| Publisher's Note: Hectic, But FUN!
It’s been an exciting year so far. As I
sit and write this welcome in late July, Fish Alaska magazine has already
fished the saltwaters around Yakutat as well as the Akwe and Situk rivers,
Katmai’s Alagnak, Sitka’s saltwater, both the salt and freshwaters around
Port Alexander, Seward, the Kisaralik River, Homer, the Kenai river,
Mat-Su’s offerings of lake and river, the saltwaters of Valdez, and this
really just begins the list. We look forward to wrapping up the season with
trips including the Talkeetna River, Cordova, Kodiak, Iliamna, the Nushagak,
a second round in the Mat-Su Valley and in Homer, as well as trips that will
materialize as the year progresses.
The highlights are too many to be exhaustive, but let me spend some ink
on one of the more memorable.
The recent experience down the Kisaralik River provides fodder for many
fishing stories. We rowed 20-plus miles on Day 2 from the lake to the upper
falls, portaged our gear through the swarms of mosquitoes, and then in the
process of reloading the boats, I tossed a dry bag in the river and
helplessly watched it float away. Luckily, we tracked it down two miles
downriver. If the bag could talk, it would probably have said that it had no
plan in mind other than some aspirations of seeing the Kuskokwim one day.
Fonder fishing successes populate most of the rest of my memory, such as
catching a grayling, Dolly Varden, and king salmon in three casts in the
same hole with the same fly. Gary Anderson’s oldest son Austin sums up the
essence of the trip quite well, “I will never forget when I hooked my first
ever king salmon. He was huge and he jumped seven times and then he started
bolting downstream!” Austin exclaimed. “I was standing at the end of a
gravel bar and I had nowhere to go. I was screaming to my family, ‘Somebody
get me a boat!’ It was awesome!”
It’s these new fishing experiences with good people that makes it a true
pleasure to produce Fish Alaska magazine. Hopefully, we’ll see you on the
water one day soon.
—Marcus Weiner and Melissa Norris
Publishers
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