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Preparing
for your Trip to Yakutat |
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What to Wear Bring really good rain gear and neoprene waders. Most of the lodges suggest that you bring waders - they should require it!! You will live in your waders on this trip. We lived in waders and Goretex jackets which worked out quite well. Other options are good heavy duty rain coats which can get a bit warm on the hikes up the river. Dress in layers and have enough storage (fanny pack, day pack) to store excess clothing when it gets warm. A good pair of fishing gloves (check out Cabelas) is also a really good idea. A couple of pairs of jeans, 3-5 long sleeve shirts, a sweat suit and a pair of heavy socks for each day of your trip should get you through. And….don't forget the neoprene waders and good wading shoes |
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Fishing Gear
The most productive lures were #3 and #4 Vibrax spinners with orange or green bodies. Silver blades seemed to work a bit better than gold. ˝ ounce Pixie spoons (silver and green) were also productive during high water or high tide conditions since they sink a bit faster than the spinners. I highly recommend Berkeley Fireline since it has almost no stretch and is easier to tie than Spiderwire. No stretch line is important here since these big salmon do not strike hard. Most bites are best described as "something strange happened" - the lure feels a little lighter in the water, the lure seems to stop, the line moves strangely in the water. Whenever this happens you need to set the hook hard and fast. No stretch lines make this much easier. |
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Other Stuff Unless you plan on hunting leave the weapons at home. Not being at the top of the food chain can be bit spooky and there are lots of big brown bears here. You will see fresh tracks on almost every trail and river beach. That being said, attacks are rare and you need a high caliber weapon to stop these large carnivores. We are talking 30 caliber or greater belted magnums, 12 gauge shotgun with slugs or a 44 caliber (no smaller) pistol. And…you had better be good at hitting fast (>30mph) targets under pressure. I don't know too many hunters that are that good and you are not hunting, you are suppose to be fishing. Then there is the inconvenience factor - do you really want to lug around a heavy firearm while you are wading in a fast moving river? A better idea is to visit the local marine supply store in Yakutat and buy a big can of 10% or greater pepper spray (you can't take it on the plane, even in checked baggage). Pepper spray is small, cheap ($25) easy to carry, has a 20 foot range and its wide spray makes it a lot easier to hit your target in the unlikely event of an attack. From all reports, pepper spray is quite effective and you don't have to explain away that dead bear on the trail to the local fish and game officer (fines for killing bears out of season without a license can cost more than your whole trip). Personally, I believe that everyone should carry pepper spray and douse any bear that comes within range. If we all do this, the bears will start to look at humans like skunks - get too close and you get nasty stuff sprayed in your face. The sows will pass along this human avoidance behavior to their cubs and in a few years bad bear behavior will be pretty much a thing of the past in populated areas. Leave your laptop and cell phone sitting next to you gun at home. Communication links here are slow - even placing a credit card call here results in really slow responses. I watched one of the people at the lodge take 10 minutes to download 3 emails (no attachments) from Juno. I talked to a number of people with different cell phone providers and none of their cell phones worked here. This will change over time, but given the size of the population, I'd sell my stock in any company that decided to provide cell coverage here - it's just not good business. |
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Watch Out for the
Speed Traps |
