Tag

Alaska

  • Headwaters

    A future with fish

    It’s almost odd to look back at milestones and what they meant to me at the time. First fish on a fly rod. First fish on a dry fly I tied. First twenty-fish day. First 20-inch fish on a No. 20 fly I tied myself.

    Once upon a time there was a dude who drove a blue, manual transmission Ford Focus into California’s Sierra Nevada by himself to catch rainbow and brook trout on caddis flies he tied himself. He thought highly of himself. He had persevered through the days of catching branches and bushes more than fish and graduated…

  • Fishing

    Tongass Guide Academy

    The success of this program caught the attention of several other Alaska regions searching for the same education and employment opportunities for their youth; this year marked the first time the Guide Academy model was applied elsewhere.

    The Bristol Bay Fly Fishing and Guide Academy was created to provide local indigenous youth with work force development opportunities for sustainable outdoor employment. In the past 15 academies, the program has turned out 183 graduates with approximately 25 of them holding full-time, seasonal employment at lodges in Bristol Bay. The success of this program…

  • Restoration

    Investing in safer roads and thriving fish in Yakutat

    The scenery and fishing opportunities here will take your breath away, but even this far-flung corner of Alaska isn’t immune to the degradation of fish habitat that can happen when development occurs alongside rivers and streams.

    Yakutat is a land of superlatives. The Situk River is Alaska’s largest steelhead fishery. Hubbard Glacier is North America’s largest tidewater glacier. Snow-capped mountains, vast glaciers and old-growth rainforest surround a rich complex of waterways the are some of the most productive salmon- and steelhead-producing waters in the state. All five species of Alaska’s Pacific…

  • From the field

    Small yet significant

    A volunteer helps expand Alaska’s Anadromous Waters Catalogue I felt bad for the fish.  The fry were darting back and forth in a stagnant pond that was only a few inches deep, their infancy spent oblivious to the pristine waters for which Southeast Alaska is known. But that’s just me assuming what is beautiful to…