Summer 2014 is nearly here
Great Alaska readies for our Fishing & Adventure guests
It's the 25th of May, 2014 and Great Alaska enters it's last week of pre-guest preparations. The staff at BearCamp is readying the tents and equipment for another amazing year of viewing brown Bears in the Alaskan wilderness, and at the main lodge we are busy getting our riverboats and offshore cruisers ready for another season of great Alaska Fishing and Adventure.Funny River Wildfire Report
After an incredible run of weather this spring, 5 days ago a fire began near the funny river road south of Soldotna (14 miles south of the lodge). The U.S.F.S was on the fire within 15 minutes, but it jumped up and began to run towards Skilak Lake in the the mostly uninhabited portions of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. During the course of the last 5 days it has morphed into a mega-fire, with over 158,000 acres involved at this point. (For our guests coming up this summer, for perspective our lodge is located on the upper right side of the above map, directly on the Kenai of course, south of Skilak Lake (the blue lake area at the upper right side of the map).
The large lake to the south is Tustamena Lake, which is the headwaters of the Kasilof river. So far none of the areas that our guests access on our daily trips have been affected, other than our Scenic Bald Eagle floats which will definitely have an amazine view of some of the affected areas. We will also have vantage points of the fire on many of our hikes into the Chugach National Forest and Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Last night the firefighters and helicopters were working non-stop to protect the Kenai Keys area upstream of the lodge approximately 5 miles. The fire was threatening to jump the river, and with the heavy winds it was a very nervous time for many homeowners in the Keys and of course us folks down river as well. The night passed and at this point we know of no homes that burned. Rain is predicted for Tuesday and we are crossing our fingers. At this point it's great to say everyone is still safe. To stay abreast of the latest developments, here is a link to the inci-web system. It's always an adventure in Alaska! Fishing Report
The Kasilof river, on the other hand is open for business and we'll be targeting the early season fish on our welded aluminum Mackenzie River drift boats on the lower portion of the river.
Sockeye ("Red") salmon
The sockeye run in 2013 was a record breaker, continuing a trend of absolutely incredible Sockeye fishing for the past few years. Early season sockeye were killer, with limits for many of our June guests. We've already been seeing the "Blueback" early run of Sockeye flipping on the beach in front of the cabins, so we are confirming what is predicted to be another banner year for Sockeye on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers.
Offshore
As always, we'll be targeting the great Halibut fishing in Cook Inlet as well as Resurrection Bay and Prince William Sound on board our three offshore boats, the Fair Chase, the Raptor and the Stellar. Captains Jeremy E. and Troy N. will be focusing on Cook Inlet during early June, with Seward and Kenai Fjords National Park fishing beginning in Mid June and running through the end of August. Last year was a great year for Halibut and we are looking for more of the same this year.My next blog post will feature BearCamp and Safaris info, Trout fishing on the Kenai and and lots of more pictures, so check back soon!
Kent
