January 2019

Description

Best Alaska Fishing Destinations
January 2019

Departments
Traveler 6
Creel 8
Gear Bag 10
Online 12
Fishing for a Compliment 14
Salmon Sense 16
Fly 18
Boats 20
Saltwater 30
Stillwater 32
Recipe 70
Advertiser Index 73
Final Drift 74

Features

Holitna River Float
by John Cleveland 34

Alaska wilderness float trips are not for the timid. Join John Cleveland on his first ever, seven-day Alaska float trip on the Holitna River for silvers, grayling, char, sheefish and pike. John’s blow-by-blow account of his wilderness adventure is both inspiring and enlightening.

Sportsman’s Warehouse Contest Winners at Togiak River Lodge
by Marcus Weiner 42

Some rivers in Alaska are just tailor-made to learn how to catch certain species on almost any technique you want to learn. The Togiak is that way for silvers. Sportsman’s Warehouse contest winners Art Serig and Rodney Barreto joined Fish Alaska Publisher Marcus Weiner in coho nirvana, fishing with TRL guide Zack Larsen.

Adventures on the Nush
by Melissa Norris 50

Nushagak River Adventures is being reborn as one of the most luxurious lodge operations on the lower Nushagak. Fish Alaska Publisher Melissa Norris and Art Director Bailey Anderson visited in June to experience the famously good Chinook fishing and to sample the lodge’s new amenities firsthand.

Fish Juneau—It’s a Capital Idea
by Terry Sheely 58

Juneau absolutely abounds with angling opportunities—some you can walk to, some you can drive to, some you boat to and some you fly to. Terry Sheely provides a very comprehensive overview of fishy opportunity in and around Alaska’s capital city.

Doubling Down on Icy Bay
by Troy Buzalsky 64

That almost all fishermen lie almost goes without saying. No lies are necessary at Icy Bay, though. With unbelievable fishing for halibut, lings, yelloweye and other rockfish as well as salmon, the fishing is only surpassed by the spectacular splendor of the Saint Elias Range and surrounding glaciers. Troy Buzalsky has been there before to stalk freshwater silvers; this time he pursues dwellers of the deep in Icy Bay’s saltwater.

COVER / The brothers von Jess — Tom and Pete with Tom’s nice king from the Nushagak River in 2018. © Melissa Norris