Alaska trip

[oregonmp03]

I'm looking to put together a trip up to Alaska for general scenery viewing, gold mining, fishing, and shenanigans in late summer of 2015 as I've never been. Anyone who has any tips / tricks / pointers / info / etc would be much appreciated. I'm thinking I might drive up and/or take the ferry from Washington. Help me out as it's an idea without much structure. I wanna do some gold mining, along with some deep sea fishing, and check out the sites along the way without hitting any tourist traps.

Tom

 

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[Hoser John]

Don't go late summer as winter comes early at times.-John

 

[Jeff95531]

Hoser is right. June July and August is best. I lived in Anch AK from 1984 to 1999, so my info might be a bit dated but...

Hope AK for gold in Resurrection Creek and in July, more pink salmon than you can shake a stick at. Use light tackle...even my dog caught one...so very kid friendly if you got em.

Homer or Seward for Halibut. In Seward, I caught a 176 pound Halibut at the center island at the mouth of the bay...on the 4th of July

Kenai River Soldotna. I took a charter boat on the Kenai River because at the height of the season, it resembles a freeway in LA @ 5 o'clock. Caught a 69 pounder tho. Here is a link to a very old world record. Go break it!
The Story of the World Record King Salmon

 

[IDdesertman]

Sounds like a good time!

 

[AlaskaGold]

Come on up! Late June through end of August. Could push it out later cause fall is hanging on later every year. Jeff gave you a few fun things to do, only change is no real point to fish Kenai river for kings anymore. Very few fish returning each year, seasons been closed the last few seasons, if it does open its catch and release. Long do you wanna come up for, that will determine where you can go and really what you can do. Any question ask away, give ya my best answers. In here almost my whole life.

 

[oregonmp03]

Was thinking about two week visit at least, I've heard that there is so much to do up there that you tend to not be able to enjoy it without proper time. I'd love to go halibut fishing and deep sea fishing along with fitting in a half dozen other activities. Visit some major gold mines and at the same time do some gold mining of my own. Probably July or August would be my trip as I actually need to work some before taking another two weeks off to go to Wyoming for antelope and mule deer hunting.

 

[AlaskaGold]

Yeh the more time the better! Lots to do. Either month would be good, if you come in August do it the first two weeks as the fishing will be better. To get some ocean fishing in you should head to Seward. You can catch plenty of halibut but still hammer rock fish and ling cod. On the way down you can fish the rivers to load up on silver salmon or if you want to fish in the rivers closer to anchorage I can tell you of a few spots to go. When you drive in you should go up through Fairbanks then down the parks highway toward anchorage, from there head down on the Kenai peninsula to Seward and maybe homer if you have time. Then back up to anchorage/ matanuska valley, then when you drive back out head up the glenn highway to leave the state. You then have driven 90% of all the roads in AK seeing almost everything. What kind of mining do you want to do, panning, highbanking..? Heck if I'm not to busy with work I'll take you out fishing, maybe a day float trip on the Kenai or some bank fishing for silver and late reds.

 

[Jeff95531]

SIGH...I do miss those days...some guys and me used to do a fly in trip out of Homer for two weeks each year. June 8 at
Kukaklek Lake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and at the mouth of the
Alagnak River - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fish, sleep eat, fish etc...3 am to 12 am...naps as required, bar opens at 4 pm.

Anyways we caught nothing but rainbows and lake trout there. The kind of fishing where you get a strike 3 out of 4 times and you'll be mocked if anyone sees you with a -19" fish on the end of your line. My personal best was a 27 1/2" rainbow and a 13 pound lake trout. I lost a rainbow that was as long as my arm (thanks to a jealous "good" friend of mine who decided to gun the motor when the fish was taking out line...lets just say $ and betting was involved...somewhere along the lines of $1 per inch for biggest fish...winner take all.)

One time, we got weathered in and had to "subsistence" fish to survive in catch and release only waters. Every extra day was like...oh damm...well, I guess I'll go catch dinner.

Have fun, and try to make it a month. You won't regret it. Stay safe though, it's still rough around the edges.

 

[fowledup]

A month for sure! Alaska gold gave you the exact trip outline I would for a truck with cabover and canoe or fold-a-boat, only thing I'd add is to get on the Ferry at Prince Rupert so you get to see some of beautiful BC to boot.
Man Jeff, you brought back some great memories from some of the best times of my life. I have floated many Western Alaska Rivers- the Kvichak, Chilakondratna (sp?), Mulchatna, Kokwok, Nushagak, and others- best part is I got paid to float em.

 

[oregonmp03]

Thanks for all the great input on where to go. As far as mining, I'd like to check out a big corporate operations just to see them as I've worked a few medium sized mining operations but never any gold operations just aggregate and limestone. I do sluicing and highbanking and today just got my first dredge so I'll be trying that out here as soon as the weather permits (rain). But I'm up for anything.

What I'm afraid of (not really ) is I'll get up there, like it too much and quit my job, move up to Alaska which I've always wanted to do.

 

[AlaskaGold]

I agree western ak rivers are SO nice. Just gotten crazy expensive these days. Fowledup, you work for fish and game when you were here? Paid to float and fish sounds like am F & G job.
Oregon, make the trip as long as you can! You won't get bored. Are you gonna bring that dredge? As for big mines on the road system there are very few mostly north around Fairbanks, might be able to tour one of those. Remember most creeks have a dredge season that ends on the 15th of July due to salmon returns. There is lots of others that are open year round. And to add to the stuff you will bring hunting season opens August 10th! Sure there's something wondering around you might wanna chase. Keep posting question, should be able to find anything you wanna do.

 

[Bonaro]

Alaska is a freakin HUGE place. We flew to Anchorage and rented a suv. We drove the loop, anc, fairbanks, valdez We went up for 10 days and had to race to make it.... For that trip we really needed another week.
Any fishing town can set you up with a good fish boat...valdez, seward use the recommendations of the locals
Last 1/2 of June to the first 1/2 of july is their summer
Find someone to show you some gold. You really dont want to be bushwacking on your own in AK. They have have a LOT of bears, expecially when the fish run

 

[fowledup]

I agree western ak rivers are SO nice. Just gotten crazy expensive these days. Fowledup, you work for fish and game when you were here? Paid to float and fish sounds like am F & G job.
Oregon, make the trip as long as you can! You won't get bored. Are you gonna bring that dredge? As for big mines on the road system there are very few mostly north around Fairbanks, might be able to tour one of those. Remember most creeks have a dredge season that ends on the 15th of July due to salmon returns. There is lots of others that are open year round. And to add to the stuff you will bring hunting season opens August 10th! Sure there's something wondering around you might wanna chase. Keep posting question, should be able to find anything you wanna do.

Yes sir, lived in Dlg. and worked Fish and Game in the summers and fall, half the season worked research for commercial fisheries, the other half running rivers doing creel census and carcass surveys. Heck, I would've paid them to do it. Good times!