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