It is always fun for us to share our newsletter from the past season at Angler's Alibi with our friends. We wish you the very best in the off season and look forward to seeing you next summer.
The summer of 2011 will go down in our lodge history as one of the best seasons on record. The king run was just awesome this past year and ranks as one of the top 3 seasons of all time. With a couple of slower years with the kings, it was a welcomed surprise to see them come back with a vengeance this past summer. Along with the kings came great numbers of sockeye, chum, and the mighty silvers!
Week one started off with a great group of returning guests. It is a great way to start our season with so many familiar faces and good laughs! There were quotes like “This is without a doubt, the most kings we have caught in a single day”, and that was day 1 of week 1! Another great quote from week 1 was “I think next year, I will ONLY fish for kings with a fly rod after having so much fun this week”. Let’s not forget the sockeye fishing this week. They came in and did not stop until week 3 of the season in the tidewater. Limits were easy to come by and any guest wanting to take home sockeyes had a full cooler. We were able to get some great photos and videos from this week and anyone can view them on our Facebook page..
Week two came in and went in a flash it seemed. The fishing was so good that 3 guests elected to sleep in and start out late most days, only to land double digit numbers of kings on a daily basis! The first run of chums came in strong this week as well, offering three species of salmon to catch at will! Some great quotes from this week were “in 18 years of coming to Angler’s Alibi, this has got to be one of the best king weeks ever”. Another great quote/toast to the week was “Great wine, great old friends, and hail to the resurgence of the big kings!”
Week 3 saw even more familiar faces and a couple of new ones. I can remember catching a limit of sockeye shortly after my two anglers for day one got off the float plane, followed by a double header session of “catching” kings before returning to camp for cocktail hour. We saw the end of the sockeye run the first couple of days, which was right on schedule, and the great king run kept coming in as we were literally doubled up daily catching nice chrome king salmon in the tidewater. I know of Two guests in particular that are die hard dry fly fisherman, and I could not get them to go chum fishing on the dry fly as they were having too much fun catching huge kings on conventional tackle…….I never would have thought!.
Week 4 came and with that, the last full week of king season. One fellow in particular made the trip all the way from England. Within the first hour of fishing, he soon realized that he could totally relax and take it all in as “catching” fish was not going to be an issue. We had a pair of ladies that fished kings on the fly almost all day- every day, a feat that I have never seen done before! They caught kings daily on the fly, and by the end of the week, switched to conventional tackle for part of the day only due to sore arms. If I remember right, they called it “cheating” but had huge smiles reefing back on those big kings! The chum run went right into another gear as the second run was in full swing and never showed a sign of stopping. With one fly-out this week to a special char and rainbow river that yielded literally almost a fish every cast, all guests left with good memories and sore shoulders……
Week 5 saw the return of what we call “The Group” at Angler’s Alibi. With salmon fishing out of hand, and fly out fishing to the fabled Moraine Creek an option, all guests had a wonderful week. These guests had an opportunity to fish kings for last two days of the season. I can remember landing twelve kings after lunch with two guests in my boat, after a huge morning with chums on the fly. Needless to say, the king run never slowed down! Despite terrible weather for flying-out, we were able to make 2 trips. One trip to a new river that yielded great char fishing, and another to Moraine Creek. Moraine Creek was on FIRE! We caught several rainbows that day, and not many under 20”. With 6 rods total, the numbers of rainbow trout caught combined were over 100. Great to see this river still producing in numbers that it did back in the early 90’s when we first started fishing there.
Week 6 was our final week at Angler’s Alibi for 2011. We hosted a corporate week of 10 guests. They had a ball, and were very relaxed all week long catching fish at will and targeting silvers from the boat was an awesome way to switch up from wading for chrome chums. We were able to fly-out to an awesome char river to catch tons of beautiful char, grayling, and some nice rainbows. The char averaged 18” and were just beautiful in their hand painted colors, much like a brook trout. It was the first time in years that I can remember not wanting to leave the river just yet. On our last night at camp, after the final guests left, I counted 7 different chrome bright silvers jumping across from camp in a back channel…..very tempting to unpack the rods and go catch some, but instead, enjoyed the show and look forward to the silvers that those fish will make for years to come.
It looks like summer 2012 will be yet another great king year if the trend stays the same or can get even better…..if that is possible! We are almost fully booked for 7 weeks next year, thanks to all the returning guests keeping our return rate over 80%. I cannot thank you enough for keeping a week at Angler’s a priority in your life! We look forward to seeing all the familiar faces and friends, but also look forward to some new guests coming for their first time in 2012. As always, it is our goal at Angler’s Alibi to provide a trip to Alaska that will exceed your expectations. .
Thank you to all guests and staff!
John Perry, Manager
Angler's Alibi
jpduck02@yahoo.com