Alaska is known for the outdoors, and it couldn't be more true when it comes to fishing. This past weekend I had the opportunity to go on a fishing trip to Minto Flats. They are only 40 miles away, but b/c of terrible roads it takes two hours by car and four hours on a boat to get there.
Three of us went on the trip and about two minutes after setting the boat in the water, I began to second guess what we were doing. First of all, the first mile was extremely shallow, second, we had three big guys with camping gear weighing down a 14 foot boat past it's max. Because the water was so shallow we kept hitting the bottom of the river. We were wearing waders, so we would get out and walk along side the boat until it got deeper and then we would jump back in and try and use the motor. Well we were going along and we started to go through rapids, but it was too shallow to use our motor so we had to attempt to row. We smacked into three boulders, and thought for sure we were going to sink. Thankfully we didn't, but the butterflies in my stomach sure were flying. After the mile from hell, the river became a lot deeper and after a 3 hour boat ride, we made it to camp. We set up camp in the middle of Minto flats right off of the river bank. Talk about awesome fishing. We fished for Northern Pike and they were all over the place. Our three day fishing trip was cut down to two b/c you are only allowed five fish a piece, and we reached our limit the first day we were there. The largest fish I caught was 35 inches long, but my buddy caught a 41 incher. Almost as big as my salmon. All in all, after we chopped up the fish, we came out with 30 pounds of meat for the winter ... next on my list -- MOOSE!
