Alaskan Fishing Odyssey (from JONG to mere gaper) - Pics!

[Karl Stall]

Preface - Sorry for the big pics - I am too lazy to resize

Before the pow starts to fly in earnest, I wanted to post a trip report about a special, fairly incredible fishing adventure that my dad and I had the good fortune to be invited on in mid-August. Basically, there is a family in St. Louis that we have gotten to know over the years: my dad and the patriarch through years of knowing one another socially, and me and the sons both through my attempts to call on them for money management opportunities (to this date unsuccessfully) and also through the marriage of one son to a girl I knew growing up.

One day my dad tells me that we have been invited on an all-expense-paid fishing trip to Alaska. Although I have traveled a fair amount this summer and was looking forward to chlling with the family in the weeks prior to the girls’ return to school, the prospect of going to Alaska – my favorite place on earth by far – was too tempting to pass up. The clincher came when I learned that we would be flying up first class, in their private Gulfstream III jet – holy shit, o.k. I’m in.

Here are some of the details, and then I’ll let the pictures tell the story: We would fly with 8 other father-son combos (that’s right, he paid for everyone) – most from St. Louis but 4 from California. We departed at 7 am on a Saturday and arrived at 1:00 pm in Anchorage on a bluebird 80-degree day in Alaska – holy heat wave. We then got on a smaller plane and flew to the Eskimo village of Goodnews on the Kuskokwim Delta of Bristol Bay (Far Western Alaska). We flew two hours there over some of the most ridiculous mountain scenery imaginable (Iliama, Redoubt, etc, and glaciers that were mind-boggling) After years of skiing the Chugach I still can’t believe the size and magnitude of everything Alaskan.

We got to the dirt airstrip and took jet boats five-mile up river to the camp, where we were assigned cool two-man cabins. Then we had a kick-ass barbecue and got ready for the fishing, although a bunch of dudes who knew what they were doing got right to it. The next three days were so great: I spent quality time with my dad, which is usually hard, because we work together and are always talking business. I met some great people in our group and got to know the host family a whole lot better. One of the coolest things was getting to know the guides, many of whom were also skiers, in fact one guy is an old friend of Theo, Dave Miller, Jef Zell, etc. after years of living in JH.

Two young guides became my buds, and the owner invited me to his Key West wedding this St. Paddy’s day – I am going! I went from total fishing JONG to an aggressive intermediate “double-hauling” bitch. Learning to “shoot line” was cool and standing knee to waist deep in water 9 hours a day was a lot more fun than I expected, and those friggin silver salmon are rad: as you pull in the line you see a wake forming behind the fly, and then at the last second the thing surfaces and hits the fly and then your line just buzzes as the fucker runs. They jump like two feet out of the water and fight like hell. I think that the most I caught was like 24 “landed” fish in a day, while the 75 year old guy who took us caught 71 fish his last day!

Anyway, here are the pictures – next week I’ll try to post some from our bike trip – what a summer…life is good

The chariot:
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20079.jpg

the view from the air:
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20082.jpg

Bristol Bay:
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20001.jpg

Plane #2:
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20002.jpg

our setup:
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20008.jpg

father/son
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20020.jpg

hooked up
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20028.jpg

big fish
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20039.jpg

cont...

[Karl Stall]

con't...

beautiful views
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20058.jpg

dad and a silver
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20041.jpg

roughing it
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20065.jpg

Drinking Dom (this is one cool dude - from rags to riches and he appreciates it)
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20085.jpg

Caviar dreams
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20086.jpg

That's all folks
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...8-04%20069.jpg

I LOVE ALASKA - BEST PLACE ON EARTH

[BobMc]

Originally posted by Karl Stall
Preface - Sorry for the big pics - I am too lazy to resize

I was too lazy to scroll back and forth to read your text, nice pics.

BobMc

[seldon]

FKNA yes. That looks awesome - and I hate fishing (my family has a curse concerning us and fish). What an opportunity! Beautiful pics.

[freshie247]

Nice pix Mr. Stall! That looks like a good time,talk about going in style! Anybody I'd know on the trip?

I once flew on a plane like that back from Vail to STL.This cat had Dom on board as well as all the tasty finger food you could imagine.His name wouldn't be Sam would it?Ciao mi amico.

[Ski Beaver]

I know Alaska is a big place - but those pics just make it look huge!

I too couldn't be stuffed reading backwards and forth or looking at more than half of each of the pics.

[Karl Stall]

That's fucking hilarious, Scoot. He is a great guy - total stud!

[freshie247]

Isn't the interconnectedness of seemingly unrelated things a Friggin Trip!I love it when I stand at the cosmic crossroads of coincidence & then catch a good ride!Freak out!

[ak_powder_monkey]

First I'd like to say you flew in the coolest bushplane second only to the cessna 207, the sky van, did you fly out of the lake hood strip? I think I've seen that plane a lot. Second I'd like to say Gulfstream III might be the coolest plane to fly in ever. Third even before I read Goodnews I knew it was that river where else do you get a boat ride from the airstrip to the lodge. I floated the goodnews when I was 10, god I wish I had a clue to what I was doing then, I would have caught so many fish, nonetheless I love that river, easy good habitat for all kinds of fish, lots of salmon lots of dollies, lots of rainbows. Flows out of the mountains canyons, big tundra areas, makes me drool. note to self: I need to get a job at that lodge! It was a well appointed tent camp right?

Oh and you pic of the goodnews at swallows-----> AKPMs new desktop, brings me back

[The AD]

Looks awesome with one exception. In the shot of the dinner table there are way too many Diet Cokes, and way too few beers. What the hell's up with that?

[HyRUPz]

Nice pix Stall-inator . . . Is that Hal-inator? Lifestyles of the filthy and more filthy; such filth

Nice dude, very nice.

AK is awesome! I still have unfinished biz up there . . .

Hum . . . Haines or Valdez, Valdez or Haines?

[truth]

Sweet.

[Helicrackjnky]

Dude after our phone conversation I am so there with my son next summer!!! My son is going to flip when I show him the pics!!
Hyrupz the Bagos waiting for you to hang!!!!

[Karl Stall]

AKPM -- We flew out of ANC Int'l's general aviation terminal, and we actually got to fly on a DC-3 for one leg, which was pretty cool - have you seen that old blue DC-3 around as well? Also, you are correct about the tent camp, although the tents were pretty swank. I can't believe you remember the name of that fishing spot, "Swallows" - it is indeed a cool place - I bet you would love working there.

AD -- Goodnews is a dry village due to the eskimo's lack of an alcohol-converting enzyme - the guy used to fly in cases of kick-ass wine and beer until one broke open on the runway last year and they were sued (dismissed). Therefore, they were careful this year and we only had a few bottles of hard liquor, which isn't my thing anyway. Also, that was lunch, not dinner, although I would have loved a cooler of beer to fish with...

Hyrupz --

[Crinkle]

Originally posted by BobMc
I was too lazy to scroll back and forth to read your text, nice pics.

BobMc

ditto, good pics

[HyRUPz]

Sorry about the comment Stall, just kidding re: filth. Nice flow action yo.

Looks like an awesome trip!

helicrackeditup, Bago . . . ah, memories of being gripped in the Bago. Can't wait for the next attemp . . . are you going this Spring?

[Stu Gotz]

In what bizarro universe does Karl Stall reside?

This has got to be the first time in history that a prospective client pays for a pimpalicious trip.

"I've got some interesting investment ideas that I would like throw your way. We'll have time to talk about those ideas over the all-expense vacation tha you will be taking me on next weekend."

To that I say, "Well Done!!"

[ak_powder_monkey]

Originally posted by Karl Stall
AKPM -- We flew out of ANC Int'l's general aviation terminal, and we actually got to fly on a DC-3 for one leg, which was pretty cool - have you seen that old blue DC-3 around as well? Also, you are correct about the tent camp, although the tents were pretty swank. I can't believe you remember the name of that fishing spot, "Swallows" - it is indeed a cool place - I bet you would love working there.

Of course I remember that was called swallows, there were so many of em

I also know which plane you flew in

[Helicrackjnky]

Hyrupz The question is will your wife let you go!!! Seeing how I am the man ho that I am & do not have a wife to report to I am pretty sure that I am going to bust that nut and join the boys in AK shit someone has to drive the Bago.
PS we need a b_ng for the kind no more coke cans!!!
HUNT BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[freshie247]

Say it like it is Helicrack,

You're not savages!

[Karl Stall]

Hey Stu -- I know, that's pretty wierd, but almost exactly how the conversation went during the trip, and yesterday we had a two-hour meeting with their family office to review our strategy.

As my mom says: "if you don't stick your foot in the road, you'll never trip anyone interesting".

Tomorrow, a prospective investor family is taking me to play golf !Just look in my profile: occupation: "money ho"!!