2016 in full swing!!

Hey all!  Thanks for checking in with the Great Alaska Adventure Blog!  Sorry we haven't been more active (since the last post was Christmas, Ha!) but hey, what can I say...we've been cranking since our first group in May- 25 Swedes from Stockholm who enjoyed our rafting, hiking, Biking and paddling.  They also caught a couple early Sockeye salmon off the beach and things haven't slowed down yet!

Part of your Great Alaska Culinary team

For our guests arriving soon - a couple items of note:

1.  Please bring refillable water bottles (we are cutting out all plastic wherever possible, so ask that you bring your own to use each day).  We will have some for sale in our pro shop if you forget.
2.  Temperatures have been in the 70's and 80's recently, so be sure to pack some lightweight shorts, or even the convertible safari pants that zip off to convert to shorts is great.  Sandals or crocs are also great as backup footwear - just don't plan on wearing them in the boats or on safari as they are dangerous for slipping and falling - but great for wearing around the lodge.
3.  We've been filming some great drone footage for our new website (launch will be in the early winter- we are gathering footage all summer!) and here is link to a quick bit of footage that you might like.



It's been a very active and fun spring and early summer here at Great Alaska, with tons of bears out at BearCamp in the early spring, great offshore fishing in Cook Inlet and Resurrection Bay and the strongest early return of Kings on the Kenai in a number of years.  

Kasilof King!

The Kasilof had a strong early spring, with lots of native and hatchery Kings being caught by out drift boat guides, and then the Kenai begin really kicking out fish as well.  In fact they opened the Kenai to retention of Kings in early June for only the second time in the last 5 years.  Great news for the strength of the early run going forward.

A nice shot from this spring...

BearCamp has had an amazing early season.  After some challenging weather early, we hit a stretch of really beautiful blue skies and calm winds, with bears everywhere.  Largest number seen at a single time in the meadow was 41.  Our new wash house, composting toilets and bathrooms have been a big hit.  We also for the first time discontinued single day trips, so our guides can spend more time with each guest, and also reduce the number of flights going in and out of the bay.  

Wildlife has really been over the top so far this year, with Kenai Fjords consistently producing Orca, Humpback and Gray Whales plus sea otter, puffin and all of the other favorites from the fjords.  We have also been offering zip lining to our list of adventure activities - it's available on the Kenai Multi Sport adventure (7 days) and also available as an add on to existing packages for a fee. 

Feedback from our guests has been over the top so far this year, with truly wonderful reviews from our departed guests on TripAdvisor.com.  Check them out!


Finally, just a word to say that we are excited to have you! If you've been with us recently, send us your favorite photos of the trip and we'll get you on the new website or on the blog!   

Thanks for reading and I'll post again soon.

Kent

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from the folks 

at Great Alaska Adventures

As we enter the home stretch of the Holiday season, we at Great Alaska are thankful for the wonderful folks that we are privileged to meet and spend time with.  Our loyal guests have been traveling with us since the early '80's, and we are continually appreciative of their decision to spend their precious vacation time with us.  In addition to our amazing guests, we have been blessed to work with the best staff in Alaska- heck in the adventure travel and sport fishing world!

We at Great Alaska are truly hoping that this holiday season, you'll be able to spend time with the friends you care about the most.

BearCamp report from the Field 

Weather was pretty up and down this year, with some truly beautiful stretches, but also some pretty tough times when getting out to the camp was as problematic as getting back home!  On the plus side, some folks were able to get some bonus days with the bears.  Caprice and her staff did an amazing job of taking care of our guests and making them feel safe and at home in a rugged wilds of Alaska.

We'd like to thank the staff of BearCamp for their hard work and unfailing commitment to our guest's experience.   Caprice, Chef Heidi, Clint, Ben and Mike for all of their hard work.  In addition to an upgraded viewing platform, tent platforms and decks, 2015 will mark the first year that we have potties in the tents, so no more late night runs to the bathrooms!  2014 was another incredible year and we look forward to another great time this summer.

Alaska 2014 Fishing report

2014 was a great year for our guests and guides.  While the Kenai river experienced it's second year of King fishery closures to protect an endangered run, the Sockeye salmon and Silver salmon runs were both consistent and strong runs, and helped our guests find great fishing from the beginning of the season in late May until the end of the season in late September.
Big shout out to the best guide staff in Alaska for another great year of showing our clients some of the finest fishing in Alaska!

King Salmon (Chinook).  King fishing last year was a diverse range- the Kasilof river was a gain a consistent producer in June and July, with our guests and guides landing nice fish on fly rods as well as in our custom 20 foot drift boats. The Kenai continued it's second year of poor King salmon returns- the first and second runs were both closed last year, so we were not able to target the bit Kings on charters or off the beach- that being said the Fish and Game escapement goals were met for both runs, and that is a great sign for the runs recovery.

 Silver salmon: (Coho) were excellent again last year, with limits of beautiful fish on the Kenai beginning just as the sockeye runs petered out the fist week of August.  The run continued very strongly all the way to close down the end of September.  We were able to catch silvers on fly spinning and fly tackle, with perhaps our best fly fishing for silvers in the past 10 years.  


Rainbow Trout ('Bows") fishing was again outstanding.  While the fish were a bit spread out for the early season (June 11 onward) and again when the Pink Salmon hit the river en masse (early and Mid August) as the river dropped and the leaves began to drop, the trout fishing was truly epic.  Our guides love these resident trout, and they would love to put you onto some as well!

Sockeye Salmon ("Reds") continued their trend of truly exceptional fishing.  Once again we broke standing records for the largest number of fish over a small period.  Nearly a quarter of a million fish entered the Kenai river in a bit over 24 hours.  While the run was not as consistently long as it was in 2013, it still meant great fishing for our guests from June all the way into early August for these hard fighting, excellent tasting wild salmon.  

Offshore Halibut fishing was again outstanding.  Both Cook Inlet and Resurrection bay/Prince William Sound provided world class fishing for our guests, about our 3 offshore boats, the Fair Chase, the Stellar and the Raptor.  Captains Jeremy, Aarron, Kent and Lucas plied some of the area's most beautiful waters .

In addition to Halibut, our offshore fishing featured Ling Cod, True Cod and of course early season King Salmon and mid season Silver Salmon- all of which was excellent in 2015. 

So all in all, 2014 was another great year of fishing in Alaska, and we hope you'll join us in 2015 to experience it for yourself.

2014 Great Alaska Client Photo Contest

As every year, our guests have taken some of the finest photos and we love to share them with you.  This year, we'll be offering a free trip to our beachfront lodge in Mexico for 2 for the winner of our favorite submitted photo!   If you were with us in 2014 (or any other year, for that matter!) please submit  your very favorite photo for us to judge.  Final results will be judged over the holidays, and we'll be announcing our winner in the first post of January, 2015.

Isla Holbox winter trips           The fall is over and the winter season at our beach front lodge in Mexico is open for business.  While the summer season is the peak season in Holbox, the winter has it's own charm and is becoming more popular each season.

Holbox offers great fly fishing for Juvenile (baby) tarpon in the protected mangroves of the Island- it also offers world class relaxing, from our beachfront palapas and chaise lounges on the snow white sands of one of the world's great beaches.   Want to know more?....

Great Alaska Legendary Adventures

2015 Great Alaska 
Legendary Adventures catalog
Our 2015 brochure is off the presses, and we are pleased to be able to send you a copy if you would like.  New photos, new trips and a new design will feature our most popular trips for families, couples, groups and business incentive or team building trips.  If you'd like to receive your own copy of our great new brochure (whether in printed or Digital format) just click on our  Request the Great Alaska 2015 Legendary Adventure Catalog.



This Weeks Special
This year's blog posting will feature a special offer- sometimes fishing, sometimes Wildlife adventures but always a great deal!  Check our this post's special!

Our next blog post will focus on our Safari Activities- Mountain Biking, Whitewater Rafting, Hiking, scenic Bald Eagle floating and much more.  Be sure and follow the blog to be sure to receive the latest news and specials from Great Alaska Adventures!

Great Alaska July Fishing Report

The last week of July at Great Alaska

The last week of July began with a bang, with 60,000 sockeye salmon coming over the sonar counter on the lower Kenai river.  Here is a link to the year 24 year run synopsis for Sockeye salmon in the Kenai river:  it's an interesting read: Kenai River Sockeye Salmon 24 year history.

Another great batch of Kenai River Sockeye

Big, Feisty Sockeye!

While the sockeye numbers have not been as stellar as they have been over the past several years, overall the run has been very very strong, with great fishing for the Sockeye consistently for our guests from the first week of June all the way to today (when all 7 boats fishing for Sockeye hit their three fish per person limits.)
In 2014, the Sockeye have seemed to be particularly large, with our largest specimen hitting the scales at 12 pounds.   With their reputation intact as the best pound for pound fighter in the salmon kingdom, (and  the best eating, too!) the sockeye salmon season at Great Alaska Adventures has been a rousing success, even though the overall number of fish is still well short of last years' nearly 1.4 million fish.

Offshore Fishing Report

In addition to the great Salmon fishing, offshore halibut has been fantastic, with daily limits in both Seward/Resurrection Bay and Deep Creek/Cook Inlet.  Captains "Ron" Jeremy E. and Aarron and deckhands Fabian, Zeke and Lucas have done a great job getting all of our clients into great limits of Halibut, Ling cod, Yelloweye Rockfish, Silver and Pink salmon and more.  Weather has also been a big help, as the storms of June have given way to to the mild days of July.  Seward in particular has been consistently nice weather, and Cook Inlet has been calm enough for us to get most of our business done with a minimum of bumps and swells.  We are now hitting the prime silver salmon season in Seward, and we'll be moving the Stellar from Deep Creek to our slip next to the Fair Chase at the small boat harbor in Seward.


 We are hoping for a continuation of the same for the balance of the month and we'll see how August shakes out as we finish one of our finest offshore fishing seasons in a number of years.
  

King Salmon report:

54" Kenai King being released 7.25.14

 The kings have been a bit more of a mixed bag...while the early June run of Kenai Kings ended up being closed to all fishing (mostly due to last year's very low early run of Kings) the run ended up being stronger that was feared- in fact the total number of fishing estimated to reach their spawning beds was about twice what we experienced last year.

The early May/June season on the Kenai was closed early on, and due in part to the added protection, the run ended up nearly twice what the 2013 run finished with, and that is a good sign for the sustainability of the mighty Kenai King.    Great Alaska supports full catch and release fishery for Kenai Kings until we reach sustainable numbers for a healthy fishing for our children to enjoy.

 

The Kasilof river, on the other hand, has continued a strong early start  to the season and our clients haves been catching beautiful Kings from 10 to nearly 60 pounds all season long.  We've had a good push of larger fish over the past few weeks- here are a couple of the nice fish we've taken this week.  With 6 days left to go in the season, the Kasilof has gone to Catch and release, so we'll be catching and releasing some beautiful native fish for the balance of the season. 

Rainbow Trout

Trout season has taken a bit of a back seat with all of the Sockeye salmon (over 650,000 at last count) entering the river, but with ever day that passes, the fishing will get better and better for one of our favorite species. 

Both Fly and spin fishermen covet these beautiful fish, with their individual markings, wandering nature and feisty fighting ways.  Great Alaska has been a strictly catch and release lodge for native trout and Steelhead species for over 2 decades, and the fishing for these great fish has simply gotten better and better.  I can honestly say that the fishing for large rainbows is as good now as it was when I started fishing for them in the early 80's. 

Silver and Pink salmon

The Silvers and Pinks are beginning to enter the river now, with large numbers of Pinks being caught for folks fishing for Kings the last few days, and silvers are beginning to show up in batches of Sockeye as well.  Soon we'll be casting spinners and spoons for mixed bag limits of Sockeye, Silver and Pink salmon (one of our favorite fisheries).

The Beach

The fishing right in front of the cabins at the lodge has continued to be very strong.  We've landed hundreds of Sockeye salmon, as well as a few Kings (to be quickly photographed and released!) and are now beginning to see Silver Salmon and Pink salmon show up as well.  Beach fishing will continue to be excellent all the way through the season until our end in Mid September.

That's it for today's fishing report.  My next report will share the goings-on at Bearcamp, as well as our mountain biking, Bald Eagle floating, hiking, rafting and Denali Flightseeing for our non-fishing folks! 
Tight lines,
Kent

Welcome to July, 2014!

The Sockeye are here!

 Welcome to July, 2014 at Great Alaska! 
It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, so there is a lot to share.

The Second run of Sockeye salmon has continued in the same vein as the very strong early run with 20,000 over the counter a few days ago and about 30,000 yesterday.  Those numbers will spike to ridiculous numbers soon, if the last few years is any indicator.  Our largest single day numbers last year was in incredible 250,000 fish over the counter on the Kenai in a single 24 hour period.

Here are some photos of some of our latest Sockeye salmon trips.  Sockeye are among the very best eating of all salmon (of any fish, anywhere, actually!) with a very high oil content that makes them rich in omega 3 fatty acids and very good for you, as well as excellent for smoking.

Trout fishing has continued to be good, though not excellent- but that is typical this time of year.  With all of the salmon entering the river the trout will be moving constantly, looking for the Salmon eggs and flesh that they subsist on during them mid to late summer months. Soon they'll be fattening up and getting stronger and stronger- perfect for the August and September spin and fly fishing we all love!

The next post will share some great images from Bearcamp, some more offshore fishing for Salmon and Halibut in Cook Inlet and Seward, not to mention whitewater rafting on 6-mile creek, Mt. Biking in the Chugach National Forest, End of the road tours in Homer and much more.  It's been a great, great summer so far and we've been enjoying our guests from all over the world.

Tight lines,
Kent

June coming to an end at Great Alaska

                 Final June Report from Great Alaska

Bear on the Run at Alaska BearCamp

Good morning friends and followers of Great Alaska!.  It's June 28th and as I write this the strong sockeye run is continuing, with bright, beautiful 7-12 pound fish jumping nearly constantly all day long for the past few weeks.  Typically, at this time of year the Sockeye run slows down as we wait for the 2nd run Kenai fish to start hitting the river, but this year we are on course to hit the predictions of another epic run of Reds.  The sanctuary on the Russian River has already been raised to 6 fish per angler, and most folks expect the same thing to happen once again on the "main stem" Kenai Sockeye run in July..  As I write this, I took a couple of quick photos- one of them of an angler fighting one of the great early season fish we've been enjoying here at the lodge since late May:

 
The fish have been big, bright and feisty...Guide Steve and his two clients brought back an early limit of fish that "felt like a July trip" he said, with a limit by 10:00 and at least 30 fish hooked up for the two lucky anglers.  The largest fish was over 12 pounds and Steve thought it may be one of the 3 or 3 biggest sockeye he has ever seen taken on his boat.  That is an exceptional fish!

Great Alaska Beach 

The Sockeye run has been incredible now for the past 3 years, and we are looking forward to another incredible one.  Last year, the run hit with 250,000 fish crossing the lower river sonar counter in 24 hours, and the run ended up totaling over 1.4 million fish in the river.  Truly a healthy and vibrant salmon population, and one that has allowed our guests to bring home lots of big, bright, tasty salmon to enjoy back home.

The King run has been a different story the past couple of seasons, however the return for our Kenai river first run fish has been better than expected.  Current count is over 4200 fish, nearly double the entire return of 2013 fish.  With a full closure on the Kenai Kings (no fishing whatsoever in the months of May and June) nearly all of those great fish should make it safely to their spawning grounds and may be the first step in the run's recovery.  July means the second run of Kings, and the river will open to single hook, no-bait fishing of Kenai kings below the Slikok Creek mark of the lower river.  This will mean the fish that have already entered the river and made their way past Slikok will continue to be protected, while the second run fish coming through the lower river will all some fishing.  All the Great Alaska guides are looking forward to doing some king fishing on the Kenai! 

Offshore fishing continues it's strong season

Offshore fishing has continued to be very strong, with every single charter run so far providing a limit for our Great Alaska guests.  The last run was to Seward, where our 30 foot Glacier Craft the "Fair Chase" enjoyed a spectacular day of fishing.  limits of Black Bass, Halibut to 70 pounds and even a few silver and Pink salmon kept the anglers and crew hopping for the entire day!    Here are a couple images of the day:
 

That's Great Bass!

Here's Josh Wels, Great Alaska operations manager of years past.  Josh is an enthusiastic offshore fisherman, and  joined us for a day on the water off Montague Island.  Josh specializes in Ling Cod and Black bass and always seems to get the trophy bass or Cod whenever he's aboard. 

Today, we're running in Cook Inlet today on board the "Stellar" with captain Jeremy and deckhand Fabian looking to enjoy a fantastic morning.  Tides are strong today (20 foot high to a 2 foot low) so the weights will be heavy but the seas look calm and fishing should be good.  I'll post some photos when I have them.

Deckhand Fabian laying out the anchor

We'll have more fun shots soon, but time to wake up the next group of guests...in the meantime, tight lights and we'll see you in Alaska!

Kent

Ladies rule at Gtreat Alaska this week!

Nice day on Cook Inlet for the ladies!

One of our favorite groups that fishes for halibut with us each year had a stellar day out in Cook Inlet aboard the "Stellar" with captain Jeremy and deckhand Fabian.  Nearly constant action, combined with gorgeous weather and dead-calm seas made for a great day.  Here are a couple of the group's photos of the day.

Mt. Illiamna in the Distance

Cook Inlet is a very unique place to fish..with no natural or man-made marinas, so for 20 years we have been launching our boats directly into the surf...(back in the day we'd do it with our own trucks, fishing out of 14 foot inflatable and all manner of craft, mainly for the King salmon fishery that peaked in June)....but for the past 15 years or so it's been the tasty flatfish that are the main draw in this incredible fishery, and the craft we utilize have changed considerably! 

The Stellar

Tractor Launching in the Surf

We back the boats into the surf in giant tractors known as "log skidders".  It's an effective way to access this great fishery with short runs to the fishing grounds.  On bad weather days it precludes us from fishing this area, but with high sides, heavy duty hulls and specially designed trailers we can handle some pretty lumpy seas before we have to call it a day.  Thanks to Deb and her friends for providing the photos to share with you.

Adventure Women in Alaska!

Adventure Women having a good time at BearCamp

Adventure women is a fantastic organization organizing women's only experiences all over the globe, and Susan Eckert and her team have been traveling with us for about 17 years.  It's a match made in heaven!  This year, two groups will be enjoying our wildlife viewing, river rafting, hiking, biking and touring.  For some great images from this year's trip, Check out Adventure Women's Facebook page.
Thanks to the fantastic group of ladies that made of the first group, and thanks to Susan Eckert for sharing these photos for you to enjoy.

The bears were out in full force at Bearcamp!  

Camp manager Caprice called it "Crazy" bear viewing...simply amazing.  Here is one of the many new friends the ladies made...

 Dinner at the main lodge overlooking the Kenai and Moose rivers, at our renowned riverfront Kenai River Lodge.

A great day of rafting the beautiful Kenai River.  

Another great trip with another great group of ladies.

Thanks to Susan and then entire group for their fellowship and great attitude.

We'll see you next year!

Brown Bears at Russian River Falls

Well, yesterday was another eventful day at Great Alaska.  A couple of our safari groups split up and enjoyed two of our most popular hikes..the first one an 8 mile challenge to a view of the Harding Ice-field, and the second a more moderate forest walk ending at the Russian River falls to (hopefully) spot some of the large early run of Sockeye Salmon that have been passing the lodge for the past few weeks.  The falls is steep and challenging, and I believe that for milennia oru fish have had to cross this obstacle, and that challenge, generation after generation, is one of the reasons the Kenai and Russian river fish are such a genetically superior species. 

5 minutes after they got to the viewing platform, a group of fish began leaping up the falls, an eagle flew right over the Blaydes party's shoulders, and the next moment, 2 adult brown bear emerged from the forest and waded into the river to fish.  They caught some of these beautiful wild sockeye salmon almost immediately (these bears are good fishermen!) and Mr. Blayes was able to capture the moment on video.  Thanks to David for sharing this with us.

Not everyone sees an event like this, but in Alaska you never know what is around the next corner, so have that camera ready!

Offshore Report:

We've finished our retro fit on the three offshore boats- The Raptor is ready for it's sea trial today, with new seats, larger gas tank and lots of new hardware.  The Stellar has already completed it's retro fit with a complete re-work of all electronics systems, windshield wipers, improved seating on board plus new Okuma reels.    The Fair Chase got a 2 inch lift on the twin 225 Yamaha 4 stroke motors, (which should help with improved speed, handling and fuel economy) plus a new diesel heater for improved cabin comfort on those chilly or wet mornings, and all three boats received some new emergency equipment to make your trip safer.  We'll be putting the Fair Chase in Seward within the next 48 hours and we'll be fishing in resurrection Bay/Prince William Sound not long after that!

Freshwater Fishing Report:

The Kenai river All-river Rainbow Trout opener is today,and we've got 4 boats targeting our beautiful Rainbow Trout on one of the most beautiful stretches of the Kenai- below Skilak lake to the Moose river at the lodge.  We've been fishing this area for over 3 decades, and it's become our signature stretch of water over the years. 

Our amazing Kenai River Rainbows are a transient species of fish, ever searching, with an innate desire to seek new feeding areas and new stretches of water in which to hunt their prey, On the Kenai, that consists of salmon eggs, underwater nymph - stage insects, fresh and or deteriorating salmon flesh and small leeches, sculpins and other small baitfish.  In Alaska, when it comes to Rainbow trout it's all about "match the hatch"...except rather than impersonating various winged or underwater insects, your guides will match the size and color of spawned salmon eggs.  Different salmon species' eggs  all vary in size, and color, and the longer they are under water, the more faded they become.  The art of matching these different "shades of gray" is part of the art of  being a Kenai River rainbow Trout guide.   Our guides are among the very best!

That's it for today's report.  Caprice is back from BearCamp, so we'll have some more posts from her before she heads back "into the wild".  We'll also have some pictures of the trout caught on today's opener for the next post.  In the meantime......

Tight lines,

Kent