Bob said, “The Afognak River was loaded with sockeye and dollies!! 

There was a message at the hotel for me to call home; it wasn’t an emergency but call ASAP.   It the type of message that my wife would use to let me know it wasn’t a medical emergency but something had come up that needs attention.  The call was from Bob, owner of Whale Pass Lodge, he needed to talk to me before we flew out to Kodiak the next day.  After several attempts, Bob said he would be picking us up an hour later that we had originally discussed.   That was no problem; the extra time would give us a chance to look around the big city of Kodiak.   He also said, hope you're ready to catch a lot of sockeye, the river is loaded!!

I met up with the rest of the group in one of those downtown souvenir shops and gave them the good news.  The anticipation was starting to build.  None of us could wait until tomorrow.

 After arriving in Kodiak, we made our way downtown for a look see and some lunch.  We also stopped to pick up a couple of ice-chests, just in case we would be bringing home a few fresh sockeye.

 Bob was right on time at the pre-arranged location.  We loaded our gear in his 24’ boat.  There was a pretty good wind chop so he made sure that the gear was well covered.   The trip took about an hour to get to the lodge on the Afognak River.  Denise, Bob’s wife and partner, and Art their son, were there waiting our arrival.

 The Afognak River lodge cabin was very comfortable.  Denise shows us our rooms and where to put our gear.   Bob could see that we were anxious to go fishing.  He said, “When you guys are ready, we’ll take the boat up to the mouth of the river.”  Denise was busy in the kitchen making sushi!!!  Yes, sushi!  Boy was it good and spicy!

 In less than ten minutes we were at the mouth of the river, we anchored the boat and walked the remaining 100 yards.   The tide was perfect and Bob was right, the river was loaded with sockeye!  It didn’t take long for Dan, George and Willie to hook up.  It was a sight and sound that was repeated many, many time the next four days.

 Yes, there are bears on these islands!  We weren’t on the river for more than an hour the first day when we were startled by the first one.   It was a young bear and not a very good fisherman.  He would come down every day and try his hand at catching the sockeye.  He almost never gives us a look, until one day!     Art yelled, “the bear is behind us on the levee”.  Bob and I were standing on the bank while Dan, George and Willie were in the river fishing.  We turned around, and there he was, not more that 30 feet from us.  Pacing back and forth and looking for a way down the bank.  We clapped our hands and yelled, it usually works, but this time it didn’t.  Bob took out his pistol and fired two shots in the air.  Off the bear ran.  Both Bob and I charged up the levee to see in which direction he ran.  The two gals from the fish counting station up river came down to see what all of the noise was about.  They were both heavily armed!  The four of us were discussing the bear situation when Dan, who was on the other side of the river, yelled the bear is coming up the river in our direction.  Joey (one of the counters) handed Bob her shotgun, which was loaded with a “cracker round”.  We both ran down the levee to see where the bear was, sure enough he was making his way back up to us.   Our yells and clapping didn’t stop him.   I had a clear view of the bear and Bob (in other words, I was standing behind Bob) when he held the shotgun in the air and yelled.   He was still coming, now about 50 or 60 feet away.  I could hear the round being loaded, “CLICK”, the bear stopped, I swear his eyes got as big as saucers, he turned and ran as Bob fired the shot in his direction.  Boom, boom the shot rang.  That was the last we saw of him that day.

 The next day Bob and Dan walked up to Afognak Lake, I stayed behind to guard George and Willie.  About 2 pm, guess who showed up, yep, the bear.  This time he stayed his distance (must have heard that I was heavily armed).  It was kind of comical watching him chase the sockeye up and down the river.  He sure was a poor fisherman.

 The fourth day we fished just the morning on the river and transferred to Whale Pass Lodge in the afternoon.  It is a beautiful two-story lodge built by Bob.  It has all of the luxuries of home.  George and Willie were happy fishing the salt water in front of the lodge; while Dan and I walked to a bay not far away that I had fished before.

 After another incredible dinner, we all sat on the front deck, watching the sun go down, which is about one in the morning.  We all had a hard time adjusting to the 20+ hours of daylight.

 This was our last fishing day.  Halibut hunting we go.  I know now why I’ve never been excited about doing this, reeling anything up from 300 feet is a lot of work!  We managed to land two halibut and lots of other weird looking fish and a huge octopus.  The afternoon was spent fly-fishing the kelp beds.  More my speed.  We caught lots and lots of fish.  What an excellent way to end our trip!

 Many thanks to Bob, Denise and Art who worked extremely hard to make sure we all had a great time.

 Dan, a long time visitor to Alaska, best described Whale Pass Lodge like this, “This lodge not like any other, it is like staying with friends”.

Anglers:
George Tsusaki
Willie Tsusaki
Dan McDaniel
Al Smatsky

Hosts:
Bob May
Denise May
Art May