I knew about Reuben Hastings even before I got to Bear Trail Lodge in 2019. My friend Robb Yagmin had mentioned a young, extraordinary guide from another part of Bristol Bay, and how much all of the clients loved him, so when Keith Combs and I got in the boat with Reuben on our first day on the Naknek I was immediately at ease. Yes, we were on his turf, but not only were his skills immediately evident, but it was also clear that he shared our same sense of humor. It was like being in a boat with your longtime best friend.

As we headed out that day, Reuben mentioned that the King Salmon fishing had been tough of late, which seemed like some Elite Series level sandbagging about an hour later when we’d hoisted four bruisers over the side of his boat. Then he moved us into a tributary where we caught one chum salmon after another for the rest of the day.

When Hanna and I headed back to the lodge this year, I was hoping we’d get to fish with him again, and those wishes were granted. In fact, rather than just one day, this time around we spent 2 ½ days with him fishing for King and sockeye salmon on the Naknek, the lodge’s home river, and another on an amazing flyout to a remote creek for rainbows, dolly varden and grayling.

Over the course of that time, we learned more about his story, and it’s one worth sharing. Here he is in his own words:

HPFC: How old are you and where are you from?

Reuben: I’m 34 years old and I’m from New Stuyahok.

HPFC: How did you get started guiding?

Reuben: I got into it thanks to Nanci Morris Lyon and the Bristol Bay Guide Academy. She was the head instructor of the pilot course of the first guide academy – it was kind of a crash course, three and a half day, full-on, holy-smokes-this-is-how-it-works and it turned out so well that they wanted to do an actual course, more planned out, more in-depth, and also offer college credit for it. I attended the second one as an actual helper, but I learned just as much as I did the first time. I was an assistant instructor, but I was still also a student. It was really neat.

She spoke with my dad and said she wanted to snag me and take me to her lodge to work. My dad said, “He’s a grown man. He can do whatever he wants.” She was like, “Good!” and I’ve been here ever since. This is my 10th year at Bear Trail Lodge.

HPFC: What do you like best about guiding?

Reuben: Probably the camaraderie with everybody else. Everybody here loves to fish – all the guides and all of the clients, for the most part. When they’re new to fishing it’s an opportunity to teach them what I love. I never feel like I’m actually working.

HPFC: What is your favorite type of fishing or your favorite technique?

Reuben: My favorite type would be swinging flies for kings, or the big fall trout here on the Naknek. Those two are kind of similar. It’s longer days, not many fish, and using a spey rod.

HPFC: And what other outdoor activities do you participate in?

Reuben: I guide hunts as well – for coastal brown bear and moose.

HPFC: What’s the best way to cook moose?

Reuben: It’s kind of tough unless you get the tender cuts – tenderloin, backstraps – but everything else you pretty much braise it. You do the Maillard method where you kind of brown it and then just put it in the over with liquid, low and slow. Pot roast is the easiest way.

HPFC: So what is your favorite food?

Reuben: That’s kind of a tough one.

HPFC: How about your death row meal?

Reuben: My death row meal would be herring eggs on kelp with seal oil.

HPFC: What is your dream fishing trip?

Reuben: It would probably be chasing GTs on topwater with a fly rod.

HPFC: What do you do in the offseason besides guiding hunters?

Reuben: I’ve taken a couple of years off from the hunting side to focus on the fishing because it’s easier on the family. My wife and kids miss me, and I miss them. Going back for a few days, regearing, and disappearing literally off the planet for two or three weeks was getting to be too much. Now that I have a means of communicating with them again, I might start dabbling in it again. Other than that, when I get back home I’m President of our local Native Corporation, Stuyahok Limited, so I run monthly meetings, making sure that the employees are doing what needs to be done and that the corporation is moving in the right direction.

HPFC: What are your long term professional goals?

Reuben: I’d really like to open up my own operation. I’ve spoken about this with Nanci and she knows that’s the only way I’d leave here. If I do, I’d give them a full year notice, and I’d help them to try to recruit someone. That way I could open up my own shop near home, and have my family – my two boys and my daughter – join in if they would like, or at least have free labor until they move out of the house [laughs].

HPFC: Why should someone make Bristol Bay their next vacation spot?

Reuben: The unique location – the only way you can get here is by air or sea, and by sea would take a long time. It’s expensive to get here, which I suppose keeps people away a little. It’s cheaper to go from Anchorage to Florida than it is from Anchorage to Bristol Bay, generally. I think they should come here to see it. It’s a special place, with a lot of salmon that come here perennially. We get free groceries every year as long as we take care of the resource.

HPFC: If you were given one day left to fish in your lifetime, where are you fishing, what species, and what time of year?

Reuben: That would be back home on the Nushugak – mid- to lower-Nushugak – swinging kings after a day when 10,000 fish pass the (fish-counting) sonar. That’s normally the last week of June or the first week of July. There’s usually a big push after a big storm, and you’ll get a big surge of kings that move in.