Setnet Fishing in Bristol Bay

June 2017

The Beach

My fifth season fishing in Egegik, Alaska for the Bergamaschi clan. Another incredible season in the bag!

On the flight from Anchorage to King Salmon
Tom and I went to get water from a spring near Coffee Point shortly after arriving to the beach
Two bears walking in the tundra behind our cabin
The always beautiful beach sunsets
Our outhouse on the right there
Slowly fading into black, another day begins short after
Crazy clay formations in the bluff
Tom and I geared up with pepper spray, and air horn, and snacks and went to try and find float plane lake.
Having a meal like this on the beach is a rare thing. Freaking yum..
On the second big day of the season a drifter caught too many fish and nearly sunk the boat. They started going down about 300ft off shore, their engines flooded with salt water, but luckily the wind carried them to the beach. Later I heard a few boats sunk and a few people died out in the bay that day. Times like these I feel especially lucky to be in the cabin..

"Why would I spend 30k on a car... that rolls on the ground..?" - David

We hadn't been fishing for a week because we were closed and the cabin fever was getting bad. We were very grateful when my bosses friend David flew in for a visit on the beach. He took Tom and I on a day trip in his plane to King Salmon to grab some groceries for his kid who was working for another fisherman on the beach. We flew a scenic route which I'd not seen before and it was very cool after many years on the beach to see what was on the beach past Big Creek.

Plane in front of our cabin
David's plane
Getting ready to head to King Salmon with David
The bluff from above
YO
Rolf's cabin from above
Our home for a month every year (House on the left)
Coming into King Salmon
King Salmon airport
Back on the beach!

Three mind blowing days in Katmai National Park

A few days before heading home the whole crew headed to Katmai for the day! We all spent the day together, saw an insane amount of fish jumping over a waterfall and bears feasting. Brian was awesome and let Ilana and I spend the last two days in Katmai while the rest of the crew headed back to the beach to fish a few more tides then close up. I still feel bad for leaving everyone for the difficult last couple days, but had such an incredible few days with Ilana, the bears, and the mountains.

King Salmon -> Katmai
Jumping fish & feasting bears
Mama and younger bears down river from the falls
Inorder to legally camp in Katmai we were required to be 1.5miles away from Brook's lodge area. We decided to hike up Dumpling mountain to catch some views and camp up top. It was a lot more intense than we thought it would be..
Beautiful views on the hike up Dumpling Mountain
This was the trail for 3/4 of the hike.. Bears could have been anywhere in those bushes. So we followed the 'trail' singing songs and making lots of noise as to not surprise any bears.
'trail'
#TRAILS
View from where we set up camp
Next day we got up early, hiked down dumpling mountain, got to the bridge with an hour to spare just in case there were bears delaying our crossing as we were catching a bus at 9am on the other side to head to the Valley!
Incredible views on the way to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes
Seriously stunning
Lush valleys everywhere
The valley is unreal, alien, and out of this planet. It is like all the landscape around it, except the green is covered in ash and sediment with rivers carving throughout.
Not kidding, this place is totally from another planet.
River carving through the valley
Mountains and Canyons in one place
Hard to beleive a place like this exists and is barely 100 years old..
Lush mountainous canyons
Pumice everywhere and in many crazy colors caused by the oxidation of different minerals.
Moose maybe?
Amazing clay/soft rock formations
Heading to the confluence where three rivers form one
Notice the color of the water entering from the smalller river.
Cheers!
Ilana very strong person
Back to the bridge
Hanging out waiting for momma bear to finish nursing her cubs
Bear popping out of the forrest from behind the platform
She nursed her cubs then they all took a few hour nap, preventing us and many others from crossing the bridge for a good 4/5 hours.
A meadow on the non lodge side of the bridge
Chilling and waiting for the float plane to come take us home