Imagine a wild country of mountain ranges and unpeopled space, an enormous land sprawling more than 570,000 square miles -- or 365 million acres -- of temperate rain forests, northern boreal forests, taiga and tundra.
Next, surround it all with 33,904 miles of shoreline, add 3 million lakes, 3,000 rivers and countless smaller streams.
Dump in five species of Pacific salmon, rainbow trout, Dolly Varden, grayling, lake trout, northern pike, sheefish, steelhead and cutthroat trout, just for starters.
Mix it all together and you've got a vague idea of Alaska as an angler sees it; a place so unimaginably huge and offering so much variety that a lifetime isn't long enough to explore all of the fishing possibilities. It is, in many ways, a glorious dilemma, a living celebration of the old motto "So many fish, so little time."
However, an angler's greatest problem here isn't finding time for good fishing. The main concern can be simply figuring out a way to reach a piece of that water.
Big as it is, Alaska is a place of few roads. According to the Department of Transportation, the state offers only one mile of road for every 42 square miles of land area. (Compare that to the national average of one mile of road for every square mile of land area.) As a result, driving to good fishing here can be a limited option.
So how can an angler explore the streams of Southwest Alaska for trophy rainbow trout, the rivers of the northwest for sheefish and char, or the lion's share of the legendary steelhead waters of Southeast? For that matter, how can an angler sample some of the fine salmon fisheries just a stone's throw across Cook Inlet from Anchorage? The answer is simple: you fly.
Over the decades, Alaskans have evolved into the "flyingest" people in the nation. Roughly one of every 64 residents is a registered pilot. Many own air-taxi services, which is good news for visiting anglers who wish to visit some of the state's famous, far-flung waters.
To get started planning a fly-out fishing trip, anglers must first choose the region they intend to visit. For Alaska.com's purposes, Alaska is divided into six fishing regions:
The first thing to do is research: Define the species you want to pursue, and that will dictate the region you visit and the timing of your trip.
Once that bit of homework is done, it's time to look into planning the fly-out trip. The beauty of travel by air in Alaska is the nearly unlimited options available. Anglers are confined only by their imaginations when deciding just where they want to fish and how long they intend to stay. Best of all, Alaska's air taxis and wilderness outfitters have a way of making it easy.
Each of the state's regions includes villages or cities that act as air hubs. Normally, these are the larger communities, such as Anchorage in Southcentral or Dillingham and King Salmon in Southwest. Fairbanks serves as the hub for the Interior, while Southeast provides several main hubs including Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan and Petersburg, among others. In most cases, visiting anglers reach these air hubs aboard commercial jets.
Well prior to arrival (several months is not too early), anglers should arrange to connect with air-taxi services based in these hub communities. From here, your gear can be loaded aboard a Bush plane and you're on your way to your pre-determined fishing destination, whether it be a wilderness lodge, a Forest Service cabin or a remote stretch of water where you may camp for a few days or stage a float trip.
To shop for an air-taxi service, anglers can get a list of operators from local chambers of commerce. Most of these chambers can be found on the Internet by conducting a simple Web search. Once these listings have been collected, it is simple enough to start shopping around for the service offering the best price or fishing package -- some operations provide remote cabin, boats and more.
Prices vary according to location (more remote services may charge premiums), season (peak salmon-fishing season rates may be higher than late fall trout-fishing rates) and the size of the aircraft. Many air taxis have a set hourly rate determined by the type of plane.
Anglers can sometimes cut costs by traveling in groups. For instance, if the service you hire flies a de Haviland Beaver, capable of holding four or five people, a group of three can split the hourly flight cost.
Whether planning a day drop-off trip or a week-long float trip, remote fly-out trips require careful planning. Anglers should be skilled wilderness campers and lists of food, camping gear and fishing tackle should be drawn up well ahead of time and checked prior to the trip to ensure important items aren't left behind. An angler need only spend a week in the wilderness without toilet paper or bug repellent to be reminded how important planning is.
Air-taxi operators and wilderness outfitters can often help with ideas on specific items you may need, such as waterproof canoe bags, tents, sleeping bags and clothing.
(Free-lance writer Ken Marsh lives and writes in Anchorage. He has fished in Alaska for more than 35 years.)
