Anchorage is the first stopping point when we head to Bear Trail Lodge, and the airport there is a great flying experience – more than half of the people are carrying rod tubes and wearing Xtratuf shoes and boots. If you’re headed up this summer, here are some newsy tidbits that might inform your trip. 

You should be thinking about Alaska now. For most of us the travel season there is short – essentially June through August – and that makes it imperative to plan your trip as early as possible. There are several factors at play in terms of timing and resources.

You know the fishing in Bristol Bay will be great, but it’s some of the little touches beyond just on-the-water activities that distinguish Bear Trail Lodge as an exceptional fishing lodge. Here are seven that stood out to us.

Our friend Carl Vicars is a welcome fellow traveler on any and all trips — not least because he typically provides exceptional video memories of our adventures. Check out his Alaska 2023 video.

We’ve now been to Bear Trail Lodge in Alaska three times and we can provide tons of reasons for YOU to go — plus some answers to the questions you’re most likely to ask.

Flyout trips from Bear Trail Lodge can be among the best fishing days of your life — but prepare yourself and take the proper steps to ensure that you can hike across the tundra safely to get to the fishing grounds.

When we head up to Alaska, it will be my fourth trip to the 49th State, and Hanna’s second. I always find that my trips are more satisfying if I set up some attainable goals, while leaving my mind open to the possibility of being wowed by something completely unexpected. That’s highly likely on this trip, where the extraordinary could happen every day.

We’ve been fortunate to fish with many great fishing lodges across the globe. Sometimes, however, it’s hard to recognize just how good something is until you experience a less-stellar operation. Accordingly, it’s worth noting that that we’ve also been to some average and even sub-par operations – and they’ve helped us to appreciate what our favorites do well.

This July 31 through August 4, 2023, we head back to Bear Trail Lodge for another spectacular journey to the last frontier. Pete and I are going a few days before and will be exploring Anchorage and Seward and most likely will be fishing for halibut. Here is our itinerary and an invitation to join us.

We’re headed back to Alaska this August, my 4th trip there and Hanna’s 2nd. If you’re a lover of the outdoors, an American, or a citizen of the world and you’ve yet to go – shame on you! Regardless of your budget, your interests or the size of your group, there’s a way to get it done. In the meantime, we’d love it if you’d join us.

If you’re as anal and compulsive as I am about scheduling, you probably have some big trips planned for the long term future. I don’t mean the deposits-paid-written-in-ink kind of plan, but rather a general expectation of something to come.

Lots more good news this week for anglers who want to go to Chile or Brazil. Alaska may be getting cold, but the bears are fat and you can watch them. And unruly airline passengers are getting the boot!

A corporate fishing trip is our kind of work outing. Even if not all of the members of the group have prior fishing experience, by going to a fishery when the angling is expected to be off-the-charts, you’re likely ensuring that their first experience will be a good one – which means they’ll want to go again and again.

We are headed back to the most amazing part of the United States in the middle of August to chase trout, salmon, bears and halibut. If you have not been, it’s a MUST for the avid angler or wildlife-watcher.

Twenty five years ago, when I first went to Alaska, I did not own any Gore-Tex. I might not have even known what it was. This, my friends, is hard for even me to believe. I had some crappy discount hiking shoes, a sieve-like rain jacket. Even if I’d been aware of better gear, I would not have been able to afford it. Despite those deficiencies, over the course of a month with two friends I had the time of my life.

Before we left for Alaska I wrote about being unhappy it was going to be cold while we were there. Not Arctic-cold like in the winter, but I was leaving my hot and humid summer for a place where I’d have to be layered up with clothes.

I grew up in Chicago, where winter waits for the school bus seemed to take a decade. We would wait so long that you could feel your little nose hairs freeze. Does that sound appealing?

When I was a kid, our family vacations were road trips around the country, hitting as many states as we could, trying to fit in as many historical sites, museums, friends and family and state parks as possible. Of course, my sister, brother and I bitched and moaned the entire vacation. We were typical kids who just wanted to be with our friends or go to Florida and sit on the beach. Despite that resistance, when my social studies teachers asked if anyone had been to certain locations/destinations throughout the United States it was very cool that I was one of the only students with his or her hands raised just about every time.

Ever flown in a float plane? More importantly, have you ever landed safely in a float plane?

I’d fish in a sewer pipe or a garbage dump if it promised the chance of a trophy catch, but all other things being equal, fishing is better when you do it in beautiful places. In the past 12 months, I’ve fished in the crystal blue waters off of Guatemala and in the rock-strewn rapids of an Amazonian tributary, but by far the most scenic place I fished during that period (or any period, for that matter) was at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska.