Aniak River, Alaska fly fishing trip

[Rusty Spinner]

I leave this week for 14 days. We will groundfish on Friday down in Seward for lingcod, halibut and rockfish. Then we make our way back to Anchorage and fly to a remote airport, spend the night, pare down our gear to 40 lbs, and climb into a turbo DeHavilland Beaver to fly in to the northern end of Lake Aniak where we land on the lake and meet our guides on the beach to begin a 9 day float. Interestingly, the river flows north into the Arctic. We will be fishing for silver (coho) salmon, big rainbows, arctic char, arctic grayling, and Dolly Varden using 5 and 7 weights. Lots of mousing for big bows which will be a blast (check out YouTube videos). I will post lots of pix once back. This is my second epic trip, my last was 7 years ago to Labrador and was also a fly-in although to a lodge. This Aniak River trip is tent camping on gravel bars and two rubber rafts for 4 buddies and our 2 guides. Agust Gudmundsson for those of you who know him will be one of the four. All are Trout Lout buddies I have known and fly fished with for decades now.

[46er]

Have a GREAT trip!

[cappy]

Safe journey to ya

[46er]

Are you still in AK

[Rusty Spinner]

Are you still in AK

No, lol. Our trip ran into a major travel issue and we had to back out. Long story short, the local bush plane airline had one plane down unexpectedly and were then over booked for their other plane. After a three day delay sitting in a B and B in Bethel, AK, we were forced to call it off since we would not have had near enough time to float the 102 miles it requires for the Aniak River. Next year, two of the four of us have other commitments, mine being a large dam removal job. So we are booked for the same August timeframe for 2027.

But we did spend several days fishing offshore and in local salmon rivers before flying in to Bethel for the non-trip to the Aniak River. We got a boat limit of halibut, rockfish and coho (silver salmon) plus two legal lingcod. That was a great trip and many memories were made that day! We all shipped our fish back home, so I have been enjoying halibut beurre blanc, rockfish tacos, and baked salmon weekly since. We are also considering a shorter distance trip to the Arolik River instead of the Aniak when we return. The Arolik is only a 53 mile float, so we can overnight more than one night in most locations and do more fishing than rowing. It will be better for us and better for the guides both. We would still do the 9 days, just covering roughly half the distance and having the same fish species and in the same robust numbers as the Aniak. We have also requested our two same guides as both were great and were with us at the B&B for three days, so we got to know each other well. Our outfitter, Marty Decker of Frontier River Guides of Alaska is doing right by us for the "replacement trip", and we may add two more buddies and make it 6 anglers and 3 guides, including Pat and Sean from staff that we were to float the Aniak with.

[Rusty Spinner]

Some pix from the trip that we did enjoy....

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[Rusty Spinner]

The woman you see with the halibut was the only female on the trip. She's from the Charleston, SC area, but lived in Alaska for three years and comes back frequently. Her halibut was so big, she was unable to reel it in, so I held the rod with one hand and she reeled with both of her hands until the mates could get a harpoon in it and then two gaffs to pull it over the rails. We were all high fiving when her fish came aboard and I took the club to its head to make sure it was finished and didn't flop around and break someone's legs.

[46er]

Fantastic pictures, even better fish Good times for the memory banks. How long was the travel time, here to there

[Rusty Spinner]

Fantastic pictures, even better fish Good times for the memory banks. How long was the travel time, here to there

So my one buddy who handled all of the arrangements is married to a corporate travel agent. She hooked us up with nonstop flights from Newark to Anchorage on United out and back in first class. I think it was 8 hours there flying into headwinds and 6 or so hours back with the wind at our tail. I sleep through 99% of all flights, so as long as I have leg room I don't worry about being on the plane for a long time. The flight on Alaska Air from Anchorage to Bethel was like one hour each way.