Each fly-fishing guest in 2003 caught the largest wild rainbow of his and her life! All the fly fishers in July & August until the “Merritt Storm” in mid August caught great salmon, as well.

King Salmon River Family trip 2003:

The Merritt group, was 3 father / son teams of novice & expert fly-fishers. We fished, camped, & floated down 40 miles of the King Salmon River. The King Salmon is my favorite river to take families on for their first Alaska float trip because of the variety of landscape, the intimacy of the river channel, and the lack of fishing pressure. It is a near perfect trip for a mixed group of experts, intermediate anglers & novices. The youngest in the Merritt group was ten-year-old Tommy. The 3 fathers & 3 sons really set a gold standard for a successful family wilderness trip in spite of fairly rainy conditions for 3 out of the 5 day long trip. The 5 days of large rainbow trout, salmon, & grayling fishing varied from easy catching in the headwaters to maddeningly challenging fishing as the river water level rose following a watershed-flushing rainstorm. Strangely enough that is the reverse of the usual way a Bristol Bay Alaskan river fishes. Generally the abundance of salmon, trout, char, & grayling increase as one travels down river resulting in each day's fishing better than the previous day. In any case I cannot recall ever laughing so much in one week of my life. If you get a chance to fish with the John Merritt group, go for it.

Arolik River Expert Trip 2003:

The Arolik was wonderful dry fly rainbow trout fishing in 2003. The Arolik is not a river that could sustain the pressure of large groups. It is quite clear and relatively shallow. Rainbow, Dolly Varden char, King Salmon, Chum, Sockeye & coho salmon were taken in their respective haunts each day we fished. In 2003 the weather through early August was terrific although the water was low. I take only small rafts down this river and we wade a great deal. We saw other fly fishers about twice per week. I have never taken anyone on the Arolik who was not an accomplished wild country camper, not because the fishing or camping is tough, it isn’t, but rather because it is quite a remote spot where there are no float plane or wheel plane airstrips, after the floatplane drops us off, for at least 5 days. It is not a place for someone to realize he or she would rather be somewhere else. Plus there are other portage / logistic concerns about the river which keep the river very un-fished! Just the way we like it. We got picked up at tidewater after a fifty mile raft trip by a friend at a coastal Inuit Eskimo village where we work hard to maintain very good relations with the local people. We are dreaming about the Arolik until the next season.

The Alberta creek Extreme Trip Report:

On the 15 mile float trip down what we named “Alberta creek” Bruce caught more large rainbows in one evening on the “Alaska Mouse” dry fly than I’ve ever seen anyone do before- anywhere. On another day he lost a spectacular trophy rainbow leaping close enough to the raft to splash him. Jim, his partner, perfected his char sight fishing on Alberta creek in a slough he called “the aquarium” and also teased rainbows out of woody debris & root wads by downstream drifting of weighted starlight leeches into cover too deep & narrow to fish by boat or wade.

The little Salmon River Extreme Invitational:

Brent accompanied me on first descent of a Nushugak river tributary that we could name the “little Salmon river”. We floated & fished the little Salmon from individual “outcast” inflatable rafts. On the little Salmon river the number of rainbows we discovered attending the spawning chum salmon exceeded any Alaskan creek or river I’ve fished since 1972. While I had reconnoitered the little Salmon from the air and spotted tens of thousands of spawning chum & king salmon, until Brent accepted the Extreme Invitational to explore the fishery no one really knew whether it held trout or char, or just salmon. Over the course of 4 days we broke 2 Sage fly rods boating through the alder jungle along the little Salmon River but agreed that it was an acceptable price to pay to fish virgin water.

The South Fork river Extreme Invitational:

Richard accompanied me on the second recorded descent of a Bristol Bay region river tributary “the South Fork River.” This was the most physically demanding floatplane drop off / portage of any trip this year. We portaged the boat & 1 week’s food & gear _ mile to a tiny creek and then lined, pushed, & dragged the lightly loaded Aire Super Puma raft downstream to the South Fork itself. Camp at the confluence of the portage creek had stunning scenery. It looks into a mountain cirque of tundra scenery where we watched migrating caribou, saw a lone wolf, and what may have been a Stellar Sea Eagle. It seems implausible but we were also catching extraordinary Rainbow Trout & Dolly Varden Char while the evening was spent recovering from the portage.

Extreme trips in 2003. One “Extreme trip” guest said these are “the most naïve rainbow trout I have ever encountered” The Extreme trip information that you will read here is the most sensitive information published in my annual reports and I request your understanding that to protect the fishery I discourage the participating guests from revealing the names of the waters we explore on the Extreme and the Extreme Invitational trips. I am happy to provide Extreme Trip participant’s names & email for references and perhaps you can “wheedle” the creek names from them.

In 2003 we fished on 3 Extreme rainbow trout creeks and 1 rarely fished fork of an outstanding trout & salmon river.

High points:

Some who caught trophy char, trout, & salmon under spectacular circumstances were Brent, Jim, Richard, Joe, Tommy, Jay, Robert, Oliver, Bruce, Tom, & Julia… Great moments!
The fishing in July was mind-boggling, as usual! From the Chum and Chinook runs of July through the sockeye and coho of early August the Salmon runs pulsed up the river daily so it was rare to go fishless for more than _ an hour.

The returning salmon to the Upper Nushugak River this year broke a 30-year record as well over 6.5 million Sockeye returned to spawn. Great ocean survival of salmon will probably make 2004 extraordinary as well.

Hurray! Only one pair of waders were punctured this Year! – Jay here’s a hint if you decide you want to keep up with your son as a fly-fisherman: Buy him the less expensive waders and yourself a pair of Simms or Patagonia. (Guests & guides have never missed even 1 minute of fishing due to leakage, while they were wearing Simms or Patagonia waders over many years.)

The perfect “Merritt Storm”

A 5 day rainstorm began in the Bristol Bay region on August 10’th which made challenging fishing for the Merritt party who arrived at Dillingham on August 15’Th. River levels from Naknek to the Kanektok rose several feet from prior drought conditions to bank full or in some cases near flood stage. However we fortunately chose to fish the King Salmon river watershed that can absorb more water while remaining clear than any river in the entire region.
The trout fishing in the Upper reaches of the King Salmon, far above what the lodge guides can access by jet boat was stunning, in spite of the prior storm. The mid & lower river produced large rainbow every day but we had to work harder for them than during normal water flows. The storm passed and the coho arrived!

Wildlife:

We flew over 15,000 caribou from the Mulchatna caribou herd on the trip with Brent to explore the Little Salmon River. Coastal brown bear were quite visible in 2003 due to the low water conditions. On Extreme trips along smaller creeks & rivers in July terrific photo opportunities were had. No real problems with these great bears have occurred in the many decades I’ve spent with them. People always ask me if I am not perhaps covering up a few juicy bear mauling stories from prior trips, but alas nothing so grand.
We were always surrounded by the boreal forest and tundra wildlife of the Bristol Bay region. All trips began by flying out of Dillingham in a floatplane. From wildlife perspective the land belongs to the 5 species of pacific salmon and the coastal brown -grizzly bears, the bald eagles, timber wolves, moose, caribou, goshawks, and riverside hermit thrushes & warblers. We were incredibly fortunate, as usual, to observe & photograph them in unspoiled wild landscapes.

Camps:

The river camps in 2003 were great and the scenery at some such as the South Fork Portage creek camp and the 3 Upper King Salmon camps was world class. Hiking along the bluffs above the King Salmon, Alberta creek & the little Salmon looking down into schools, of salmon with their attendant rainbows was incredible. We are true believers in “leave no trace” camps. On only two nights out of the whole season were we in sight or sound of another camp, both those nights were the last night of exploratory trips when we camped on the main-stem Nushugak River for a floatplane pick up the next morning. Until a floatplane arrives at the end of the week we usually are many miles or tens of miles from another human.

Meals:

When we reached camp I generally fired up the Dutch oven and made hot garlic bread, pizza, quesadillas or other hot appetizers. Kate, Alex, or Julia, helped guests pitch tents. Cajun salmon, Mexican dinners, Sockeye & pasta w/garlic sauce, Thai Char & rice and Mediterranean dishes all have a place in our camp cuisine. But the meals that probably won the most accolades (besides Dutch oven pizzas) were fresh the King, Sockeye, or Char.

Gear:

New tents & sleeping bags from Mountain Hardwear & NorthFace are rotated into the gear lineup each year so that all the camping gear was in first-rate shape. 2 guests generally shared large 3 person, 3 season domes with Luxury edition Thermarest sleeping pads and new, always clean, quallofill sleeping bags by North Face & Mountain Hardwear. We slept dry & warm & bug free.

Fish run timing:

In mid – late June we fish for ravenous resident Rainbows, grayling, Dolly Varden Char, lake trout, which are still awaiting the annual salmon egg feast to come Also by late June the early Chinook & Chum salmon enter the wilderness portions of our rivers in catchable numbers. On trips through mid July there was 24 hours of daylight, and the rivers were clear. Purple egg sucking leeches, black stonefly nymphs, starlight leeches, smolt patterns, elk caddis & sculpin were the best early season flies. By the first week of August the coho were beginning to steal the show on the South Fork River, especially toward the end of the week in the coastal plane. They really got silly chasing dry flies like pink Polly Wogs, orange strike indicators, & similar high IQ tidbits.

Weather for planning purposes:

June usually is quite dry and glorious. July tends to be warm (65-80) with daytime heating causing some scattered convective (thunder) showers. Late July often marks a seasonal change toward more moisture penetrating inland from the coast as the high-pressure systems that dominate early summer break down. From mid August through mid September wx vacillates between high pressure warm & sunny to coastal low pressure cool and showery on about a 4-7 day repeating cycle. Weeklong trips in Late June are renowned for super weather. In July for the best fishing combined with the warmest weather and August generally gets both storm & clear days. For any Alaska trip you need the best quality outerwear / rain gear that you can afford. Truly the best fishing of the year and perhaps the best of trophy rainbow of your life may be caught in a rain shower period. That said we don’t push the weather unreasonably. When the weather says, “stay sheltered” we do that, and fish too.

Trip Information for planning purposes:

All trips are 1 weeklong and 5+ of those days are fishing.

A Family King Salmon River Trip is a fully Guided Trip with 2 persons per raft and a skilled oars woman or oarsman at the helm of each raft. We do all the cooking & you are provided with the state of the art tents, sleeping bags, and gear etc, quite literally the finest wilderness equipment in use in Alaska. The head guide is me, Mark Rutherford and I will manage the fishing program while Alex & Kate & other Staff manage the logistics daily. For a trip with a participant(s) with special medical needs one of the most experienced river guides in the Rutherford family is an MD (family practice) and may be available by special request. The cost of a Family trip is $4,200 pp./ per week. This is _ of the price of a first class Bristol Bay fishing lodge to fish rivers accessible only by floatplane.

An Expert Trip is a fully Guided Trip for advanced fly fishers who have expert casting and wading skills. Mark will guide you personally on the best and most challenging fishing waters in Alaska. The planning for an Expert trip will require a bit more time in trip planning correspondence monthly from November thru May. The cost of an Expert Adventure trip is $5,544. Pp./ per week. This is 2/3 of the price of a first class Bristol Bay fishing lodge for twice the amount of world class fishing and no daily jet boat or float plane “commuting” with no lost / wasted days when the weather won’t allow the lodge float planes to access the waters we will be floating. Depending upon the time of your Expert Trip there are many river & creeks to choose from including the Arolik, the Copper, and the Upper Nushugak River.

An Extreme Trip is a highly specialized guided weeklong trip to target a stretch of extraordinary water that has been historically inaccessible until I pioneered it. The Extreme Trip costs as much per week as the best lodges charge. On an Extreme Trip you will have the opportunity to target creeks and rivers where historically there have been few other fishermen on the waters. The costs of an Extreme Trip are $6,000. Pp./ per week. This is 10% below costs of a first class lodge and a chance to fish the least pressured trout & salmon in Alaska. A “pioneering” experience in an age of mass marketed tours. You will have incomparably better fishing, no daily jet boat “commuting”, and 24/7 wilderness scenery.

An Extreme Invitational Trip is a chance to participate on an exploration of a wilderness fishery that I have previously scouted by fixed wing or rotor aircraft. The Invitational trips are limited to persons whom I know have skills essential to succeed on a potentially difficult wilderness fishing trip. A successful invitational may someday become a guided extreme trip, although we generally do not “commercialize” such waters. I have hosted well over 30 successful Extreme Invitational Trips spanning 30 years. In 2003 I offered them to the public as part of my guide service and they were very successful.

The costs of an Extreme Invitational Trip is 2/3 of the price of a first class Bristol Bay fishing lodge but the fee is based upon a sliding scale of your ability to pay. There are many great outdoors-people who have fished & explored remote Alaska with me who couldn’t have afforded “full fare”. We work it out so that each year some adventurous souls who might not have been able to afford to fish Alaska get an extraordinary chance to pour some sweat equity into exploration.

On all our trips we camp, in expedition sized North Face or Mountain HardWear mountaineering tents within feet of the rivers we fish & raft by day. We release all our fish except the char & salmon that we dine on but we take home incredible memories of those fish overlaid by scenes of camp camaraderie, and the sights & sounds of the 24-hour Alaskan days. We practice “Leave no Trace” camping ethics leaving each creek & river as we found it.