequent egg feast for the rainbows.  We only had three hook-ups and only one landed fish.  So, we decided to try another location.  In transit, we passed by our fellow anglers (Scott and his son, Taylor) and their guide, Bobby, and they too were having tough fishing.  We spent another hour trying at our new spot but still the rainbows had not gathered.  We took a break and enjoyed lunch in a sheltered spot on a sandbar.  Then Parker decided it was time to call it quits and try another location.  So, we once again trekked out of the Morraine and headed back to the plane.  As we were hiking, the weather started to take a turn for the worse.  We got ourselves and our gear loaded and headed out.  However, the weather continued to worsen and ultimately Bobby and Parker made the call to return to the lodge (and ensure we didn’t spend time waiting on a lake for a clearing in the weather or, even worse, spending the night there) due to the incoming storm and fog.  We got back to the lodge at about 5:00PM.  So, it was a very full day with lots of hiking and not too many fish.  But hey, that’s why it’s called fishing and conditions are always variable.  After another fabulous dinner, Chris (pilot/guide) invited us and a few other individuals over to his cabin to listen to music and chat.  It was very nice way to end the day.

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Look close to see if
you can spot the Ptarmigan
A lovely wildflower
The Morraine provides a great
setting even if the fish
didn't cooperate with us

[ T O P ]

Thursday, August 2:  Today we went out with John Holman acting as both our pilot and our guide.  Our initial plan was to head to the Little Kukaklek River but as John flew over the river he decided conditions there did not look good.  So, ultimately John landed on a small lake and we hiked about one mile into Funnel Creek.  It was our first time to fish on this beautiful, secluded spot.  Unfortunately, very few salmon were in the river and we couldn’t find any trout.   We fished about one mile of the river and then decided to call it quits on the Funnel.  We hiked up to a ridge and enjoyed our lunch while watching the bears try to catch a salmon (no success for them).  We then flew to the Alagnak River because as John said, no walking was required and there was guaranteed salmon fishing.  Both were so true!  In the hour we spent fishing from the boat at that location, we caught over a dozen salmon – pinkies (a first for Lindy) as well as chum salmon.  We even got John to take a couple of casts.  Afterwards, it was back to the lodge for another enjoyable and relaxing evening.

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Chef Gerald as a "short order
cook" preparing made-to-order
breakfasts before the fishing begins
Today's co-pilot....  Ed
Watching the bears at Funnel
Creek from the overlook
where we had lunch
Onto the Alagnak....
Lindy and John with on a cold afternoon
with her first catch of a pink salmon
John holding another pink
salmon landed by Ed
John and Ed with a chum salmon

[ T O P ]

Friday, August 3:  Again, we had the pleasure of fishing with John Holman.  We began the day by dropping off a fellow angler (Chris) and his guide, Dave, at the Alagnak.  Then, we started flying toward Headwaters River.  However, the weather again was difficult and fog rolled in so we did a lot of circling and navigating to get to the area we proposed to fish.  However, instead of ending up at Headwaters, we landed on a lake nearby Contact Creek.

We hiked down to the river on “twinkies” (i.e., soft tundra) and reached the river in about 45 minutes.  Once there, it was catching – not fishing.  That is, each time you got a decent drift, you had a beautiful fish on the line.  Amazing!  Primarily, we caught char and we had many, many over 20 inches.  The largest was a 23” male char which Ed caught and Lindy landed a 22” female.  We also were able to land grayling and rainbows – both a real treat.  The day was a truly special and we had a terrific time (once again) with John.

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The beautiful high country of Alaska
Ed's 23 inch male char
(notice the kype)
A nearby bear
Ed and John with a nice grayling
John holding Lindy's 22 inch char
Chris and Lindy
enjoying a pre-dinner cocktail 

[ T O P ]

Saturday, August 4:  We spent our day today with Chris acting as our pilot and guide.  We, along with two other anglers (Chris & Woody) as well as their guide, Dave, flew to the Copper River.  It’s a long flight (about an hour) across Lake Iliamna to reach the mouth of the river.  Upon arrival, we switched to boats to travel up river to reach areas from which we could fish from the shore and/or which had good wading access.  After reaching a spot Chris liked, we began fishing and it was so good, we stayed there the entire day.  The Copper River is known for its numbers of fish and not necessarily fish of any size.  However, we enjoyed a great day of catching both.  We each had our share of 10-12 inch rainbow and char.  However, we had some really nice rainbows.  Ed started the day with a 19 inch rainbow and that was a great sign.  Under Chris’ guidance, we began fishing what he deemed “prime areas” and we found the larger rainbows.  In total, we had six rainbows over 20 inches.  A treat on any day!  The highlight for Lindy was going sight-fishing with Chris in search of larger rainbows.  It paid off as Lindy was able to catch and release a 23 inch rainbow.  Wow!  At the very end of the day, we actually got Chris to take two casts and, of course, he caught two fish.  All in all, it was a wonderful experience and we had a great time and also learned a lot about how to seek out and catch some of the larger fish that inhabit the Copper River.

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Ed begins the day with a
beautiful 19 inch rainbow
Ed and Chris with another
beautiful rainbow
How about foul-hooking an
ugly sculpin? (Lindy did it!)
Chris holding a nice rainbow
that Lindy landed
Check out its beautiful gill plate
Chris coaching Lindy in the
middle of the Copper
Lindy's payoff.... a 23 inch rainbow
(the challenge now was for her to
hold it herself while Chris snapped
the photograph)

[ T O P ]

Sunday, August 5:  On our final day of fishing, we flew to the small river that empties into Becherof Lake.  We had not fished this river since our original visit to NSU in September 2004.  Our guide for the day was Dave.  We hiked to the river with Bobby, a pilot/guide and fellow angler, Woody.  Again, it was a terrific day.  Our focus was once again char and we located them throughout various areas along the river.  Wading was relatively easy as the water was shallow in most locations and had a sandy bottom.  We had a great morning sight-casting to char which Dave would initially help us spot.  We each landed char over 25 inches with Ed landing the largest of the day, a 27 inch char.  However it was a bit thin compared to some of our other catches but it was amazingly long.  Fun to hook and land!  In the afternoon, we decided to do some dry fly fishing for grayling.  It too was excellent.  Last year Ed and Dave landed a beautiful 21 inch grayling; something we thought could not happen again.  But, surprise…. they did it!  We pulled out the tape measure and photographed it so there was no “stretching” the length of this fish.  We each landed several of the grayling and then we gave the rod to Dave.  He too enjoyed catching a couple of these beautiful fish because dry fly fishing is just about over as more salmon begin to spawn and all species of fish are interested only in salmon eggs.  We hiked out of the river at about 4:00PM and we were all tired.  So, during the one hour return flight back to NSU (we were 100 miles away), we anglers all enjoyed a nap.  Once back at the lodge, everyone enjoyed a great happy hour followed by Chef Gerald’s perfectly prepared prime rib.  An excellent meal to end an excellent week of fishing!  After dinner, many of the guests and NSU staff members enjoyed another cocktail while reflecting on another great week spent in the wilds of Alaska.   

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Ed begins the day with this
beautifully colored char
Dave holding Lindy's char
The boys first put a measure
on this beautiful grayling; yes,
it's another 21 incher!
Dave and Ed with yet another
21 inch grayling; way to go!
Lindy with her own grayling
Ed's monster char - over 23 inches!
(it's a bit skinny but very long!)
Chef Gerald preparing his
delicious prime rib

[ T O P ]

T H E   E N D!

If you're interested in exploring our other adventures at No See Um lodge, just click on a link below to go to that year's trip

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