Big River Lakes, Katmai Peninsula, Alaska
Another day, another fishing trip into the wild. This time I took my family to the Big River Lakes. Yeah, I know, it is a rather non descript name. Lots of the place names in Alaska are that way. The "lake" is actually sort of a river and marsh combined. There is no bank, almost no where to stand. You can only fly in using a floar plane. Then step on to a boat straight from the plane, as you can see in the picture below. It is critical to understand that since there is no hard ground, you fish from the boat and rely on the speed of the boat to complete, rather run away from the bears, who is also fishing Sockeye Salmon!
Big River Lake is about 50 mile as a crow flies from Soldotna, AK, in the Kenai Peninsula, across the Cook Inlet to the west. When I say "I took my family" earlier, it is bit of a stretch. Again I had no idea about even this existence of this place, and without my friend Dan, the mountain man (!) and Allan the bush pilot, I wouldn't be able to make it. Here is Dan in his elements!
Set UP
I have never fished for Sockeye Salmon in my life. I have tasted them, and they are wonderful, but nothing compared to fresh caught! I know them from grocery store and seen their picture. Even seen them live swimming in my previous trips to Alaska, but never fished. I learned from Dan, that when they spawn (lay eggs) upstream, in the fresh water mountain streams, they turn dark red. They are not good to fish at that time, as their meat feels soggy and soft. They taste good when they have just arrive from the ocean, and sort of in the brackish salty water. They are pinkish during this time and when you open them up, their meat is dark red.
In Big Read "lake", there is no swift flowing water. It does have some tidal current but the water is glacial till fed and so not very clear. Dan explained that this is the ideal ground to fish for sockeye salmon. I first didn't believe him, because I have fished in Alaska with him in crystal clear water. For Trout of course, but I thought all Alaskan fish like clear water! Aparently not!
Dan's hook set up always amazes me. But here this is extreme. Why? Because Dan explained the salmon here are not biting. They are ready to spawn, so they are starving. How do you catch a fish which you know is not biting with a hook??
Answer: You use a spinning rod. Cast as far away as you can. Then reel back with periodic very strong jerks! Blindly. With these jerks, you just 'hook' a fish. Not in the mouth most of the times, sometimes in the body, sometimes in the fin, whatever! This is the most bizzare fishing I have ever done. This requires some skills! But Dan can get my 10 year old to catch 3 Salmons in 10 minutes!!
They were amazing experience for the kids, and everyone caught a whole lot of them. There were four of us, each can keep three. We kept 10 and cooked 2 right there on the boat. I normally don't like fish that much. I don't enjoy the smell. I tell you, fresh caught Salmon has no fish smell! So I loved them.
Aftermath
Dan filleted all the fish for us. As we flew back to Soldotna, there are places in town who can vacuum seal and pack and ship it. They have the fish processed for us and we got them in a commercial freezer at a friend's home. Then when we were ready to fly back from Anchorage we brought them with us. We brought back about 35 pounds of Salmon. It will likey last us 3-4 months I am guessing! Good catch, eh?
