SPORTS

SALMON FISHING IN WRANGELL, ALASKA

By: Rich Carr June 18, 2008

For the past eight years my brother, father and I have met once a month at The RAM on South Hill for laughs, a few beers, and to generally stay in touch. Often the topic of those get-togethers came to Salmon fishing in Alaska, and for the past two years we've gone back to a place in Alaska that is little known, amazingly accessible, and I wanted to share this with you in hopes that if your dreams include 'that ultimate Salmon fishing trip in Alaska' you'd at least have a place to start.

Wrangell, Alaska is a tiny 'burg in southeast Alaska, and the town itself - in the summer months anyway - is about the size of Orting. Its primary economy driver is Salmon. Sports fishermen take note: The Stikine river fishery is the ONLY area in Alaska with a daily bag limit of TWO FISH. All others, ONE FISH. Same license cost, twice the fish. Do the math.

At the mouth of the Stikine River (the fastest navigable & non-obstructed river in North America), Wrangell can be reached via Alaska Airlines Boeing jet and is a mere two hour flight. Less time than many of you spend more time then that traveling up and down 162 each day.

The Stikine river was closed for more than 30 years to commercial fishing and four years ago the Alaska Department of Fisheries re-opened the river for the purposes of providing Wild Alaskan Salmon to markets all over the world.

“When we heard this news, I took our executive chef, several managers, and our marketing team to Wrangell to see if the Salmon there compared with other Alaska fisheries runs like The Copper River, the Yukon and others.” said Duke Moscrip of Duke’s Chowder House restaurants. “The taste is incredible, the area pristine, and we were all so impressed that we bought the entire run that year for our restaurants.”

While Duke’s serves Wild Alaskan Salmon from the Stikine, I was there to sport fish and hade the good fortune of finding two resources for local fishermen and wildlife seekers in Orting. Timber Wolf Charters www.timberwolfcharters.com and Alaska Up Close www.alaskaupclose.com are two Wrangell businesses I recommend for two totally different reasons.

Timber Wolf Charters is ran by celebrated Salmon guide John Yeager. A former Coast Guardsman, John and his boat ‘Timber Wolf’ are available for private charter by the hour, day or week. Rather than pile onto a boat with twenty strangers, John will take you and your group out to the hottest spots in the surrounding waters, stays in constant contact with other fishermen in the area to help find the fish, knows the tricks of the local waters, and is booked a year in advance because of his skills. The picture above shows a single days’ outing and keep: 22, 26, 18 and 24 pounds from left to right and all caught before 10:30am!

Alaska Up Close is an amazing tour business. Brenda Schwartz has a jet boat called “Wild Side” that is the envy of southeast Alaska. Sitting up to eight people, she’ll buckle you into the boat and scream up the Stikine giving you a personal tour of the Anan Bear reserve, Shakes and LeConte Glaciers, Salmon spawning grounds in water so pristine you wish Culligan served it up at your house, trout streams and creeks, natural hot springs, eagles, moose, mountain goat and every other form of wildlife that is protected within this incredible area. On our trip up river, she beached the boat in an area called Mill Creek where we fished for Dolly Varden, then hiked up a trail about ¼ mile to fish the most pristine trout stream I’ve ever wetted a line in, then further up the trail to Lake Virginia to fish the mouth for trout. Yes, we caught fish.

Wrangell, Timber Wolf Charters, Alaska Up Close are all those places and businesses that you wished you would have heard about rather than scanning the internet or stumbling across an advertisement. If you’re going to Wrangell, stay at Harding’s Sourdough Lodge…ran by former Wrangell Mayor and Franklin Pierce graduate Bruce Harding and his wife Dar.

For me Wrangell was to be a ‘once in a lifetime’ trip. I’ve now gone there two summers in a row, and yes, I’m booked for 2009 too.