bugcaster wrote:

Great photos. I'm sure you will gets lots of questions on how to do the
"next" trip. I hope to get there one day. When I get ready, I'll be one
that picks your brain for ideas.

We're already thinking about our next Alaska trip -- probably to a
different area. And not because we didn't like the Kanektok. Far from
it. But the state is so damn BIG and there are so many opportunities.

I highly recommend PaPa Bear Outfitters in Bethel:
http://www.pbadventures.com/. Steve went out of his way to make this
trip happen under very challenging weather conditions. In addition to
the Kanektok, they do the Aniak, the Arolik, the Eek, the Kisaralik, and
the Kwethluck.

Kudos to Willi for organizing the trip.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

Dave LaCourse wrote:
On 9 Sep 2005 15:36:02 GMT, (Jonathan Cook) wrote:

I prefer the global comparison. If we compare us to ourselves, we
don't really learn how incredibly wealthy we all are...

I've wondered since I was a very young boy why we are so privileged
and fortunate. I remember WWII and while we were fighting in it, none
of our cities were bombed.

Dave, I don't mean to make a big deal of this, but I think a few people in
Hawaii would have something to say about none of our cities being bombed.


My father never made more than $5000 a year, yet we did many things
including fishing for two weeks every year in Pittsburg, NH. If he
were alive today, he'd immediately die if he saw the price of
gasoline. d;o)

I think that $5000 would translate into $50,000 these days, maybe more
depending on how you measure it.

Let me repeat, I don't want to imply that I don't think we are blessed with
fantastic luck and fantastic good fortune in this country. I think we should
be honest with ourselves and take a little credit as a country for making
things this way. Personally my contribution is somewhere between little and
none depending on how subtly you want to measure it.

Thanks,

Chas
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William Claspy wrote:
On 9/9/05 1:22 AM, in article ,
"rw" wrote:


steelhead fishing on the Ho, which they have dialed in. :-)

Those boys might have the Ho dialed in, but I'm guessing they'll take you
fishing on the Hoh.


Well, you're half right there, I don't know much about the Ho, but we do indeed
fish the Hoh.

Chas
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rw wrote:
This was easily the best extended fishing trip I've ever done. Great
company, LOTS of fish, and some extremely bad weather. Check it out.


Great pics, I hope mine can match up.

Thanks Steve, the company was indeed as great as the fishing. I just finished
my Yellowstone pics for Danl, and I'm starting into the Alaska pictures. I'll
post them to a website when I'm finished, I hope in a couple days.

Oh, I second your comment about recommending Papa Bear. Often people are
wildly supportive of the outfitter when averything goes perfectly, but when you
can see how he handles some tough problems you really know if you can count on
him. That's what brings me back to Ragnar at Enodah in Yellowknife, and it
will bring me back to Papa Bear too.

Chas
remove fly fish to e mail directly

On Sat, 10 Sep 2005 04:01:32 GMT, chas
wrote:

Dave, I don't mean to make a big deal of this, but I think a few people in
Hawaii would have something to say about none of our cities being bombed.

Yes, Pearl Harbor was bombed. But no other city suffered like London,
or Paris or pick-a-city-in-Europe. As a 6 yo kid, it made be very
well aware how lucky we were. I remember seeing a copy of Life
Magazine that had pictures of the the war in China (Rape of Nanking?)
and a baby crying while sitting on railroad tracks.


My father never made more than $5000 a year, yet we did many things
including fishing for two weeks every year in Pittsburg, NH. If he
were alive today, he'd immediately die if he saw the price of
gasoline. d;o)

I think that $5000 would translate into $50,000 these days, maybe more
depending on how you measure it.

Those were 1967 dollars. Not sure it would be that much, but even so,
we were far from wealthy. I lived in a two family house (upstairs)
with five rooms. My father fixed a space in the attic so my sister
(11 years my senior) could have her own room. We were working class
poor, but we were clean and happy and fed the neighborhood with brook
trout in the summer. d;o)

Let me repeat, I don't want to imply that I don't think we are blessed with
fantastic luck and fantastic good fortune in this country. I think we should
be honest with ourselves and take a little credit as a country for making
things this way. Personally my contribution is somewhere between little and
none depending on how subtly you want to measure it.

I couldn't agree more, Chas.

Cave

"Dave LaCourse" wrote in message


Cave


New nickname, or same old fingers??
Yombseg

On Sat, 10 Sep 2005 13:35:32 GMT, "Thomas Littleton"
wrote:

New nickname, or same old fingers??


d;o) Really old fingers.

And, at times, really cold too. I left my *wet* fingerless gloves
inside my waders when I packed to leave Kamchatka. I found them three
days later in Alaska, and they smelled as ripe as anything I've ever
smelled. One of the guides gave me a spare pair and I washed the
inside of my waders with shampoo that afternoon and hung them over the
heater. I threw the gloves away and bought another pair at the lodge.
I won't tell ya how much I had to pay for them, but put it this way, I
didn't get kissed!

Dave (sometimes called Cave)

Jeff wrote:
hell steve...2 weeks in Montana at the Slide Inn including airfare and
car rental (cost shared with Indian Joe)was less expensive. g


And I can spend the whole summer camping out in Colorado and not spend
what you did in Montana for a two week trip........ Seems meaningless to me.


Willi

Wayne Harrison wrote:
"rw" wrote in message
...

This was easily the best extended fishing trip I've ever done. Great
company, LOTS of fish, and some extremely bad weather. Check it out.

http://home.earthlink.net/~royalwulff/kanektok.html

PS: It wasn't even expensive.



totally awesome, as they would say in frisco, colorado. what would you
estimate your temperature ranges during the day?



Steve summed that up, but a big difference between Alaska and Colorado,
at least in the summer, is that day and night temps in Alaska vary very
little. Although it felt cold during the day when the blowing rain was
happening, at night in the tent, it was warm. I don't think the day and
nightime temps varied by more than 10 degrees. I disagree with Steve
about the temps getting to freezing at night. I think the upper thirties
was as cold as it got.

For me the blowing rain felt VERY cold. The prevailing wind was directly
upstream and was strong enough at times to blow the raft upstream
against the current. I'm not used to rain. Give me 20 degrees and a
heavy snow over the 40/50 degree weather with cold rain driving into
your face as you're floating down the river. Based on advice from Chas
(who knows something about rain)I bought some quality raingear which I'm
VERY glad I did. That combined with fleece and wool made things
tolerable even during the worst conditions.

Willi

rw wrote:
bugcaster wrote:


Great photos. I'm sure you will gets lots of questions on how to do
the "next" trip. I hope to get there one day. When I get ready, I'll
be one that picks your brain for ideas.


We're already thinking about our next Alaska trip -- probably to a
different area. And not because we didn't like the Kanektok. Far from
it. But the state is so damn BIG and there are so many opportunities.


Yeah the trip was GREAT! The country was beautiful with a strong
feeling of vastness especially in the mountains. It also had an alien
feel for me because it was so different from what I have seen on most
other fishing trips. The personalities in the group meshed well, and I
think, our differences complimented one another. (I would have loved to
see Andy and Bruce fishing together - intensity multiplied! - maybe next
time)

The fishing was wild. I actually felt that the dolly fishing and, at
times, the salmon fishing was too good/easy. There were many spots we
fished that literally every cast resulted in hits and/or a hookup
from a dolly. There was a HUGE run of fish. After the rain, we ran into
numerous huge schools of silvers in the backwater sloughs. Catching a
couple on a big pink gurgler was a highlight.

Next trip will either be a shorter float or a longer trip. It would have
been nice to have a camp for a couple days at one spot and not have to
break camp EVERY day. Although we had lots of fishing time out of the
rafts, I think a couple more days would have made the float downright
leisurely. Now that I'm more familiar at how things go, next time I'd
like to do an even more remote river.

Alaska is a VERY cool place for a fisherman. I will be back!!!!

Willi