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| Kent and Julie John |
Welcome to the first post of the Great Alaska Adventure Lodge Adventure blog. My name is Kent John, and I am one of the owners of Great Alaska International Adventure Vacations. After many years of our guests asking for a way to easily follow the comings and goings of our guides, guests and owners, we have taken the dive into the deep end of the pool and begun to blog. Can a tweet be far behind? (I hope so....)
With the winter season upon us in full swing and the East Coast buried under another 2 feet of snow, Our lodges in Costa Rica and Holbox, Mexico are foremost in our minds..but Alaska's spring is only 4 months away and we are already deep in preparations for our Summer 2011!
For those who are not super familiar with who we are are and what we do, our adventure and sport fishing vacations are located in three amazing locales-
Confluence of Moose and Kenai rivers, Alaska,
On the Barre Parismina in Costa Rica
Holbox Island in Mexico
Each location is completely unique to itself, however the operation has been forged by nearly thirty years of operation on the Kenai River in Alaska. We believe in a great, comfortable combination of world class fishing, incredible scenery and wildlife viewing and top notch service provided by folks who take their commitment to your great experience very seriously.
In Alaska, our Kenai riverside main lodge is located at the confluence of the Kenai and Moose Rivers on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula.
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| The lodge deck after a recent snow |
Kenai River, Alaska
The conditions as we speak are a bit frigid at the lodge- not a lot of guests lining up to hit the water with our great guides today! Our guides are a pretty tenacious group, though and I was sent a picture from Steve, our longest tenured guide. He loves the cold weather fishing and was stalking some native rainbows on a the first warm day in a few months and sent me a couple pictures. Here's one of them:
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| Beautiful winter Trout |
These native fish are spectacular and you can see by the beautiful shape of this fish that they are still living quite well off the fat they accumulated during the summer salmon spawning run. You can see Steve's fly rod in the background of the picture but we take these great fish (and let them go again) with spinning rods as well.
The Kenai's water level is at it's lowest this time of year..you can see in the background of the image all the gravel behind Steve that during the height of the summer would be covered in beautiful, aquamarine Kenai river water. As the temperatures rise during the spring and summer, the glaciers in the surrounding Kenai Mountains melt and the river rises daily with the peak usually occurring during mid and late July, with some high water also occurring in late August and September during some years.
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The first salmon return to the Kenai and local rivers are the Mighty Kenai River King salmon. The Kenai river Kings feature two runs- an early run beginning the first week of May and running through the 3rd week of June. The world record, a 97 pound, 4 ounce behemoth was taken on the 17th of May in 1985 and has yet to be bettered, 26 years later...but not for a lack of trying! Nearly every year a mid eighties to low nineties fish is taken on the Kenai, including nearly a dozen fish over 80 pound for Great Alaska guides, and my own personal best for a guest, a 86 pound fish taken on the 17th of June. Here is a shot of a great fish taken last year from Great Alaska Adventure Lodge return guest Gene McLeod. Future blogs will feature other species on the river- Second run King salmon, (July) Sockeye Salmon, Silver Salmon and Pink salmon, not to mention our fantastic offshore angling in Cook Inlet and Resurrection Bay and much more. In addition to the fishing, we'll talk about our great wild bear viewing in Lake Clark National park, Mountain biking in the Chugach Mountains, river rafting on the upper Kenai River, 6-mile whitewater rafting, Swan Lakes canoeing and much more. Each post will have a different focus, so we hope you'll join us and "become a fan"!
Holbox Fly fishing Lodge
The second of our adventure destinations is the sleepy Island of Holbox, Mexico. Located on Mexico's gorgeous Yucatan Peninsula, just north of what has come to be know as "The Mayan Riviera". Laurence has been traveling the Yucatan since the late Seventies, and fell in love with the area after visiting Isla Mujeres and he's been coming back ever since. With his wife Deb, he explored for years, looking for the perfect combination of relaxed Island vibe, easy logistics and incredible sport fishing and wildlife. Oh yeah, and a snow white, talcum powder soft beach that the area is justly famous for. At the end of another long road trip searching for the perfect place for his new lodge, he and Deb were ready to call it a day and head back towards Cancun when a friends "over beers" tip and a toss of a coin took them to the ferry dock in Chiquila, Mexico. When they stepped off the boat they knew inside that they had found it.
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| Holbox Fly Fishing Adventure Lodge |
Holbox Island, Mexico is on "the bucket list" for most serious fly fishermen...the huge trophy Tarpon migrate along the Northern shores of the Yucatan Peninsula, migrating towards their summer feeding grounds a few miles from the lodge. As the summer temperatures rise, the winds lay down the big tarpon feed actively in the shallows on the sardines, pompano and any other small bait fish foolish enough to get tin their way! This is the time for the big fish- 70 to 200 pounds and more. 12 to 14 weight rods are the norm with some longish casting required..fortunately the new higher modulus rods being manufactured these days make all of us better casters than our fathers and mothers were, and the biggest requirement for success is perseverance. Later posts will focus on the other species in the area...Jack Crevalle, Permit, Baby Tarpon, Barracuda and more.
In addition to the fantastic fishing, Holbox island is famous for a few things...a great, unique Island community that prizes casual atmosphere, great restaurants, fantastic beaches and loads of wildlife. One example is their giant whale sharks- gentle giants that travel to the island each summer for spawning and feeding (not on us, thankfully)! All trips can Summer trips can add a day of Whale Shark viewing, up island kayaking, warm "cenote" hot pool swimming and other wildlife experiences to any trip. Future posts will delve more deeply into the local area, the various fishing options on the island and more.
Costa Rica's Jungle Tarpon Lodge
The eastern coast of Costa Rica has been known as a wildlife and sport fishing paradise for many years, and Laurence and I have been fishing it's storied waters since the late eighties. In addition to possibly the finest tarpon fishing in the world, Costa Rica's combination of incredible wildlife, the quintessential Jungle environment and a forward thinking government that relishes the opportunity to protect the country by creating 21 national parks is truly unique. Our lodge, on the southern border of Tortuguero National park, sits just upstream from the Barre Parismina, between the mainland and the Caribbean sea.
Wildlife in the area is simply mind boggling, with a concentration of birds, mammals and insects that must be seen to be believed. Many of our trips combine the incredible fishing with daily sightseeing options, and it's a perfect spot for anglers and non-anglers alike to share a common experience.
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| Kent and Lead guide/Lodge Mgr. Carlos |
As for the fishing, as I mentioned it is possibly the finest trophy Tarpon fishing in the universe, with both freshwater and saltwater areas available just minutes from the lodge. Future posts will focus on the great variety of species and fishing styles our guides use to get our guests into fishing that will remain in your memories always.
Future posts will focus on the wonderful sport fishing opportunities near the lodge, the wildlife and scenery, staff and more. Many of our trips travel North to Arenal Volcano, so we'll talk about the entire country as well as post reports from guests just returning from the lodge.
That's about it for now...for anyone who joins up to this blog, thanks for your time and I hope you'll enjoy what you see.
In the "ask not for whom the bell tolls" department, I'll be spending next week in Soldotna, Alaska at the Kenai River Guide academy. The Kenai river is one of the most cherished resources in Alaska, and also the most regulated...all Kenai river guides have to complete a mandatory 5 day course and before they can be licensed for the coming season. With my first license being issued in '84, I was able to successfully put the class off for 5 years, but to guide in 2011, each and every Kenai River guide must have completed the course. 
