Alaska: Northwoods Lodge – Part I : July 2017

Our Alaskan adventure with Princess Cruise was over. My aunt, uncle, and cousins left that morning to head back home to Texas. The rest of us get on a float plane, the smallest plane I have ever been on. Seven people, including the pilot, fit in this plane and head out to Northwoods Lodge. This fishing lodge my grandparents had visited on their previous trip to Alaska, eleven years before.

The flight is less than an hour out of Anchorage. We land on one of the small lakes on the Fish Lakes Creek and taxi up the creek to the dock. There we met the owners of the lodge and our fishing guides. In a few minutes we have dropped off our bags in the cabin, changed clothes and are putting on hip waders.  Ten minutes later we are in the boats heading out to where the guides had staged a boat past a shallow area. Brooke, Drew, Mom, and I wade through the knee deep water while the guides push Baba and Papa in a second boat through the shallow spot in the stream.

As we were getting ready to fish I heard a splash. Swimming in front of the boats was a beaver. I was so busy watching it cut through the water that I didn’t think to take pictures until it was out of range from the small lense. We were there at there at a weird time in the fishing season: the king salmon season had closed early and we were early for silver salmon season. We ended up fishing for pike. No they weren’t salmon but there was something wonderful about fishing all day in the quiet. We were away from the crowds, away from the city. There was just silence; the water was smooth, barely a ripple disturbed the surface.

The fish were a bit slimy.

Brooke fly fished all day and caught the first fish. At the end of the day Drew had the best comment, “what did you think about today besides fishing?” The answer is nothing else and it was quite relaxing. I think we brought in 30 fish that day and let just as many go. Papa insisted that he caught the biggest, but I think Brooke did really or Drew. Everything for dinner that night was home cooked and excellent. If our first day of fishing was good, our second day was even better but you will have to wait until next week for that story.

 I’d love to hear your fishing stories and adventures. Please comment them below. Happy reading and safe travels.

Brooke fly fishing.

Drew fished until the last minute the first day.

**Feature Image was taken by Curtis, one of our fantastic guides. The photo of me was taken by my mom. All other photos were taken by me.