Anglers Alibi 2025 - “CHANGES GALORE”!

​Normally we recap the previous season and then talk about what’s new for coming season.  However, I am so excited about the dramatic changes coming in 2025 that I am leading off with all the 2025 announcements! Pour a yourself your favorite beverage and read on…

Background
Every year for the last 30 years or so we have taken the feedback from our guests and made minor modifications/upgrades to the camp. I think you would agree it has served us well. However, after a lot of soul searching and feedback from my guests and our own staff – we have decided to put our mark on Bristol Bay and create a unique atmosphere and an experience that simply cannot be rivaled by any other lodge. How?

• We are replacing all guest tent cabins with actual log cabins! log cabins with fully insulated floors and ceilings for a warm, soundproof experience! The good news is you will still hear the rain on the roof – but now you will not hear the guy snoring in the tent cabin next to you!
• These cabins will also all have full bathrooms inside! Imagine a week at Anglers Alibi and never have to get up in the middle of the night and relieve yourself in a Folgers coffee can that you had to empty out in the morning! Huge upgrade! Yes, truly an end to an era and an end to N.U.D.S.!  
• We are also adding more “trout weeks” in 2025! We are going to add 2 weeks in June and added weeks in late September/ early October. These additional weeks will include UNLIMTED FLY-OUTS. Why? Because we will have our own beaver floatplane on our dock during these weeks. We will max out at 8 guests during these times thus assuring all 8 can fly out every day.  Prices these special weeks IS the best value in Bristol Bay!
• In addition to Elon Musk’s Starlink high-speed wireless - your cabin will also have 24-hour power in 2025.  Guests are free to carry on with Zoom calls for business or simply enjoy a WIFI call with family and friends.
•  Main lodge will be improved with new sound deadening ceiling panels to help eliminate excessive noise when the lodge is full at happy hour and during meals!
• Our fly-out program will also be enhanced by adding boats on the Naknek and Kvichak rivers and adding brand new rafts to expand our footprint to even more fly-out rivers in 2025!

Any Other Changes?

• Despite the large increase in fuel and freight, we will keep our fuel surcharge at $400 per trip for braids trips during July and August.
• We have retained all our fishing guides who I think you would agree have more talent/tenure than any other lodge in the region! This is truly what makes Angler’s Alibi the happiest going into 2025! “Your people are your product”!
• Alexa, our chef in 2024 is also confirmed for the 2025 season and those that were here last season would have to agree – no one in Bristol Bay eats better! Whether it’s her appetizers, entrées or desserts – the cuisine is simply unmatched at Anglers Alibi.
• All beer, wine and more will continue to be included.

Now for the 2024 Season Recap

​This July was very similar to July 2023 in terms of salmon fishing. We landed some super nice kings and an endless supply of sockeye salmon to fill our guests’ coolers. This strong salmon run also helped feed the trout population in our fabled Alagnak River system. The king salmon run was not any better than 2023 but it was also not any worse, so fingers crossed we are at the bottom of the curve in our king salmon cycle. We will continue to practice catch and release for all king salmon in 2025 in hopes we might be making a difference in our returns. Few people realize this, but the Alagnak River sockeye run feeds into some of the best fly-out streams in the state. These rivers include Moraine Creek, Kulik River, Little Ku, Battle River, and others; and the trout fishing there is as good as I have seen in my 30 plus years of guiding!
Our chum run started in mid to late July and was starting to really take shape but for some reason stalled a bit and towards the end of the month and then got going like gangbusters again with some of the best chum salmon fishing in many years! From the end of July on, our chums were back in force breaking rods like the good old days. That coupled with copious amounts of pink salmon covering all the tidewater bars in the lower river, I can honestly say the Alagnak river has not fished this well since 2019!
Our silver salmon run was nothing shy of extraordinary! With easy limits from early August on (aided by plenty of cool, wet conditions) we simply just all enjoyed a really, great silver salmon run. Returning guests that have been coming up for 12+ years were quoted: “this is the best silver fishing we have ever had on the Alagnak”. Pinks, chums, and silvers were all at peak numbers this past summer and we are so fortunate to have this as our “home river” – especially when we are not able to fly out due to bad weather and must stay “home”.
September trout fishing was nothing short of incredible with the biggest trout of the season landed during these weeks including a new lodge record rainbow trout (see picture) landed the last day of our 2024 season! These late weeks with smaller groups of anglers has really made it possible for us to keep all guests into amazing trout fishing all week. We cannot wait to get after the fly-out program in 2025 and hopefully all season long in 2026! 

Click Here to View More Photos From Angler's Alibi

2025 Pricing

While the inflation rate has slowed in the lower 48, unfortunately we continue to see increasing fuel and grocery costs throughout Alaska. Sadly, fuel and groceries are literally only part of what we transport into the lodge.  We are not on a “road system” like most lodges in the area and although we love our remoteness – it certainly comes with more overhead. We have really tried to hold the line on rates the last few years - but it is now simply no longer sustainable to operate at these rates.

Our new 2025 rates will be:

• June 17th – June 30:   $10,500 per guest, 8 guests max, unlimited fly-outs and unlimited braids trips.
• July 1 – September 9:  $8,500 per guest, 12 guests max, and fly-outs extra (per seat price with air taxi as usual).
• Sept. 9 – October 7:  $10,500 per guest, unlimited fly-outs and braids trips included

I have spent a lot of time doing “competitive price benchmarking” on all other lodges on not only the Alagnak river, but in the entire Bristol Bay region - and our rates are not only aligned - but offer the best value of any Alaska fly-out operation. Period. I have contacted a fair amount of our 2025 guests and as of now there has not been a single person that has cancelled due our needed price adjustment.  Our commitment to all of you is that our staff and I promise to deliver an amazing experience at Anglers Alibi in 2025!

Bookings

We still have some limited space available during our standard July and August weeks, and obviously a lot of availability in our newly added weeks featuring unlimited fly-outs for those wishing to hit some of the best trout fishing action. If your jam is dry fly, mousing, and streamer fishing, June is THE window to be here. Nothing like watching a 27” trout come up for a dry fly or CRUSH a mouse. For those anglers focused on landing the trophy trout of a lifetime and don’t mind the cooler temps, then late September and the first week of October are almost wide open at the time of this newsletter. That will change, I’m sure!

Summary

Well, I told you upfront there were “changes galore” and now you have read them all! Please feel free to pick up the phone and call or email me and share your thoughts, check dates or simply just catch up. June cannot get here soon enough for me.  561.222.9416
Enjoy your upcoming holiday season and do not forget to ask Santa for new fly lines and leaders!
John Perry

Contact Angler's Alibi to Book or Learn More!

About the Author

John Perry grew up in Michigan on an island called Grosse Ile, in the mouth of the Detroit River and Lake Erie. It was here, surrounded by great fishing and waterfowl hunting that John developed a passion for the outdoors. John moved to Colorado to chase trout in the summers and ski patrol in the winters. John had the privilege to start guiding for Angler’s Alibi with his fly fishing mentor TR Rafferty the second year it was in business. He left a head guide job in Colorado to pursue bigger and better fish.