Alaska trip pics- A few more added.

Did another trip last year with a few friends from home. One guy was a second timer and the others were first timers. We went mid September and were expecting typical Alaska weather .. mostly an unpredictable mix of wind and rain with a little bit sunshine thrown in. We instead, got a rare treat with daytime highs in the 70's and lows at night in the 40's. Saw very few clouds and never got as much as a drop of rain!

About 45 minutes before landing on the flight from Seattle to Anchorage I happened to look out the window and saw a really cool section of coastline and thought to myself it would be really cool to throw a spinner in that river. Then it dawned on me that I would, the very next day. The river I was looking at was the Seal River, and our destination was a few miles down the beach to the east. It took a minute to dig my camera out, but I'm pleased that I was able to at least get a shot of the area from the air. That section of water approaching the coast with all the ice bergs in it is the Seal River. The river parallels the coast for a little ways before it exits. Just beyond that is Midtimber lake, and not really visible just beyond that is the Tsiu river, our intended destination.



Just before passing Cordova, the Childs Glacier, and the Copper River.





Fast forward 24 hours...

We arrived by Cessna 206. It took two trips with the 5 of us and our gear. I was on the first trip and my camera was buried :( so I took video of the trip down.

While waiting for the rest of our group, we just HAD to hit the river. The summer had been drier than usual and it really did show in the water level of the river. The flow/volume of the river was less than half of what it normally would have been. You could cross the river at about any point in knee high hip boots and not had a problem. As usual, the silvers were stacked up at the mouth and HUNGRY!




We don't need no steenking waders!




The fish really needed the high tide to get in the river. It was that shallow....




Ok, you get the idea...



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The first morning, and as it turns out every morning we were greeted by fog. The warm surface temperatures created radiation fog throughout our stay. It made for some cool pictures on the river.









The fog presented challenges for the duck hunting as well. Each time we've gone to this place there have been lots of one kind of species. This time it was green wing teal in flocks of a couple hundred.



There is some commercial fishing on the river as well. They were bringing this DC-3 in to haul fish back to Yakutat. Love the sound of those things....




There's no way to describe the beauty or the gradeur of Alska without seeing it with your own eyes. Pictures do not do it justice. That is the Bering Glacier in the background in this picture.


Driftwood..

playing photographer..



And no fishing trip to Alaska would be complete without some pictures of bears. These two were ran off by their mother earlier this season. They had such a good food source and really showed no fear of people. The male was a little more assertive of where and when he wanted to eat, and the female kinda followed his lead.






With the fishing as good as it was in the bottom 1/4 mile of the river, we rarely ventured farther upstream.






The days results were always the same. Fish until it hurts. Fish cleaning island.




The 100 lb. smoker. There is nothing better than a warm filet out of this thing..




packing it up...

All I can say is....beautiful!

WOW!!!!! Thank you for posting.

Nice

Has it been a year since the last trip already???? If so, WOW! Where does the time go!?!?!?

Beautiful pics and thanks for sharing them!

great pics and thank you for posting them.  i hope one day i will be able to make it there. 

ORIGINAL: musthuntmusky

a trip to alaska is not as expensive as you think... especially if you stay closer to anchorage.

great great pics!!

i have to ask, is that you behind the lens for those pics, or your guide/service?

Thanks, I'll add more pictures when I have the time. I'm behind the camera,... and played guide..

ORIGINAL: topdog99

the amazing thing is... we all can do that without paying thousands..

we have trout run and thats alot closer.. the scenery though...Breathtaking...
thanks for the pics..

the tsiu river is the most abundant and healthy stock of wild/native coho in the world. You really can't get that anywhere else... great pics blow, I've been looking in to tsiu for 2 years now; hopefully oneday. Do you mind sending me a pm of your outfitter because I haven't seen rates like that yet. Also, did you get any surface strikers at all? Tight lines...

Me too!

Could you send me the name of the outfitter also !  Great pics !  Can you fly fish successfully there ?

Awesome photos! Thanks for sharing

awesome pics and thanks for the vacation seems thats the only way to get one at the moment is from all you great people that share yours with us.

Great pics.....

Wow!

ORIGINAL: buggerman

Great pics Blow! Looks like a really great trip. Just like every fisherman I know i'ts my dream trip. Belize and bone fish were great but salmon and trout would be better. Hope to make it up there one day. Just like several other people asked I'd like to know the name of the outfitter you used. Wife wants to go on a cruise to Alaska and I've agreed as long as we can stay an extra week and fish. Have to wait and see how things pan out.

Thanks for posting.

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