BajaNomad

Kenai Peninsula Vacation

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 07:45 PM



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At the Airport

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 07:47 PM



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God's Country

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 07:49 PM



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Wood's too wet

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 07:51 PM



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Waiting for the Bite

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 07:53 PM



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Got One!

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 07:55 PM



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First Sockeye

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 08:01 PM



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Another one

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 08:03 PM



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We stayed at the Ritz

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 08:05 PM



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Ken Bondy - 4-10-2011 at 08:05 PM

Fabulous series Igor!! That sockeye is almost as big as Alex!! When was this?

Paulina - 4-10-2011 at 08:07 PM

Bravo! I really love that last Sockeye photo.


P>*)))>{

[Edited on 11-4-2011 by Paulina]

Along the Denali Highway

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 08:07 PM



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Pursuing Grayling at Fish Creek

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 08:09 PM



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Humpies from Hell

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 08:11 PM



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We camp next to a Hornet's nest

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 08:13 PM



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Can you guess where they bit him?

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 08:14 PM



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Blueberries - U Pick 'Em

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 08:16 PM



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Fabulous Rainbow Trout

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 08:19 PM



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It's over. Coke and Cards at Airport Chilis.

Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 08:22 PM



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Skipjack Joe - 4-10-2011 at 08:27 PM

That was 2005, Ken. I got nostalgic, like you over the Baron.

I couldn't find waders small enough to fit him back then. We had to cinch down all the straps and they still folded like an accordian. Leaked too. But who cared.

Cypress - 4-11-2011 at 07:00 AM

Skipjack Joe, Thanks for sharing your adventure. Two very lucky guys!

Marc - 4-11-2011 at 07:05 AM

A memory for a lifetime.

Bravo, Igor..Bravo!

Pompano - 4-11-2011 at 08:23 AM

You and Alex were in God's Country for sure. You have MEMORIES to last a lifetime for both of you. We are enroute there in July...can't wait to bend the rod Up North again.

NORTH TO ALASKA!



Igor, you love Up North & it's fishing as much as I do...so I'd like to add some Alaska memories myself:


Great halibut fishing close in at Seward. Like pulling in a barn door sometimes....but OH, what fine eating these bruisers are!


We walked from Naknek to this salmon run. Casting from shore with Pink Pixies. The tall guy buried his first pixie cast into my scalp...grrr.



One of our free camping choices on the beautiful Alaska Highway. I was up for sleeping in a two-person mountain tent. But...we pulled a fifth-wheel...Ahem...well, Co-Pilot didn't want to rough it.

I caught rainbows in that pristine lake from the back bumper of the fiver for supper. Small silver spoon.


You know how much better morning coffee is in Alaska!


How many black bears are in Alaska, anyway...?? Traffic and camp hazards indeed, they are almost as numerous as gophers in ND.




Do NOT take Alex to this place! Hyderized in Hyder..a real adventure. :rolleyes:


I love the Alaska clams. Slurp...this place is called..what else..Clam Beach!


Where else but Alaska can you walk on so many glaciers? This one is Salmon Glacier, so naturally I HAD to see it.

Thanks again, Igor. Great thread about a great place...Baja of the North. I think I'll starting packing the rig now...

Ken Bondy - 4-11-2011 at 08:45 AM

Gotta love Alaska:





Skipjack Joe - 4-11-2011 at 10:07 AM

Thanks for posting everyone.

Paulina, that was our first trip ever to Alaska and remains one of the best. That seems to be true of all first trips. Your senses are just overwhelmed and you just marvel at it all. But things don't have to be new to be good. We had perhaps our best baja trip in 10 years the Christmas before last. Never wrote about it.

Pompano, I probably don't love the North as much as you do but it's pretty close. I took one look at that lake and drifted off. I could feel how it was just by looking at it's surface. Lakes are special.

Ken, I know where that standing bear picture was taken. At first, when they stood up like that, it would scare us big time. We thought they were trying to get a better look at us .... before the charge. But it turned out the salmon were easier to spot when the surface glare wasn't in their eyes.

I thought you would follow with images and stories of trips with the Baron. That would be nice, hint. The closest I ever got to a Baron was Baron Davis.

wilderone - 4-17-2011 at 10:02 AM

Great fishing adventure - wonderful photos. Blueberry season? Bear food. Did you see bears at the campground? Any recent reports of aggressive bear activity?

Natalie Ann - 4-17-2011 at 11:42 AM

I love that 6th picture, Igor - the one you titled "Got One".
The rod curved from the pull of your son and the fish,
the curve of the mountains to the water in the background.... very nice image.
Obviously Alex was a great fisherkid even back then.

Is this the trip where you tried on that large moose rack?
(isn't that what moose horns are called - a rack?)
Can you show us that picture again, please?

nena

Bob H - 4-17-2011 at 02:02 PM

Wow, I really loved all of these photos. I wish I could post my photos from our trip several years ago, which included parts of the Yukon, but none of them are digital images.

Thanks for sharing these!!

Skipjack Joe - 4-17-2011 at 09:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by wilderone
Great fishing adventure - wonderful photos. Blueberry season? Bear food. Did you see bears at the campground? Any recent reports of aggressive bear activity?


The blueberry season starts in late august over there. I believe the lower temperatures get them going. The wild ones are much tarter than what I buy at Safeway. When you add sugar the combination works very well for me personally. The following year we started to make flapjacks with them. Again, we just added raw bluberries will plenty of sugar and it turned out really good. Alex was the first to spot them along the banks of Fish Creek. They grow only 3 inches from the ground and aren't really easy to see.

The bears we came across ate these bright red berries that carpet the floor in late august. I forgot what they're called but the poop ranged from pink to purple.

The closest we got to grizzlies was at Brooks River where Ken took those pictures. And the worst encounter was at Pike Lake. I was fishing the banks of the lake with my back to the shore when he came up behind me. I turned around to see a large male not thirty feet away sniffing the air real loudly. Then he started tearing the grass at his feet. I have no idea if that was done due to hunger. Anyway, he turned to his left and kept walking the trail along the bank. A nearby guide told me to stand still and nothing happened. The area is loaded with bears and they are very used to humans. The only agression you see are bears snapping at one another at the falls in order to get into better position.

Skipjack Joe - 4-17-2011 at 09:44 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Natalie Ann
I love that 6th picture, Igor - the one you titled "Got One".
The rod curved from the pull of your son and the fish,
the curve of the mountains to the water in the background.... very nice image.
Obviously Alex was a great fisherkid even back then.

Is this the trip where you tried on that large moose rack?
(isn't that what moose horns are called - a rack?)
Can you show us that picture again, please?

nena


That's Kenai Lake, Nena. It's a very dreamy place. In the mornings there is a mist on the lake that slowly burns off revealing a jaw dropping landscape of still blue water with blue mountains one after the other as far as the eye can see. Each one a bit more faded than the one before it. A study in blue. You can stare off into that distance all morning and come back refreshed.

This place was special to us for a second reason as well. The 'trail' to the mouth was so thick we never knew if we were still on it. The undergrowth consisted of plants that stood chest high with leaves that were 2 to 3 feet from side to side. I had never seen such rich foliage anywhere other than the tropics. It was absolutely amazing. They get so much rain up there it makes alll this possible. The interior, on the other hand, is completely different.

The moose shot was taken at Brooks River. A lot of float planes arrive at this spot and that's probably why these antlers were laying at the beach next to the lodge.

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Natalie Ann - 4-18-2011 at 03:09 PM

It does look like a dreamy place, Igor.
And a dream of a place to fish.;D

Thanks for posting that one of you with the moose head.
I can only believe that thing had to be darn heavy.

nena

Skipjack Joe - 4-18-2011 at 04:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Ken Bondy
Gotta love Alaska:





A mother with 3 cubs is pretty rare, I believe. That must put a lot of stress on her. I watched them hunt with interest and found it takes a lot of work to get those sockeyes. Most charges end with nothing. Three mouths to feed is not easy. But perhaps it was a good year. The salmon runs really vary from year to year.

baitcast - 4-20-2011 at 12:15 PM

Igor I never check this spot out guess I,ve missing something Huh?
Never been to wild about salmon but I love a bright Rainbow,got as far north as BC a number of times,lived near the border twice,your son will never forget these trips you take him on I think of mine and Dad all the time.
Rob

Skipjack Joe - 4-20-2011 at 01:49 PM

Rob,

Salmon are great fun on a flyrod. The problem is that they are so abundant in those runs that it stops being special real fast. It's like yellowtail. If you got 20 lbers on every cast day after day it wouldn't be so great.

But, I agree with you rainbow trout. A healthy, well fed trout rainbow will scream line off the reel and make you chase him downstream before the line parts.

Anglers in California have no idea how it can be. The ones up in the Sierras live in a half starved state and just don't have the energy to resist. And the hatchery trout in the foothills as well. But up there they feed heavily on salmon eggs and are a totally different animal.

Have you ever fished for rainbows on the upper Missouri in Montana. Those are hot rainbows. They feed on caddis all night long.

baitcast - 4-20-2011 at 02:37 PM

Yes we did nearly all of the water on the west side,some favorites were the Clark Ford,Madison,Gallatin and most the lakes,on the Ida. side was the Clearwater,Dad had a place on Pend O,Reille Lake we lived there for 3 years.

I see pictures of guys with a trout and a big smile and the huge fight they had,big old worn out brooders if they only knew:rolleyes:they got to eat bugs when small and MEAT when big and yes eggs.

When we lived on the lake up there TWO world records 37# Kamloop Rainbow and a 32# Dolly Varden had been taken from it,the Dolly record I think still stands.

Some nice trips on here will have to check them out.
Rob

Cypress - 4-20-2011 at 02:49 PM

Dolly Varden AKA Bull Trout are on the Endangered Species list in the lower 48. They're a serious predator and easy to catch. That's why they're endangered.

Skipjack Joe - 4-20-2011 at 11:30 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by baitcast

Yes we did nearly all of the water on the west side,some favorites were the Clark Ford,Madison,Gallatin and most the lakes,on the Ida. side was the Clearwater,Dad had a place on Pend O,Reille Lake we lived there for 3 years.
Rob


Then you probably know it better than me. I fished them each summer for a single month and did that a number of years.

I loved rivers back then. No two rivers are alike. Each one has it's own personality, I decided. It's own mood. It's own soul.

The Gallatin was fast and roily with heavily timbered banks. The water gushed past huge boulders.

The Beaverhead was narrow and deep with willowed undercut banks. You had to watch your backcast or lose your fly.

The Missouri was wide, smooth and majestic, flowing though some grand open country with towering buttes and peaks.

The Madison was a fast tumble through sagebrush. At least the section above Ennis was like that.

The Bighorn flowed through farmland with cottonwoods along the banks. The sun was so fierce in the summer but the fall was splendid, with huge mayfly hatches.

Henry's Fork flowed smooth as silk. The sandhill cranes greeted you in the morning as you walked the high banks scanning the water for rings.

No two rivers were alike.

Pompano - 4-21-2011 at 06:20 AM

Igor...Oh, boy!...Trout fishing in Montana. What could be better? (Okay, Alaska..and maybe far north Saskatewan...hey, it's all good!)

I grew up on a ranch just east of the Montana/ND border...and fished most all the rivers and lakes of Montana at an early age, thanks to a father like baitcast's and Alex's. Those were Huckleberry Finn days with my lifelong companion, Randy the Rancid...who was/is my Tom Sawyer counterpart. My God, we saw some sights and caught some beauties!...but it was the magical lure of the rivers that caught US and kept us coming back.

Here's some pics taken on recent trips to the Gallatin River in SW Montana..south of Bozeman, Montana...now part of California. :rolleyes:


Funny how outdoor brand names stick in your head over one's lifespan. Ask kids we appreciated Pendelton and Setters..

...nowadays you can add Goretex and North Face to the good memories.





The Bridges of Gallatin County.



Water's too high & dark with run-off...best wait a bit, Rancid. Want a game of pool and a brew?


Lots of these pedestrians along the Gallatin Highway near Yellowstone Park.



No, folks...these are NOT buffalo. They are _______?

And never NEVER get out to pet or feed them...unless you want a horn in your belly. :(

This one is a bull and will weigh out at about 1400 lbs....leave them alone!





On the last visit, I bought these paintings to hang in my Duk Shak up north. It pumps me up for stream fishing & hunting when I nomad Up North for the summer/fall adventures.

I especially love and connect to the duck hunters with dog....:yes:

I can see my Dad and I walking back to the old stepside pickup now...and Gypsy, too, of course.

Damn...Jeez, Igor, I may start bawling any second now...

baitcast - 4-21-2011 at 07:30 AM

Dads first love was stream fishing,my first memories of fishing was following him on the brushest streams he could find looking for eastern brook his favorite for eating,he would say find the brush and you won,t find people,on streams it made sence.

Run some more names past you boys,Clearwater river in mid Ida.,very remote a full days hike in,big Dollies and cutthroat it was there we discovered fishing with flys,he was a worm chucker before then.

Henrys Lake biggest dam cutts you ever saw,the Southfork of the Salmon and Salmon great Rainbow waters.

We moved the Boise for my highschool years which was a whole new area to explore,we bought our first spinners there,wonders never cease.
Rob ...........will be back for more later

Iflyfish - 4-21-2011 at 11:56 AM

Thank you so much for this wonderful series of photos. What a joy to have shared this with you son, one of the greatest gifts we can give our children is to enjoy life with them! What a lucky kid!!

We are off to Prince of Wales Island this summer and really appreciate seeing the trout photo, that is what I want to chase with the old nimrod.

Love this series. Thanks for the heads up baitcast.

Iflyfish

Cypress - 4-21-2011 at 12:02 PM

Speaking of rivers? The John Day in eastern Oregon, runs thru some wild and tangled country. Even has a few chinook spawning on it.;)

Skipjack Joe - 4-21-2011 at 12:11 PM

Please post a trip report on Prince South Wales, Iflyfish.

I've had my eye on that island for several years now. Seriously. The attraction, as I see it, is that you can ferry your car over and drive the roads (paved and logging) pretty much anywhere. It doesn't get the pressure of Kodiak Island whose road system is very small. I had to get up at dawn over there to get to fish to fish that weren't spooked. Sometimes in the rain.

It's my understanding that the silvers come in pretty good on some rivers at PSW. But a lot of the people at the shows try to steer you to the saltwater ... The place is also known for good sea run cutthroats but they're on the small size.

So I'm really curious on your take of the island.

baitcast - 4-21-2011 at 01:09 PM

Igor Iflyfish has been chasing Kamloops in BC over the years,you should look into BC some time,up the Okanogan drainage area,really something up that way also.
Rob

Skipjack Joe - 4-21-2011 at 01:58 PM

Rob,

I've got the pictures from up there as well. Loved that country. Could do a thread on that trip as well. Timo1 and Barbarena are really fortunate to live up there. 40-50 fish days on dry flies on top. And that was between 6:30PM-10:30PM. All rainbows. Of course, it wasn't like that every day.

If there is one thing that really stands out about that part of the world it's the loons. To me they symbolize BC. Every evening it would start. Reverberating from one end of the lake to the other. Makes me smile here at the office just thinking about it.

Iflyfish - 4-21-2011 at 04:15 PM

I have a guide friend on the island. There are 5 Haida tribes that have joined their villages on the south of the island and have a week long gathering the last week of July. The Haida's were a mighty tribe and feared all the way from the Queen Charlotte Islands to San Diego as they were notorious slavers. They of course dropped that venture, at least I hope so, and they are a fascinating people with great carvers, weavers, mask makers, dancers etc. We hope to be there during the meeting of their clans.
I will target rainbow, though will no doubt chase the salmon, halibut, shrimp, dungenes crab and razor clams. I will no doubt look like the Michelan Man when I get back. If the Sea Run Cutthroats are funning then they too will be on the agenda.
I have fished BC for over 35 years and it is indeed a paradise for the fly fisherman interested in Kamloops trout. I have personaly landed a ten pounder on my five weight fly rod!
Enough! Always great to share yarns with Nomad Amigo's.
I will let you know how it goes Skip, if you decide to go then introductions are in order.

IflyfishwhenIcan

mulegemichael - 4-21-2011 at 04:28 PM

the searuns are not necessarily that small off the island, amigo....have trashed some really nice fish along those beaches and stream mouths over the years....ya know, you are in our area now so stop by sequim on your way back...you can take the ferry from victoria to our place in sequim...we're easy to find...purple haze ....m.....AND...we are birding freaks!...m.

Dinner for Two...and Tales for a Few

Pompano - 4-21-2011 at 04:34 PM



Spinning with tiny Mepps spinner.

Gunnison River when we were touring the San Juan Mts & the Million Dollar Highway near Oaray, Colorado. Good spinning fun, although Gunny's not the same as Montana or Alaska...or even BC. But it sure beat sitting in the Fiver that afternoon. :rolleyes:

baitcast - 4-21-2011 at 05:40 PM

Igor a trip report on BC would be welcome anytime,which brings back the time I used my Dads favorite fly rod,instead of flys I was trolling a big Flatfish,kams loved those things,as you remember we never used a motor he said they made to much noise,so there I was just rowing around just enough to keep that flatfish working.

Problem no rod holder on the boat so I was sitting on it just taking in that pretty spot when I saw this big beautiful Kam sky it straight up behind the boat,problem he had my flatfish in his mouth,out goes Dads favorite outfit :o so there I sat watching that fish jumping down the shore line towing the rig,I followed him a ways but.

I can,t begin to tell you the hell I caught for that stunt:lol:
Do the report Igor we would love it.
Rob

Skipjack Joe - 4-21-2011 at 08:22 PM

Hey, it's fun thinking back about the bonehead moves you did as a kid.

I don't know how many Tom McGuane readers we have here. In one of his short stories he writes about how, during a duck hunting trip, he burned his dad's favorite rifle for firewood. It made sense. They were cold in a duck blind, I guess, and there was no wood around. Can you imagine anything dumber. And yet, obviously, he's a bright man.

Actually, Rob, I lost a rod that way in baja just over a year ago. And had never done that before. It happened so fast.

Flatfish worked well up in that country but have grown out of popularity, it seems.

I know where you got that large rainbow, Iflyfish. But I'm not telling. :no::no::no:

mcfez - 4-22-2011 at 07:12 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Skipjack Joe


You got this kid hooked on fishing! Great shot!

stimbo - 5-27-2011 at 07:51 AM

Great post Igor. Can we see more?