Innoko 2021

Innoko Pike

2021 The Year of King Rich

July 3-18, 2021

Here we go!

I love watching shows on the History Channel and the Discovery Channel.  Searching for lost gold or lost cities is super interesting for me.  Not so much because I expect them to find the gold but because I enjoy the quest.  For 20 years I searched for a place to catch 30-inch 10lb walleyes on a semi-regular basis.  I took more than 30 fly-ins and spent a lot of bucks only to come up empty.  Then while watching a fishing show, I heard something that changed my approach.  The comment was quite simple something along the lines of “If you want to catch big fish, you need to fish where the big fish live.”  I know duh…but if you step back from the obvious part of the statement it was saying you need to search for the best water and spend your time fishing water where a 10lb walleye isn’t 1 in 100,000 but maybe more like 1 in 20.  From that show I learned about Hawk Lake lodge in 2016.  I heard they typically catch 200+ 10lb walleyes a year.  With a little quick math.  If they run 200 guys through there in a season fishing on average 4 days each, I should have a good shot at a 10lb walleye if I fished for 4 days.  My first 4 days yielded a beautiful 29- and 29.5-inch walleye but I couldn’t quite claim a 30 but after 5 visits over 4 years I managed to catch multiple legit 10lb walleyes.  Fish where the big fish live!

After the success of the walleye quest, I switch over to chasing big pike.  The magical pike quest is a 50in 30lb fish.  I started looking for a place to catch a 50.  Along the wayI learned a lot and figured out how much I love catching 40in 20lb pike.  One of my first stops in that quest was Great Slave.  Trout Rock is a super lodge on GSL that regularly pumps out many big pike.  During my visit in 2017 I met another super serious pike chaser who quietly mentioned that he had found the best place in North America for pike where his group of four regularly catches 200 40in pike in a week.  The problem was he wouldn’t discuss the name of the place or much more than it was in Alaska on the Innoko.  I did manage to get his cell number and stayed in touch with him.  I confirmed he wasn’t talking about Midnight Sun, so I did a few web searches and came up with Pike Safaris.  I ultimately asked my new friend if this was the place and he said yes.  I GOT IT!  Step one a place that turns out a lot of big pike.

Then the hard part began.  A phone call to Safaris in September 2017 didn’t generate a call back until November 2017.  Then the interview began where I felt like I was being questioned for a job at the FBI.  The owner is very particular and doesn’t want to fish with guys he doesn’t like.  I must’ve passed the interview because he said he would let me know if he had any openings in February after the other regulars either locked in or passed on the upcoming season.  My problem was the summer of 2018 was already booked with 3 trips, but I still was hoping for the invite.  When the invite came in February, I was pretty disappointed to say I needed to pass but 2019 would work.  He said OK let’s touch base in late fall 2019.  I made the call again in November and struggled to find guys who would put up the ~$6000 for a week of fishing no matter how much I talked up the fishing.  Then COVID hit and everything changed.  One of my groups that had two trips planned for $4000 total got cancelled and I convinced them Safari’s was the best way to save the fishing season.  Ultimately, they got to go in 2020 and caught 140 pike over 40inches during a 6-day trip which including a 50.25.   I had to stay home and help keep my wife safe.  They were extremely excited to go back in 2021 and I was able to join and due to a last-minute cancellation, we were able to get 2 full weeks for 1.5x the regular price.  Here is the story of what happened.

 I arrived Thursday night at midnight at the Anchorage airport and made my way to our hotel.  In the morning we hit the iHOP / Cabela’s / Liquor store and made our way to the busiest float base in North America.  The float base in Anchorage is really an amazing site with 100s and maybe 1000s of float planes.  As usual we hurried up to be there at noon and didn’t leave until closer to 3p.  The flight to Holy Cross was approximately 3 hours and 320 miles W/NW of Anchorage.  The tiny village of Holy Cross is about 150 people.  It literally wasn’t visible from the air at all.   We only knew we were there when the runway of crush rock appeared from about ½ miles away while on final approach.  The changeover in Holy Cross was anything but smooth but the net/net was we departed at around 730p for the 140-mile boat ride upriver trip to the houseboat which would serve as home base for our quest for Alaskan pike.  We arrived at the houseboat at around 1145p and the sun was casually thinking about setting.  While we were there in July sunset was 1255a and sunrise was 4a.  We unloaded onto the beautiful 1M$ houseboat equipped with 4 bedrooms down and 2 bedrooms up and 2×3 piece baths.  Morning came quickly both literally and figuratively.  We were up around 630a.  We finally had breakfast and hit the water around 930a.  The location we were fishing was the Innoko River.  The location was strategically chosen many years ago by the owner.  He parks his houseboat above all the flowage from the Yukon.  By doing this he guaranteed himself much clearer water from other rivers like the Iditarod.  Clearer water meant better visibility and better pike fishing.

I should make mention the owner of Pike Safari’s – Bruce Werba is a bit of a legend in western Alaska having made the area his home for more than 40 years.  Some of his original fishing expeditions were literally from the pontoons of his tiny float plane.  He would jump from slough to slough chasing pike.  After running a successful fishing camp and very business moose hunting business, he invested in a 70ft 3 level houseboat to lead these ‘safaris’ for pikes.  All of Bruce’s equipment is top notch and super well maintained.  We couldn’t ask for a better operation.  

Ok on to the good stuff.  The fishing!  The first day we landed 34 pike over 40.  I just typed that, and it sounds crazy, but it is true.  We put most of the fish on the bump boards to prove and confirm our eyes weren’t deceiving us.  To add to the insanity, it was far from our best day.  It was probably more like 3^rd or 4^th best of the 12 days we spent on the Innoko. 

The Innoko is a major river draining western Alaska.  Although technically it is linked to the Yukon it is very much its own beast.  In places she is more than 2 miles wide and every mile contains dozens of sloughs and creeks (20-40 ft wide and 4-10 ft deep) once you fish up the slough you find back lakes which are huge bodies unto themselves with 4-8 ft of water in normal water conditions.  Most of the fishing occurs in the sloughs, back lakes, or where the slough feeds the main river.  95% of where we fish if you fell in, you’d only need to stand up.

One small session started with sliding into a slough I know I had fished the mouth of at least twice. During those couple of sessions I’m sure we pulled out 4 or 5 40s, so it was a known good spot. As we slide deeper the outside of the turn was deeper with a nice big beaver house. I looked left at the shallow weeds behind heavy brush where the normal shore line would’ve been with lower water. I shook my head at the heavy matted weeds and casted right at the beaver house and prompted got snagged. Honestly in places the grass was as heavy as a front lawn with a bit of spring flooding. (6 inch tall grass and 4-6 inches of water). Steve on the other hand snapped on a Barney spoon and through all the way to the very back of the grass. For those new to barney spoons they are literally the craziest looking spoon I have ever seen. See below: Well I am not sure it was his first, second or third cast, I was busy with my snag, but suddenly I hear an explosion of and turn in time to see a 25lb pike 2/3 of the way out of the water cruising full speen out to the main river channel. I got to open my bail and wait for Steve to be dragged around by the beast before netting the 46″ pike below. We need unsnagged me. Steve fired back to the front lawn grass and nailed another 46.5″ on the very next cast. A memorable session to be sure.

Another session of note. It was about 4p and the sun was just starting to slide down a bit. In this particular slough the water was clearer than normal and we timed it JUST PERFECT. We could see about 3-4 ft deep into the water. The slough in general was 1-6ft deep so we could see all the pike laying literally everywhere you looked. They were 6 inches from shore in 4-6 inches of water. They were suspended in the top 2-3 feet of water in the middle and literally everywhere in-between. The absolutely best part of this session was they were all hungry or angry or whatever but any well placed cast was a guaranteed hit. You just needed to pick your pike! A few times a smaller pike would shoot after your bait when targeting a big one but in general we caught 40+ after 40+ by just picking on the big ones.

As we hammered the pike Rich got more and more excited until he was literally standing in the bow of the boat like a 7ft center setting a pick. Thankfully I managed to cast around his pick a few times but he definitely did a great job of blocking me out. THANKS RICH! Honestly, I’ve wondered at times if I was meant to be a guide because watching his excitement was so contagious I didn’t really care too much. Any big fish in the boat is a win for me and the team!

There were times where we fished back lakes and through max effort casts but probably 50% of the time we were in the sloughs in tight quarters (20-40ft wide) fighting big fish.  On our best days we were catching 100+ pike and the slower days it was probably more like 30, but the most amazing stat was that 20-30% of the fish were 40+ and built like offensive linemen.  Tough broad heavy river fish that wanted to rip the rod out of your hands.  As a point of reference, we weight one particularly heavy 43 in fish at 25.5 lbs.  We had a 46 go 28lbs.

Special number 3 – Three lakes

Three lakes is an area shaped like a clover leaf.  With three lake lakes off the main river and was the place where the 50 came out of the year before.  One evening in three lake my partner and I landed 38 pike over 40 with 12 45 or over.  At one point we had 7 straight over 40.  Including the story of the lost big one.

Ok.  Story of the big one lost. Everyone/every trip has one of these stories.  I’m going to tell it, but honestly it always feels like yadayada the big one got away.  So here goes…while fishing three lakes during the above big fish feeding frenzy my partner hooked up with a big pike.  They were all big, but I say this because when they were ultra-feeding, they engulfed our 1oz spoons.  Landing and unhooking big tough fish take a few minutes no matter the single barbless hooks.  When I hooked her, I knew this fish was special.  I had my drag on the Shimano Ventana turned almost all the way down having hooked so many big fish and this fish felt special.  It turned approximately 20lbs of drag like it was nothing.  I turned to my partner who was working his fish with the guide and said this one is special.  Can you help over here?  I was hoping the guide could control the boat so we wouldn’t free drift while I was fighting this fish.  They grunted they had their hands full.  Ok. I’m on my own.  The fish took 50ft of line left and another 50 on the run back to the right but it was still there so I was in the game.  I was still hoping for a bit of boat control, but they continued the matter at hand.  After several minutes of just hanging on the fish finally decided to run out to the middle of the lake.  The boat was roughly perpendicular to the shore meaning I needed to raise my line over the roof of the 22ft boat from the bow or run the risk of cutting the line on the back of the boat/motors.  Then it happened so quick I still can’t quite believe it.  The fish was speeding behind the boat.  I lifted the tip of the rod over my head as high as I could reach.  The fish must have been deeper than I tough or who knows.  I lifted my rod never feeling anything different until it was gone.  At first, I thought the line was cut on a prop or maybe just broke.  As I reeled in the line, I felt some weight and thought for a glorious moment maybe the fish was just swimming toward me.  No such luck.  What came back to me was a bit surprising.  I got the spoon minus the ring holding the single hook on the spoon.  Those rings were rated to well over 100lbs and the beast must’ve have straighted the ring or straight out broke it.  While sitting on the gunnel contemplating the glorious 50, I had just lost I noticed the other guys were finished and they asked me what happened.  After explaining the story to Bruce, he said yep that’s what the huge fish do.  The 40-45 have speed and good strength.  The 45+ fight down with incredible strength and are tough as heck.  He said the rare 50 had both speed and incredible strength and had been known to make 125lb leaders fail and tear up drag systems.  This ring was a first as normally he sees guys losing the single hook when the hook eye wasn’t completely closed but losing the ring too was very rare case.

Back to our successes.  Here is some more big fish pics:

Lots of doubles

20+ lbs. of Alaskan power!

Why do I always have the smaller fish in these double pictures?  Must be size of my hands!  Lol

The weather for the 12 days was mostly good.  We had one day of solid rain and 52.  We had 3 days of highs in the 50s with off and on rain which is normal for this part of Alaska, but honestly, we were lucky and had 6 days of 65-75 and sun.  I was super happy we could leave the rain gear in the bag more days than not.

I would like to thank Rich, Steve, Steve for helping make this trip happen.  Honestly, after I lost the 2020 trip this became their trip, and I am just along for the ride!  Our guide fishing South of the houseboat – Griffin was amazing.  He was patent, helpful, cooperative, and super fun to fish with.  Also, a big thank you goes out to Bruce who clearly does this simply for the joy of seeing us catch fish while working his butt off at 70+ years old when a lot of successful Alaska businessmen would be retired on a beach somewhere.

At the beginning of the trip Rich pulled out a crown and asked us to agree to a bet.  The bet was whoever got the most 40+ would be declared King.  They would get the crown and be proclaimed Pike king for the next year.  We would all bow before the king and proclaim his greatness.  We all agreed so here is the resulting picture.

Final numbers:

Week one 98 over 40 

Week two 238 over 40 

336 total 40+ of those 42 were over 44

By fisherman

105 Dick 

93 Hummell 

71 Brett 

67 Steve 

Biggest 48.5

Second Biggest 48