Alaska 2024

Midnight Sun 2024

Best of times / Worst of times

Overview

Fishing pike in Alaska is like the beautiful sports car.  It sits on the lot and every time you drive by you can’t take your eyes off it.  You imagine what the drive would be like.   How would it handle a curve at a totally illegal speed?  How would it feel to go 0-60 in under 5 seconds?  Should you put all your hopes and dreams into something that might be achievable, but your expectations are so high how could it ever live up to your dreams?  And like that sports car it usually delivers, but in the end you wonder if maybe just maybe you really paid a high price and maybe something would give you just as much happiness without the rough ride and insane monthly payments that come with the sports car.

Getting There

Getting to Alaska for US residents has several advantages over remote Canada. Many US gateway cities have non-stop flights and there is no passport control.  The sheer number of flights also keeps the price of travel to Anchorage down a bit.  Once in Anchorage even modest accommodations are very pricey.  (300$ for a room at a Hampton Inn???).  Once in Anchorage and once you overnight you will have a charter flight to Holy Cross from Anchorage which runs another $1300 round trip per/person.  This pushes this trip into the 8-9 thousand dollar range before tips.

Camp Life 

What does the 8-9 thousand buy you?  It buys a a seat at the table of the best big pike fishing in North America.  That said you are dealing with a very small boat with cramped accommodations that allow for just what you need.  You have a single unheated bunkbed, tiny night stand, 3 piece bath, and 3 meals a day.  Meals are mostly things like baked Chicken / Lasagna / Steaks / Burgers with sides and a quick app like chips and salsa or pita and humus.  Like the sports car you deal with the cramped space for the sheer power of the car.  Here comes the juice…the fishing.

Fishing Techniques

Ok.  You are on the best pike water anywhere.  You have heavy geer and line and totally pysch’d to be there.  Now…Cast a $3 lure with a twister tail to the muddy shoreline or under down trees.  WHAT?!?!?!?  The best technique is to throw Johnson Silver Minnows over and over again?  YEP…That is far and away the best lure and lands way more than 50% of the 45+ inch fish. The coolest part is this is very much target fishing. A great cast often catches the fish under the down cover. A semi-accurate cast may or may not yield a bite and the poor cast yields a LOT of wood. Who would’ve thought pike fishing could be like stump busting bass?

How did we do?  EXCEPTIONAL / STUPENDOUS / AMAZING / Best I have ever seen

49 fish over 40 inches which is a good trip but not amazing but this trip was about the monsters on the Fall feed.

Monsters

1/52

1/51

2/50

2/49

2/48

3/47

1/46

Due to a number of very specific circumstances, we kill it.  What happened to make it so special?  We only had 2 guys so we didn’t need to share spots with another fishing pair.  It was the last week of the season and we only fished A+ spots.  No need to protect the fishery.  The weather which is normally rain 6/7 days only rained on us 2 days and left us with above average weather.  More sun seemed to turn on the monster fish to feed heavily with Winter approaching.

Wrap

This is probably a wrap for several reasons.  We had a killer trip.  One I’ll never forget.  It was also probably my last trip to the Yukon / Innoko river for a while.  

WHY? So this year I caught a 51 / 2×49 / 2×48 and none of the pictures are what I want.  In the past I have always said this trip is about the catching not the picture anyway, but when I made one remark about the pictures I received a quick and rather surprising remark which was “well then go fish somewhere else”.

WHICH I INTEND TO DO!!!!!  I have a couple of other spots that can turn out 50 inch fish and I am going to spend my money there. If you can except all the rules associated with Midnight Sun then I highly recommend the fishing. If you cant then just spend your money on places with rules you can deal with.

I’ll miss the heck out of the Yukon. The fishing is really the best in North America for huge fish, but Ive learned these trips are about more than the fishing. Even today I am still recommending this trip to guys who want the best shot possible at a 50 inch pike, but they need to be prepared for the way things must be done just to be there.

Reviews

Fishing – Usually excellent (assuming normal water levels which hasn’t been the case much for 2023 and 2024)

Accommodations – TIGHT

Travel –Long / Difficult / Pricey

Guides – Very knowledgable about the Yukon

Value – Good