NUSHAGAK RIVER ALASKA 2008

NUSHAGAK RIVER ALASKA Trip Report
August 8-16 2008
Nushagak River Camp near King Salmon
8 nights lodging, 7 days fishing, 18 hrs CE
Small Animal Gastroenterology
Dr. Mike Willard

This was an incredible trip. Included were Dr. Scott Mays - Frisco, TX; Dr. Jack and Donna Quick - Tucson, AZ; Dr. Michael Dunn - Johnsburg, IL; Dr. Doug Chilcoat - Talkeetna, AK; Dr. Mike Willard - College Station, TX and me. We all arrived King Salmon by mid afternoon Friday from Anchorage and were transported in 2 trips by Mark Madura in his Air Madura Beaver Dehavilland on floats to the Nushagak River. The camp is owned by Scott and Rosemary Hippe of Vancouver, Washington and is comprised of a number of tent cabins on permanent wood platforms. The camp located on a river bluff is on Indian land about 30 miles by jet boat up river from Dillingham and a 30 minute flight in the Beaver from King Salmon. This is a complex of 27 temporary "buildings" which includes the kitchen, dinning room, a number of storage tents, walk-in freezer, diesel powered generator, sleeping tent cabins, showers with instant hot water, "lecture" tent, flush toilets and wireless internet. This really is in the bush but Scott and Rosemary provide a very comfortable setting in these cabins with sleeping bags, inserts, heater, and electrical outlets for recharging cameras and other necessities. The reason for tent cabins instead wood buildings is because the land is native land, the camp must be temporary so just about everything is removed and stored in Dillingham. We were the only group there as the camp is usually only operated for 6 weeks during King Salmon fishing season. The camp was closed down 2 days after we left.

We had to make a deviation in the week schedule which turned out to a good thing for the group but not so good for speaker, Mike Willard. His mother had a cardiac cath done 4 days before this program started and an aortic valve replacement was scheduled for August 13th. Mike still wanted to make the trip so we changed the CE schedule so that he could present 13 hours on gastroenterology all day Saturday and Sunday morning. Mark dropped him off to King Salmon that afternoon for his return to Anchorage and connection to a flight to Seattle and on to College Station Tuesday. Unfortunately, his flight to Seattle was cancelled because of a huge cloud of volcanic ash caused by numerous eruptions in the Aleutians. There were about 6000 people stranded in Anchorage but Mike was able to get to College Station and be with his mother at the hospital Wednesday morning. She is expected to make a complete recovery from this high risk procedure. After Mike left, I filled in with discussions an hour before breakfast each of the other 5 days. All of us there and everyone associated with the IAFFV extend our extreme gratitude and appreciation to Dr. Mike Willard for his extraordinary effort.

Our group of 7 was joined by a couple from Anchorage (Mike and Lynn) and was divided into 2 groups of 4. We had fly outs to fish for big rainbows at Moraine Creek with lots of bears and to the mouth of the Egegik River wade fishing for silver and pink salmon the first 4 days after Mike left. This provided each of us with 2 fly out fish days, 3 days on the Nushagak River, and a half day fly-out to Brooks Camp in the National Park. We ended up with tired arms, plenty of filets to take home vacuum packed frozen in 50 lb insulated boxes. On the last day, we all went 40 miles up river to fish silvers and on the way back, found places to fish Northern Pike on the fly. In total for the group, we caught 4 species of salmon (silvers, chum, sockeye and humpys), rainbow trout, grayling, arctic char, white fish, and pike. Doug Chilcoat was the rainbow king with one measuring almost 32" but there were also some in the 24 - 26" category.

This was a new venture for John Hohl in his role as owner-outfitter-head guide of Alaska Fly Anglers, joined by his brother Levi, pilot Mark Madura, along with Scott, Rosemary, Little John and Brent of the camp staff really made this trip special. In the Alaskan bush, we had CE sessions in a heated tent cabin, clean and comfortable accommodations, really great meals, incredible flight seeing in our travels to various fishing destinations, a variety of fishing adventures with outstanding guide services and oh yes as I mentioned, flush toilets, hot showers and wireless internet. The camp does have telephone service but a real plus --- no cell phones!

We all are still talking about the great time we had and are on the schedule for 2009 but a week earlier: July 31 - August 8, fly in Friday - depart Saturday. And Mike Willard will be back with outstanding practical topics on small animal gastroenterology and to catch up on some fishing.

Don Sawyer
Organizer
August 25, 2008