JR wrote:
Dave and Steve (& Chas & Willi), Just found time to look at all the pix
at leisure. Very good stuff. Thanks.

Papa Bear Floaters: other than packing heat, what precautions did you all
take for bears?

I think I was the most paranoid in the group about bears. Bears
were my biggest concern before the float. I felt I could deal with them
during the day, but I was concerned about not sleeping at night because
of "night sounds." The spot that was picked for our camp after the first
day's float was full of fresh bear sign. I didn't like that in the least
and wanted to find another place to camp. Cooler heads prevailed and
after I did some more walking around the area, I got more comfortable.
We ended up staying there and it was probably our best camp. From that
point on the river, until we got close to the end of the float at the
natives' village, we saw fresh bear sign at virtually every point we
chose to stop and fish.

Like Steve mentioned in his post, the bears in the area are hunted and
because of this, unlike the bears in some other areas of Alaska, they're
afraid of people. In spite of seeing fresh bear sign along virtually
the length of the river and at most of the spots we stopped to fish.

We only saw one bear on the float. I saw it about 100 yards away walking
toward the salmon slough we were fishing to do some fishing of its own.
I called out "Bear" and Andy and Steve turned to watch it continue
walking down toward us. Chas continued fishing. Then I called out
"BEAR!" and Chas raised his head but didn't seem to understand, so I
shouted "BEAR!!!" Chas turned and looked at the bear and the bear rose
up on its hind legs, looked around and smelled the air. It got a whiff
of us and ran off into the tundra. I became much more assured the bear's
response to us. I slept fine every night and had hoped to see more
bears, during the day at least!



It seemed that the silvers were a mix of bright chromers and dark fish.
Is that the case? If so, what was the approximate proportion of each
would you say? How was the fight of these fish, compared, say, to the
fight of a fresh steelhead of the same size?


Our float covered 90 air miles, and along the way we ran into silvers
ranging from very silvery fish fresh from the sea to fish "brightly"
colored up. (I know it's how they are "traditionally" described, but I
find it funny to call the fish in their bright spawning colors "dark"
fish) Compared to the Red Salmon that were still around, even the darker
silvers were very fresh.

The day the plane dropped us off, I got excited by all the Reds we saw
at the outlet of the lake. I didn't understand why Chas and Andy didn't
seem interested in them. I asked Chas and Andy and they told me I didn't
really want to catch them. After I caught the first one, I saw they were
right.


JR
(thinking the chances of a $1500+airfare trip to Alaska is a lot more
likely ever to happen than a $6000 one....)


There are a few other floats, even some in pretty remote areas, I found
that could be done considerably cheaper because the floats end in close
proximity to the outfitter and the pickup can be done by boat or car
instead of float plane.

I think for me, the Kanektok turned out to be an excellent choice for a
first float to Alaska for several reasons:

It was a non technical float and aside from some tricky sweepers, it
was a relatively easy float

It is in an area that gets much less pressure than most of the other
more popular rivers, there are no lodges on the upper two thirds of the
river, and we only saw one other party floating on the whole 90 ninety
mile trip. However, it gets enough floaters that that if something went
wrong, other people would be by in a day or two

Camping in an area whose bear population gets hunted, makes for a safer
and, at least for me, more comfortable camp.

Willi