Ep 18: Alaska as a DIY Fishing Destination, with Jake Roy
Jake Roy is a fly fishing guide with Wilderness Place Lodge in Alaska. Although many people will want to book a guided trip if they head north, Alaska is also very doable as a DIY “exotic” destination for those of us from the lower 48. In this episode, Jake walks me through what to expect when planning a trip, including when to go, what you can catch, how to bring fish home, and how to hire a plane to get off the beaten path. If you’ve ever thought of fishing Alaska but don’t want to break the bank, this is the episode for you!
Wilderness Place Lodge Website: https://www.wildernessplacelodge.com/
Jake’s Instagram: @jakeroy27
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Intro
You're listening to The Wild Initiative Podcast Network. Learn more and check out all the shows at thewildinitiative.com.
Katie
You're listening to the Fish Untamed Podcast, where we talk all things fishing, conservation, and the outdoors. Today on the show, I'm joined by Jake Roy, fishing guide at Wilderness Place Lodge. Alright, welcome to episode 18 of the Fish Untamed Podcast. Today I got a chance to talk to Jake Roy, who is a fishing guide at Wilderness Place Lodge in Alaska. I actually initially got connected with Jake through Reddit and asked him if it would be okay for me to pick his brain about how to do a do-it-yourself trip up to Alaska, since that's definitely something that's on my bucket list and I'm sure is on the bucket list of a lot of people. And I particularly wanted to talk about doing a DIY trip to Alaska because I think that Alaska is one of the few places that seems pretty exotic to most people in the lower 48, but doesn't break the bank to go and do. We go over everything from when to go to how to hire a bush plane to escape the crowds a bit to how to actually get your fish packaged and shipped back home. It was just packed full of good nuggets about how to plan your own trip up there. So without further ado, here is my chat with Jake Roy. All right, cool. Well, do you just want to start by telling me about your fishing background and then maybe a little bit about guiding up in Alaska?
Jake
Yeah, absolutely. So I actually have a little bit of a different story starting fishing. I haven't really fished my whole life like a lot of people have. I started when I was 18 fly fishing and then just kind of got way too involved, way too, like everybody does. It's a pretty addicting sport for those of us that are really into it. But, you know, just kind of took it from there and then got into guiding. Didn't really want to know what I wanted to do with my life. So, you know, I figured I'd go to Alaska while I could. Here I am.
Katie
Fair enough. So did you start off fly fishing or did you pick up like gear fishing first and then switch over?
Jake
So I was lucky enough. My family had a little cottage on a lake when I was growing up. So I had always kind of just tossed, you know, little swim baits and stuff like that, like once a summer for bass. But I was never really into it. And then I just kind of picked up a fly rod because I thought it looked cool. that's, that's what I ended up doing, sticking with it. And now I probably won't ever fish anything else.
Katie
So what, uh, what got you up to Alaska to guide? Did you guide anywhere else first? Or like what, what triggered that, that, uh, you know, application process, I guess.
Jake
I mean, like I said, I just kind of didn't really want to know what I was doing with my life for a while. And then, you know, I kind of got sick. I was sitting behind a desk and Alaska is kind of the path to get into the industry for guiding, you know, at least for first time guides. And I had never really guided around here. I mean, kind of like everybody, you know, you show some friends around or whatever, you know, you introduce a few people to it. And then I actually got certified as a casting instructor last year. So, you know, that definitely helps in doing that kind of stuff. you know, just kind of gets you into the industry, gets your foot in. I started going to trade shows and just, you know, talking to people and, uh, I applied and, uh, got a job up there and I've been going there ever since.
Katie
So, so you're not up there, uh, like you're around then?
Jake
No, no, no. I am, uh, I am there seasonally in the summer for, for our summer season. So, uh, in the winter I am back on the East Coast for right now. In the future, next winter, I'll be hopefully either in South America guiding or on the Olympic Peninsula guiding for winter steelhead.
Katie
Oh, that'd be a pretty nice setup.
Jake
That would be nice. That's the ultimate goal, but we'll see what happens.
Katie
So what do you do the rest of the year right now?
Jake
Right now, the rest of the year, I just work in an office job. and they allow me to take the summer off basically.
Katie
That's a nice perk.
Jake
Yeah, it's pretty good having that opportunity. It's definitely cool to have an understanding employer that lets me do that. Eventually, I'll be guiding full-time, so that'll be nice.
Katie
Awesome. Where in Alaska do you guide?
Jake
I'm actually not in Bristol Bay like a lot of people are. I'm in an area called the Matanuska-Susitna Valley on a little river called Lake Creek. It's about 75 air miles northwest of Anchorage, right on the southwest edge of Denali National Park.
Katie
Okay. Is the fishing similar to what people would encounter in somewhere like Bristol Bay, like somewhere that people are a little more familiar with?
Jake
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So we got all five species, Pacific salmon, rainbow trout, grayling. And every now and then we'll encounter a Dolly Varden or an Arctic char, but they're not as abundant as they would be in Bristol Bay in that drainage. And then we also have, there's a little chain of lakes upriver from us where we fish pike.
Katie
Oh, cool.
Jake
Yeah, so we've got quite the variety there. And, you know, we're a tributary of the Yentna River, which is a big river. And that's even a bigger tributary of the Susitna River. So we're on that drainage. And that's, like I said, it's about an hour bush flight from Anchorage. So traveling there, you would fly into Anchorage, hop on our charter, and then, you know, float plane right out to our lodge.
Katie
Okay, so what's a typical day for you, or a typical trip, I guess, even if it's multiple days, then that too. But what's a typical trip like if someone wants to come up and take a trip out with you guys?
Jake
It's usually they fly in. We'll get them unpacked, get them off the boat. So typically on our pickup drop-off days, the flight is at 11. So they'll come in at 11. We'll bring them back to the lodge. get settled or whatever eat um it's a full service lodge which is pretty nice so we don't have to handle any of that as guides um you know some places are you know most places in Alaska actually will have like food and stuff and um you know they're standing cabins so that's nice and then uh they'll eat lunch um basically we just you know kind of sit down and talk to them set up a fishing regimen and um we go out and fish you know it's uh it's pretty it's pretty straightforward um You know, we have 40 horse jet boats that we just run up the river and we have access to the lower 10 miles of the tributary. And then we actually do overnight raft trips for those that are a little more adventurous. From the headwaters, which are in a place called Lake Chelatna. And those are six days, typically 67 miles of float. So it's, you know, eight to 10 hours a day of pretty hardcore floating. It's pretty cool.
Katie
Oh, nice. It sounds like people aren't generally coming in for just a day. They stay there with you guys at the lodge?
Jake
I would say it's probably 60-40 people that stay multiple days. The average, I would say, is two to four days anywhere from there. Then we'll have – I probably had five people that were there for day fishing that would either fly in from Anchorage or they would take a day to fish if they didn't know what else to do while they were in Alaska, you know, which is not everybody isn't in Alaska to fish, which is right.
Katie
Or their families aren't.
Jake
Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, we, we get a lot of, we would get, you know, I actually, I probably this season I had three people, I think, you know, husbands where they were there and they brought their families along and the husband, they're like, they lay a day off from a cruise or something like that where they decided to fly out. So there's a, there's a couple of people like that. which is nice for the proximity to Anchorage and relativity to most places in Alaska because nowhere is close in Alaska.
Katie
Right. It's a big place. So what do the families usually do while they're there if their spouse is fishing?
Jake
A lot of them will actually come fish with us.
Katie
Oh, okay.
Jake
But we have a man lodge and there's plenty of stuff to do there. We actually have very limited Wi-Fi when the generator's running. So they can do that. But yeah, mostly they'll fish. I mean, there's a pretty good hiking trail. Most of the people that will come are into the outdoors, so they've got hiking. We've taken them out just for boat rides, sightseeing, and that kind of stuff. There's a lot of wildlife in the area, so a lot of people do wildlife viewing and that kind of stuff. We'll just sit by the river and hang out.
Katie
It's a nice place to be, I'm sure.
Jake
Yeah, absolutely. I can't complain about it. It's not a bad place to be.
Katie
What was it like the first time you got I guess I shouldn't assume Had you been to Alaska before you went up to guide your first season?
Jake
I actually hadn't, no So when I got up there I was kind of just like I didn't really know what to expect Being from the east coast I'm used to In the winter Not that it's not dark there in the winter Because it is But I'm used to not very long days This past summer actually the weather was kind of insane but um I don't know if you heard at all or I know most people in the fishing industry about the like extreme heat that they had but um you know just the the 20 hour days of sunlight are you know kind of kind of wild to get used to at first and then you realize you know okay this is just how it is and you get used to it and then um the I would probably say the biggest shock to me was like the wildlife and the just how kind of rich and green everything is and I guess that's from the salmon you know they're the base of the ecosystem and pretty much every watershed in Alaska so right
Katie
you said that you kind of just get used to the like long days does it do you find that once you're up there and and going through that for you know a couple months, you just completely get used to it? Or is, is society a little bit different up there dealing with that compared to the lower 48 where, you know, people never experienced something like that?
Jake
I would probably say it's, it's definitely a little bit different part of society up there. You know, there's a few locals that are in that area and they are, you know, they're, they're used to it because that's what they live. But, you know, you get people that travel from all over the place to come to Alaska and everybody seems a little bit amazed that the sun actually doesn't go down that often. So it's, it can be kind of shocking for some people and other people are just, you know, aren't completely used to it already for, you know, whatever circumstance. So it's, it's kind of a mix of both, I would say.
Katie
Are there any things that you feel like, well, I guess I wouldn't say taken for granted but for example are do they still treat it as nighttime you know come like 8 9 p.m or is it like well the sun's out until you know 10 11 o'clock at night
Jake
so day daytime goes until that time or do people still kind of turn things off um you know again I would say that's a mix too it kind of depends on how hard the people are fishing um you know if somebody wants to get out there you know really get after it at 4 35 in the morning um you know absolutely let's do it um but most people I would say we start around six o'clock uh seven o'clock and then go until dinner time and then if people want to go out after dinner you know we'll take them out after dinner um but our lodge has a policy of being back by 11 o'clock every night until august and then we actually have to be back at 10 because the sun actually does start to set a little bit um and the animals will get a pretty active once that happens so you don't want to be out walking around at that time um but I would say most people treat it like a normal day um you know and that gives us a break that gives everybody at the lodge a break and that gives them a break you know so they're not they don't get burnt out.
Katie
do you have any fun wildlife?
Jake
oh boy uh actually yeah so this this summer there was a cow moose and two calves that were living on lodge property um when we got there and one of the first nights we were all there there's so there's 10 of us we all on lodge property in cabins uh do a cabin so um there's no running water in cabins uh we're you know we're in the middle of nowhere out there and uh one of uh one of the guys I was working with this summer um he woke up in the middle of night to use the outhouse and he came out of the outhouse and there was the cow moose just kind of walking down the path and he just he said he put his hands up just turned around and walked right back into the outhouse 10 minutes because he did not want to deal with that and then you know there's the typical I've had bears pop out behind me you know 5, 10, 15 feet on the bank while I'm in the water with with clients um you know we we carry bear spray and all that kind of stuff and um you know that that gets a little wild you can just kind of turn around back away real slow and make sure you know because they're not there for you they're there for the fish um but just back away real slow we there's actually not a ton of brown bears there we have a lot of black bears so oh okay is that what I picture. Yeah, everybody thinks huge grizzlies when they hear Alaska, but actually back in 2013, the valley was getting overpopulated with brown bears. So a fishing game had a bounty on them. So they were kind of hunted down to where they're not super around the populated areas anymore. But they're actually starting to bounce back a little bit with the moose population. So I saw two this summer, but I saw countless black bears, you know, just a lot. And then actually another good wildlife story. This one wasn't really scary or sketchy or anything like that, but we had the really good fortune of we were upriver one day out on the boats. And we see a made a pair of bald eagles just kind of flying around. And all of a sudden they start going way up. And then we see them lock talons. We got to watch them do their mating ritual, which was really, really cool. So I don't know how much you know or any other people know, but what they do is they lock talons and free fall from, like, hundreds of feet in the air as, like, a trust exercise, I think, because from what I understand, they're monogamous and mate for life. So that was really cool to watch. But, you know, they're everywhere out there. beavers are everywhere out there. We've got, we've got quite a few different things. So.
Katie
Yeah. I've heard of that, that mating ritual, but I've, I've never seen it. And I'm sure most people probably never get the chance to see that. So it's pretty cool.
Jake
Yeah. That was that I had never seen anything like it before. And you know, it was, it was definitely cool to watch.
Katie
I think the coolest thing I've ever seen an eagle do, I've seen it happen two or three times is an eagle grabbing a fish that's too big for it and having to like swim it to shore. I'm sure that's got to happen like all the time in Alaska because I'm sure those fish are you know bigger than the average fish down here
Jake
oh yeah absolutely uh I've seen eagles where they gorge themselves too much and can't take off because they weigh themselves down too much by eating too much fish I've seen eagles try to pick up 30 plus pound kings try to fly just absolutely no way they're doing that so you'd think they'd like get used to it you'd think but you know they they're they're predators and they see something big that they know is going to feed them for a while and instinct takes over. I'm just going to go for it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Katie
They just kind of, you know, screw it. We'll, we'll dive in. You kind of touched on something that I was going to ask. Um, you said that the brown bears are like, they're not there for you. They're there for the, for the fish. Is that kind of a theme across Alaska? Cause I feel like whenever I hear about bear attacks, I tend to hear about them in places like Montana. I don't hear about a lot of grizzly attacks from Alaska. And I'm not sure if that's just because I'm not as connected to Alaska or if it's just because you can kind of cohabitate pretty easily just because, you know, I won't bother you. You won't bother me kind of thing.
Jake
Yeah, I honestly, I'm not an expert on the situation by any means, but I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I mean, I've heard about him in Montana. I've been to Montana a few times and, you know, I've always heard of way more bear attacks happening there. I would have to guess that's probably what it is, is they just have so much more abundance of a food source. And that's what they're focused on, because especially in places like Bristol Bay, where it's just, you know, the sockeye run is millions and millions of fish strong. You know, they're just so they're so focused on that. And that's their main source of prey. And they don't see people all the time. You know, rarely, if ever. at this point, which is, I guess, a good thing. I would have to say they probably just don't know what you are or they know you're not a threat to them at that point, so they just kind of ignore you.
Katie
Okay. Well, cool. I want to transition over into the kind of DIY stuff, if you're cool with that. Yeah, absolutely. So I've never been to Alaska, But I think it'd be really fun to go up one day and do some fishing. But I do like the idea of either doing maybe a couple days guided and then doing a do-it-yourself trip or just doing a do-it-yourself trip from the start. And I think this is one of those subjects where I may not even know what I don't know. So I'll pepper you with some questions about it, but also feel free to jump in and let me know anything that you think someone might want to know if they're going to do DIY.
Jake
Yeah, for sure.
Katie
um I think I guess the first part well I don't even know what order to go in because there's not really a clear order I feel like but um if someone's planning to come up how long how long do you think they should come to um get the quote-unquote full experience of fishing up there
Jake
um that really all depends what somebody's goal is if somebody's goal is to catch a lot of fish I would honestly advise coming up, not that you won't catch a lot of fish any time of year up there, but I would come up later in the summer. And probably minimum, if you want to experience the most, I would say minimum five days. You know, a lot of people do a full week. Some people, you know, will take a week to fish and then a week to travel, you know, and see other stuff because there's a lot to see there. but I would say probably minimum five days if you want to get the full experience of fishing.
Katie
And you said late summer, like August, is that?
Jake
Yeah, I would say the last week of July going into August. And then the first two weeks in August are usually pretty, they're firing pretty good. Usually that's when the chums come in. That's when the coho or silvers come in. You know, the pinks are usually already there. and then the the trout are just gorging themselves on eggs and I know that's not everybody's cup of tea you know I was never never the guy to fish egg patterns or whatever until I went up there and then you know the only way to catch a rainbow at some points is either fishing a flesh fly or pegging a bead and you know that's that's what you got to do up there so So it's probably your best opportunity to catch as many different types of fish as Alaska has to offer. Or you come early summer in June when the kings are coming and you target the big boys.
Katie
Okay, so coming a little bit earlier, you can target those larger fish. But if you come later in the summer, you're kind of overlapping a bunch of different species. Absolutely, yeah. Okay, cool. I feel like that's, I feel like most people would probably opt for wanting to catch a bunch of different types. I mean, I'm just speaking from my own point of view, but like I'd rather catch a bunch of different things.
Jake
Yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, it's pretty cool that there's so many, there's an abundance of so many fish species there. I mean, I've seen one person do a salmon slam in a week. It wasn't in a day, it was in a week. And that's tough to do because by the time every species is in the system, the kings are really starting to kind of zombify up. But a couple will still eat. But if you want to catch the most species, by far later in the summer is the best thing to do.
Katie
Is that what you find that most people want when they come up? Or is there an overwhelming species that everyone wants to catch or an unusual species that you do get some interest in?
Jake
Yeah, so I would say there's usually two sets of people. There's the people that came to Alaska to fish, and they're hardcore fishermen. And I find a lot of those people are for silver season or king season. King season because they're gigantic fish, and they fight really hard, and they eat swung flies. That's my favorite way to get fish for them is with a two-hander and swing a fly. and until you've had a you know a king salmon eat a swung fly that's you know 15 hours from the salt it's kind of tough to describe them and I think a lot of more the more hardcore fishermen will go for that and then you know people that aren't quite as into it and might want to be you know might want to experience other things in Alaska will probably go for the you know the other stuff
Katie
okay if if uh someone's coming up and is bringing their own gear like let's assume that they're not gonna you know go with an outfit or or rent or anything like that um is it fairly easy to bring your own setup up there uh in terms of everything you'll need uh or do you need like different different rods for different species like if someone's coming up and wants to do like salmon trout and let's say I don't know like grayling or pike or something else that's up there Can people get away with just a single setup for all those things and just switch out their flies? Or are you looking at different rod weights and different lines and things like that?
Jake
I would say if you're looking to target salmon and maybe pike or something like that, you could probably get away with a seven weight setup for everything. You might even want to go up to an eight weight at that point. Unless it's king salmon. And then I wouldn't say anything less than an eight weight at minimum. But trout, I probably wouldn't go heavier than a five weight. I fish a three weight for them.
Katie
Really?
Jake
Out there. Not a lot of people go that light, but our drainage doesn't have those big lake run rainbows that everybody, you know, conflagrates with Alaska. more you know they're still really nice but they're more in the 18 to 20 inch range okay um you know but they'll still they're still eating streamers and all that kind of stuff so I usually go for a three weight or a four weight especially early season when you're kind of kind of drift smelt patterns right right near the surface and that's that's my favorite way to fish for them but if I had to if I had to go with one rod for Alaska i'd probably say a seven or an eight weight
Katie
Okay, so it sounds like in an ideal world, you might have a 7 or an 8 weight for some of the larger fish and then maybe a 4 or 5 weight for the trout. But if you had to just pick one, you've got to go to the largest option.
Jake
Yeah, right, yeah. I would probably say 7 weight is a pretty safe bet for just about anything you'll catch unless you get a freakishly large fish, which can happen.
Katie
Right, that could happen if you've got a 5 weight on and you could get a trout that's too big for that.
Jake
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I know some of the guys in Bristol Bay fish for the trout with seven weights, and they're needed.
Katie
Well, that's not a bad problem to have.
Jake
No, it is not. No, it is not.
Katie
What other species are right around where you are, or in all of Alaska? Like, if someone's coming to Alaska, what all species do you think they could check off their list?
Jake
Oh, man, there's a lot. So you've got all five species of Pacific salmon. If you go down to the Aleutians, which is really actually hard to get to because they're islands. They're not connected to Alaska by the Alaskan highway. You can catch sea run cuts. You can catch steelhead. You can catch these weird fish. They're called she-fish. I don't know if you've ever heard of them. A lot of people, they're in the farther north parts of Alaska. People call them freshwater tarpon. they're basically just overgrown minnows that are anadromous and they'll go back and forth from the ocean to the rivers and people catch these huge huge she fish like double digit pounds often and nobody has ever heard of them they're really weird looking they're just like giant minnows but that that's a that's a fish that not a lot of people know about that I think is pretty underrated as far as Alaska goes. And then you've got the Arctic char, the dollies, the rainbows, you know, there's the pike, the grayling. There's a whole lot to target out here.
Katie
Do you have walleyes that far north?
Jake
You know what? I don't think so. I personally don't know if they're anywhere in Alaska. In the drainage eye guide on, we do not have walleye. um the pike we have were introduced illegally in okay i've got probably 50 or 60 years ago um and they were super successful um so we actually are required by fishing game to kill them if we catch them because they're an invasive species so um I don't believe there's walleye but I could be wrong.
Katie
That's just one of those fish that I think of as being, you know, in the lower 48, I think of it as being a northern fish, like Minnesota, Wisconsin, that kind of area. But it seems like there's like a band that goes across the U.S. or I guess North America where they're not farther south or farther north than that. But, I mean, maybe they are and they're just not where you are. But I'm just wondering because I associate them with being up north, but I never associate them with Alaska. And I just wasn't sure if maybe you guys had them up there.
Jake
I'm sure they're in here. I know lakes in the Yukon have them and northern Manitoba. There's a great slave lake has huge walleye that I know people troll for and stuff like that. And that's about the same latitude. So maybe we do. I haven't heard of them. I'll be honest, I've never fished a walleye. So I'm not super into it. So I wouldn't know.
Katie
So if someone's coming up, is there a specific area? Like I know Bristol Bay is like obviously the place that everyone's heard of. Would you say that if someone's coming up, it's pretty imperative to come to a certain region in Alaska? Or is fly fishing kind of, you know, you can go anywhere you want and find something to catch?
Jake
I think you can fly fish pretty much anywhere you want in Alaska and you'll find something. You know, there's always going to be spots that are more conducive to gear fishing. There's always going to be spots that are more conducive to fly fishing. I think as a general statement, anywhere in Alaska you'll be able to go. You'll be able to catch something with a fly rod, though. I mean, Bristol Bay is obviously the number one place, but there's a lot of other places that are pretty, I don't want to say underrated in Alaska, but not nearly as well known just because of, you know, the fame that Bristol Bay has for being the largest wild salmon run on the planet. And, you know, all the 30 inch plus chrome rainbows that come out of, come out of those tributaries. But, you know, like I was, I mentioned earlier, the Aleutian islands, they have the strongest coho run in Alaska and they're huge, huge fish. You can fish the Yukon River for chums, which are actually, they're the largest, they're the longest migrating salmon species on the planet. The chum run and on the Yukon River, like I mentioned, those she fish. In northern Alaska, you've got Good News Bay out in the more western part of the state. You've got yakutat down in the southeast and the Tongass rainforest. You know, there's a lot of different opportunities for people in Alaska.
Katie
So you're not kind of pigeonholed into an area with everybody else. Like there's plenty of places to go that aren't, you know, what you're going to find if you just do a quick Google search for where to go fish in Alaska, it sounds like.
Jake
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you could drive everywhere in Alaska, which you can't, unfortunately, you could spend the rest of your life there fishing for, you know, whatever you wanted.
Katie
That's a perfect segue into my next, I guess, set of questions, which is probably the thing that intimidates me the most about, you know, when I think of trying to go to Alaska to do a DIY trip. and that is when I picture going up there on a guided trip, I picture float planes and jet boats and things like that. If someone comes up and just lands in Alaska, how do you get from, let's just say like Anchorage, like a major airport. How do you get from there to the spot that you're about to take a cast? I assume you might take a bush plane like to a smaller town and then can you generally find some places to just go up and start fishing or do you need to rent a car? What's the process of getting from a major hub to a place that you can catch fish?
Jake
Yeah, so the bush flights are really the main method of travel, of getting places, I should say. There's not a whole lot of road systems in Alaska. There's the major Alaska highway that comes up from Washington through Canada and go through there, and that's the main road system in Alaska. So you can take that from Anchorage, and there is a road system you know from Anchorage down to Talkeetna and those areas and you can get to fishing by renting a car there and you know driving and people do it and people do it all the time people drive all the way up north of Fairbanks and go grayling fishing and salmon fishing up in the Arctic but by and large it's going to be float planes or or bush planes with tundra tires or you stay in Anchorage and you fish in Anchorage.
Katie
So it sounds like if you're stuck in a car, you basically either have to go somewhere that you can hop out of the car and fish or that you can do a short hike to. Which in Alaska, I'm sure there's probably not a lot of places that are a short hike because it sounds like the roads don't go that many places.
Jake
Yeah, from my understanding of it, I haven't been super far north, but the highway network is not very strong there. You know, there's mainly there's the highway and then obviously it goes off into towns and stuff like that. And I know there are places where the actual highway goes next to rivers where you can like literally pull off on a bridge like you would somewhere in the lower 48 on a popular pool or something like that. You know, Colorado or Montana or wherever. but by and large they're either hiking or bushwhacking or you know floating you know a large majority of people float in Alaska they'll do remote floats or they'll do day floats or that kind of stuff
Katie
now is that DIY floats or like how would how would one access a raft or a boat?
Jake
I would say most of it's guided without fitters. I'm sure you can do DIY floats if you have the experience. Obviously, I would never do that alone. I would always have, you know, I would always be prepared for, you know, bears and that kind of stuff. And then whatever weather Alaska can throw at you because it gets crazy. The weather? Yeah. The weather, be prepared for rain always be prepared for wind be prepared for thunderstorms be prepared for forest fires be prepared for heat snow whatever you can think of happens during the summer in Alaska
Katie
sounds like the mountains here we've got snow and snow in June and July
Jake
and then you know you might get a 60 degree day in the middle of winter yeah yeah I mean this past summer was a rough one um it was like 90 degrees where we were for like two weeks straight which is like I think the hottest stretch in Alaskan history um and there was you know quite a few major forest fires I think there was three or four that were had a huge impact on Anchorage with the smoke and I'm sure living in Colorado you're fairly used to that phenomenon
Katie
yeah unfortunately
Jake
yeah I can I can imagine. But yeah, the weather, the weather is kind of crazy out here. It's another considered something else to consider. But as far as roads go, there's not a whole lot of infrastructure to get places.
Katie
So. So if someone comes up and decides they want to take a, take a plane, be it a bush plane or a float plane, a couple of questions on that. One is, how do you, how do you book that? Is that something that comes through an outfitter or can you just hop a, hop a ride on a bush plane somewhere as a DIY fisherman?
Jake
So there's a little place next to the Anchorage airport called Lake hood. Um, it's one of the largest, uh, float plane airports, I believe in the country, um, where there's, there's charter companies there's companies that do tours there's private pilots there's just dudes that really like to fly planes there's women that really love to fly planes that'll take people for a fee there's air taxis all that kind of stuff um you know you can either find with a quick google search or if you do want to do a day or two with a guide um typically if it's through a lodge they'll have either a charter or their own plane
Katie
okay so you can you can basically just buy a ticket for a bush plane and is that something you buy in advance or do you just show up there and there's just you know pilots waiting around with their planes to take whoever comes up
Jake
uh you would buy that in advance a lot it's it's basically like uber for fishermen you know to get places because there's people that do um they'll do day flights where it's basically an air it's an air taxi um they'll pick you up in the morning you know they drop you off and then you set a meet point and you're back at that meet point and at the end of the day and they'll pick you up.
Katie
So where I assume, well, I guess float planes have to land on water, obviously. I assume bush planes have to land somewhere that there's, I mean, does there have to be an established landing strip? How do you choose where you want to go? Like if you come up and request them to take you somewhere, do they have a list of spots that you can choose from? Or are you like, hey, I found this spot on the map. Like, can you get me there? How do you determine where you go?
Jake
So that would probably be pilots, whatever you're thinking. I'm sure a lot of them have established places they like to land and take off and stuff like that. I've seen, I don't know if you're familiar with float planes at all, but one of the more popular models is a de Havilland beaver in Alaska because they're just really good for what they're designed for, which is taking off and landing in really short distances with large amounts of freight. and then so on a float plane obviously you need a body of water but a lot of them will have tundra tires which are those big bouncy rubber tires you see on those small planes and I've seen planes land in 50 yards 100 yards on little gravel bars or beaches or stuff like that I mean I've I've seen a bush plane land while I was guiding somebody in 100 feet on a little stretch of gravel bar. They're pretty versatile. If you're a good enough pilot, they can get them into some pretty crazy places. I was stunned. I couldn't believe the plane landed there. But he was there, didn't even fish. He just pulled out a beach chair, sat there for a few hours and took off.
Katie
Like our cars down here.
Jake
Yeah, it's pretty wild.
Katie
So do you, if you get a ride somewhere, can you, I mean, do they stipulate how long you can be there? Can you be there for just a day or can you say, hey, show up in a week, I'll be here. And they can just do that without, you know, verifying that you're capable of being out there for a week.
Jake
I probably wouldn't do that. Maybe. I've never heard of that happening.
Katie
Okay.
Jake
I would advise strongly against that. Okay, fair enough. Just because there's so many things that can go wrong in a week. And if you're not at the coordinates you're supposed to be and the pilot's there, he can't wait for you.
Katie
Okay.
Jake
There's certain restrictions for flying and that kind of stuff. But I mean, I just know I have experienced either talking with people or doing it. You know, it's like I think I paid 300 bucks in Anchorage for a guy to fly me out to the Russian or out into the middle of nowhere and drops you off, picks you back up at the end of the day before the sun really starts to set.
Katie
Okay, so is that a typical, that was going to be my next question, is that like a typical price? How much should you expect for a bush plane ride to cost?
Jake
Yeah, it varies. I would say anywhere, probably a couple hundred. So anywhere from 200 to 300 or 400. And that all depends how far you want to go or where you plan on going. And that I'm sure varies pilot to pilot as well, just based on their experience levels or if they fly with an outfit, if they fly with a charter company, if they're private, all that kind of stuff.
Katie
Okay. So it sounds like, you know, if you've got the money, you could just rent a bush plane every day and go somewhere different. But there's probably a lot of people who come and do a couple, you know, flights places and then maybe just fish closer to home just to save a little bit of cash.
Jake
Yeah. Yeah. A lot of that's what a lot of people do. If you're not staying at a lodge, I know the local fly shop here, one of the owners who I've become friends with over the years talking to him. He has specifically done that in Alaska before, is he flies to a different river every day for a week and just fishes there. And I know that's what a lot of the lodges do in Bristol Bay, is they have their own float plane and they'll fly to the Knack-Knack one day. And then they'll fly to the Queejack. They'll fly to a number of different rivers in the system, just to vary where you're fishing.
Katie
Is it pretty crowded? I hear about a lot of people coming to Alaska to fish, but it's such a huge area that I have no real concept of when you're out on the river, how many people a day are you coming across?
Jake
That is a huge depending on where you are.
Katie
Okay. Let's say you haven't booked a float. I assume if I'm paying someone to fly me out in the middle of nowhere, I would sure hope I'm not running into a bunch of people. But let's say you're closer to town.
Jake
Yeah. So if you're doing that, chances are you're not going to see another person. Okay. And then as a disclaimer, don't go out alone. That idea. But I would say, you know, don't go to the popular places. The Kenai River during the Sockeye Run is shoulder to shoulder.
Katie
Okay.
Jake
You know, and everybody knows the Kenai because there's huge rainbows. The Sockeyes run in there. You can walk across them practically. But it's a lot of people shoulder to shoulder flossing or snagging, whatever you want to call it, flossing their limit of sockeyes and taking them home. You know, you could call it combat fishing. But then again, there's Bristol Bay, which is super popular, but a lot of it is incredibly hard to access. So it's only accessed by the lodges.
Katie
Okay.
Jake
So, you know, they have rod limits at the lodges. you know they can only have so many people there at a time so you're only going to see those people or you know you're going to go to all different rivers in a day or for for our lodge for instance we're the only ones that have access to up rivers we're the only ones that stash our boats up river so we're the only ones that have access to it so you won't see anybody else except for other guys from the lodge I work at or you know other guests at the lodge I work at.
Katie
It sounds kind of like a nice mix of if you want to go up and catch your limit of, you know, sockeyes, you can go combat fish. If you want to kind of have a little bit more of an exclusive experience and, but still be a little closer to home, just go through an outfitter. And if you want to see absolutely nobody, then just hire someone to fly you out to a river in the middle of nowhere, which is, which is kind of nice because I feel like somewhere, you know, for example, I'm in Colorado, you can't really escape people, you know, even if you choose to, you know, hike a really far distance, you might still encounter an outfitter who hiked someone up there or just someone else who wanted to get after it.
Jake
But it's not it's not so separated like that, because everyone can pretty much access everywhere. Yeah, absolutely. It's like we've, you know, we've made the point that there's Alaska's big, it's a huge, huge place. And there's a lot of things to do there I mean there's a lot of there's a lot of water there's a lot of water in Alaska and every almost you know everything every body of water that I could think of has fish in it you know is there's just there's so so much to cover out there that if you wanted to you could never see another person you know no matter how often you fished it you would never see another person there.
Katie
And I'm sure it's not too hard. Like if you, if you do a Google search for, for where to fish in your area and just don't go to the first couple of places they list, I'm sure it's not hard to find places that even if you, you know, aren't completely alone, that you're not shoulder to shoulder with people, you know, it only takes a little bit of effort to find out where, where the crowds are going to be and then just don't go there.
Jake
Yeah. That that's exactly. I mean, you can say that really about anywhere. Right. I think it's especially, it especially rings true for Alaska just because of the population density is in like three places and you know it's it's hard just hard to get other places so if you want to find somewhere where you're alone you can if you don't want to do that and you you know you want to catch your limit of sockeyes real quick because it's easy to do there and you want to be around other people go to the Kenai during so you know there's so there's so much opportunity there for fishing that it's hard to narrow down things to do without, you know, having specific people's interests in front of you, you know.
Katie
So if someone wants to come, like, let's assume that someone is coming to take some salmon home with them. Do you know what the process is of getting, getting, let's say, your limit of fish and then actually getting it back to the lower 48?
Jake
Yeah, so I can only speak specifically for what the process is for the lodge I work through.
Katie
Sure, we'll use that as an example then.
Jake
Yeah, so as an example, so what we do, you know, say you catch your limited fish this year, you take home. You're limited fish for three days. We take them home for you, or we take them back to the lodge for you, excuse me. We fillet them up, vacuum seal them, freeze them. And then there's a couple options. We, the lodge that we, the lodge that I go through, we have a deal with a meat packing company in Anchorage that will, you know, professionally process the meat for you. You can have, like, there's a bunch of options. Like, you can smoke it, you can carry it, you know, do a bunch of stuff with it. And then they'll ship it for you. The charter company we work with has these fish coolers that you can rent from them to fly home with your fish as luggage. You can check it. And then there's always the option to ship it.
Katie
Okay. So it sounds like it'll be a little bit more work if someone's not going through an outfitter and having the benefit of somebody to freeze their fish, vacuum seal it, stuff like that. But if you're able to just find a service that can freeze it and vacuum seal it for you, then you can just either ship it or fly it home as any other piece of luggage.
Jake
Yeah, absolutely. And just as a disclaimer, the place that we work through in Anchorage, the professional meatbagging place, does have a weight limit. Okay. So you might run into that issue. So say you only keep one or two fish that you wanted to take home or something like that. the weight limit there is 10 pounds of fish, which is, if you fillet, is probably three fish. You know, if you're catching big, bigger fish. I know one person this year that I guided took on 44 pounds. So it's, and that he was only there for five days. So it's not hard to hit that limit. You know, and that, again, that's just speaking from what I know about, based on what the lodge I work for does as far as shipping stuff.
Katie
Is that service the one that will, is that a shipping service? Like, I assume that you could bring, you know, if you get a certain luggage allowance on an airplane, you could fill as much of that with fish as you want. Is that the packaging that they have the limit on, or the actual, like, shipping, they'll ship it 10 pounds for you?
Jake
They'll ship, so they process it for you, and they ship it to your home address. It's a 10-pound minimum, I should say.
Katie
Oh, minimum. Oh, okay.
Jake
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's a 10-pound minimum because it's a meat processing plant, basically, for fish. And, you know, it's quite frankly not worth it to them to process one or two fish.
Katie
No, that makes so much more sense because I was like, that just seems really low. Like, I feel like people got to be bringing back, you know, way more than 10 pounds when they go.
Jake
Oh, yeah.
Katie
Oh, yeah.
Jake
Like I was saying, I mean, I had a guy bring home 44 pounds. A lot of people bring home 20 plus pounds of fish for a multi-day stay.
Katie
Which are the preferred salmon to bring home? I hear bad things about things like chum salmon. I don't know if that's a myth or if there are actually some that are way better than others.
Jake
There are. So a lot of people tell you that king or chinook is their favorite. Personally, I'm a big sockeye fan. They have a more oily, delicate flesh than a king. And those are the ones, those are the big red fish for people that don't know what a sockeye is. The famous salmon that are really bright red when they get all colored up for their spawn. And then followed closely in second place for me would be coho or silver salmon. They have really bright orange flesh and it's really tasty if you eat it fresh. chum is good if you catch it really really fresh like really chrome or already in the ocean if there is any color to a chum at all I would personally not keep it their flesh just gets really mushy it's not that it tastes bad it's just a very off-putting texture
Katie
okay yeah i've heard they're not great but I've never heard what makes them not great
Jake
yeah it's just they they change really fast when they come into freshwater okay um and you know within just a couple days they're they go from chrome to you know that that classic green goblin looking chum with the purple bars on it those those are not something you want to take home
Katie
uh to the family to feed them um they don't look particularly appetizing
Jake
Um, but they, I have also heard that they're really good smoked. Um, so, you know, it's, it's all taste and preference. Uh, and personally, I don't like pink salmon.
Katie
Okay.
Jake
Which, uh, they're just, they taste kind of like nothing.
Katie
Um, so good, good or bad, depending on whether you actually like salmon.
Jake
Right. Yeah. That's basically what it comes down to. And I know, uh, and again, the fresher the fish is, the better it's going to taste in all five species.
Katie
Of course, yeah.
Jake
When I say fresher, the closer they are to the ocean or the less time they've spent in freshwater, the better they're going to taste.
Katie
Right. I feel like that seems to be the case kind of across the board with fish. I mean, they're coming up to die. They can't be getting better.
Jake
Right. Right. Yeah. That's a very good point.
Katie
So what is the licensing system like in Alaska? Either, well, both the cost of a license and like what options there are in terms of time periods to buy a license.
Jake
So you can get, I believe they sell daily licenses. They sell lifetime licenses. They sell, you know, annual ones. Annual, I believe, for out of state is $100.
Katie
Oh, that's not bad at all.
Jake
No, it's not. It's not bad. But like a King Salmon stamp is $150.
Katie
Oh, OK. So tell me about the stamp system then.
Jake
So the stamp system is for Kings in my drainage because this year, actually the fishery was closed down. We weren't allowed to target them. Neither was commercial fishing. Neither was subsistence fishing. So for the first time in that drainage, everybody was shut down, not just either, you know, sport fishing or subsistence or commercial. They're having a fairly rough time. The Kings, They're starting to bounce back a little bit. We saw a lot of fish this year spawning, which was really great to see. But yeah, so that's why you have to have a king stamp there and they're $150. I am not 100% positive if that's Alaska wide or just the drainage I'm on. I know a lot of places in Alaska to fish for steelhead, you need a steelhead stamp. And then as far as I know, there's no other stamps. and the other funny thing about Alaska system or Alaska licenses to get your guide license in Alaska it's just an add-on to your fishing license it's completely free
Katie
really
Jake
yeah it's kind of weird so to be you know licensed by Alaska Fishing Game you buy your fishing license buy your King Salmon stamp or whatever and then it's just an add-on like on their website that's you know it just says sport fishing guide and they give you an id number or whatever um but if you get stopped by coast guard or or fishing game or something like that you need to have your six
Katie
pack coast guard license as well okay so it's that that's something separate than than through through Alaska okay yeah um so it sounds like uh well I guess you you weren't positive if the stamp is just for your drainage or statewide but it sounds like if someone's going to go it's probably beneficial to looking at getting your license like where you're gonna fish or at least knowing where you're gonna fish
Jake
yes look they do they do change regulations based on drainage okay so know the regulations where you want to fish um some drainages had closed king season some did not some had silver season closed halfway through the season because the water levels were so low because of the heat uh this you know this this past summer so just always pay attention to regulations and I think that's probably a good rule no matter where you're going to fish um but in Alaska pay attention to regulations they update them and change them a lot
Katie
okay do you know why the uh the kings were particularly affected versus the other four species
Jake
um they're just a very cyclical fish um and they just they're the most sought after um you know the commercial fisheries it's just not sustainable um to have commercial fisheries to have sport fisheries and sustenance fisheries all targeting the same run of 20 000 fish um we didn't hit a for three years in a row um so they shut it down in January uh this year before the season and uh you know it's just they're very cyclical um but they're you know they're coming back up um i've been told stories of before I was there in 2011 2012 um you know that those are the best years they had ever had um so we'll see um we'll see as time passes what actually what actually happens, but that's what I know about it. I'm no biologist, so I can't tell you exactly what's going on, but from what I see, it's just loss of habitat, changing in river conditions and straight up overfishing.
Katie
I'm surprised that they, well, I'm not surprised because I don't know the specific situation that's going on right now, but I'm shocked that even subsistence fishing is And I, I picture that as being the one thing that's usually still open places, you know?
Jake
Yeah. That was, that was very surprising when I heard that, um, you know, even, even commercial fisheries, um, and there's, there's a whole lot of politics that go into that, um, which I won't get into. Um, but I mean, I'm, I'm surprised that even cause they have lobbies and all that kind of stuff that where the commercial fisheries, um, you know, have fairly, you know, large amounts of influence, um, when it comes to that kind of stuff. And then ADF and G said, no, you know, we're, we're keeping it closed. And, um, yeah, so it was just cause we hadn't hit escapement in three seasons, um, where they were just like, all right, it's nobody, nobody takes them. And I think it's because there's not like an active Native Alaskan tribe in the valley.
Katie
Okay.
Jake
That, you know, will actively do sustenance fishing. So take that with a grain of salt. But they did close. They closed all three. So.
Katie
It sounds like if you're coming up to fish for king specifically, it's probably worth checking before you come up to make sure that not only it's open, but also that it's a good year for it. Because it sounds like it's, you know, they could just be a bad year, even if it's open.
Jake
Yeah, absolutely. And that's very specific to drainage as well.
Katie
Okay.
Jake
I know a lot of drainages had really good king years this year. And I actually can tell you that we had a good one. we just weren't allowed to target them which maybe maybe that's why it was a good year yeah it's probably good let it actually bounce back exactly so I mean I can tell you that I saw thousands of fish just floating um you know they're they're fire hydrant red when they're sitting on their reds um and you float right over them and you can see these three and four foot long gigantic fish just sitting there and there are thousands and thousands of them just stacked up. So that was very good to see. And, you know, based off what we saw, we think we did actually hit escapement this year. So we're looking forward to see what they actually do. Personally, I wouldn't hate it if they kept it closed for half the season or only opened it to catch and release just to make sure everything's all right. But, you know, they're going to do what they're going to do and we'll see what happens but uh definitely check whether the king season is open or closed if you're coming to Alaska I would say that for all salmon species just because like I said the fishing game changes the regulations a lot
Katie
when you first said that you saw thousands floating I thought you meant it was a bad thing like you saw them floating like dead and I was like oh that's so sad
Jake
I was floating in a raft no but you do you do see a lot of dead fish in Alaska that's another thing to be prepared for the smell. Nobody ever thinks about the smell when there's just thousands of fish carcasses piled up on on the river banks
Katie
to be clear that's like ones that have died that are supposed to die not like yes they've all just been killed off
Jake
right right yes yeah you know it's it's the natural process of things and they have one of the more unique life cycles of of any animal on the planet that I can think of and it's it's kind of awe-inspiring to to watch an entire run of fish um you know just die and you can see you can see the whole cycle year after year and you can see the young fish coming back you see the smolt run it's pretty awe-inspiring as far as that kind of stuff goes but it also does smell very terrible
Katie
yeah it's probably like a you know on one hand you're you're happy to see you know so many fish coming back up and knowing that those those carcasses are all going to go you know back into the cycle and everything but at the same time you're looking at it and it probably doesn't look good
Jake
oh no no they're all white and patchy and zombified just you know they're rotting fish and a lot of them will still be swimming while they're basically dead which is kind of wild to see um you know there's a reason they refer to them as zombies because they act like it they the instinct to get upstream is so strong that they will literally go there and until they're dead they won't stop trying to swim upstream until they're dead um so it's it's it's a pretty wild phenomenon to see if if nothing else
Katie
This kind of transitions into the the last thing I wanted to ask about but you know i'm sure that even non-anglers could go out there and appreciate just seeing something you know so crazy that they've never gotten to experience before you know I can't see that elsewhere
Jake
no there's there's not a lot of places on the planet left where that's that's an available thing um I know in the in the lower 48 you've got the pacific northwest and some spots in California and there's always the great lakes um for salmon
Katie
But I’m sure it is not the same scale though
Jake
it's not I can tell you from experience from fishing the great lakes and the pacific northwest um it's not the same scale it used to be in the Pacific Northwest. But we won't get into that. But things in Alaska are still going really, really, really strong for these fish. That's good. Unfortunately, there's a few projects here and there that could have an effect on that, Bristol Bay and other places. But I mean, I think the sockeye return this year in Bristol Bay was 53 or 4 million fish. even more of a reason to protect it exactly exactly which is just that number of fish returning to one system is mind-blowing and then actually in the cook inlet where anchorage is this year um I don't know how true this is but this is what I was told um is that when we actually had the strongest pink salmon run we've had in a long time is that when they made their push um they increase the tide by two feet wow that's how many fish there were so it's it's pretty insane
Katie
I think any fisherman would be happy to look out and see a two-foot wave of any fish coming toward him
Jake
I don't care if it's goldfish no yeah that would be uh that would be quite the experience to see I did not see it that's just what I was told by a biologist so well I don't again I don't how true that is but well we can we can dream exactly but as far as non-fishing goes if you like the outdoors at all Alaska is a must-see in my opinion
Katie
I was going to ask um just to kind of finish things out is uh what other things during that time of year are are worth doing in Alaska because I you know I when I think of Alaska I think of certain activities that you can't or certain experiences even that you can't get down here um like northern lights and dog sledding and stuff like that. And obviously dog sledding is, you know, winter activity. But what else can you do up there in the summertime when you're not fishing?
Jake
Hiking, biking, you know, anything you can do in the lower 48, you can do in Alaska in the summer. It's a lot of people, you know, it's crazy how often I'm still asked, oh, aren't you cold up there? Or, you know, isn't there snow on the ground? Like, no, it's summer. It's not in a perpetual state. pole yeah there's there's a lot to do up there I mean there's people run glacier tours um sightseeing animal brooks falls and Katmai national park if you want to go watch bears um swimming surfing down in yakutat I know there's a huge like weirdly cult surf following for that particular swell So just really anything you can think of that involves using your two feet to get outside, you can do in Alaska.
Katie
So it sounds like kind of an ideal place to, you know, maybe you can't get time away from the family to come up for a fishing trip, but you could just bring them up and, you know, everyone can do something.
Jake
Right. And, you know, you mentioned Northern Lights and stuff like that. Best time to see those is end of the summer.
Katie
Oh, perfect.
Jake
it's tough. You need a clear night. And then they're really not, they don't really go strong until September-ish. Okay. And even then they're typically farther North, but you can still see them. And that is a wild sight. Let me tell you that I saw them once this summer, really late, like August 24th, I think I saw them. And it was real quick, just a couple of green flashes, but it's something you never forget. And that's, I think, really my takeaway from Alaska is like every day I saw something that I will never forget for the rest of my life. I love that place and I'll go back there until I physically cannot.
Katie
I feel like this conversation makes Alaska feel a lot less daunting. I think the biggest hurdle, and I think I mentioned it before, but just not knowing how to get somewhere, just because I think a lot of people come up and do get a guided trip. And not to take away from booking a guided trip, if that's what you're looking for. But I know there's probably a lot of people who want to come up and just do it DIY like they do any other trip. And it sounds like it's not actually that difficult to pull off. For the cost of a plane flight up there, maybe one to several bush plane flights out to places and the cost of a license and then just shipping your fish back. It sounds like that's essentially all you have to pay for.
Jake
Yeah, it's very it's very doable for DIY. And a lot of people don't think that. And in the summer, Alaska has more national parkland than any other state, you know. So, I mean, you can go to Katmai. You can go to Kodiak. You can go to the Tongass National Rainforest. You can go to the Arctic and fish for grayling. I mean, you can go to Gates of the Arctic National Park where there's one road in and fish for grayling. You know, it's pretty insane how much DIY there actually is out there. when you know all you see all over instagram is is you know people in front of float planes with their guides on jet you know on jet boats
Katie
yeah especially for I mean it's obviously you know part of the u.s but it feels I think a lot more exotic to people than just thinking of it like another state absolutely does you kind of get the benefit of you know an exotic trip with the you know I don't want to say the same cost as fishing in the lower 48 because odds are you don't need to hire a bush plane to get anywhere down here. But if you hire a guide down here, I mean, a guide is even more expensive than 300 bucks it takes to hire someone to fly you out. And now you have the whole river to yourself. So it doesn't sound like if you can get the same or better experience for around the same cost.
Jake
Yeah, absolutely. It's fairly cost effective if you're able to afford getting there. And flights aren't super cheap to Alaska. I think one way, they're anywhere from $300 to $500 or $600. But that's depending on the time of year and stuff you buy them. But I mean, like you said, for $1,000 to $1,500 for two or three days for DIY, and that's if you choose to go in the bush plans or whatever, you can fish a lot of water.
Katie
Sweet. Well, we can get things wrapped up, but do you want to just quickly share where people can either find you or the outfitter you work for on the web or social media?
Jake
Yeah. So, I mean, my Instagram is just at jakeroy27. You know, I just post pictures of fish mostly and flies that I tie. And then the outfit I work for is Wilderness Place Lodge. We are about an hour outside of Anchorage. The website is wildernessplacelodge.com. And, you know, check us out. I'll be there this summer. Feel free to reach out to me on Instagram. Feel free to book, you know, through the lodge and I'll be there. We'll put you on some fish.
Katie
Awesome. Well, I hope people will feel a little less intimidated by, you know, planning a trip to Alaska. And if they don't want to do a DIY, then definitely reach out and book a trip.
Jake
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Hopefully people feel less intimidated by Alaska. It's an intimidating place, but in a good way.
Katie
Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Jake. And I really appreciate you coming on to share.
Jake
Yeah, thank you very much.
Katie
All right, and that'll do it. As always, if you liked what you heard, go ahead and go over to the Wild Initiative podcast. You can subscribe there and get my shows bi-weekly on Thursdays, as well as all of Sam's other shows throughout the week. You can also find all my episodes on fishuntamed.com in addition to backcountry fly fishing articles. You can find me on social media under my name, Katie Burgert, on Go Wild or at fishuntamed on Instagram. And I will see you all back here in two weeks. All right. Bye, everybody.
Note:
These transcripts were created using AI to help make the podcast more accessible to all listeners, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing, or anyone who prefers to read rather than listen.
While I’ve reviewed each transcript to correct obvious errors, they may not be 100% accurate. In particular, moments with overlapping speech or unclear audio may not be transcribed word-for-word. However, every effort has been made to ensure that the core content and meaning are accurately represented.
Thank you for your understanding, and I hope these transcripts help you enjoy the podcast in the way that works best for you.