We aren't the biggest fishermen in the world, but our friends recommended getting a fishing guide while we were there and fishing the Brooks River. The river runs between Lake Brooks and Naknek Lake (the camp is on the shore of the Naknek). I can't find the actual length of the river, but I'm guessing it's maybe a mile and a half? We booked a full day of fishing and the plan was to spend the morning on the upper part of the river, then fish downstream of the falls after lunch.
After our campsite breakfast, one of the camp employees very nicely drove us up to the start of the river and with the plan to walk back toward camp while fishing. It was so windy this morning that all of the boat fishing trips got cancelled and the wind was making white caps on the lake. The same lake that was feeding the Brooks River...
I don't know how the current is when there isn't a lot of rain and wind, but to me it was going very strong and I was super uncomfortable for the first part of the day. I had my camera in a dry bag in my bakpack and never once thought it was safe to pull it out. At one point, I tripped and fell in the middle of the river, but out dear guide, Nick, managed to catch me before I went under. That certainly didn't help my sense of security...
Matt apparently was not having any issues with the current and immediately caught a fish. And I had to carefully make my way down to him to get a photo of him with his salmon. He looks pretty proud of catching the first fish, huh?
And the second fish, and the third fish, etc. I think he only caught the one salmon and the rest were Rainbow Trout. I didn't catch anything in the upper part of the river, but I was much more concerned about staying upright than fishing. Even the guide thought the water was a little too high in a few places. We had to get out of the river and walk through the forest to get around a really sketchy part.
After lunch at the lodge, we were ready to get back at it! We ran into Tiffany and Stephanie at lunch and they were all kinds of excited from fishing the lower falls. I figured I didn't care so much about fish, but I was ready to see the bears! We hiked up to the falls platforms and got in the water a little bit downstream of the falls.
Matt was ready to start fishing again, but I was much more excited about taking photos of the bears! It's a different view than you get from an elevated platform and I was having a blast watching them! Also, Matt's practice fly rod has paid off, he certainly looked like he knew what he was doing. I, on the other hand, have never used a fly rod in my life. I don't think I embarrassed myself too badly, but the fish obviously weren't too impressed by my technique...
Not that I didn't already know this, but the bears were much better at fishing than me! (The birds and I might be on the same skill level.)
Turns out, I am much braver with my Canon Powershot than I was with my big Nikon. I have less of an emotional attachment to my little camera and the zoom on it was actually super impressive! The photo quality is a little less, but overall the little guy did a great job. I ended up with a collection of photos from the Nikon, the Canon and our phones. I'll let you try to figure out which photo was shot with which camera. ;)
I saw this big guy start meandering our way from the falls and I was definitely keeping an eye on how close he was getting. He caught this fish as he was walking downstream and I thought he was close enough that we should probably move back to the other side of the river. In case it's not super obvious, we are standing right in the middle of the river while fishing!
Anyhow, I say "Bear" just in time to hear Matt yell "Fish on!". Not the best time to be catching fish, honey! Luckily, we were able to move to the other side of the river and the fish stayed on the line in the water. We pulled him out to let him go once the bear had moved on. Crisis averted!
I may not have a fish, but I did want a photo of me with the bear behind me! Priorities... :)
After we had been fishing for awhile, another bear wandered up from downstream. We backed up again, but this bear definitely got more attention because (according to our guide) she is a troublemaker. How so?
She has two cubs and she has a bad habit of leaving the cubs on the side of the river while she goes in to the river to fish (sometimes pretty far away). The cubs can be hard to see if they aren't moving, so sometimes people end up walking between momma bear and the cubs, which makes momma bear super unhappy. She has never been aggressive toward anyone, but she will run back to the cubs and freak the humans out.
Thankfully, we knew they were there and could steer clear of them!
I think that look on Matt's face is "She's still far enough behind me, right?"
She was by far the most successful bear I have seen so far at catching fish. She would catch one or two for every one she would bring back for the cubs to eat. The two of them would get all excited and start fighting over who got the first first. Siblings...
They were mostly waiting patiently beside the river, but momma would wander back and convince them to walk in the river. As soon as she was far enough out though, they seemed to prefer to be back on the bank. Or maybe they just didn't like me taking photos of them? That's some serious side-eye the cub is throwing my way.
They were cute enough that I braved pulling out the Nikon. You can barely see Momma Bear on the bank (right above the tip of my lens). I'm not going to lie, I was much more interested in photos than fishing. Our guide figured that out pretty quick and nicely offered to hold my fishing pole so I could snap pictures. :)
But I did fish some and I finally caught one! Matt didn't believe me when I kept saying that I didn't care if I caught one and he said the size of the smile on my face in this photo proved him right. Ok, I was pretty happy to catch a fish - especially since it was the first catch with a fly rod. Wooo!
We finally decided to head back to camp. Nick said we could either go back to the platform and hike down the road or we could walk down the river to camp. Well that's not a hard choice at all - let's go for the fun route! There were a few spots that were a little high, but the current was much calmer than it was on the upper river. Having never used waders until moving to Alaska, the novelty of walking in the water with them on has not worn off!
After fishing, I told Matt the only thing that could make the vacation even more perfect was a spot at the fireplace in the lodge to hang out for a while after dinner. It had been full every night, but today there were two spots waiting for us! A perfect ending to a great trip!
Sunday morning, we woke up later than we planned (sleeping in is awesome!!), but we still managed to have time to make our camp biscuits & gravy, pack up our gear and make it to the pre-flight weigh-in by the requested time. We had just enough time to buy postcards for the boys before it was time to board our float plane. Perfect timing!
It was an awesome trip and I highly recommend taking a trip to Katmai if you are ever in Alaska (or come up here for it)! Thanks again to Heather for watching the boys so we could go. Can't wait to go back!