The Glassing Tree

Oct 6, 2019

Playing with our Food in Yakutat, AK... Day 4

We had received some very frustrating news when we arrived on Friday afternoon. Our scheduled fly out had been cancelled because one of the pilots had quit, but when we returned from our sightseeing trip Sunday evening we had a message to call Yakutat Coastal Airlines. Ten spots had opened up for Monday if we wanted them... and we did!!! So Monday we met early at the hangar and took the 25 minute flight to the Akwe River where our pilot (Hans) landed right on the bank and put us right on top of the fish.

Left to right: My brother-in-law, my brother, my dad, me, my brother-in-law

Fishing was fast and furious and I had the time of my life battling silver salmon fresh from the ocean on my fly rod. I had tied a bunch of purple/pink bunny leach patterns that worked very well. Here are a handful of the ones I tied, along with the YouTube video that I followed.

Subscribe below to get notified when all the pics from the second half of our Alaska trip get published and if you haven't seen the previous days, check out:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Oct 4, 2019

Playing with our Food in Yakutat, AK... Day 3

Sunday we went to church with the local congregation and increased their attendance for that Sunday by 200%. Church was odd... to say the least. The congregation was so small that the the Branch was considered to no longer be self-sufficient so Sunday School was taught as normal but for Sacrament Meeting a phone call was received from a Ward in Juneau and we listened in through a conference call line. While at church we talked with a couple young ladies who grew up in Yakutat but attend BYU Idaho and they told us stories of catching nets full of silvers, kings, and sockeye for their subsistence fishing and teased us by telling us that they "don't play with their food." They shared stories of seal hunting and how the hunters shadow them in the boats, wait for the seal to come up for a breath, shoot it in the back of the head with a .204, then hustle the boat over to it because seals don't float. After Church we were invited to check out the small smoke shack behind the church building where one of the families was smoking a seal. I was offered a taste... and let's just say I'll check that one off my list of things I've tried but will gladly never try again! But I am convinced that every Church building should come equipped with a smoke shack!

We spent the rest of the afternoon on Sunday seeing the local sights. We visited Cannon Beach, an area where the US military stationed a relatively large contingent of troops and defenses fearing that the enemy would attempt to take over the Yakutat peninsula.

We then drove out to Harlequin Lake to see this beautiful glacier fed lake that are the headwaters of the Dangerous River. On our way out to the lake itself we inadvertently sprayed ourselves with bear spray, just the slightest little puff... not a full dose... but it caused all 12 of us to go into coughing fits and spasms, made our eyes burn, and caused one guy to vomit. We decided that from that point on we wouldn't mess around with that stuff! Harlequin Lake is beautiful and we stood on the shore we heard the loud cracks of several chunks of glacier calving off.

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Day 1
Day 2

Oct 3, 2019

Playing with our Food in Yakutat, AK... Day 2

On Saturday we headed back to the Situk early and again quickly limited out and spent the rest of the morning catching & releasing.

Later that afternoon we headed to the Lost River but didn't have much luck there at all.

If you missed the pictures from Day 1 check them out here.

Oct 2, 2019

Playing with our Food in Yakutat, AK... Day 1

I went to bed on Thursday, September 5th wondering if it was even worth it...

The alarm would sound at 2:30am and my dad, brother, and two brothers-in-law (along with a few other friends) would be heading to the airport for the first leg of our flight from SLC to Seattle where we would have a brief layover and then continue to Juneau and then finally to Yakutat. This trip was long in the planning phase, so long that the wives were getting sick and tired of hearing about it at Sunday dinners every other week. We were excited for it to finally be here after talking about it for nearly two years.

We were in Alaska by 1pm local time, got checked into our lodging at the Yakutat on the Bay B&B, and were headed to the river by early afternoon.

Our target was silver (coho) salmon, and when we arrived at the Situk River we found them stacked deep and it didn't take long to hook in to my first one. We limited out quickly and had a great time that evening catching & releasing numerous silver and pink salmon.

Left to right: My dad, me, my brother

I'm going to post a "Day by Day" type log over the next several days since these posts are so pic heavy so please subscribe to be notified when Day 2 is published!

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