SPEY CASTING INSTRUCTION IN ALASKA

SPECIAL GUEST TONY WEAVER WILL BE JOINING ALASKA SPORTSMAN'S BEAR TRAIL GUIDES KATE AND JUSTIN IN A FANTASTIC WEEKEND OF SPEY CASTING.

Jim Repine

I just wanted to say thank you for all your contributions to fly fishing, sharing the passion with the world and teaching us what a precious resource we are privileged to experience.

Dollywood

ASL Guide Brian Boe

Niiiiiiiiice.

BET SILVER

In Vegas you bet black. Bristol Bay in August you bet silver. Here are some clients that did just that and cashed in nicely.

GEAR TRAIN

ASL guide Kate Taylor

Familiar? Most of our guests know what the "gear train" is...This symbolic exercise of "many hands makes the load light" is the beginning of what you've travelled so far to experience. No matter how many times you've been a boxcar on this train it sets in motion the excitement of the day. Spectacular scenery, incredible fishing and rivers quietly slithering under your waded feet. Yep...its much more than "grabbing your bag". Guy Reynolds and guide Kate Taylor know what I'm talking about.

Jeff "Big Fish" Winton

Pilot Jerry and guide Jeff "Wincee" Winton

The Big Bow 30" season is upon us, bets on are the table and Wincee is not screwing around...thanks to Jerry its custom with 30" rims.

A day out of the office...

ASL guide Brian Boe

ASL guide Schuyler Grove

I had the great pleasure to accompany two of our guides on their day off...I wish my days off looked like this! Awesome two days...thanks guys.

30 years of bliss.....

Gary and Mary Cartwright in the beginning...

Mary competing with Gary....

Mary ditching Gary for talented Guide Jeffy Pfaender...

Mary ditching training wheels altogether...

Okay so here's the story...Mr. Gary Cartwright (above) has been coming to the lodge for, I don't know, like 15 years?!?!! All the while he's telling his beautiful and understanding wife...Mary, "Ya, I gotta go to Alaska Sportsman's Lodge with the guys for season opener. Yep, it does help when I also do a few business trips a year at Alaska Sportsman's Lodge. I hate to leave you hon...but its important to do these trips." Mr. Cartwright is so good at convincing his wife, he's able to make it out as many as three times per season! BTW Gary IS a salesman by trade.

This year he decided (or maybe Mary decided) that it was time to make a trip together for their 30 year anniversary (congrats by the way). The pictorial of the trip pretty well sums up the story; Mary is officially hooked on fishing.

It took Gary 10 years to get on the 30-inch glory wall! My guess is Mary will beat that by a long shot!! Yes, Gary...Hawaii is out and we are pleased to say that trips to Alaska Sportsman's Lodge are in (with your wife of course)!

Thanks Gary and Mary! 30 years inspires us all!!

Heavyweight Champion of the World

Thirty inches or more, that's the mission. I don't mean to sound like I'm announcing the heavyweight champion of the world...but pound for pound the rainbow trout on the Kvichak and Naknek rivers are the most explosive freshwater fish on God's green earth. I realize there will be some dispute on this opinion. So I challenge you to come up during September and prove me wrong. We have many guests that have been coming to the Lodges year after year preparing themselves, "I have three days to get-r-done. This is my year!...I'm getting in that 30-inch club. Yes-sir-ee me and my guide will be on the 30-inch glory wall."

I've seen plenty of spankings by these magnificent beasts, slamming, ripping, line-possessing, frustrating chrome torpedoes. Exploding so fast that the line is into the backing in a matter of seconds, flying into the air in all their splendor and then bolting directly towards you like a bullet while feverishly trying to get the line back on the reel...only to discover "ping" its gone. Stunned, silent and opened mouth at exactly what "Just happened?"

Here Brian Kraft is explaining to Jim Bowles, Rick Fox and me that it takes a little more than ambition, skill and hope to get on this wall.

Reputation

Jim White, my father

I wish this guy could at least ACT like he is having a good time! The weather, the fish and all the other elements out of our control is hard enough...just kidding...he's our poster child.

Eat or be eaten

ASL Guide Jimmy Welch facing a mama sow and triplets

Shot by ASL pilot Steve Hartl of ASL pilot Jerry Bloomfield ...
occupational perk...playing in bear tracks.

Shot by one of our talented pilots Steve Hartl.

Bear tracks centuries old of bears walking in the same footsteps each time.

Shot by ASL Guide Greg Breslau

Fishing in Bristol Bay is not your everyday experience. The Brown bears in Bristol Bay are in simple terms mammoth, plentiful and very well fed! Now I know their Kodiak cousins are among this elite breed of bears and break many world records in size...but I also know their Bristol Bay cousins can hold their own in this category. The streams are teeming with the freshest Grade A sushi imaginable; the tundra is a reef of berries, bushes and succulent whatever. It is truly a remarkable assault of adrenaline to come across these bewilderingly magnificent animals. And yes because you ordered today...you get the remnants of what we call Survival of the Fittest.

Fellow flyfishing lady Debbie Kraft

When I first started fishing, it was far and few between to find another fellow lady who enjoyed the heart-thumping-yeah-baby-please-don't-lose-this-fish feeling that I have every time I make a cast, set the hook and the fight is on. Watching the line float with the rhythm of the current, making a few mends, praying to the fish Gods that what I have on the end of my line is so utterly attractive that my targeted fish couldn't possibly resist! I would ask myself, "Why aren't there more women with this fever?" The winds however are changing as more of our guests are females. Not only do the ladies have the contagious fishing addiction, but they are frankly sometimes better than their partners who talked them into coming! It is rare to find a female guide in this industry, at Bear Trail Lodge we have two of the best that Bristol Bay has to offer. (Nancy Morris, who is also part owner, and Kate Taylor ). This year we have had an overwhelming response for women booking at the lodges. It makes me believe perhaps women who love sport fishing will no longer be a rarity but the norm. I can also say that our regular fishermen seem to enjoy that change too!